Adjust tele style bridge height on Saga kit emando

[Bill Schmidt]

Hi all. Anyone have experience with the Saga electric mandolin kits? I purchased one recently and the bridge is just a tad too far off to be intonated properly. I know I could fill and re-drill the bridge post holes, but am leaning towards a new, intonate-able tele-style bridge instead. The problem is the tele-style bridges are 0.1" too low. The question is, should I shim the new bridge or take some thickness off of the neck heel? Thanks for your suggestions.

[Mandobart]

Look at Moongazer's offerings. I bought a replacement for the stock non-adjustable bridge on my Mandobird VIII years ago. Direct fit, no filling/drilling and much better than the original.

http://www.moongazermusic.com/bridges.html

[Bill Schmidt]

Thanks Bart. I did look at Moongazer, but their bridge height was .5" also, so I went with the Allparts bridge (cheaper). It's installed now and I was able to crank the height up enough to make it playable, but I'm a little concerned because I've never seen a bridge like this cranked up so high (see photo). Thoughts?

[sonic]

As the Saga has a tune o matic type bridge the neck will have some angle to it (as acoustics do).
However Tele Strat's etc are parallel. I would say you need to find out if the neck pocket has an angle to the bottom of it. If it does you need to remove it or sand the matching angle into the neck to make it sit parallel.

[Bill Schmidt]

The Saga kit comes with a pinned floating-style bridge. I retrofitted the tele-syle bridge (tune o matic bridges are common on Les Pauls). The neck pocket appears to be parallel with the top. Thanks.

As the Saga has a tune o matic type bridge the neck will have some angle to it (as acoustics do).
However Tele Strat's etc are parallel. I would say you need to find out if the neck pocket has an angle to the bottom of it. If it does you need to remove it or sand the matching angle into the neck to make it sit parallel.

[sonic]

If that is the case then your earlier question should you take some height off the heel then the answer is probably.
When working out the depth for the neck pocket I set the bridge to it's lowest and measured the height. The fretboard was then fitted so it was the same height above the body. I have a low action with minimal buzz for my playing style.
Most of the books I read before building my Mandolin refer to the tune o matic needing a neck angle of a few degrees to get the string height/action within accepted norms. However simply having thicker heel or shallower pocket would do the same.

[ricomando]

a piece of match cover slipped under the heel of the neck is a quick fix

[mandroid]

Move the bolt on neck Up * you can make a spacer and put it under that bridge plate too ..

* I used a flat-washer under the neck around all 4 screws (It was on My Godin A8 with a glued on bridge)

[sonic]

I have just read the Double neck thread and the solution is in the video He uses a piece of fret board to raise the bridge. Having replaced a post style bridge
Hope this helps

[fentonjames]

do what guitarist roy buchanan did on his telecaster. use pennies. stick them under the screws as spacers. you won't need to have the screws up that far. it is debatable, but he also swore that it improved his tone too.

[thistle3585]

Make a bridge that is taller and holds the saddles at the right height. The issue in the photo above is the angle of the saddles. That can be resolved by making the rear portion of the bridge taller.

This is why you spend the extra $150 and get a Moongazer kit.

[Jess L.]

... This is why you spend the extra $150 and get a Moongazer kit.

Are the Moongazer kits ever in stock? I wanted to buy one last summer/fall, at one point I had money in hand and was ready to spend it on something, but every time I looked at their website the kits were always "out of stock" and wouldn't be accepting kit orders for several months.

And still right now (at the time of this writing, March 23, 2016) there's another message dated March 8, 2016 which says they're still (or maybe again?) "not accepting kit orders for the next several months."

I didn't see any mention on their website of how to get on a waiting list or how to get in line to get first dibs on whatever kits might be available in the future.

In my case, it's too late now, as I've already filled my mandolin needs elsewhere, but for the sake of other people who might want to buy one of the kits, does anyone have any info about the availability?

[thistle3585]

You might try emailing Tom. I've been getting some stuff from him. He has a fairly large project going on that is consuming most of his time. Tom is a great guy and puts together a great product. It is well worth the wait. Hopefully, he'll be back in to the swing of things soon.

[Bill Schmidt]

Hi all, finally finished spraying and assembling the Saga kit. Love it so far!

[thistle3585]

Looks good. Matte finish? What was your solution on the bridge?

[Bill Schmidt]

Thanks. Actually, it's "semi-gloss", meaning I didn't have the patience to get all the orange peel out! The peghead is pretty glossy. For the bridge, I had a local luthier do a set up/fret dress before I did the finish work and he was able to get the bridge down a little closer to the body. Down the road I might take your advice and slip a sliver of wood under it. One thing I noticed though, is that although the pickup is very quiet, I get a "boomy" sound when I inadvertently strike the pickguard. Like the PU is micro-phonic. There is a large cavity under the spot I'm hitting, but I never noticed this before on say, a strat-style guitar...

[thistle3585]

My guess is that the pickup spring is making contact with one of the solder points on the pickup bobbin when you hit the guard.

[Bill Schmidt]

Hmmm, I'll check that. Conceivably, adjusting the pickup height could fix/modulate it? Thanks.