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Bad Tune-o-Matic Bridge on SG VOS!


thecaptain65

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I bought a brand spanking new SG Standard VOS last year. Upon inspection of the guitar's bridge, I realized that the studs were drilled out of angle so that the entire bridge is slanted toward the neck. The studs are not damaged in any way and the guitar must have slipped through Gibson quality control. This is beyond repair and I can only hope that the stud holes won't give in to the string pressure over time.

 

I would not expect anything like that from a $2,500 guitar from any manufacturer -- especially not from Gibson. That is poor workmanship and/or lack of quality control.

 

I wonder if any one of you has experienced similar issues with 2007 CS SGs?

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Yes, I did. But since I bought the guitar on the web, they said it is not covered by Gibson warranty. But I understand that a guitar with such issue should not have left the CS in the first place. So that's why I finally ended up posting the issue here. Adding insult to injury, I have not received any help or constructive support from their customer service whatsoever.

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I bought the SG on eBay from an authorized dealer. i depend on eBay, as I currently live and work in Thailand and CS Gibsons are rare over here. But, IMO, this is not the issue and misses the point, i.e. shoddy craftmanship and lack of quality control. The stud holes were drilled out of angle... something I would expect from a guitar made elsewhere, but not by Gibson. For what it's worth, i can post a picture (if only someone would tell me how to do that here.) Btw, the guitar's serial number is 070162. thanks.

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I bought the SG on eBay from an unauthorized dealer. i depend on eBay, as I currently live and work in Thailand and CS Gibsons are rare over here. But, IMO, this is not the issue and misses the point, i.e. shoddy craftmanship and lack of quality control. The stud holes were drilled out of angle... something I would expect from a guitar made elsewhere, but not by Gibson. For what it's worth, i can post a picture (if only someone would tell me how to do that here.) Btw, the guitar's serial number is 070162. thanks.

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I bought a brand spanking new SG Standard VOS last year. Upon inspection of the guitar's bridge' date=' I realized that the studs were drilled out of angle so that the entire bridge is slanted toward the neck. The studs are not damaged in any way and the guitar must have slipped through Gibson quality control. This is beyond repair and I can only hope that the stud holes won't give in to the string pressure over time.

 

I would not expect anything like that from a $2,500 guitar from any manufacturer -- especially not from Gibson. That is poor workmanship and/or lack of quality control.

 

I wonder if any one of you has experienced similar issues with 2007 CS SGs? [/quote']

 

Your not the first person that ever thought that. There is nothing wrong with your ABR-1 bridge. The studs are suppose to be set in the top of the body for an ABR-1 bridge at that angle so that it is in line with the neck angle. Eye ball it looking at it from the side and you will see that it is correct. I remember when I saw mine for the first time I thought the same thing, but after doing my research I quickly learned that I was the one that was off. The Nashville TOM bridge is different from the ABR-1. It is much like the stopbar tail piece. They both use a threaded insert into the guitar body that is even, level with the top of the guitar. If the stopbar is adjusted all the way down to the body of the guitar some say it will help sustain better but it puts an awful lot of sideway pressure on the ABR-! studs. Sometimes this can cause them studs to bend and collapse. What I found works good is to set the height of the stopbar so that the break angle of the strings duplicates the angle at the nut. It only requires turning those big screw heads on the stopbar to raise or lower it. Do this adjustment with the string tension relaxed.

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Thanks roadhog96. That explanation does make perfect sense. And in fact I had a similar theory like yours when I noticed that the bridge is mounted at an angle. I only wonder why Gibson customer service could not provide me such information when I contacted them a while ago, which would have saved them from the supposed negative PR here. Well, I guess they are busy people. Btw, my SG VOS had a few other issues such as nickel plating coming off the tailpiece. Gibson's succinct suggestion for me was to buy a $210 replacement part!

 

As for the tailpiece adjustment, I do agree with you that too much string angle does not support more sustain at all. And, of course, it can cause a lot of mechanical stress. While too much angle and high string tension causes the guitar to sound relatively 'stiff' from my experience, a lower angle and resulting less string tension seems to have a positive effect on the overall harmonic structure and sustain.

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