What is retaining wire? (On tune-o-matic bridge)

[ElectricTurkey4369]

Lately I have been experiencing a rattle or buzz by my bridge when i hit an open string. i have checked to make sure the action is high enough and if the pickups are touching the strings, so those factors are eliminated. I was researching and a forum was talking about retaining wire being out of place, and what im experiencing occurs...can someone tell me what that is and how to get it back into place?
Thanks!

[FELINEGUITARS]

Not all tunamatics have the wire which keeps the saddles in place - really it's only the ABR1 bridges which had the wire
Like this one below - you can see there is a wire holding the screw heads in place .


If your's doesnt have it then dont fret - it's a nuisance anyway.

If the problem only happens on OPEN strings and not on fretted notes it's unlikely to be the bridge and much more likely to be the NUT or a truss rod being too tight
Either way it's up the other end of the neck that you need to look

[Tellboy]

I lost the retaining wire a long time ago on my TOM but you can easily make your own by carefully cutting and bending an old G string*.  The main reason for the wire was to stop the saddle flying off the bridge when a string breaks as the saddle just lays in a slot whereas later bridges the screws went through a hole.

* IMPORTANT NOTE* - this does not work with Ann Summers manufactured G strings - Ernie Ball, Picatto, D'Addario etc are fine.

[gene88gr]

I've been observing a similar phenomenon on other guitars  also can you please tell me the cause of that.Actually i don't have any information regarding to this wire.

[FELINEGUITARS]

I've been observing a similar phenomenon on other guitars  also can you please tell me the cause of that.Actually i don't have any information regarding to this wire.

Guitars can rattle for a number of reasons - low nut, neck too straight, neck twisted, uneven frets, hardware issues, truss rod rattling in it's slot, knackered strings
Each guitar will have it's own reasons more than likely
You'd have to give more info to get an answer that makes any usable sense, and maybe best to have a tech look at each guitar to assess what needs doing

[ElectricTurkey4369]

I am 100% sure it's coming from the bridge. When I hit the string I hear it when I put my ear by the bridge, it's seems to be coming from the saddle. Another thing I noticed is when angle my guitar differently the rattle or vibrating sound goes away, or sometimes it's just completely gone. But sometimes it's there all day...

[Ratrod]

That is weird. If it stops when you change the angle it might not be the bridge.

I've seen many cases where people thought it was the bridge but it ended up being the pickguard.

If it is the bridge, an ABR-1, I'd suggest swapping it with a Nashville TOM.

What guitar are we talking about anyway?

[AndyR]

I've seen many cases where people thought it was the bridge but it ended up being the pickguard.

+1

Or the pickup springs rattling, or... anything really. I've got a guitar whose pickup selector knob keeps working loose - that always sounds like the bridge rattling. And even though I know it, it still takes me a couple of minutes to track down!

Somewhere there's a thread on here about someone's technique for finding buzzes and rattles. It's Wez's I think, and involves putting bits of bluetac all over the thing until you find the bit that's doing it.