Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by john mackay on December 7, 2015 at 9:31am

thats how I do mine,works for me.

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Permalink Reply by Cause the Blue rat on December 7, 2015 at 10:16am

half way. You need all of it.
Here's a good video that explains intonation and how to adjust a hard tail bridge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3phxqPP9UTU

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Permalink Reply by Calvin Wallace on December 7, 2015 at 11:00am

Just to make sure I'm understanding correctly. Your saying the first pic with the screw only threaded halfway in the saddle is better than threaded all the way in like the second pic. Right??

Seems like not many threads engaged and might pull out. But I've never done anything like this so I don't know,,,,lol.

Seems like I would be better off with a longer screw.

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Permalink Reply by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker on December 7, 2015 at 12:33pm

I'd start with them at about halfway, exactly at the scale length, and go from there.

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Permalink Reply by Calvin Wallace on December 7, 2015 at 1:16pm

I'm sorry if I'm being dense about this. But I think you guys are misunderstanding what I mean.

I know to have them centered of the range of adjustment. I'm trying to figure out how long that range is.

To find out the loose end of the range I don't know if I should screw the screw in far enough to use all the threads, or just half of them. 

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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on December 7, 2015 at 2:39pm

Looks like the bridge is a "top-load", where the strings come through the tail/flange end of the bridge plate, and from there the strings pass under the screws, up through the middle of the saddles, and over the tip, yes?

As long as the screws have been started and threaded a couple/few turns, the saddles will not pull off. Don't worry. More important is that the more you have to turn each screw to dial in the intonation and the saddles move backwards, the screws will wind up taking up much of the available space where the strings make their pass through the saddle slot.

Notice how in your first photo, the screw for the top saddle that is wound all the way back occupies most of the available area that the string will pass through. This will result in the string making contact against the tip of the screw. With the tension involved, and the rough surface of the screw's threads, this is not good.

Worst case is that the screw tips will bind against the strings as they come through there and over the saddle break point (where string passes over by the two small set screws...i.e. vertical adjustment.

To avoid this, when I set hard tail bridges, I set all the saddles equal, with the adjustment screws set as far forward as possible, each with a few turns into the rear of the saddles. Then I set the bridge plate so the break point of the saddles rests at the exact scale length. This will give you the best possible range of adjustment. It is highly unlikely that you will need to adjust any of the saddles forward. Rather, they will need to be moved back. 

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Permalink Reply by Calvin Wallace on December 7, 2015 at 4:27pm

Thanks guys.

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on December 7, 2015 at 6:22pm

When setting the intonation, the one thing that you need to understand is that you NEVER need to make the string shorter than the theoretical scale length - any adjustment is ALWAYS to make the vibrating length longer to get it in tune.

You do not need to install the saddles in the "centre" of the adjustment, as you will never need to shorten the scale length, unless you fix the bridge in the wrong place.

To give the maximum available adjustment, I install the saddles so that the end of the adjusting screw just shows thru' the full thickness of the saddle. With pressed steel saddles this is the way I always do it, but with these cast ones, you can get away going a little shy of this, just engaging halfway thru' the saddle,  but I've never needed the extra adjustment aforded by this method.

Install the bridge, measuring the scale length bang-on to the saddle break point, and then you move the saddles back and fiddle with the intonation until it sounds right.

Generally the convention is to add 2mm (1/16 - 3/32 inches) to the theoretical scale length to get the bridge placement, so if you install it bang on the theoretical designed scale length, you'll usually find you have to wind the saddle back a wee bit just to get started.

As a last reminder, unless you install the bridge in the wrong place, you won't need to shorten the vibrating length of the strings.

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