Additional Height Needed....

[ksl]

Howdy all~  Before I fire up the forge & start laying into my spare bridged, is there another way to give some lift to my existing (pictured) tailpiece?

My saddles are too high & I'm out of threading, & it simply looks not right.. & my hunch is to make some scrap usable so I can slip it under my existing Non-Trem plate for about 3mm of rise...

Anything better and/or easier, & readily available online  or in store,, Depot, Lowes? ?

Thnx folks 🎸🎸🕉

[mrbrown49]

looks like a tele. Shim the neck if its a bolt on.

[jtr654]

The shim in the neck pocket is causing the angle of the neck to be to steep. So check there 1st. if this is a bolt on neck.

 

[ksl]

I'm sorry,, it's a set neck, & someone's freshman run at building.... neck is straight with the usual most minute bit of bow...

Fine line between builder & luthier, huh?ॐ

It plays great, neck is good, but those saddles are hanging on in height by 1 or no threading, & I don't want to compensate with a bigger bow... I'm really contemplating using this spare wrap-around & take it to the next & final level....????..

 

[mrbrown49]

Hmmm.  I think swapping the bridge is the best option.

[jtr654]

Just go to a well stocked Hardware store and find some longer screws that fit the saddles. 

[davie]

Yeah.. that's a pretty high saddle.. looks high enough to need a tune-o-matic bridge..

How's the action of the string around the middle of the neck?

[badpenguin]

He botched the neck angle. Never gonna have decent action at the 22nd fret.

2 Suggestions: 1) The wrap around might work, or 2) Old brass door hinge, cut to fit as a "sustain block" under the current bridge. Lifts the bridge up the thickness of the hinge.

[Mikeo]

Damn that's a mess.

I wasn't sure if that was a neck thru or not.

If it's a set neck stream it off and get it right.

You could try a wrap around bridge, but I steam off the thing, if it can be,

A freshmen luthier will be steaming of a lot of necks along the way. Might as well learn how to do it now.

 

I don't know how many guitars Le Fender put through the wood chipper along the way. I bet it was a few.

I built a cigar box guitar once and the neck angle was the most difficult part of the build.

Probably by first and last build ever.

It does play ok

 

 

[daddymack]

some good 'quick fix' suggestions...but frankly...the builder should re-set the neck. The only way he will learn about making a correct neck angle....is by fixing the bad ones. And that there^...is a bad one.

is there a mortise and tenon joint? [who am I kidding?]

Do you know how the neck was glued in?

Assuming your 'freshman builder' slapped a bolt on style neck into a bolt on style pocket, and glued the neck in there....he needs to learn...a lot. Like geometry...and stress factors...and why it isn't so easy to just glue two pieces of wood together to make a guitar.

[Mikeo]

Leo Fender was  was a life long freshman builder.

He knew the necks would need to come off his guitars sooner or later.

Good enough for Rudy Pensa  and many other too. Like Suhr Guitars.

 

 

[BeeLectro]

I intentionally add a brass plate under that type of bridge on my own guitars. Adds mass right where you want it. Use the existing bridge as a template. If you've got a torch you can solder the plate to the bridge. You'll need longer bridge mounting screws.

[gardo]

Sometimes the more effort one puts into covering up a mistake, the more obvious the mistake becomes . It will never be right until the neck is redone. 
I vote for steaming the neck off .

If you do chose another option to raise the saddles , will there be enough adjustment to raise the bridge pickup ?

Edited March 19, 2022 by gardo