It all started with a casual conversation at the 2022 NAMM Show. EverTune’s Matt Blackett showed up at the Aristides booth and Aristides’ Pascal Langelaar brought up the topic of a multiscale EverTune bridge.

“It’s certainly possible,” said Matt, “but we’re focused on the bass bridge and probably can’t get to it for a while.”

“What if we made it?” Pascal asked. Two minutes later EverTune mastermind Cosmos Lyles walked into the booth and Matt said, “Pascal has a really cool idea about a multiscale EverTune bridge.”

Discussions continued after NAMM and it soon became clear that this idea had legs. It entailed basically taking apart a stock EverTune bridge, creating a new, angled faceplate and comb, and putting the saddle modules in. Simple, right? Well... yes and no.

Fast-forward to NAMM 2024 and Aristides had several guitars with multiscale EverTune bridges on them. We caught up after the show to talk about the process.

EverTune's Matt Blackett and Cosmos Lyles hang with the Aristides crew and their instruments with multiscale EverTune bridges.

What made you want to have a multiscale EverTune option originally?

Honestly, customer demand. We received a ton of inquiries from our clients asking if they could get the EverTune bridge on our multiscale S series. We got a little tired of explaining why this wasn’t possible and decided to work with you to make it happen!

A good friend of ours, Mike Stringer of Spiritbox gave the final push by offering himself up as the guinea pig for this project.

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What did you need to do to develop it, and what were the challenges?

In order to get the EverTune suited for our multiscale guitars, we needed to redesign the face plate in several ways. First of all, logically, we needed to tilt the design of the base to an 18 degree angle. Then we had to see how it would react technically and what effect it would have on the complete setup, intonation, and height adjustment.

At Aristides Guitars we like to do things perfect. So, we took the liberty to fine tune the design to our specific body shape and compound radius fretboard as well. You could say it’s a dedicated design now.

After several iterations using metal 3D printing, we sorted out the right geometry and started engineering to get it lined up for production. This is an interesting phase because engineering in this case means engineering for low quantities. We adjusted the design from a metal cast product to a five-axis CNC milling product. We also needed to adjust all relating parts of the EverTune system like the comb and the side spring clip. Last but not least, we needed to make a custom backplate giving room to the EverTune system and of course get the guitar routed in the right way to get the complete system in exactly the right spot.

Luckily at Aristides Guitars we have the right engineering and guitar building skills in house to quickly move forward, make mistakes, and improve the design as long as it takes to get it perfect.

"One of the first Aristides with the multiscale EverTune bridge.

What did you think the first time you tried a working prototype?

We were extremely happy! It immediately worked like a dream. All the guys here at the shop had a go on the prototype and we were all blown away by how well the multiscale and EverTune worked together.

What has the response been like so far?

In one word, amazing. Once we showed off the prototype within our customer communities, we immediately got a ton of orders for our S series ET combo. We had several builds with the multiscale EverTune with us at the NAMM Show in January and people were all over it. It seemed to be the talk of the show, which is awesome.

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How would you describe the benefits of your multiscale guitars with our modified bridge?

With the EverTune offering the perfect tuning stability and intonation and the multiscale offering incredible playability, you’re getting very close to the ultimate tool for the modern musician both in studio and on stage.