Tune-o-matic bridge - which way round?

TheOtherDennis

A while ago, I gave my Les Dennis II to a local guitar tech for set up. Not sure why it's taken me so long to spot this, but now that I come to change the strings, I notice he's put the bridge on with the little intonation screws facing the neck, not the tailpiece. It's facing the tailpiece on my Epi ES335 Dot, which was set up by someone different.

I've checked out as many images of Gibson Les Pauls that I can see the difference in, and there doesn't seem to be any consistency. While the majority have the screws pointing to the neck, there are enough with it the other way around to notice.

Does it really not matter? I'm only thinking it might for ease of adjusting the screws (much closer to the bridge pick up than the tailpiece), but what about the way the saddles sit - do they have any effect on the relevant strings (every tune-o-matic I've seen has three saddles with the flat side facing one way and three facing the other)?

I'd be surprised if there was a real difference to the tuning (surely it's about the position of the saddles rather than which way they're facing?) but I thought it might to the way the strings react to the way they sit in the saddles.

Just curious.

stickyfiddle

It generally depends on the type of TOM bridge - Gibson ABR-1 types have screws towards the neck and the Nashville ones have them facing the tailpiece. It doesn't really matter.

Likewise with the saddles. I generally have mine all with the flat side facing the neck unless I need to get that tiny bit of extra travel to get the intonation correct.

ICBM

The typical far-east ones - which all come with three saddles facing one way and three the other - can be poorly finished and sharp enough to cut the wound strings if the vertical face is at the back, so you want to fix one (or both) of those things. Gibson ones usually come with just the low E and A saddles that way round.

Generally you want to have it so the screws are easy to get to and the strings don't contact them, if it's possible to arrange it for both at the same time.

Sesh

I had this problem on my Aria Les Paul-a-like many years ago. As it was, as @ICBM said above, cheap far eastern, it had three one way and three the other. At the time I was oblivious to intonation so over the years it went back and forth between the two. These things don't matter when your fingers are the bigger problem...

Is there any difference between the individual saddles? Why aren't these cut to the right width like the nut is?

SteveRobinson

They should be and are on a proper Gibson guitar. I've noticed though that some cheaper Gibsons now come with pre-notched saddles.

TheOtherDennis

ICBM said:

The typical far-east ones - which all come with three saddles facing one way and three the other - can be poorly finished and sharp enough to cut the wound strings if the vertical face is at the back, so you want to fix one (or both) of those things.

Yeah, I've had to bin a couple in the past for that.

streethawk

stickyfiddle said:

It generally depends on the type of TOM bridge - Gibson ABR-1 types have screws towards the neck and the Nashville ones have them facing the tailpiece. It doesn't really matter.

Likewise with the saddles. I generally have mine all with the flat side facing the neck unless I need to get that tiny bit of extra travel to get the intonation correct.

Bingo. The extra travel is sometimes necessary to intonate a Gibson. Reversing two or 3 of them, it doesn't make any difference as long as the saddles are nicely finished.

Pre notching the saddles stops the strings from creating more than one groove in an unnotched saddle, with the string flipping around between them (annoying!).

Gibson used to tap a mallet on the string to pre-notch the saddle, and send it out like that. I've read Dan Erlewine saying they should be dead centre, and the Stewmac site contradict him and say the notches should be perfectly string spaced - same as the nut.  

I think it's much less important than the nut notching/spacing - there's a tonne more width at the bridge end of the neck to play with. Get the nut right and everything else should follow. Right?