ATL FB or ATL 15 - not entirely sure

[Laurie Sinagra]

Hi,

I have received an ATL FB/15 as a present. I have measured the inside of the nut to the middle of the 12th fret and have measured 324mm. Apparently this is what I should have been expecting. I’ve then measured that distance from the middle of the 12th fret to the middle line of the guitar body and tried to line up the supplied bridge saddles to sit at that distance. From what I can tell, the bridge piece will need to be in a position such that I will need to rout more of the wood of the body.
My question would be, where do you measure to on the bridge saddles?



Also, there seems to be contradicting information from Pitbull in how to set up the saddles when measuring. In a video it is suggested they should be as forward as possible but in the PDF manual it suggests they should be in the middle. Any definitives?

Thank you

Laurie

[Simon Barden]

You need to measure from the face of the nut's top E slot to just behind the front edge of the top E saddle (see arrow).



Saddles should be almost fully forwards for measuring and positioning (though you only really need to do the top E as it will always be the furthest forward saddle). I'd turn the intonation screw so it's just disappeared into the hole at the rear of the saddle by about 0.5mm. You'll move the saddles back from here a bit once you intonate the guitar. If the bridge+pickup will now fit in the rout happily whilst still meeting the 25.5" scale length, then you can of course wind the saddles back slightly. But that overall distance of 25.5" (or 647.7mm) of nut to saddle is the important one. Much better to measure from the nut to saddle than from the 12th fret to the saddle as you cut down on errors.

Sometimes with the Tele kits s, you will need to enlarge the bridge pickup rout a bit to get the pickup sitting nicely. Easily done with a drum sander attachment on a Dremel (other small rotary tool makes are available). Just keep the rout inside the outline of the bridge plate and you'll be fine, even if it looks a bit rough when exposed.

[Laurie Sinagra]

Hi Simon,

Thank you for such a quick reply. I’ll have a measure of that distance from nut to saddle as that may change the result. Alternatively it seems I might need to rout a little.

Cheers,

Laurie

[McCreed]

(though you only really need to do the top E as it will always be the furthest forward saddle).

Just thought I'd clarify that by "top E" Simon is referring to the "high E" or E1 string. (as the arrow shows in the photo)

[Laurie Sinagra]

Hi McCreed,

Thanks for the confirmation. It looks like I will be routing a bit to make the measurements work and there are still a few holes I need to drill for the strings to be able to go through the body. I’m taking my time to try and get it as accurate as possible. I’m thinking I’ll need a drill press to do that.

Cheers,

Laurie

[Simon Barden]

You'll find you need a pillar drill with a very deep throat to do it easily. I've done it using a drill stand and adjusting it to drill through the hole in the base of it. Start from the top and use the bridge to mark the string hole positions. Then drill the two outer ones all the way through, and the 4 inner ones 3/4 of the way. Then flip the body over, use the two outer holes to position the bridge, mark the inner hole locations, drill about 1/2 way. Hopefully the holes line up (you may need to run a drill through a couple of times in reverse if there's a slight mismatch) and you've got a nice straight line of holes front and back.

[Laurie Sinagra]

Simon,

You are a legend. I will take on board all of your valuable advice. Thank you once again for your generosity.

Kind regards,

Laurie