Tune-o-matic bridge problem

[kevincurtis]

Dear Clever Techie People

I've got a Schecter Elite which I confess I bought just cos it looked gorgeous. I use it a bit just for rhythm work mainly, it has a good sound but the set up is too high for my preference for lead (it really is quite high!). Unfortunately the washer/nut/screw (not sure what it's called!) at the brdige side is already screwed down to the body so cannot go any lower - apart from drilling out some wood - can you get thinner washer/nut/screw things to get the action down a bit? or is there another trick I might try? If I could gain about half a millimeter that would put me in the ok ballpark for the action I think.

Ta

[WezV]

pics would help.

also details of neck join.

First you need to check the relief of the neck to see if it is the action or will straightening the neck out get you where you need to go.  So fret at the first and last fret, there should be a small gap between the string and fret above the 7th.  If its more of a gap you need to tighten the truss rod.  the ideal is around teh thickness of a piece of paper but much above 1 mm is too much

If it really wont go low enough there are a few tricks to get it there

[Ratrod]

The fretboard of those guitars barely stick out above the body. You might want to swap the bridge for a flatter one like a Schaller or Wilkinson.

[ToneMonkey]

If the worst comes to the worst then you could probably deepen the slots in the bridge.  But I would suggest that there would be 101 better solutions to try first.

[kevincurtis]

pics would help.

also details of neck join.

First you need to check the relief of the neck to see if it is the action or will straightening the neck out get you where you need to go.  So fret at the first and last fret, there should be a small gap between the string and fret above the 7th.  If its more of a gap you need to tighten the truss rod.  the ideal is around teh thickness of a piece of paper but much above 1 mm is too much

If it really wont go low enough there are a few tricks to get it there

I'm at work but will try and sort a pic out later. Its a set neck, the relief is ok, so it has to be an adjustment in the bridge area if it can be done (ratrods idea of a flatter bridge may be the way to go?)  Cheers

[WezV]

Its a viable way to gain a little extra depth, but if you remove too much the saddle is weakened.  I wouldnt want to remove more than 1mm at the most but that would take the action down by 0.5mm at the 12th fret

shallower bridge is a good idea - but it shouldnt be neccisary.  not saying it isnt, but you would expect them to use a bridge thats fits properly with their design... hopefully!!   Thats why i think you need to check the neck over first

[kevincurtis]

OK, I've checked the relief, and it is a little overdone, although I checked at 12th fret where there was about 0.5mm maybe slightly more. Have now attached pictures - in person it is quite easy to see that the bridge is too high but not sure i have captured it!

[Twinfan]

It looks like the studs are coming out of the body?  They should be flush.  I wonder if they want removing, some wood drilling away, and re-fitting????

[grrrpoop]

That's pretty weird.

Have you tried removing the adjustment washers altogether to drop it down that extra couple of mm?  Or does that then take it too low?

You could always shim it back up with some other material - the tension of the strings will hold it in place.

I've got 3 guitars with Tune-o-matic bridges, each with a slightly different height adjustment method but all of them have plenty of room for downward adjustment.  :?

[kevincurtis]

I think I might try that - swap out the adjustment washer dooberry and replace it with general washers as I think total removal would be a little too low...the bass side does have about another 1mm or so of flexibility, so yes, it is odd that it is machined to be like this...