The Steel Guitar Forum

There are METRIC studs (import guitars) & inserts and SAE sized studs (USA Made ie Gibson) and inserts.

Take the husk to Home Depot and try metric bolts - start with a M8 8mm bolt first. If metric doesn't fit then try SAE.

Good luck!

easy enough to just remove the anchors. you get a bolt that fits the anchors. take a small block of hardwood...maple works best. drill a hole the size of the bolt all the way through it and then flip it over and go up several drill sizes and drill about 2/3 of the way into the block from the other side. now take a washer and set it on the top of the block over the smaller hole and drop the bolt through it. now set the block/bolt over the anchor and screw it in. the bolt will be less than the depth of the anchor. as you screw the bolt in, it will spin freely against the washer and engage the anchor...it will not bottom out...and as you turn the bolt head, it will draw the anchor out. put something like felt around the bottom of the block so it wont dent the wood around the anchor.

there are other ways to do this, but this way causes no damage.

after removing the anchor, you can start over and install whatever you want. you might have to take some dowel and fill in the holes if you need to redrill for another size.
ive removed many anchors from all sorts of guitar tailpieces and bridges.

Todd Opheim wrote:Here's what I did on my SX. Added the string holder in the back (cheap) and made the wooden bridge from some scrap wood and cut a lead bar to fit it. The bridge is covering up the large bridge holes and is held in place by only string tension. Works great!

First post here btw !

I like the look of that much better than my idea of just putting some bar stock in place of the existing saddles. Very classy.

Jack Hanson wrote:

Bill Hatcher wrote:my advice in this matter is to only put as much money into it as you can get out of it.

Wise words. Install new pickups and electronics and tuners and whatever on a hundred-dollar import guitar, what you're most likely to end up with is a hundred-dollar import guitar. You can only put so much lipstick on a pig.

I'm never in favor of dumping a ton of money into a cheap guitar, but it's ok to put a bit more than you can get out especially for a project like this where the overall costs are so low. If folks worried only about getting their money out of an instrument, no one would ever upgrade a cheap instruments.

I've got more into my P Bass (90s MIM Standard) in upgrades than I could get at resale but it's a great playing bass and I've been rocking it for 25 years with no plans to stop.

This is the bridge I got with a used SX-6 . It's completely flat and adjustable for scale truing. It may be the original one as it's the same width etc.

The saddles are intonable, but I'd just line them all up in a row to the proper scale length.

It's a wraparound style, should slip right in place provided the s/c dims are the same as the P90.

I don't know the mfg. or a source, but you might look around the online parts stores for such an item.

Amazon has some economcal Musiclilly bridge parts.

We can compare dims if you need to. I'd be willing to pull one of the anchor bolts to measure the thread size and pitch if you need it.
I don't want to sell it as I plan to put it back on there when time allows.

It's a flat radius, but you should be good with any generic bridge that fits your bridge posts. A 16" radius or even a 12" would probably be just fine even if it isn't completely flat. Lots of lap steels are like that.

The previous owner replaced this one with the one that's installed there. Don't know why as it has a non adjustable intonated saddle.

I'll second the Gibson style wrap around tailpiece but Jerry Overstreet's mod is a better idea.