Excellent 65 Optimizations

[morphball]

So I've been working on optimizing an early 2000's Excellent '65, and one of the big things on my list was resolving some rather extreme bridge buzz. I know there's a variety of techniques to eliminate this problem, ranging from felt to loctite, but I thought I would take the easy way out and purchase one of Bob Shade's locking bridges. Well, this thing is rock-solid and fits my E65 like a glove, and the buzz is much more tolerable now, if not eliminated- the problem is the string spacing is slightly different. Here's an image with the wider spread:



I did some of the wildest staccato I could muster in order to ensure that the strings would not pop out of the bullets (esp. low E), and they seem to be staying put. So far, tuning stability is fine too. The output seems to be okay even though some of the strings are not directly over the poles anymore, though I'm not sure if this is adversely affecting tone. Is this slight miss-match anything to worry about? I was thinking I could always just move the bullets over to the old bridge-plate, but I'm pretty certain that would put me be back in buzz city. What would you folks do if this was one of yours?

Also, I was about to try the loose arm->leather washer->plastic washer->bridge thing, and discovered a curious difference between Mel's and my MIJ Mosrite:



Nope, the part that the hex screw goes into does not seem to come off! I just tightened it, and seems to be holding steady, but I may get some loctite today anyway. One for the archives I guess.

My only other item is getting the bridge pickup cover to adhere to the pup- it looks like there was a thin double-sided tape (crafter's tape I think) that lost it's stick. I was just going to go get more today, but wondered if anyone had better techniques for that kind of thing?

[rog43win]

Hmmm.....I never saw that arrangement....screwed to the arm like that......when I had my Mosrite, the arm was looser than I like, but it's because there was a gasket-like, cork material washer just under the arm...and after some use, it compressed enough to make the arm loose.....drove me crazy, .....I thought there must be a better way to make the arm tighter besides a cork washer.....

Roger

[eltuce]

I'm not sure, but I like your idea with the bridge. I may have to do that with my MKI reissue as it buzzes like crazy! The trem arm on my V88 feels a little funky, but it works fine. I've messed with it a few times with my guitar guy using various washer type things just so it feels more comfortable. I think mostly I just don't like the flat arm as much.

[MWaldorf]

The Hallmark saddles have their screw holes slightly higher than on my 80s Mosrite bridge, so that when I switched them over, there was extra pressure holding them down. No buzz at all. I don't know how the Hallmark saddles compare to the E65 saddles so it might or might not help. Also, you might have to re-thread the saddles for the E65 screws, but they're both metric, so maybe not?

[FritzCat]

This isn't a great pic, but here's what it looks like disassembled

[morphball]

This isn't a great pic, but here's what it looks like disassembled

Dag... so I just had to keep unscrewing it. It seems to be staying put anyway, maybe the hex-type of setup doesn't need the washer trick as much.

And thanks Mel, I just decided to keep the Hallmark bridge intact (it doesn't look vintage-correct, but I love how it locks underneath... function wins this round); to my eyes anyway, the threads are pretty close.