Nashville Bridge anchors loose

[GitFiddle]

I picked up this 02 LP Special Faded a couple years ago. Its a great little guitar, fun to play and great neck. It's main use is banging around the house and playing unplugged. Lately I have taken it to a few gigs. It plays great but the 490R and 498T just don't seem to hit the sound I prefer.

Last night, I replaced the pickups to try it out at a gig tonight. In the process I realized I had never removed all the strings at once, on this one. The only mods to date is an upgrade to Jonesy's 50s harness. Everything else is stock. Chrome Nashville bridge and TP.

When I lifted the bridge off, one of the anchors came with it, right out of the wood. On closer look, both anchors are very loose, basically just sitting in the holes. Each anchor has the vertical splines but it looks like someone has wrapped them both with some type of copper tape. So the anchors have smooth walls and are still loose in the holes.

I don't know if this was done at the factory or the previous owner may have done it trying to get a tighter fit. I assume this problem may be from wood shrinkage over time, causing the holes to enlarge?



Since I wanted to try out the new pickups tonight, I just put it back as it was and strung it with new strings.

I was wondering if anyone has dealt with this before?

I noticed that Dan Erlewine mentions this problem (with Nashville anchors) in his repair guide. He suggests lining the holes with white glue, epoxy or super glue to achieve a tighter fit. He also suggested wrapping the anchors with plumber's tape or even enlarging the diameter by applying glue to the anchor instead of the hole.

I assume the most extreme solution would be to plug and re-drill. Has anyone run across any other solutions or possibly replacement anchors that will fit tighter?

Thanks,
GitFiddle

Oh btw: The TP is screwed down all the way, and the anchors seem to have a tight fit in the wood, but the TP is a very loose fit on the posts. I was very surprised at how much play there is between the thickness of the TP tabs compared to the height of the post flange and screw head. Not a good fit at all. Will probably need to replace the TP also. (since I prefer nickel over chrome anyway )

[DRF]

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[Dougie]

There are two different Nashville style bushings/anchors, they are not the same size and won't interchange. Sounds like someone has used the smaller later type anchor in a guitar that was originally drilled for the larger ones.

[jimshine]

Just how loose are they? If they are just loose enough to pull out, I would epoxy them in. But if the hole is significantly larger, I would dowel and drill.

[GitFiddle]

They lift right out of the hole with two fingers. They have vertical splines like any normal anchor, but there is copper tape wrapped around the splines and they still lift right out of the hole. If I took the copper tape off the anchors they would probably barely even make contact with the wood.

The comment about two different anchor sizes is very intriguing. I am going to have to investigate that further.

If I can't find any anchors to fit the hole properly, I will probably just glue in a dowel and install stainless steel posts and an AVR-II.

[Dougie]

Look on fleabay at the sizes, you will see some with a short fat anchor and some with a longer skinnier anchor, without seeing it, I'm guessing that's the problem and it's easily fixed by swapping for the short fatter anchors.

nashville | eBay

-OR- you could install the Faber kit that does away with the anchors all together. Lots of people have tried this setup with excellent results.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Faber-iNsert...item4606f77fb1

Oh btw: The TP is screwed down all the way, and the anchors seem to have a tight fit in the wood, but the TP is a very loose fit on the posts. I was very surprised at how much play there is between the thickness of the TP tabs compared to the height of the post flange and screw head. Not a good fit at all. Will probably need to replace the TP also. (since I prefer nickel over chrome anyway )

Since you might want to opt to fix/upgrade both the tune o matic AND the tailpiece, go for the light aluminum tailpiece, you can immediately hear a difference! The best setup would be the Faber "master kit" which runs about 165 and comes with the locking light aluminum tailpiece and also the best locking tune o matic on the market. They aren't cheap but they are super high quality, precision German engineering, and the overall improvement in the tone of the instrument will make you forget about the cost of the kit in very short order.

Email and ask about the master kit:

http://cvguitars.com/Faber/faber.html

If you don't want to go that route, the TonePros lightweight aluminum tailpiece will get you the nice difference in tone for a lot less money, it's tighter than the stock one but it doesn't lock nearly as securely and solidly as the Faber. Pretty much, you get what you pay for.. YMMV!

Edit: I have both the aged nickel TonePros lightweight aluminum tailpiece and studs on an R9, and the aged gold Faber locking lightweight aluminum tailpiece kit on a 2006 Explorer. They both were an improvement in stock Gibby tailpieces, but on further checking with a magnet, the TonePros studs are nickeled brass, the Fabers are steel. The Faber is the better sounding one of the two.

[GitFiddle]

Thanks a bunch Dougie. I really like the idea of the Faber steel inserts.

Since I was installing new pickups the night before a gig, I wanted to spend my time getting the install done and adjusting the heights. So, I just put the anchors back the way they were and went on with it. I should have stopped and taken some photos and measurements with the calipers, but I was focused on the pickups.

Now I plan to take it apart again and get some accurate measurements on the holes and the anchor inserts so I'll know exactly, the specs I need for the upgrades.

I also love the aluminum TPs. A while back I upgraded my old 89 MIK Epi and installed a Gotoh Aluminum TP and was very pleasantly surprised with the sound.

The pickups turned out to be great by the way, a pair of aged ReWind Zebras.

Thanks again.

[Dougie]

Oh hail yeah to the ReWinds!

I received in the mail today, the gloss nickel Faber iNsert kit that replaces the Nashville anchors. Ok, they are for the smaller of the two anchors so now my inserts are like yours LOL.. The original Nashville tune-o-matic that Gibson has used for decades, which is made by Schaller, uses the large anchors. The Nashville ABR-1 bridge, which is the newer one, that's the one that uses the smaller diameter anchors and that's the anchors the Faber iNsert kit is meant to retrofit.

I think I will keep the Faber kits and fill in the holes with hardwood dowel and superglue, then drill for the Faber posts and press them in.

Anything you put between the guitar and the tune-o-matic either changes or colors the sound that resonates through it by A.) the material it's made of whether it's zinc, stainless, brass, carbon steel, aluminum, or B.) it's mass.

On that fact, I like that the Faber posts are smaller, since there is less mass, less energy is used (or lost) to transfer vibration back and forth.

Haha writing that made me remember these HUGE chunks of 3/4" diameter brass rod 1/2" long that were made to be fitted into the top of a Les Paul, to mount the tune-o-matic that supposedly made the guitar sustain for days... Sometimes I miss the 70s, and then sometimes I'm just glad I made it through them...

[Dougie]

Originally Posted by Dougie

There are two different Nashville style bushings/anchors, they are not the same size and won't interchange. Sounds like someone has used the smaller later type anchor in a guitar that was originally drilled for the larger ones.

Correction: The bushings ARE the same outside diameter although one is considerably taller than the other, so they would interchange, it's the threaded posts that screw into them that is different. The Nashville bridge has 5mm threads on the bottom of the post, the Nashville ABR-1 style bridge has 4mm. My bad!!

OP: guess you will have to fill the holes in with hardwood dowel and redrill them to fix the problem...