Gotoh Bridge on my Jim Root Telecaster.

[Samhain]

So I have a Jim Root Telecaster that I love modding and I want to put the Gotoh Humbucker bridge on this guitar.
What's bugging me is I can't find ANY info on this Telecasters string spacing and whether or not this bridge would be a drop in?
It "looks" like it will just drop in with nothing more than drilling a couple holes, but looks can be deceiving.

 

[Cagey]

Not to be Captain Obvious, but why not just measure it? Surely you have ruler or a tape measure or something graduated in a standard measure you can use to find out what the current spacing is. Compare that against the Gotoh's spacing, which is published, and you'll have your answer.

Be aware that if you're not afraid to crank up a drill motor, small discrepancies can often be made to work acceptably, particularly on bridges like that. They don't move like vibrato bridges do, so bearing points aren't quite as critical as you might imagine. Open up the holes in the body top a few thousandths without moving the ferrules on the back, and you're still good to go. Might take an extra few seconds to string it, but it'll work.

 

[bagman67]

The stock bridge on the Jim Root axe is not a tele-flavored one - it's one I've seen on other Squier axes, with the screws at the corners of the baseplate.  Which is neither here nor there, except that it does suggest you'll need to drill some holes - as Cagey suggests.  The question is whether the string-through holes are where they need to be so that the saddles will intonate within their standard adjustment range, or if you might need longer or shorter intonation screws for them. 


While it's extremely likely that you'll be just fine, this is not an idly expressed concern - I note that AmStd Tele bridge requires that the string-through holes be drilled a little further south of the neck joint than the traditional Tele bridge does.  Or maybe further north - the point is they don't match up.  So the Gotoh part could end up with the pickup cutout too far north or south of the string-through holes to match up correctly.  And then you have a whole 'nother problem.