Replacement Bridge for Vintage Asian Guitar

[cheepaxes]

In another thread (viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3736) I describe a project to get an old Zenon guitar running again. The bridge originally consisted of a plastic saddle that sat on a plate with two threaded studs extending up from it. The saddle sits on the studs, probably resting on thumbwheels. Unfortunately one of the studs has broken off. I need to either replace the plate, or get a new bridge.

I know that the string spacing on old Japanese bridges was more narrow than on US guitars. Some time back, people here mentioned a bridge made with the proper spacing being sold at Guitar Fetish. I followed links and searched the GFS site and can longer find such a bridge. Does anyone know of a source for a new, preferably adjustable, replacement bridge with a string spacing more like like an old Teisco?

Thanks,
-Scott

[Spellcaster]

I had a similar problem when I bought back my old ZenOn guitar and discovered that the original bridge was missing and had been replaced with something crude from an acoustic guitar. I discovered that a Gibson ABR1 bridge fit the same post holes and had the same string spacing.....

[cheepaxes]

Really!? That seems to counter my experience so far. I'll have to look farther into this. I've picked up something new, but made to fit old Teiscos:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-CHEAP-BRIDG ... 4851b3385b

Seller is zamuelfromzagnatz. I haven't tried installing it yet.

-Scott

[cheepaxes]

The bridge I ordered for Japanese guitars arrived and had too narrow a string spacing for this Zenon. Spellcaster is correct -- the spacing on the original Zenon plasic compensated bridge is the same as ABR-1 bridges.

I took the new Japanese bridge and swapped it onto an old Frankenstein Harmony H-802 (Teisco) on which I'd installed a tuneomatic bridge with the saddles moved around to make the spacing smaller. That freed up the Tuneomatic to go on the Zenon, but I decided I didn't really need it. I still have the original saddle. What I need is to fix or replace the plate that the saddle mounts on. Unlike Spellcaster's Zenon, this one didn't have holes for bridge posts, it had a plastic plate that originally had two threaded posts extending up from it but now only has one. The posts were embedded in the plastic. Small screws go down through down slots in the plastic plate into the body to hold the plate in place. The fact that they're slots rather than holes allows one to shift the plate farther/closer to the nut, allowing for a little control over intonation. Ultimately, I decided to drill a hole up through the plastic plate where the missing post used to be. I cut a nail to be about as long as the extant post and put it up through the hole. I coutersunk the hole a little so most of the nail head can fit above the plane of the bottom of the plate.

I've strung the guitar and the action isn't too bad -- a little low. There's a little back-bow to the no-truss-rod neck that's causing some buzzing. I'm hoping that sitting for a while with strings on will pull that forward after sitting for 45 years with no tension on it. If it turns out I need to raise the bridge to avoid the buzzing, I'll slip some washers onto the nail under the saddle.

The next thing I need to do is measure the neck width at the nut in order to find a suitable replacement. I put a Tusq nut on it that I had laying around, but it's actually too narrow.

If anyone is interested I could take pictures of all this.

Thanks to Spellcaster for setting me straight on the string spacing on this guitar.

-Scott