Hi all,
I’m a new member and thought I might get some feedback on my PRS SE problem. I bought my first electric recently, a lightly used PRS SE Paul Allender, and found problems with the tremelo bridge. With all the strings in tune, the bridge front edge was resting on the guitar top and the back edge was about 3mm above the top. Also the front edge of the bridge was out of parallel to the pups by slightly more than 1mm. I removed the bridge and found the knife edge holes and mounting screw undercuts were damaged. I decided to buy a NOS MannMade Bridge and, when trying to mount it, found the screws would bind at different places in the bridge holes. I stopped trying to mount it and measured the bridge holes and guitar top mounting holes.
The MannMade bridge holes were perfectly spaced and in a straight line.
Measuring the machined mounting holes, in the guitar top, showed they were unevenly spaced over .01 but more significantly weren't in a straight line. I put screws in the first and last holes in the top and placed a precision straight edge against those screws and found, the 4 holes in-between were not in a straight line with, some out of line over 1mm.
Bottom line is that not only were the holes poorly located, but were also shifted as a group, about 1.5mm towards the base side. This caused the strings and pole pieces to be mis-aligned and the high E string was near the neck edge at the 24th fret and the low E was inboard of the edge.
The mis-alignment was the same with the original bridge.
It is also probably the reason the original bridge had damaged holes and screws and was poorly setup.
Has anyone experienced a similar problem?
I have a small machine shop and plan to put the guitar on one of my milling machines to correct the hole location. Any thoughts on other repair methods will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
henryr
I’m a new member and thought I might get some feedback on my PRS SE problem. I bought my first electric recently, a lightly used PRS SE Paul Allender, and found problems with the tremelo bridge. With all the strings in tune, the bridge front edge was resting on the guitar top and the back edge was about 3mm above the top. Also the front edge of the bridge was out of parallel to the pups by slightly more than 1mm. I removed the bridge and found the knife edge holes and mounting screw undercuts were damaged. I decided to buy a NOS MannMade Bridge and, when trying to mount it, found the screws would bind at different places in the bridge holes. I stopped trying to mount it and measured the bridge holes and guitar top mounting holes.
The MannMade bridge holes were perfectly spaced and in a straight line.
Measuring the machined mounting holes, in the guitar top, showed they were unevenly spaced over .01 but more significantly weren't in a straight line. I put screws in the first and last holes in the top and placed a precision straight edge against those screws and found, the 4 holes in-between were not in a straight line with, some out of line over 1mm.
Bottom line is that not only were the holes poorly located, but were also shifted as a group, about 1.5mm towards the base side. This caused the strings and pole pieces to be mis-aligned and the high E string was near the neck edge at the 24th fret and the low E was inboard of the edge.
The mis-alignment was the same with the original bridge.
It is also probably the reason the original bridge had damaged holes and screws and was poorly setup.
Has anyone experienced a similar problem?
I have a small machine shop and plan to put the guitar on one of my milling machines to correct the hole location. Any thoughts on other repair methods will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
henryr
