Replacing Vintage Narrow bridge with Fender Narrow hardtail

[Audiowonderland]

The Vintage Narrow bridge on my older VW is still a hair wide for the neck. I have lived with it for years but now I am looking at the Fender narrow hardtail as a replacement. Will anything line up or would everything have to be doweled and redrilled?

 

[Cagey]

It'll be just wrong enough to piss you off...

Not close enough to mount, but too close to dowel and re-drill. The drill bit won't follow a straight path; it'll want to wander to the path of least resistance.

If it was me, I'd drill out the existing mounting holes much larger and then plug them, so when you drill new mounting holes you'll be drilling into dowel alone and the bit won't wander. Then, I'd just open up the tops of the string holes a couple sizes so when you go to string it, you'll be able to hit the new holes in the bridge plate, but it may take several pokes to find it.

 

[Audiowonderland]

Sounds about par for the course. The vintage narrow is listed as 2 1/8th, identical to my Wilkinson trems but it's not.  The spacing is so tight it barely stays on the board. The vintage spaced version is virtually unplayable and this is barely playable. I have adapted over time but once I got the Wilkinson's this guitar went in the closet. I want a good hard tail and this is it if I can get the bridge right

 

[Logrinn]

I'm getting this for my next build:

The cool thing with this is that you can adjust the spacing of the string on each bridgesaddle.

 

[Cagey]

That's a nice-looking part. I've seen other designs from ABM that I've liked, too, but they don't distribute here in the states for some reason.

On top of the attractive appearance, it looks comfortable and uses a milled brass base, plus it mounts flush to the body. Makes a big difference in how lively the guitar sounds, as opposed to die cast zinc mounted on posts.