Its the little things (0.4mm) that get me down

[jtsargeant]

Please excuse the shoddy woodworking skills evident in the attached pics.

After getting a bit of angle on the neck, I used a bit of thread to check every thing was still square. To my dismay the old 1970's era bridge had a narrower string spacing than the new gotoh bridge was planning to replace it with. I really thought I had checked this before ordering the new bridge.

Now, as far as I know, my choices are use the old bridge, reslot the new bridge, find a new neck or find a new bridge. I'm not very fond of any of these ideas, though I'm leaning towards a new neck as the old one may need bit of a sand and refret.

Does anyone have any experience with the necks available from PBG?

Thanks

[Fretworn]

The PBG necks are (mostly) great. Occasionally there can be issues with truss rods and backbow, but mostly you can work around this. Whether you will be able to find one that matches the specifications of a non-PBG guitar will be the question.

[wokkaboy]

Hi Sargeant, the PBG necks are good value but don't think it will be wider than the neck you have so the only solution I see so the strings aren't too close to the fret ends is to find a bridge with narrower saddle spacings or use the bridge with narrow spacings

[jtsargeant]

Thanks for the replies so far. I've been unable to find a TOM bridge with 10mm spacings, everything seems to be 10.4 mm, anyone got any ideas on where I might find one or does anyone know the heel width, or the nut and 12th fret width, of the PBG bolt on necks?

[stan]

do you have a PBG bridge? I dunno what their spec is (sorry cant check now) but if they fit I'll send you one, I have a spare that won't get used in the near future, no cost

[jtsargeant]

Thanks for the offer Stan, but if worse comes worse I can put the old bridge back on the guitar.

[stan]

welcome to it if it suits and you change your mind mate, good luck

[WeirdBits]

I wonder if you bought some unnotched replacement saddles and then cut your own offset notches to match the required spacing? It wouldn't be ideal, but may let you get away with using a wider bridge.

[jtsargeant]

Thanks WeirdBits, that is another option I should investigate further. It would probably give me a cleaner result than attempting to reslot the saddles on the newer bridge off center.

[jtsargeant]

I took some quick measurements. From I can find from google 53mm at the 21st fret is a touch on the thin side. So I'm guessing the PBG neck would be closer to 56mm at the heel as that seems to be fairly standard. I think I might take a bit of a gamble and next pay order a neck.

The thin neck
nut: 42mm
12: 51mm
21: 53mm
1/2 scale length: 314mm

LP studio neck
nut: 43mm
12: 53mm
21: 56mm
1/2 scale length: 312mm