Hey there,
I just picked my guitar up from the shop after a full setup, and the bridge saddle is backwards...
I have a telecaster with a bigsby tremolo, and basically, the side of the saddle with the heads of the screws is pointing TOWARDS the head..
I'm pretty sure this is reversed, because it was not like this when I brought it in.
The thing is, I need to use my guitar tomorrow and the day after. The store is closed on Good Friday, I think, so I will not be able to get it fixed.
What I am wondering is if it will damage the guitar in any way if I play with the bridge in the reversed condition it is in now.
It's frustrating when the job isn't done right the first time!@!!!!##!@ :evil:
Well, thanks for your help, hopefully someone can reply really soon (please!!)
Ii'm not sure you could adjust the intonation on a Bigsby Tele if you didn't reverse the bridge? :o
I found this pic so I guess I'm wrong
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Every Bigsby that I have seen has the intonation screws pointing toward the tail. However, since the seats are rounded and as long as the intonation is OK then there should be no problem.
Hmm...should be fine then..?
It still sits sorta uneasy with me..should I bring it back for them to fix up? It cost $90.00 anyways, and I figure, heck, you guys (at the shop) took long enough to do a simple setup (3-4 days?!), and when I finally got it back, the spring for the tremolo was not even in the hole, and so when I put it back right, all the strings dropped like...a whole tone, or 1 1/2 tone down?
So that probably had an effect on the intonation (right?)
And the issue with the bridge being backwards, too.
Argh!
the spring for the tremolo was not even in the hole, and so when I put it back right, all the strings dropped like...a whole tone, or 1 1/2 tone down?
So that probably had an effect on the intonation (right?)?
actually I think this shouldn't affect your intonation at all. in tonation has to do mostly with the length of your strings. so long as only the tension changed when you popped the spring back it should still be intonated... I think
wherever you go, there you are.
As afterblast says, the spring problem shouldn't affect intonation, but you should check it as the saddle being backwards might. It would depend on whether they did the intonation setup before or after they fitted it backwards. I should imagine that they did it afterwards, and that the intonation would be fine - else they should have noticed before handing it back to you.
And I'd suggest after making them fix it, if you can't yourself, get a new shoppe to go to. They had better fix it for free, too.
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They said that it was a "design flaw", and it should have no effect on intonation..
It is a flaw because if the screwheads were facing the tail, it would be impossible to adjust intonation due to stripping of the screws at the awkward angle with the Bigsby.
I don't know what to say, because all the other pictures I've seen online of teles+bigsby have screwheads pointing to tail...
...dunno how they adjusted their intonation :?
That makes sense. If it doesn't affect the guitar in any other way, and you're not going to lose sleep because it's not exactly as it left the factory, then I guess it's better that way around. I've done a few things to my guitars that would make purists cry, or at least it would if they were the kind of guitars that purists cared about :)
Every Bigsby that I have seen has the intonation screws pointing toward the tail. However, since the seats are rounded and as long as the intonation is OK then there should be no problem.
Since the bridge frame is the same either way that makes no difference and as Nils points out with these saddles or seats it makes no difference which way the screws are facing. The only consideration is string length for intonation and one direction may allow for better adjustment parameters than the other direction which is what I think they meant.
I reversed the saddles on an Epiphone g400 (62 Gibson SG reissue) in order to remedy some string buzz at the saddles and that worked great so I don't think it matters and whoever did the setup on this Tele probably set it up with the better option.
That is my presumption.
Phangeaux
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