Tweaking A Hardtail Bridge?

[Dugz Ink]

Okay... first project guitar... thought I had it all laid out properly... thought so.

Put two strings on today, so I could line up and mount the pickups. Somethings awry.

The neck/bridge alignment is off by less than 1/10th of an inch... about 0.060".

I hate to fill all of the holes and re-drill the body for the Hipshot string-thru hardtail bridge... but I would like this to line up better. I know... it's my first guitar, and everybody's "first" usually has some problems... but I would like to tweak this, if at all possible.

If anybody has any ideas (shimming the adjusters?) I would appreciate it.

D~s

[bassman]

funny how the width of a few fine pencil lines that we use to keep things in line can add up when- we dont center them perfectly in the first place or we dont follow the very center of them oncde they are there. I wish I had some suggestions for you but I am not to familiar with hard tail bridges- basses are my thang. good luck to you though.

[Drak]

If it's a bolt-on, sand the sides of your neck pocket a smoochachen whatever way you need the slop to go and just swing that ole' neck around a slice or two until it lines up and re-bolt it back down.

You may not even need to sand anything, just try loosening up the neck bolts, put some ass on the neck sideways with your hand and bolt it back down again.

Set neck?

You're gonna have to fill and redrill, or try loosening up the holddown screws on the bridge and do exactly what I said to do with the neck, sometimes, if you just need a -little bit-, just -forcing- things a little to the side works.

[Maiden69]

Enough said!

One word of advise!

I have found that on bolt on necks, I don't drill the holes on the neck until I make sure that the bridge is in the right place, and that the neck is aligned, the same method you used with the 2 E strings. On the Pup case, once everything is done the neck is bolted I place the pup rings in place, make sure they are aligned with the strings and then drill the pilot holes. I have found this the easy way if you don't have a guitar template.

[mj_gant]

Dude, just slide the bridge over. You won't even see it. Don't go ripping your neck pocket up. Just my 2c.

oops...quick edit. I guess that's a string thru and you have drilled holes. Did you put in the step hole that's larger for the ferruls too? If so....

I had to move a bridge similar to it on a parts guitar my friend had started to assemble. I left the ferrels in place. I plugged the string thru and bridge mount holes with some tight bond and meat skewers. Just be carefull not to slide off back into the meat skewers. LOL. If all goes well, cosmetics, integrity and structure will be unharmed in any way.

Edited December 15, 2004 by mj_gant

[Drak]

That's interesting Maiden, cuz I do it just the opposite

We all have our own ways....

I always park the neck down in place, and even tho I try to make it center on the centerline, I NEVER drill any bridge holes until the neck is parked and screwed down, and I run the 2 strings down, that's when I mark my final bridge holes, never before.

It doesn't matter to me if my bridge happens to be a 1/16" off the centerline, as long as it's mated perfectly to the neck lineup, that's the only thing that really matters to me. The centerline is always used as a reference, and if I'm on my game, it works out in the end that it does fall perfectly on the centerline, but if it needs to vary off a scratch, no biggie to me as long as there is a beautiful relationship going on between the neck and the bridge, centerline be damned in the end.

[Dugz Ink]

I followed Drak's approach... except that my first attempt was totally screwed because the drill press wouldn't reach far enough for me to use it, so I cut a hole in the guitar (under the bridge) and fitted a block of Black Walnut into the hole. I re-measured (as above) and marked my holes, then slid the block out and drilled the block in the drill press. I glued the block, slid it back in, and let it dry. (I can promise there isn't much glue in there; it was a very tight fit all the way around.)

But, I could have easily slipped while I was trying to do it, and had the bridge off a bit when I marked the holes. Regardless, they're slightly off.

So I checked the neck pocket (per Drak) and, no, it won't budge... not even a hair. So I pulled out the scraper and started peeling off a couple thousandths of an inch at a time. I dropped the neck back in, tightened up the screws most of the way, pulled the E, A, and D strings tight, then tightened the neck screws the rest of the way.

It looked better.

Then I started tweaking the intonation adjusters on the bridge. There are two allen-head studs on each adjuster, so I adjusted them until they were leaning slightly to one side. That also helped to bring the strings in line.

With the pickups sitting in the middle of their pockets, the strings are passing over the lower third of each pole. I can adjust both pickups and have them centered, so I'm going to call it "close enough" for my first project guitar.

Frankly, as bad as my playing is, it probably won't hurt me at all.

I just wanted it to be perfect. Maybe next time.

D~s

[GREGMW]

Hey Dugz,

I did exactly the same thing and the more I sat and looked at it the more pissed of I got with it so I ended up removing the bridge,filled the holes with some very small bits of ash,then re fitted the bridge.

You cant see where I moved it, and now it looks and plays great.

Silly part about it is that nobody else would have noticed it and I reckon it still would have sounded the same as it does now.

Greg

[Maiden69]

I knew that was how you do it, because you posted it before and i followed it on the blue V that I did, I had a hard time getting the strings straight, and after every thing was done I came out croocked any way. On this guitar that I'm doing I will try and take more pics in the in-progress phase, to show you what I mean. I find it a lot easier for the newbie, but like you say everybody got a method to their madness!

[erikbojerik]

Here's how I do it:

Cut neck pocket on center & drill pass holes

Make neck

Clamp neck into place

Measure scale length from nut (NOT 12th fret...) & mark saddle location

Run 2 pieces of thread from the nut & tape them down on the body @ E-E string spacing (according to your bridge)-if it doesn't line up w/center, you've got a problem with neck heel or pocket

Trim one or the other according to Drak's recom

Place bridge & mark drill holes

Mark holes in neck heel

Mark out pup routs & rout

Drill for bridge & heel

Even after all that, I find I might still need to tweek the neck slightly as I'm tightening the screws.

[catnine]

I always use the twp piece body joint as my center line for the neck pocket and pickups and bridge and route it all at one time . Then for the bridge what I do is I have a maple block 2" wide , 3/4" thick and the length of the width of the body . I mark this with a center line and drill it the size of the 6 holes that the screw theads with tap into . SET this on the centerline , clamp in place and drill guided by this block , this way I know the block is dead accurate and I am not going to worry about a drill bit wandering off the centerline of my spacing being off . So far I have not had to plug any holes and try again , all the trials are done on the guide block first . If I screw that up , I make another one , much easier than plugging and fixing the body holes .