Close-up pics of my Gibson USA LP Studio guitar.

[Simon Barden]

The bridge and saddle on my mate's P90 studio were a bit higher than that, but those are certainly high. I would try re-stringing the guitar with the strings wrapping over the tailpiece. This should get the tailpiece sitting a lot lower and so be a lot more stable. Like this:



I'd certainly try the PTFE tape (thread seal tape). It currently looks a bit like your bridge is leaning backwards slightly and the tailpiece leaning forwards. The tape should help both to be more vertical.

As Andrew says, the bridge can be turned round to give you more forward adjustment. Whilst the ABR bridge normally has the screws arranged on the pickup side, the Nashville bridge is normally seen with the screws on the rear. This also gets the flat side of the saddles facing the neck, which is supposed to be the slightly better orientation.

The top E does look slightly nearer the edge than the bottom E. The easiest solution is to get a replacement Nashville bridge with unslotted saddles and slot them yourself with the correct string spacing. You could use a small v-shaped needle file, but Gibson just use the initial set of strings they use when setting up the guitar, and bang the strings into the saddle with a hammer to get the notches. Whatever way you go, you must make sure the notch goes in the right place.

[DrNomis_44]

The bridge and saddle on my mate's P90 studio were a bit higher than that, but those are certainly high. I would try re-stringing the guitar with the strings wrapping over the tailpiece. This should get the tailpiece sitting a lot lower and so be a lot more stable. Like this:



I'd certainly try the PTFE tape (thread seal tape). It currently looks a bit like your bridge is leaning backwards slightly and the tailpiece leaning forwards. The tape should help both to be more vertical.

As Andrew says, the bridge can be turned round to give you more forward adjustment. Whilst the ABR bridge normally has the screws arranged on the pickup side, the Nashville bridge is normally seen with the screws on the rear. This also gets the flat side of the saddles facing the neck, which is supposed to be the slightly better orientation.

The top E does look slightly nearer the edge than the bottom E. The easiest solution is to get a replacement Nashville bridge with unslotted saddles and slot them yourself with the correct string spacing. You could use a small v-shaped needle file, but Gibson just use the initial set of strings they use when setting up the guitar, and bang the strings into the saddle with a hammer to get the notches. Whatever way you go, you must make sure the notch goes in the right place.

Cheers Simon, I'll give that a go, I may need to buy some more strings first, I used my last set of strings to re-string my Gold Strat, and I'm out of both 46-10 gauge and 42-09 gauge strings, will try those suggestions next fortnight, cheers mate.

I could pop into the big green shed tomorrow and buy a roll of PTFE tape, and I think the shops just up the road in Winnellie may have PTFE tape in stock too, will check them in the morning.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

Okay, I've decided to persevere with my LP Studio guitar rather than get rid of it cause I think it can be salvaged, so here's a list of things that I reckon needs doing to it to get it back into a reasonable state:


1, Replace the Kluson Revolution locking tuners with a set of Kluson Tone Pros ordered online from Stewmac, reason being is that although the Kluson Revolutions are still good, they have a nasty penchant for breaking strings.

2, Cut and install a new bone nut from a bone nut-blank ordered online from Stewmac (might order a few of them just in case I muck it up and have to start from scratch again).

3, Order from Stewmac all the needed tools for cutting and fitting the new bone nut.

4, Replace the original Nashville Tune-O-Matic bridge with a chrome Babicz full-contact bridge, since the original Nashville bridge is a bit loose (the bridge posts are a bit loose in their sockets as are the string-saddles themselves).

5, Touch-up the scuffed clear-lacquering on the neck near the nut-trench on both sides of the neck just to make it look better (order the clear lacquer online from Stewmac).

6, Fit four new Gibson Top-Hat style knobs to the pot-shafts (the black ones I had on it were chipped and broken), I think I'll go with Gold ones this time around, again ordered online from Stewmac.

7, Order a full set of Fret-Erasers online from Stewmac so I can give the frets a decent polish.

Might even give the guitar a good hand-polishing since I need the exercise anyway.


And Simon, I'd like to thank you for convincing me to persevere with the guitar, cheers mate, much appreciated.