HELP - Bridge wont fit

[bluestometal]

Hi guys. I've recentely purchased a new tremolo bridge for my warmoth project to replace the old crappy one already installed on the body, the new one's a Gotoh GE101t. Today I took some time to dismantel the old one and install the Gotoh but, when putting the new bridge in place, I noticed that the screw holes doesn't perfectly fit with the holes on the body: here's a pic so, how you can see by the red circles, the first two holes are good, the third almost good and the forth, fifth and sixth way off. what do you sugget me to do (aside buying a new body... that's on the list  :icon_biggrin: )? drill new holes for the new termolo and fill the non-fitting ones? Thanks for your help!

 

[bagman67]

You could rout a slot across the whole set of holes and fill it with a chunk of lumber, then drill all new holes, instead of trying to salvage a portion of an obviously crappy job.

 

[anorakDan]

Bagman is on the right track. The old carpenter's trick; glue some wood into the incorrect holes with wood glue, trim off the excess wood when dry and drill new holes to match your new bridge. You can use kitchen matches or toothpicks, whatever you can shove into the hole to fill it.

 

[Cagey]

Looks like the difference might be the holes were drilled for an AmStd bridge, while the Gotoh is vintage spaced. You really do have to start over with those holes, because just repairing the ones that are off will put the bridge off center. Bagman's idea of routing the whole line out and replacing it with a new chunk will probably work out best in the end.

 

[bluestometal]

Yeah, I think I'll fill the 6 holes and drill new ones... any tips or tricks on how-to?

 

[Cagey]

If you can find hardwood dowel that small that fits tightly, you just glue lengths of it into the holes. Trim it flush to the surface after the glue sets, then drill new holes in the proper places. If you can't get dowel that will fit tightly, you may have to drill the existing holes out slightly larger to accept the size dowel you can find. Or, just route a channel that includes all six holes and glue in a new chunk of wood. That might work out better, as you wouldn't be drilling on any boundaries that could cause the bit to shift and put the hole off by a few thou. That's one of the main drawbacks of that style bridge in the first place - having six pivot points. It's almost impossible to get them to line up perfectly.

 

[Hbom]

Looks like the difference might be the holes were drilled for an AmStd bridge, while the Gotoh is vintage spaced.

Any chance you could buy a new bridge that is modern spaced? :icon_scratch:

 

[bluestometal]

Looks like the difference might be the holes were drilled for an AmStd bridge, while the Gotoh is vintage spaced.

Any chance you could buy a new bridge that is modern spaced? :icon_scratch:

I don't know if I can return the Gotoh bridge and I should check the actual screw holes to be sure that will fit an AmStd bridge, as I said elsewhere the body's from a very cheap asian guitar where all the pieces looks like made "on purpose" for that guitar and I prefer keeping using it as rookie/training before spending any real money on a GOOD body (Warmoth) so I prefer to keep the bridge I choose and modify the body instead of having to choose another bridge to accomodate the body routing (hope I said it well, sorry for any english mistake). So looks like I've two ways: 1- filling the holes and drilling new ones 2- cutting out the piece with the holes, glue in a chunk of wood and drill there the new holes.

 

[Cagey]

One of the reasons a "cheap" part teaches you things is because nothing fits, so it forces you to learn to adapt. Using a body that's properly fabricated eliminates a great deal of those problems. You might not learn as much about "fixing" things, but then again you don't have as many problems, which is nice.  So, I wouldn't worry that not having learned to deal with adversity may cause you to make mistakes with a better part. Chances are good that with a better part, you won't have as many opportunities to make mistakes.

 

[bluestometal]

One of the reasons a "cheap" part teaches you things is because nothing fits, so it forces you to learn to adapt. Using a body that's properly fabricated eliminates a great deal of those problems. You might not learn as much about "fixing" things, but then again you don't have as many problems, which is nice.  So, I wouldn't worry that not having learned to deal with adversity may cause you to make mistakes with a better part. Chances are good that with a better part, you won't have as many opportunities to make mistakes.

Sure thing, that's also one of the reasons we buy good stuff but I've always loved to learn and understand and one of the reasons I started this guitar build was, in fact, to better understand the how and why of a guitar so if, in the end, other than having a guitar I like that follows my personal preferences I've learned a thing or two on how to handle certain things  so much the better  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[bluestometal]

Ok, I started fixing it with the (huuuge) help of a dear friend's father (a very lovely and helpful person): we found in an modellism store some dowels that looked just right, just slightly bigger than the existing holes so we redrilled the holes to fit the dowels tight enough (with wood glue) and redrilled just the 1st and 6th hole to check bridge position, tomorrow we'll drill the rest of the holes, install springclaw and springs, restring the guitar and see if everything works fine. The funny part is: while we were drilling and measuring and testing and destroying my friend and his father (who are engineer technology design and building/ assembling prototype and line designer for Ferrari the son and developer and designer in chief for another big car company the father... yeah, they know a thing or two) studied the bridge, without knowing much about musical instruments, and said: "the system this bridge's based on is really weak, this thing will never work properly and, after you bend it (with the tremolo arm) it will never come back in the exact same position!". So I explained that kind of bridge's used for the feel and the look and 'cause we guitarist are "afictionados" to some kind of old standards and, in fact, on all my other guitars I've a fixed bridge (TOM). Then both of 'em did some math and scheme on a paper sheet and said: "this will work much better, if the front part's made the proper way it will be just good!", after hearing the explanation and looking at the sketch graph they did I said: "you're talking about the floyd rose bridge, that's exactly the project you're describing". As I can remember somewhere of this forum somebody already said something just like that, that give the 6-point tremolo to an engineer and he'll say "this thing will never work!" and that made my laugh ...a side note: I've hated the floyd rose since the first time I've lied my eye on it, today, for the first time, I'm thinking to buy a floyd equipped guitar O__O

 

[Cagey]

It may have been me you read bad-mouthing Fender's various bridge designs, which I've long maintained are garbage. Leo was a lot of things, but mechanical engineer wasn't one of them.

Floyd Rose designed the first practical vibrato bridge, and it's still widely used today. But, it was improved upon fairly quickly by Trevor Wilkinson, who simplified it dramatically without losing any of the characteristics that made Floyd's design so desirable in the first place. To be fair, it was also right about the same time locking tuners were invented, and Floyd didn't have those to work with. So, now you use locking tuners instead of a locking nut, and a Wilkinson vibrato instead of a Floyd Rose, and you end up with a simpler, cleaner system that works just as well. Most of the better aftermarket vibrato bridges are modelled after the Wilkinson design now, although there are those who still swear by/at the Floyd system.

 

[bluestometal]

It may have been me you read bad-mouthing Fender's various bridge designs, which I've long maintained are garbage. Leo was a lot of things, but mechanical engineer wasn't one of them.

Floyd Rose designed the first practical vibrato bridge, and it's still widely used today. But, it was improved upon fairly quickly by Trevor Wilkinson, who simplified it dramatically without losing any of the characteristics that made Floyd's design so desirable in the first place. To be fair, it was also right about the same time locking tuners were invented, and Floyd didn't have those to work with. So, now you use locking tuners instead of a locking nut, and a Wilkinson vibrato instead of a Floyd Rose, and you end up with a simpler, cleaner system that works just as well. Most of the better aftermarket vibrato bridges are modelled after the Wilkinson design now, although there are those who still swear by/at the Floyd system.

Yep, probably it was a post by you  :icon_biggrin: I really don't like the look and feel of the classic floyd bridge, it looks too "overly-pieced", looks like something extraneous on an intrument made for the most part of wood; I'm not crazy about the 6-screws Fender type also but I used what I had (the crappy body from above). Something I've learned, so far, and will apply to my next guitar build: go for a rear routed body, go for a Wilkinson bridge (if I'll go tremolo again), have a contoured heel... gotta say that if I was ordering a brand new body I would've had all of the above by default but lets say now I know for sure why I don't like certain specs.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

The American Standard bridge is 2 point and not a 6 hole trem.