Here’s a lovely guitar, just not behaving properly, needs a little work.

The first thing is the bridge. The trouble with the wooden bridge is that intonation is always a bit of a compromise.

The “Tune-o-matic” option means each string can be adjusted separately.  Since it’s a floating bridge the tape is there just so that I get it back in roughly the right position.

While the strings were off I gave the fretboard a bit of a clean and oil…

All it needs now is a full setup.

The neck set was about right so no work needed there.

The action at the 12th fret was a little high…

so I dropped the bridge down a little…

The action back up at the 1st fret was about right, just a little high.  The strings were sticking a little though.

Since we’re going for heavier gauge strings I think the slots are a little tight..

I put some pencil led at the bottom of the slot…

and then used the right thickness file to ease the sides out.  As long as the pencil is still there I know I’m filing the sides of the slot and not making it any deeper.

With the slot widths now matching the strings I also put in some nut grease to make sure the strings aren’t binding.

Back to that bridge.  The initial position was a bit of a guess so next I need to adjust each string individually.

A quick look at the pickup heights and we should be good to go…

And there it is….

To see what else I can do, check out my website www.guitar-george.co.uk

A word or 2 from the owner:

“From new this lovely guitar just wasn’t right. I had tried various string gauges and as the guitar came with two bridges, a floating ebony one and a “tune-o-matic” one, for some reason I wasn’t happy with either. Also the binding of the strings needed professional attention particularly as I wanted to change to a heavier gauge. I’m totally happy with the adjustments George has made. Many thanks George for a super service!”