Nice looking bridge, by the way! Pretty slick! 
Gotoh 510 Tune-o-matic bridge
- Thread starter Dave Sloven
- Start date
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Dave Sloven
Ambassador of DOOM!
For sure, that's why I am taking it to Steve tomorrow, to work all of that out. We will probably try swapping 1 and 6 and if that works I will do the rest before bringing it back
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Dave Sloven
Ambassador of DOOM!
Those screws being offset is actually a pretty sweet idea, given that the screws are a pain to adjust when they line up with the strings.
ivan H
Ambassador of Tubes & Grooves
Very nice. Just for future reference Dave, www.realparts.com.au stock all these parts & many more. They are an Allparts dealer (or stockist) but stock many Gotoh, Schaller, Switchcraft etc etc parts. Located on the Sunshine Coast, QLD. Good to deal with, reasonable prices & fast shipping. Enjoy the new bridge & tuners. Cheers
Edit: I just noticed that they've changed their name to "realtone". Cheers
Edit: I just noticed that they've changed their name to "realtone". Cheers
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Dave Sloven
Ambassador of DOOM!
Yeah but they don't carry all the finishes and all the knob options. That's why I went through Japarts.ca
I got the telecaster knobs from Australian Luthier Supplies a while back but they didn't have these tuners or the bridge either
ivan H
Ambassador of Tubes & Grooves
Ah, ok. I didn't check if they had all finishes. Cheers
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Dave Sloven
Ambassador of DOOM!
Same with StewMac actually. They keep the other three finishes in this bridge but not Cosmo Black.
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Dave Sloven
Ambassador of DOOM!
Showed it to Steve, and we tried to remove a saddle. No luck, they are in there forever! So we will install it with the adjustment screws facing the front, but we should be able to access them easily due to the offset design. Steve agrees that the whole unit is extremely solid with tight clearances. Once set up it will be totally locked between adjustments. Sustain should be as good as possible
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Dave Sloven
Ambassador of DOOM!
I think it will be fine because there is plenty of travel, I will just end up with the screws facing to the front like on a Gibson. The offset screws means that you have a straight line to them without the strings being in the way. It would be less difficult to adjust than my Explorer, which faces that way. Also there is a gross intonation adjustment like on a wraptail stopbar because those screws front and back near the posts allow you to adjust the angle of the bridge slightly. I'm pretty sure this will be a fantastic bridge, and between Steve and myself we will get it set up just right.
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Dave Sloven
Ambassador of DOOM!
The only reason I might need to adjust it is if I change tunings. But that won't happen for this band.
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Dave Sloven
Ambassador of DOOM!
I'm totally happy with 11-56 in C standard.
If I want to fool around with strings and tunings I would probably just use one of my SGs, they sit around doing nothing most of the time and are easy to adjust
If I want to fool around with strings and tunings I would probably just use one of my SGs, they sit around doing nothing most of the time and are easy to adjust
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Dave Sloven
Ambassador of DOOM!
I just had another look at that site, and these seem to be a different bridge again, called the Gotoh 510BN, which seems to have been sold through Allparts and is quite different in spec to the bridge I bought from Gotoh themselves. It is possible that Gotoh sell this under the Wilkinson brand. It has height-adjustable saddles (which the 510FB doesn't have) but regular looking posts with thumbwheels. Actually it looks a lot like their regular 103 bridge but with height adjustment on the saddles in much the same manner as a Fender bass bridge (a grub screw for height either side of the intonation adjustment screw).
Gotoh 510BN Height Adjustable Saddle Bridge - Chrome
Gotoh Bridges & Tailpieces
Australian Luthier Supplies don't stock them either so I suspect in Australia this is something people have to import themselves.
StewMac do sell the gold and chrome versions of the 510 bridge but it is considerably more expensive, although there is a deal if you get it with the tailpiece.
- StewMac
That's still a case of importing it though.
All things considered dealing direct with Gotoh via Japarts.ca is the best method
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Dave Sloven
Ambassador of DOOM!
Yes but unless you are fluent in Japanese they are the best way to order parts from Gotoh directly. They place the order in US$ for you, you pay via Paypal or whatever, then Gotoh ships it directly to your address from Nagoya, Japan.
If you want to order Gotoh in the USA and want something to ship fast it is worthwhile checking if Philadelphia Luthier Supplies have stock, they are a big US Gotoh dealer. Also guitarhey on eBay have a lot of Gotoh stock, but the eBay tax situation makes them uncompetitive for Australia now.
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Dave Sloven
Ambassador of DOOM!
We finished tracking guitars today so I'll take the ATX out to Steve this week to have the bridge fitted.
Our lead guitarist is giving me $50 for the old tuner and bridge because they are a lot better than the ones on his Hellraiser, so that's a bit of money off. He's also buying my Boss DM-2, so that enables me to contribute to the next two rounds of band fundraising for the recording and mixing.
Our lead guitarist is giving me $50 for the old tuner and bridge because they are a lot better than the ones on his Hellraiser, so that's a bit of money off. He's also buying my Boss DM-2, so that enables me to contribute to the next two rounds of band fundraising for the recording and mixing.
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Dave Sloven
Ambassador of DOOM!
This bridge so far has been an easier install than I expected. I have ended up doing most of the work myself, Steve is just notching the saddles (matching them to the 14" fretboard radius) and setting the guitar up with the bridge height and intonation. I'll pick it up from him Wednesday next week.
Here you can see the bridge ground wire in the post insert hole:
However, when I had to work on the harness to add the treble bleeds I found that the bridge ground wire was too short:
So I took this opportunity to replace it with a much longer one with more slack to enable the harness to come out further when needed:
I found this wooden 'drift' (that was actually a tarpaulin bobbin) and put it on the new bridge inserts and tapped them in with a hammer:
I adjusted the saddles to be as close to the arrangement of the old TonePros bridge as possible:
This is how it looked when I took it to Steve to finish:
Here you can see the bridge ground wire in the post insert hole:
However, when I had to work on the harness to add the treble bleeds I found that the bridge ground wire was too short:
So I took this opportunity to replace it with a much longer one with more slack to enable the harness to come out further when needed:
I found this wooden 'drift' (that was actually a tarpaulin bobbin) and put it on the new bridge inserts and tapped them in with a hammer:
I adjusted the saddles to be as close to the arrangement of the old TonePros bridge as possible:
This is how it looked when I took it to Steve to finish: