[Hamm Guitars]

This is a standard hard-tail bridge that resembles the 6 screw trem bridge that was originally on this guitar. The trouble is that unless I couter sink it, or raise the neck in the neck cavity, I have to drop the sadles down real low, and you can see what is happening. (the sadlle is floating)

To make matters worse, the problem is amplified when I set up the intonation on the guitar as the saddle has to move back, and the sadle set screw binds on the string. (I would have to use shorter screws)

I am going to move the whole bridge back a bit as this is an R&D guitar and I have a bit of room on the high side, but since I have a few models that have the 'L' shaped base with the strings going through the end of the bridge I thought I would check to see if there was some sort of trick to getting them to behave.

Countersinking does'nt look like the best options as the string balls would scratch up the finish (if there was one), and I am not a big fan of raising the neck in the pocket.

This bridge is also a bit of a pain to string up, which is another strike against it.

The guitar plays, but the action is too high unless I lower the sadles to the point where they are floating. I guess I could use it for slide, but I can't really play slide....

 

[mandocaster]

Instead of raising the neck in the pocket, put a 1/16"-thick shim at the body end of the pocket to give the neck a rake angle. This allows the neck to engage the pocket fully while giving the needed lift. A little tinkering with business cards or matchbooks goes a long way. I did that with my Frankenbass and my Strat. I'll bet you will solve the problem likkety-split. One of the cheapest tweaks in the field.:rockon2:

 

[Hamm Guitars]

Instead of raising the neck in the pocket, put a 1/16"-thick shim at the body end of the pocket to give the neck a rake angle. This allows the neck to engage the pocket fully while giving the needed lift. A little tinkering with business cards or matchbooks goes a long way. I did that with my Frankenbass and my Strat. I'll bet you will solve the problem likkety-split. One of the cheapest tweaks in the field.:rockon2:

Hi Mando,

I tried that but the neck had to be angled back quite a bit, which caused dead spots, required truss rod adjustments, a little leveling of the higher frets - it's all just a little quirky and I wanted to be able to swap out a few different bridges on this guitar (it is my hard-tail R&D guitar).

I am going to try the next bridge:

As it looks easier to string up and the intonation adjustment screws have been moved out of the way of the strings.

I have my money on the string through body bridges anyway, but I want to give these a fair shake. Just thought there might be some trick of the trade to get past the string binding problem that the first bridge has.

Thanks for your input,

Andy