The Gotoh bridge sat perfectly on the posts of the stock bridge so in principle I could have kept them. The end result looks much finer than the original stock bridge. As long as the intonation can be set correctly for every string, there's nothing wrong with all saddles facing in the same direction.Īfter filing, I sanded down the grooves with 600 grit sandpaper to minimise the risk of string breakage. However I do not have such a fine tool and I didn't want to strip either the screwheads or the nuts with thick pliers. I saw on a forum that using the appropriate tool, those tiny nuts on the back side of this Gotoh bridge can be removed, the screws can be released and the saddles can be reversed. You'll note that on this model, all saddles are turned in the same direction, whereas on most Tune-o-Matic bridges, the three upper saddles are turned opposite to the three lower ones. Luckily the bridge came with a thin centre marker on each saddle so I knew where to file. To do it nice and proper I gently blocked (or rather rested) the bridge in a vice. Ideally a set of nut files such as this Göldo kit is what you need, but momentarily I did not have mine at hand so I used a thin triangular file, working my way gradually into each saddle only so far as needed to accommodate the thickness of its string. What remained then was to slot the blank saddles of the Gotoh bridge to the right gauge for the 9-46 strings I was going to use. (Note the Gotoh bridge and its post with a thumbwheel). I did the same on the other side as well. The posts moved ever so slightly further in, not making a massive difference:īetter but not perfect. To that end, with the guitar resting flat on a thick yoga mat on my workbench, I laid a rubber hammer on top of the post and gently hammered the rubber with a steel hammer. I tried gently hammering them further in without damaging the top surface. The other thing I had noticed was that the bridge and tailpiece posts weren't flush with the surface of the carved top.Ĭan those posts be pushed further into their holes? (Note the stock bridge post without a thumbwheel on the left).
This bridge from my spare box would do a perfect replacement. The stock bridge was not a fine piece of hardware, and all of its saddles were slotted to the same gauge. I therefore removed it immediately, to replace it with a spare Gotoh Tune-o-matic bridge I had never used in the SG project it was initially meant for. You will recall that one of the first remarks upon opening the box was that the bridge looked cheap and inaccurate.