O great and benevolent forum, I petition thee to bestow your wisdom upon me and reveal the answer to the eternal question:
Can an ST-1 kit, particularly the fretboard width, handle a bridge with a 2 1/8" (54mm) string spacing instead of the supplied 2 1/16" (52.5mm) bridge?
I'm building a couple of ST-1 kits, one of which is for my brother, and I'm planning to upgrade the bridges, ideally with Wilkinsons. One will be a vintage style 6 screw with staggered steel block, but the other is likely to see a bit of whammy use so I'm thinking a more modern 2 pivot strat style tremolo (stable tuning, locking saddles, low maintenance, easy to use - as opposed to a FR). The trouble is, most of the bridges that I'd like to use are 2 1/8" (54mm) spacing, and the last thing that I want is for E strings to be rolling off the side of the fretboard.
The difference between the stock bridge spacing and the ones I want to use is only 1.5mm, which means 0.75mm wider for each E string at the bridge and probably < 0.4mm each at the 12th fret. But, a small change can have a big effect, and I don't want to be drilling bridge mount holes only to find the string spacing is too wide. I did a quick test today with a 2 1/8" Wilky 5 + 1 I already have (the block *just* fits under the spring cover), and it seemed ok (pics below)… but it's hard to really know if it will work until you're playing it, and it's not something I want to get wrong.
So, does anyone have any experience or thoughts on using a 2 1/8" spaced bridge on the ST-1?
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