Direction of Screws and Saddles on TOM?

[supergenius365]

Are the screws of a TOM supposed to face the pickups or the tail piece?

Also, should the saddles slope towards the pickups? Towards the tail piece? Or a combination depending on the string?

Thanks

[John Phillips]

Ideally the screws and the vertical faces of the saddles should all be facing the pickups. If they're the other way round the strings can snag on the screw heads behind the bridge, and the sharper angle when the string bends down over the back edge of the saddle can cause breakage.

Sometimes you can't intonate the lowest strings correctly without turning their saddles backwards though - and they're thick enough that breakage isn't usually such an issue. You'll often see Gibson set them with the low E and A backwards, which is OK. Far-East ones seem to all come with all three of the lower saddles backwards though, which not only causes breakage on their much sharper edges, it often makes it impossible to intonate the D string correctly. The very first thing I do when setting up any guitar with one of these is to turn the saddles round the right way. I've done it so many hundred times it's not even really irritating any more, it's just part of the job. I've only ever had to re-reverse the low E saddle (never the A) on a handful of occasions.

[supergenius365]

Thank you sir!

Just bought a brand new SG Classic, and the bridge is installed "backward" with the screws facing the tailpiece and the saddles sloping the wrong way. I did some research and found pictures of Gibsons set up both ways, but had something in the back of my mind telling me there is a "correct" way to do this.

[walterw]

abr-1's (with the wire) have the screw heads facing the pickups. nashvilles (with no wire) have the screw heads facing the tailpiece. ideally, the saddles should all present their flat faces towards the pickups either way.

[GibsonSGgirl]

Glad I did a search and found this thread! I just took all the strings off my SG (first time I've ever done that, normally I take them off 3 at a time) and the tailpiece fell off (now I know why I was taught to do them 3 at a time). Anyway, I wanted to give the guitar a good cleaning and get rid of any hard-to-reach dust, so I took the bridge off as well. Then I couldn't remember how to put it back on correctly.

So I put it one way that looked right (which as described above, is the correct way), only the string didn't feel right when I was fretting it on the neck to test it. So then I switched the bridge around the other way, strung the low E string back up, and played it again, felt perfect.

So I guess I'm wondering this: can I leave the bridge backwards, or will the strings break? I don't want that to happen, even if they're not very pricey strings...

[John Phillips]

Even if it doesn't break strings, the chances are the intonation will be way off with the bridge backwards, unless you've completely re-adjusted it for that way round. You may not even be able to get all of the strings set right.

I would put it the right way round personally... there's no reason why the string should have felt any different, unless you also altered the height of the bridge while you were doing it.

[GibsonSGgirl]

Actually, I think I did alter the height of the bridge, I was trying to lower the action, but I might try to put it up a little higher. It's always something I've done that messes things up...*rolls eyes*

Anyway, I'll put the bridge back the correct way, and if all else fails, I may take it in to my guitar tech tomorrow for him to put everything right.

Don't know why I was playing with the adjustment screws anyway, I thought the action was fine before...hope I can get it back close to what it was! :confused:

[John Phillips]

It's easy to learn how to do it yourself, you don't need a tech :).

Assuming the truss-rod and nut are correct (no reason for them not to be if it was playing well before)...

Very simply, set the height wheels roughly how you think it was, and play the guitar, including bending notes up about a tone on frets above the 12th (or however far you normally bend them, but a tone is normal) while playing hard. If the notes 'choke' or rattle on the frets at the top of the bend, the bridge is too low - raise it slightly and try again. At the point it doesn't choke, the action is right. If it doesn't choke at all no matter how hard you bend or play, it's probably too high and you can try lowering it a bit. That's really all you need to do! The action on the bass side should usually be slightly higher than on the treble, since the heavy strings vibrate a little more widely. You may want to slacken the strings a fair way when raising the bridge, or the height wheels can be a bit hard on your fingers.

After that, set the intonation and you're done.

[Iversen]

I just put on a new set of strings on my brand new ES-335. What the hell is that wire doing on the ABR-1 bridge? (Other than causing a bit of unwanted noise...)

[John Phillips]

I just put on a new set of strings on my brand new ES-335. What the hell is that wire doing on the ABR-1 bridge? (Other than causing a bit of unwanted noise...)
Holding the saddles in. If you break a string, the saddle can fall out otherwise. Good luck finding it if you're on stage and it bounces off the front edge ;).

If it's buzzing, you need to remove it - it's tricky, you need a small screwdriver and/or a pair of needle-nose pliers - and make the bends at the ends slightly sharper, and possibly put a downward curve into the center section. Then when you refit it, it will press tighter on the screws and not rattle. (Getting it back on is often harder than getting it off BTW.)