Searching For A Weird Bridge

[Scott French]

Heyo Duders,

I don't really think about or work on old guitars very much so my knowledge on weird parts isn't great for this kind of stuff. My friend brought over an old Yamaha he bought a few tours ago in which the arch of the tune-o-matic has gone from '(' to '|' and almost ')'. So now the center strings are fretting out and the action on the outer strings is sky high. I pulled the measurements off this bridge and I'm guessing we're suffering from 1970s Japanese hardware syndrome. The radius is 7.25", the outside string-to-string spacing is 2" and the post spacing is 3 3/64" or something around 77mm. So...... I've looked a little bit and found just about nothing that will work for this guitar. I found a weird plate mounted tune-o-matic on a UK site that might be able to be fitted, but the radius would still be off. I'm going to keep looking but I want to check and see if anyone had any suggestions or feedback when trying to bring these weird old imports back from the dead.

THANKS!

[Setch]

any chance of resurecting the old bridge? IIRC Dan Erlewine describes re-radiussing a collapsed TOM in his repair book, as well as how to prevent it happening again.

[Scott French]

Hmmm, the saddles are some kind of bone (or fake bone) and chipping away but it might be worth looking into anyway, Setch. Any idea what book? I have "Guitar Player Repair Guide" (or something along those lines) by Erlewine but I don't see anything in there.

[SwedishLuthier]

I think it is in this one:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Books,_plans/B...Play_Great.html

I have it at home and I'll check tonight. I might be able to describe the method to you in an accurate way.

[Acousticraft]

You could possibly put it in a press between a couple of blocks and gently push the radius back into it. What sort of metal is it? Die cast aluminum?

[biliousfrog]

Yamaha are supposedly quite helpful with supplying parts, it's a veeeery long shot but it might be worth sending them an email or calling them.

You could also look into having a new one CNC'd from aluminium, there's a lot of guys on here that have them or access to them.

[verhoevenc]

OR, scrap the bridge, fill in the post holes and make it have an archtop-type bridge. It's already got bone saddles so the sound wouldn't change any, and the bridge could be made pretty simply, may even add a touch of elegance. Talk to Rich or Myka, they've both made them.

Chris

[soapbarstrat]

Early Whine (Erlewine) does that repair on one of the videos.

If this is a case where the owner had the tail-piece cranked way down near the body, then a rebend of the bridge might hold up if that tail-piece is not screwed down so low.

Then there's also the mickey mouse "repair" of putting a small threaded insert in the body under center of bridge, with a screw working as a support jack to keep the bridge from caving. Hmmm, maybe the same should be done to bridges crossing the mighty Mississippi.

Edited September 8, 2007 by soapbarstrat

[zyonsdream]

I'd go with a repair over replacement too. It will help hold any value the guitar has. Yamaha is not your obvious collectors item but as every guitar gets older, it raises in value. Look at all the people with old Tesco Delrey guitars in their closets. If they are in mint they can get a substantial amount of money for them.

[WezV]

i like the old yamaha sg2000's. i have one that i do regular setup work on. It nearly needs a refret but the bridge being compressed out of its normal radius is also becoming a problem

yamahas are always good reliable guitars so keeping them that way is worth the effort.

as always pictures speak 1000 words so we can probably help more specificallly if we can see the problem

[Scott French]

I think this dude got burnt out on the idea when we figured out how much it would cost for a replacement or fixing the bridge so he just setup one of his other guitars. Haven't heard anything about this project so I'm just forgetting about it until I hear from him again. Thanks for all the tips! Seems like bending it back would just result in the strings bringing it back down again eventually. Sticking something under the center might have worked, who knows.