LP owners... TOM orientation

[Thames]

Hey LP dudes...

I talked with a luthier recently, he's one fine-ass luthier, does incredible jobs, has been "fender gold" certified only with 3-4 pictures of his work, his handmade guitars are fantastic, fretjobs and setups are outstanding... anyway... I brought him the Edwards for an evaluation, and he told me that I should install the TOM bridge with adj screws oriented towards the tailpiece, and the saddles should all be oriented the same way (you know we often reverse them to allow further movement for correct intonation). As he told me, if we need to reverse some, the TOM isnt exactly where it should be. not a big deal, but he's right!

Funny thing, he owns about 10 guitars, 8 of them are korean/japanese (DeArmond, "Epi by Gibson" Sheraton, old Epi Japan LP, etc), and they are all incredible players !

Man that guy just spent 5 minutes on my Edwards, slight rod adjustment, light turn here and there, w/o measuring anything and WOW! it played completely different and ... better!!!

[Benjy_26]

Re: LP owners... TOM orientation

Cool, so I have mine right!

Any other tips & tricks you picked up from him?

[Gearjoneser]

Re: LP owners... TOM orientation

I had an SG that couldn't be intonated for that reason. I just flipped the G saddle around, and it increased the travel, which fixed the problem.

The most common problem on LP's is that the factory cuts the nuts too high. That's also the reason why many players think new LP's play like crap. I've taken most of my guitars in to have the nuts slotted perfect, then made sure the truss, action, and intonation were dead on. If the nut is cut high, chords sound sour in the open positions because they bend sharp. PRS tends to get it just right.