Help needed! Ill fitting bridge; new holes or sand?

FriskyDingo

 Got some new hardware for my kit and the bridges holes are slightly further back from the pre-drilled holes in the body (hopefully you can see in the pics below)
Should I drill new holes, which would be quite close to the old ones or sand the bridge pick up cavity and move the bridge forward to fit? 
I measured the distance from nut to e saddle, which I think is correct

Gurus of the board help
  

Funkfingers

What is the current drilling pattern? 

Given the cheepnis of the bridge in the photograph, it might be wiser to refrain from using it. Find another bridge that conforms to the existing drilling pattern.

ICBM

If you want to use that bridge, you need to enlarge the pickup cavity and move the bridge position forward - by as much as 1/4" - otherwise you will not be able to intonate it correctly without some of the saddles falling off the ends of the intonation screws.

FriskyDingo

It's 3 screw hole and it's the only one I can find with 6 saddles
So I want to use this bridge and il expand the bridge pickup cavity as the bridge covers it up

WezV

ICBM said:

If you want to use that bridge, you need to enlarge the pickup cavity and move the bridge position forward - by as much as 1/4" - otherwise you will not be able to intonate it correctly without some of the saddles falling off the ends of the intonation screws.

Look at where the tape measure sits on the nut.  

@FriskyDingo you should measure from the fretboard side of the nut.  The high e should be bang on 25,5".   The bridge could do with moving slightly towards the neck, but not as much as your measurements make it look 

GluedtoMusic

The scale length measurement needs to be taken from the fretboard edge of the nut, your photos currently show it being measured from the back side of the nut. Would be worth re-measuring to see where the high e is in relation to the scale length.

FriskyDingo

Here's new measurement from fretboard side. The centre of the hole of the saddle to the centre of the pre-drilled hole is about 4.2mm
 

TTony

I can't see whether you'd want to move the bridge left (towards the neck) or right (away from the neck) in the above photo.

But, you've got a lot of movement available in the top E saddle if you need to move the bridge left.

Roland

If you want the bridge plate to fit alongside the scratch plate then you’ll have to drill new fixing holes. As @ICBM says, you might also need to widen the pickup cavity below the bridge plate.

If you don’t want to do this work then you could just mount the plate using the existing holes, and find some longer screws to hold the E and B saddles. 

ICBM

WezV said:

Look at where the tape measure sits on the nut.

Ha! Yes - the optical illusion when viewing on a phone screen is that it's over the fingerboard side of the nut, whereas it's actually hooked on the other side .

It looks from the new photo like the correct adjustment is more like half that - about 1/8". Is that about the difference in the screw hole positions? If so then it's still the pickup cavity which needs to be modified. The gap between the bridge and the pickguard would then be about right as well.

The good news is that it will be hidden by the bridge so you don't need to worry too much about super neat workmanship.

FriskyDingo

It doesn't have to meet the scratch plate. Just left enough so the holes in the bridge meet the pre-drilled holes in the body, which is about 4.2mm to the left

ICBM

FriskyDingo said:

It doesn't have to meet the scratch plate. Just left enough so the holes in the bridge meet the pre-drilled holes in the body, which is about 4.2mm to the left

That sounds about right, and will give you plenty of adjustment room on the saddles.

That's a lot of wood to sand away though - I would suggest a router or a chisel. A good sharp chisel will actually make quite a neat job of it.

FriskyDingo

Chisel it is! I have sandpaper attachment for my drill to assist. Unfortunately I'm gong on holiday /honeymoon on Tuesday with work in between so may not have time before to make adjustments 

GSPBASSES

FriskyDingo said:

Chisel it is! I have sandpaper attachment for my drill to assist. Unfortunately I'm gong on holiday /honeymoon on Tuesday with work in between so may not have time before to make adjustments 

I'm not sure if you're fiance/wife would appreciate the word unfortunately before I'm going on holiday/honeymoon! 

Maybe you should edit the word out, just in case she reads is your postings. 

FriskyDingo

GSPBASSES said:

FriskyDingo said:

Chisel it is! I have sandpaper attachment for my drill to assist. Unfortunately I'm gong on holiday /honeymoon on Tuesday with work in between so may not have time before to make adjustments 

I'm not sure if you're fiance/wife would appreciate the word unfortunately before I'm going on holiday/honeymoon! 

Maybe you should edit the word out, just in case she reads is your postings. 

She's not on here. Fortunately. And she understands my guitar obsession, or at least tolerates it. 
She can't wait for me to get a shed so I can work out of the house. That's a sign of a good marriage, right? 

roundthebend

FriskyDingo said:

It's 3 screw hole and it's the only one I can find with 6 saddles
So I want to use this bridge and il expand the bridge pickup cavity as the bridge covers it up

I just bought this bridge, cos I too wanted 6 saddles.
https://www.axesrus.co.uk/Axesrus-Vintage-Bridge-w-Six-Brass-Saddles-p/arutb0406.htm