Gr-1sf help!

[Barefoot]

Hello all. First time writing to Forum, first time build.
My GR-1SF is just getting to the fun bit i.e. assembly. Mind you, I found the sanding to be very cathartic....but I digress.
When attaching the tremolo I've found that the screws supplied are either way too long, or they are supposed to be biting into some thicker timber (the later is what I would expect). At the moment the screws run out of timber, only having the top laminate to bite into!!!
The straight shank of the screw goes through the tremolo and the top, leaving the threaded part of the screw poking through the inside.
With the action of the strings pulling under the torsion bar, I would anticipate a lifting action on the tremolo, hence a potential to pull the screws completely out of the top.
Hopefully a file I tried to attach is here somewhere, showing what I'm trying to describe, but I'm afraid my computing/foruming skills have let me down.
Any suggestions out there?
Am I too worried about the mechanical side of guitar building?
Ideas and/or calming words of wisdom much appreciated.

[Simon Barden]

Hi and welcome.

I'll let someone who'd built one tell you what they've done, but the screws you are using are certainly the wrong type for the job. They'd need to be fully threaded all the way up to the head, and not have a solid section like the ones shown; so you are right to be concerned. Most Bigsby's on archtops aren't screwing in to solid wood, they are normally ply tops with little solid bracing underneath, so as long as the screws are biting well into the wood, they should be able to take the strain (otherwise they'd come with more screw holes).

There is always a chance that given the lack of instructions, you've picked the wrong screws to use; but looking at the kit pics on the PBG site, there don't look to be any of an appropriate size. You obviously want ones where the main shaft is wide enough to just fit through the holes, and they are maybe 4-5mm longer than the thickness of the top+ trem (though a bit longer doesn't really matter).

Reading the web, a lot of people recommend fitting a couple of thin rubber washers between the trem and the top, to ease the stress on the top when you're using the trem.




To post a pic directly, you'll need to resize any photo so that its longest side is 1500 pixels, and the file is less than 1MB in size. There's a limit of 4 photos max per post.

[Barefoot]

Thanks for your reply Simon.
The screws I used were the only ones to fit properly size wise through the tremolo, there were only 2.
I had left one up so people could visualize the length on the screw in comparison to the depth of metal and thickness of guitar top.
I had already emailed Adam last week, however he was in Germany and said he'd have a look at some the other GR-1SF's in the warehouse when he got back, apparently he included DB in the email, but I've not heard anything else.
Nevermind, I'll work out something, but I do appreciate your suggestion re. the rubber washers. I'm off to do some surfing now to see if I can glean some more info.
Yeah photos, I resized, cropped, changed formats etc, the only thing acceptable seemed to be the convoluted zipped PDF method.

[Simon Barden]

Pics always work for me. .jpg format, less that 1500 pixels on the longest side and just less than 1MB in size. I use Adobe Photoshop Elements to trim my photos, but there are free .jpg resizing programs out there. The 'insert image' icon in the middle above the text entry brings up a dialogue. You normally have to click on the 'from computer' box first, then browse to find the files, and then click below the box on the upload file(s) text (took me a while to work this out). Takes a few seconds to upload the image (depending on your internet connection), but you should then get an some image code and reference appear. If nothing happens then, it's normally because the pictures too big in some way.

I had a look at the Bigsby website but couldn't find any real details about the fixing screws.

[Fretworn]

That looks like a neck screw. But I don't think its a bolt on guitar.

[Simon Barden]

It's certainly not. They probably put the wrong screws in the bag.

[Andy40]

Hi Barefoot and welcome to the forum. I have not built one of these kits, but There are plenty of build diaries on the forum. from memory Shazzrandom built one of these and had some videos to go along with it.

[Barefoot]

Thank you all who have answered.
I have resolved the problem to satisfy my mind.
I cut 2 pieces of timber 70mm x 40mm x 17mm drilled a 1mm hole in the centre of both. Put some fishing line down both of the screw holes for the tremolo, hooked em out of the "F" holes on the deck of the guitar with a wire, then threaded the line through the holes in the blocks of wood.
I then chucked the 2 pieces of wood back down the "F" holes, squirted some glue on em through the pickup holes n then pulled the both up by the fishing line still poking out of the tremolo screw holes, so that they were hard up underneath the guitar top.
I left it suspended overnight, let in down this morning got rid of the fishing line, drilled the right sized holes n fitted the trem. Job done. Nice n solid. I sleep well at night.
Cheers all.

[Simon Barden]

I like your ingenuity! Well done on finding a solution. Hope the final parts of the build goes smoothly from now on.