Flipping a saddle on a Gotoh ABR-1 Bridge (GE104B)

jaymenon

I wonder if someone can help me please.

On this Les Paul of mine, I have a Gotoh GE104B bridge - their ABR-1 equivalent. 

The 3rd string is however marginally short - and therefore intonates sharp at the 12th fret.  There is no more travel left on the saddle - but if I could flip that saddle such that the 'slope' comes on the pickups' side of the bridge, I would get another 2 mm, which would be plenty to intonate that string accurately.

(Which makes me wonder why the bridges don’t come with the saddles automatically oriented to give you the maximum scale length on the 3rd and 6th strings).

The saddle screw / bolt passes through a small hex nut at the end which is apparently stuck with Loctite. Nothing I do seems to be able to loosen that adhesion and remove the bolt in order that I can flip the saddle.

Expert opinions most deeply appreciated...

[Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/orB0WaV.jpg)

[Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/6UHbzbg.jpg)

ICBM

Have you tried heating it with a soldering iron? (Be careful you don’t get the fumes in your eyes!)

It looks like the D needs flipping the other way too - this is more common on far-east tune-o-matics.

If you can’t free it, it would be easier to buy a new bridge with the traditional wire retainer.

jaymenon

Thanks John - I did try the soldering iron thing, but no joy.  Having said that the nut / bolt didn’t even feel warm afterwards...

i think fir for the £10 that an ABR-1 clone costs, you are right. But how do I get a new bridge to match the rest of the hardware on a 10 year old guitar...?

ICBM

jaymenon said:

But how do I get a new bridge to match the rest of the hardware on a 10 year old guitar...?

You buy a second hand one. I may have one, I’ll have a look.

mrshankly

Glue buster will soften super glue so you van get it out https://www.amazon.co.uk/DLXAD048-Deluxe-Materials-dissolver-superglues/dp/B00AMB6YUC

jaymenon

Thanks mrshankly for taking the trouble to find out about that product.

The Gluebuster is however, £11.75 - and I could get a new ABR-1 bridge for around that price, every bit as good as the original...

Kind regards
Jay

danishbacon

I appreciate it's a bit of a necro bump on this one but as it was one of the first hits on google when searching for 'flip Gotoh abr1 saddles' I figured I could chime in with my experience in flipping some saddles that needed flipping on a GE104B, for benefit of anyone who might stumble on this again.

I have a set of small tools for electronics that has a 4mm socket wrench which was perfect for this. The screws are indeed 'locked' with some kind of adhesive/loctite, sandwiching a couple of nylon washers on either end so that the screws and saddles can be moved without friction. It's a clever design.

Getting blue loctite on the nut threads again without making a mess was a bit of a challenge, I didn't want to goop the whole thing up with loctite or the nylon washer even, so wetting the tip of a cocktail stick with the very runny blue locktite and letting it 'flow' into the nut threads again gave it enough coverage without generating squeeze out.

To unscrew, all that was needed was opposing force with a screwdriver on the other side of the bridge.

jaymenon

How did you ensure that the low-viscosity superglue didn't percolate past the nut threads and bond the bits further along?

Or do you just subsequently turn the screw with a screwdriver to break any such adhesions?

danishbacon

jaymenon said:

How did you ensure that the low-viscosity superglue didn't percolate past the nut threads and bond the bits further along?

Or do you just subsequently turn the screw with a screwdriver to break any such adhesions?

I went light on the application and blue loctite does not seize permanently. I recommend having the correct size screwdriver and socket as the two imperatives.