Upside down tune-o-matic

[bluefoxicy]

My tune-o-matic has the screws facing the pickups, it's impossible to adjust.

 

I turned it over. It buzzes, it appears the saddles actually ... well. The ones for the big string have a bigger guide. Backwards assembly.

 

..........

 

FFS. I disassembled the tune-o-matic itself. This... ARGH. One screw is slightly too big, was in really tight, it's ... what a mess. Anyway it's back together now and works great.

[Nickblues1]

If it's an Epi that's the way it is made.

[Bad Penny 43]

I believe the tune a matic was supposed to be with the screws facing the pickups. This prevents the strings from possibly hitting the screws on their way up from the stop tailpiece. My '74 Gibson custom came with the bridge facing the other way and the strings sometimes caught on the screws and caused breakage. I turned it around and never had that problem again.

[Notes_Norton]

My Epi Casino, my '69 or '70 ES-330, and my partner's Parker PM-10 all have the screws facing the pickups, so I figure that is the way they are supposed to be.

 

Not impossible to adjust, but a bit difficult. I have a very short screwdriver with a small blade that does the trick.

 

Notes

[bluefoxicy]

versus my Epiphone, which was the opposite way by intent or not.

 

The strings do indeed contact the screws; but i have my action up to like 7mm above the lowest fret (on a LP), instead of down against the board like it was. I may lower the action a tiny bit later.

[bug music]

On a few of my guitars I've flipped the bridge so the screws were facing the tailpiece. I have a couple of Roland GK-2 MIDI pickups that I swap around on various guitars, it makes it possible to adjust the intonation while the hex pickup is still mounted.

 

I've never noticed any difference between front or rear facing screws, but if it buzzes now the saddle slots may have just worn to the string size, and now the strings don't in fit the grooves as well as they used to. You could swap the saddles back to where they used to be or get a better quality bridge (if it's the stock Epi one). Usually the saddle slots are all the same size on a new T-O-M. Hopefully this helps.

 

- Jay

[pohatu771]

The screws on my Casino are facing the pickups.

 

Reversing them wouldn't help me, though, with the trapeze tailpiece.

[daneman]

I'm pretty sure that's how they put them on at the factory,w the screws facing the pickups.

At least thats how they are on all 4 Epiphones I have w toms.

[bluefoxicy]

Doesn't matter either way, some of the strings I flat out can't adjust the intonation on right (it's high and lengthening the string as long as it'll go leaves it still tuned vs A445; or it's low and moving the saddle up as far as it goes tunes it to A435).

 

I wonder what's wrong with it. That's the only thing that adjusts the intonation; if truss rod or action height matters, there's nothing I've found that says how to adjust that re intonation. (I did raise my action a little, for a better feel on the guitar.)

[daneman]

You can flip the saddle around for a bit more adjustment,have you tried that?Ya know,remove it and put it back in in reverse to the others.I had to do that for the G string on my G-400.Also you want to be sure your strings are good,not the factory ones lol.But I mean played a bit so they're stretched out,but not worn out either.

Also as the special 2 is a bolt neck,make sure the neck is tight in the pocket.I imagine thats fine,but it doesn't hurt to check. Height and relief(unless its extreme) shouldn't have much affect on your intonation.

D-

[daneman]

And if that still doen't help,I know some of the guys on here have bought replacement metric bridges w more travel.

I'm not sure which ones tho,I've managed to make my stock ones work just fine.

[Amino Moore]

Hi bluefoxicy,

 

What kind of Epiphone guitar do you have?

Do you have much experience with bridge and intonation adjustments?

The screws are facing the pickups intentionally.

It is awkward to adjust the travel but loosening the strings helps alot.

 

 

I do set ups on all of my guitars as well as both of my sons' guitars.

I don't claim to be an expert but I learned from some experts in good old Nashvegas!

 

I usually start with getting the neck adjusted and then the action using the old set of strings.

This will reveal any fret issues.

Then I put on a new set of strings and start adjusting the intonation.

Unless the bridge is just totally installed in the wrong location you can start with the saddles somewhere in the middle of their travel.

I also use a really good tuner. Preferably a chromatic or a strobe.

A $15 tuner is not going to get the best results.

From there it's just a matter of tweaking and patience.

 

You may already know all of the stuff I just mentioned and if so just mark it up to me being a charter member of the "Type A Overexplainers Anonymous"

[bluefoxicy]

Hi bluefoxicy' date='

 

What kind of Epiphone guitar do you have?

Do you have much experience with bridge and intonation adjustments?

[/quote']

 

Never touched an electric guitar before, never actually played anything before.

 

Epiphone Les Paul Special II black, Sperzel locking tuners, DiMarzio DP161 Steve's Special pickups (should have gotten Super Distortions ... but these are good), replaced the switch with one that goes up/down (up to do the neck pickup, down to the bridge), gonna add 500k/500k push-pull DiMarzio pots to get Vol to set series/parallel mode on the pickups and Tone to set 0.022uF/0.047uF capacitor.

 

Using a Korg GA-40 tuner to tune the thing and check intonation. I pretty much glanced at the book, looked at the mechanism, and figured out the physics behind it (which makes it easier to confirm I know what I'm doing, if I can't ask someone to check for me); went looking for a video online to see how to physically play with the screws and was like "Hey that's a les paul, and the screws are on the OTHER SIDE."

 

I raised the action to 7mm above the lowest fret, and adjusted the intonation after turning the bridge around (and moving the seats so they sit under the same strings), raised the pickups to compensate. All the buzz went away, my playing's a bit worse (need to press harder, hurts my fingers now) and better (I can barre-mute easier now), overall the sound that comes out is a lot clearer and crisper and the adjustment to the lower pickup gave me better power from that (since it was too far away after I installed it) but it still gives a cleaner sound than the upper.

 

... I'm learning. Slowly. Day 20 and I can kind of play the riffs from Paranoid and Rock You Like a Hurricane. Waiting on my copy of Fretboard Mastery to ship. I actually...

 

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Guitar/lm/RPBQPJTPJV9HC/

 

This was stupid too. You can get like ALL Stetina's books for about $350 if you order the mega-pack through his site; that small subset cost me $200!

 

I'm planning on buying a (black again) Epiphone Les Paul Standard or Studio in several months to a year; throwing some DiMarzio Super Distortions into it (open ones for style, not P90 covered); doing Series/Parallel Vol1 and 0.022uF/0.047uF Vol2; and using 1M tone pots for range. Not sure if the Standard or the Studio is better body-wise; they're both solid mahogany.

[Suho]

To me, the thing that I found most odd is that the saddles themselves seem to be made to face one way, which makes a smoother contact with the strings. The other way seems to be a sharper contact, yet half of the saddles face one way, and half the other.

 

My Schecter has them all facing the way I think they should face, but the Epi perplexes me. The Graph Tech Super Bridge (A TOM with the GT saddles) has the saddles all facing the 'right' way, and the screws are back towards the tail.

 

[smokestack]

There's lots of good information above...but it's a bit random and needs to be in context I think .

[All these fancy new "smilies"... and they've lost my little winking face !]

 

It's generally considered that the screws on a traditional narrow TOM bridge should face the pickup.

This is because with a typical TOM and stoptail arrangement it's likely that the strings will foul the screw heads as they angle away from the rear of the bridge.

This varies from instrument to instrument and is dependent upon slight variations in the geometry of the parts and set up. [sometimes the strings will foul the back of the bridge even with the intonation screws facing front. The answer then is to raise the tail a little.]

 

If the bridge is on the "wrong" way round, the strings don't foul and the guitar plays OK...then don't worry about it.

There's no problem.

Some problems arise when folks absent mindedly replace the bridge the opposite way round to how it was.

If the saddles were intonated and dressed correctly for one direction...you may have problems when it's turned round. A common issue with the essentially sound stock Epi bridge is the saddle dressing. The saddles often have too deep a notch cut for the string...which may then lead to binding on the saddle and premature string breakages.

A good saddle dress as part of a set up is often worthwhile.

 

It's quite common to find that the odd saddle [usually the G or D] needs to be reversed in order to intonate the string properly.

Again, it's slight variations in geometry [arched tops don't help !] which account for these instances. The amount of adjustment available with a narrow TOM is marginal when you factor in the geometry issues and the wide range of differing strings that folks use today. That's basically why the wider "Nashville" style bridge with it's longer travel was introduced.

There are a number of wider [and arguably better quality] bridges available which will drop straight into the Epi bushings...or even onto the posts... without any modification

[bluefoxicy]

There are a number of wider [and arguably better quality] bridges available which will drop straight into the Epi bushings...or even onto the posts... without any modification

 

This is key. I think thats about the last real issue I'm actually having ... a wider tune-o-matic would really work wonders here; though particularly it looks like some of the saddles need to get farther away, I'd like maybe 50% more depth in either direction (so we're talking something twice as wide!). One of the ones that has quite a distance to go already faces the way it needs to...

 

Guess I'll go looking for bridges.