If I put a 50mm in a 53mm bridge will it affect the sound?

[DaveyHoran]

A friend offered me a 50mm spaced riff raff for my SG bridge... As far as I know the SG bridge is 53mm...

Is there anything to worry about, loss of tone or volume etc?

Thanks

[ericsabbath]

usually, you won't hear any difference
BUT, I had problems with this in a couple les paul copies, cause the bridge was a bit out of place, so the high E was almost out of the pickup coil (in the other guitar, the low E was out)

you can always sand the bridge saddles to match the pickup spacing
that's a quick and easy adjust

[Alex]

A friend offered me a 50mm spaced riff raff for my SG bridge... As far as I know the SG bridge is 53mm...

Is there anything to worry about, loss of tone or volume etc?

Thanks

It will sound tighter ;-)  :lol:

(as in cramped).

You won't hear a difference. Lots of pickups don't really match up. EMGs, for one, just you can't see it, because of the solid black cover.

[darkbluemurder]

I agree with Eric - normally the volume differences are so slight that they can be adjusted by raising the E strings pole pieces and/or lowering the other pole pieces.

Cheers Stephan

[DaveyHoran]

Eric - Are you talking about filing another grove under the strings on the bridge so both E strings are closer together?

Stephen - I read that pole piece adjustment was to do with bass/treble response and not volume?

Bare in mind I'm the type of person that could cut himself with a spoon.



 

[Philly Q]

The spacing at your SG's bridge is probably around 52-53mm, as you say (depends how they notched the saddles at the factory).

But if you measure the actual spacing between the E strings directly above the bridge pickup, it's probably about 51mm.

The 50mm polepiece spacing is centre-to-centre of the two outer poles, so strings spaced at 51mm should still fall well within the full "range" of the polepieces.

In other words, don't worry about it. 


The only time this is really an issue is if you have a guitar with a Floyd or a vintage-style Fender bridge - then the spacing at the bridge can be as much as 56mm and you really can "lose" your E strings.

[DaveyHoran]

Cheers Philly - Very Reassuring!!! Looks like I'm getting myself a riff raff bridge for my SG Standard...

And a mule for the neck....

Also just upgrated the wiring to 500K cts pots and jenson caps .022 and .015  :-)

Looking forward to this install  :D

[ericsabbath]

Eric - Are you talking about filing another grove under the strings on the bridge so both E strings are closer together?

Stephen - I read that pole piece adjustment was to do with bass/treble response and not volume?

Bare in mind I'm the type of person that could cut himself with a spoon.

 :lol:
you would have to sand all the saddles to align each string with each pole and keep the same distance between strings
it's not difficult with a proper tool and won't take more than 10 minutes