The Steel Guitar Forum

I have read that some of you are replacing the bridge on the SX Lap with a Les Paul Jr wrap-around bridge from Guitar Fetish. These are radius'd and intonated. Does this present problems?

Martin Nicholes wrote:I have read that some of you are replacing the bridge on the SX Lap with a Les Paul Jr wrap-around bridge from Guitar Fetish. These are radius'd and intonated. Does this present problems?

I believe that would create a problem for the reasons that you mentioned. What I did with mine was kick all of the saddles back into a straight line and filled the bridge with carpenters white glue (and old trick to keep them from buzzing- I find that it adds to the sustain).

I then cranked the studs down so that the front of the bridge was resting against the body (on the two SX's I have the bridge would lean considerably towards the front). Doing those two things made the bridge solid enough for me to not feel the need to replace it.

I did put Seymour Duncan strat-sized humbuckers in both of them- a Hot Rails in one and a JB Jr in the other.

Only one problem with all of that- it is kinda tricky to replace just one string since the pickup is in the way. But not that hard to replace all of them at once if you remove the bridge from the studs.

If I was to redo the bridge today I would make the bridge out of angle iron and run the strings through the body (you can get the ferrules for the top of the guitar at Stew-Mac; the ferrules for the bottom are readily available at music stores if you don't have some lying around somewhere).

Steve Ahola

P.S. So did anybody else get the stand for the SX? I think I got the last one they had about a year ago and they were hoping to get more by the end of the summer...

Martin,I replaced the stock unit with a Les Paul tailpiece. I had to replace the posts and barrels in order to get the tail piece to fit.... I haven't had any intonation problems at all. As long as I had it all apart I jammed a p-90 in it. If you decide to replace your bridge.... lose that "jazz bass" cover. You may find it easier to play. I did.
Steve, I never got a stand but I have been looking for a case. Kurt says he will maybe have some in May.
gary

G Strout wrote:Martin,I replaced the stock unit with a Les Paul tailpiece. I had to replace the posts and barrels in order to get the tail piece to fit.... I haven't had any intonation problems at all.

Some of the wraparound bridges have fully adjustable saddles (like a tune-a-matic bridge) while others have a fixed intonation that is not adjustable which could create problems. However, all of the ones I have seen are radius'd which is not ideal for lap steel. (If you are careful you can flatten a tune-a-matic bridge in a vise, but I would not try doing that with a wraparound bridge which is much thicker.)

Yes, that metal cover certainly has to go! I think that the earlier models had the controls mounted on the cover- or maybe that was the earlier Rogues I had heard about...

Steve

Well I posted this right before I recieved a bridge from Guitar Fetish. I installed it anyway, since the SX adjustable saddle on the 6th string, was eating a hole in my palm.

The intonation has little effect that I can hear, but the radius does concern me. I wonder if the small intonated saddles on the 3 and 4 strings could be filed down a little, to the height of the 2nd. I guess I would lose some finish, but could touch up with some paint. Are the Les Paul Jr. wrap around stop bars radius'd? Maybe that is what I needed.

Martin Nicholes wrote:The intonation has little effect that I can hear, but the radius does concern me. I wonder if the small intonated saddles on the 3 and 4 strings could be filed down a little, to the height of the 2nd. I guess I would lose some chrome finish, but could touch up with some silver paint. Are the Les Paul Jr. wrap around stop bars radius'd? Maybe that is what I needed.

I would file the saddles down as you suggested but not bother with the silver paint which I think would gum things up.

Practically all of the bridges for Gibson-style guitars will be radius'd. Fender-style bridges have saddles which have height adjustments so you can eliminate the radius (for lap steel height you would probably want to replace the tiny set screws for the outside saddles).

So is it the long screw in the back that is digging into your hand? You could get a shorter screw at a hardware store or just cut the existing one. I'll count the number of visible threads and then cut off most (but not all) of them.

The tricks I mentioned in my first post corrected most of the problems I noticed but I still need to cut those darned screws!

Steve

It was the sharp corner of the 6th string saddle that was digging. I actually ended up using a black wrap around bridge to match the black knobs I put on.

I replaced the bridge on both of my SX's with LP JR's from Guitarfetish and were both direct retrofits which dropped right onto the old posts.

I filed the radius completely off mine and still had some saddle height to spare and now the strings are flat. Yes, I touched mine up with some silver paint so that the top wouldn't corrode and it's worked out fine.

Jason Lollar mentions using a smooth finish Hammerite spray paint on bridges and nuts that you fabricate from angle iron. It comes in a silver color although I just got the black. It has a very hard finish unlike a lot of the spray paints on the market.

Thanks for the report, Mark!

Steve