I may have messed up a little

[St_Genesius]

Okay, y'all: lay some Tuneomatic knowledge on me.

1. I want a Tuneomatic bridge for my project build.

2. I bought this:

3. Despite that fact that the picture is pretty clear, I stupidly expected it to come with the little bushings that the posts sit in, in all of the ToM-equipped guitars I've ever owned.

4. It does not.

So...is this just a different style of ToM that I'm unfamiliar with? Like, do I just drill tiny holes and stick those threaded posts in there, or do I need to buy the bushings separately? Or should I just return this and buy the right farking thing in the first place?

 

[jeremy]

Re: I may have messed up a little

return it and buy the right thing. or you could buy the bushings separately, might be easy to find and match thread pattern from the same vendor as the bridge

 

[dominus]

Re: I may have messed up a little

or you could buy the bushings separately, might be easy to find and match thread pattern from the same vendor as the bridge

I'll just say this - Impossible.


You'd need to buy the bushings. You should return it and buy one that comes with the bushings - make sure it shows the bushings in the pic.

Make sure you don't buy that style again. They might be "historically accurate", but they suck.

Get one with this style adjuster/bushings:

(Try to get one without the saddle keeper wire though.)

Or, better yet this is the style of the one I use on my builds/mods:

It's a locking roller bridge. I get them in bulk from China, but you can find USA sellers with them on eBay.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: I may have messed up a little

Yeah, that's where I'm leaning.

Even if this *is* an entire assembly, the thought of trying to get a ground wire into a hole that small sounds like a nightmare.

return it and by the right thing. or you could buy the bushings separately, might be easy to find and match thread pattern from the same vendor as the bridge

 

[dominus]

Re: I may have messed up a little

Here's a pic of one of my roller bridges:

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: I may have messed up a little

Dominus, that's a great style of bridge. I totally love it and totally hate the classic ABR tom bridge (with wire retainer). And I've also purchased one of those roller bridges from China as well, but I found that the rollers didn't "roll" freely enough to even consider being referred to as "roller". They were extremely cheaply made...many poor fitting parts and poor quality. I returned it and got a Schaller which not only works perfectly, but the rollers are adjustable for string spacing...great especially if you change pups from SH spaced to TB spaced, or vice versa.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: I may have messed up a little

Is there any reason to go with a roller bridge on a non-trem guitar?

 

[dominus]

Re: I may have messed up a little

Dominus, that's a great style of bridge. I totally love it and totally hate the classic ABR tom bridge (with wire retainer). And I've also purchased one of those roller bridges from China as well, but I found that the rollers didn't "roll" freely enough to even consider being referred to as "roller". They were extremely cheaply made...many poor fitting parts and poor quality. I returned it and got a Schaller which not only works perfectly, but the rollers are adjustable for string spacing...great especially if you change pups from SH spaced to TB spaced, or vice versa.

Is there any reason to go with a roller bridge on a non-trem guitar?

For me, I'm a heavy handed palm muter. They're smoother than a standard TOM. Some of the TOM saddles were sharp enough to cut my hand.

I haven't noticed any quality issues with mine, but then again, I'm *just* going for comfort, not a lot of adjustability. I set it up, it seems to be intonated just fine, and I'm done.

 

[dystrust]

Re: I may have messed up a little

Make sure you don't buy that style again. They might be "historically accurate", but they suck.

(Try to get one without the saddle keeper wire though.)

An ABR-1 bridge might not work for your style of playing, but they hardly suck in general. I own several Gibson guitars, some with ABR-1s, and others with Nashville TOM bridges. My Les Paul and 335 sound like muddy crap with a Nashville bridge, while an ABR-1 tightens up the lows and adds a nice chime to the highs. My Explorer OTOH sounds like nasal, screechy crap with an ABR-1, but sounds great with a Nashville bridge. My SG sounds good with both, but I have a Nashville bridge on there as I'm using Phat Cats and IMO it sounds closer to the wrap-around bridge SG Jrs & Specials came with in the 60s.

Just out of curiosity, why all the hate for the saddle keeper wire? I'll agree that it makes no sense on a Nashville TOM, but non-wire ABR-1 bridges have been known to throw saddles if a string breaks. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd hate to have a string pop at a gig AND have to find my bridge saddle afterward.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: I may have messed up a little

Okay, I've reordered. Hopefully got what I wanted this time.

 

[Gaspasser69]

Re: I may have messed up a little

I have a set of bushings. If you need them. I just needed the posts to adapt my xtrem roller bridge for my tele build.

 

[Wattage]

Re: I may have messed up a little

That style bridge has the posts go directly into thewood, it is the classic style ABR

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: I may have messed up a little

That style bridge has the posts go directly into thewood, it is the classic style ABR

Are you sure about that?
I have never seen those skinny little screw posts with machine threads go directly into wood.