Decking a Gotoh 510 - Anchor Coming Up

NoOne

Newbie
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So I've had my gotoh 510 floating for about 2 years now, everything was all nice and good until today when I decided to bottom it out so I don't have to retune the entire guitar just to go to dropped D.

So I lower the tension on my strings, and begin lowering the studs. I get the bridge nice and flat against the surface of the body, and start tuning back up, and tighting the claw screws. Eventually, I noticed that the anchors keep pulling up. So I loosen the strings, push the anchors down, and notice they want to pop right back up.

I looked in the gotoh manual and see there are two screws inside the stud - the stud itself, and the stud-lock screw. I follow the instructions there to tighten the lock screw, but again, the anchors keep coming up.

Is the Gotoh not designed to sit that low? I get "why" the anchors want to come up, but I don't know how to fix it.
 
It sounds like by lowering prior to loosening the lock screws, you have caused the studs to begin to remove themselves from the body. It may also be that the body has dried slightly and there is less of a compression fit for the studs than there was.

(This is how studs are removed by using one screw against another in order to get them to pull up)

You may have to remove the tremolo and the studs and use some glue and wood shavings for example etc to reseat them securely. In the worst case scenario, a dowel and redrill may be needed.

Though as suggested by Rick using a Tremol-no means you can lock the tremolo to allow for things like drop D without having to deck the bridge.
 
If your studs are coming out from the body, then that's the issue you need to address.
 
It sounds like by lowering prior to loosening the lock screws, you have caused the studs to begin to remove themselves from the body. It may also be that the body has dried slightly and there is less of a compression fit for the studs than there was.

(This is how studs are removed by using one screw against another in order to get them to pull up)

You may have to remove the tremolo and the studs and use some glue and wood shavings for example etc to reseat them securely. In the worst case scenario, a dowel and redrill may be needed.

Though as suggested by Rick using a Tremol-no means you can lock the tremolo to allow for things like drop D without having to deck the bridge.
Thanks for the reply, haven't had time until tonight to give it a try. Seems like loosening the screws kept the anchors in the body and I was able to lower the bridge without the anchors coming up. Now to get the guitar dialed in nicely.
 
Thanks for the reply, haven't had time until tonight to give it a try. Seems like loosening the screws kept the anchors in the body and I was able to lower the bridge without the anchors coming up. Now to get the guitar dialed in nicely.

That is good, though, let's hope that you have not made the studs loose. Keep an eye on it when playing to see what happens.
 
We keep saying “studs loose” , don’t we mean bushings? Or are the studs directly inserted into a wood body and not a bushing in the wood body?
 
We keep saying “studs loose” , don’t we mean bushings? Or are the studs directly inserted into a wood body and not a bushing in the wood body?
What is being described as the "studs" are the bushings or inserts that are inserted into the wood, which the studs in turn screw into.

I just stuck with the terminology the OP used.
 
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