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Hello everyone,
I bought a used El Rey 2 yesterday and I absolutely love it. However, I am not so sure about the bridge. It is currently strung with round wound 12s with a wound G, that is pretty much what it says on this page they come with from the factory
https://www.eastmanguitars.com/er2
so you would guess the bridge would be made exactly for this type of string, but when I did a setup yesterday after buying it to improve action and intonation, the G string on the 12th fret came out horribly flat, about a quarter tone, with all other strings perfectly intonated. I would expect this to happen if the bridge was made for a wound G and I strung it with a plain G, but that's not the case here. Am I overlooking something?
I would really like to try a tune-o-matic. Will any of the regular brands like Gotoh, Schaller or Tonepros be a drop-in-replacement to use the same base without further modifications, or will I need to get a base custom made in order to accommodate a tune-o-matic?
Best regards,
Franz
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Hi Feiss and welcome! First - I am no expert on this subject. I did however recently sort the intonation on an archtop I purchased by loosening all the strings bar the first and sixth ('e' and 'E') and shifting the bridge around till it was correctly positioned - which I guess you did. Also, I seem to recall a similar post on this site which suggested checking that the nut slots are wide enough and appropriately angled to enable ease of string movement when tuning. It was also suggested that pencil lead could be used to lubricate the slots and help prevent the slots from pinching the strings and hampering string movement through the slots. You might have considered all of this - in which case apologies. I have never replaced an existing bridge with a Tune-O-Matic. Someone will doubtless weigh in. Good luck!
Alan
''Bad company done got me here …'' - Rev Gary Davis
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Hello Alan,
thanks for your reply, but I am quite sure this has nothing to do with the nut. Tuning stability is not a problem on this guitar, just the intonation of the G string is horrible, even though it's factory bridge with factory strings.
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I went looking at the El Rey 2 on line and the current model shows it with a bar type bridge and the photos of ones on line often times show a TOM style which of course has adjustability for each string.
If it was my guitar I would just buy a Gotoh TOM bridge like Eastman uses on other guitars like my thinline. Measure the post spacing and diameter and I’m sure there is a 12” radius Gotoh to fit. I did this with my Gretsch when the stock bridge failed to allow the dreaded G string to intonate. In that instance I went with a high end roller bridge due to the Bigsby.
Good luck.
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According to the Gotoh website
https://g-gotoh.com/product/ge103b/?lang=en their post spacing (as with all other TOM style bridges I could find) is 74mm and the string spread is 52mm. Oddly on my El Rey, the post spacing is 77mm but the string spread only 48mm. Does that mean, there is no Tune-O-Matic that will fit the El Rey? It's weird, because if I google Eastman El Rey, I can find pictures of ones with TOM bridges
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Your string spacing is more like 53.25mm. 2 3/32” listed by Eastman on their web page for the El Rey 2
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But it doesn't list the post spacing and my ruler says 77mm, but a regular TOM is 74mm, right? I don't want to have to replace the base also, because I would probably have to get one custom made by a luthier, and that would be expensive
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Custom base, not really necessary ? They sell for $20-$30 and you fit them by doing nothing more than taping a piece of sandpaper to your guitar top where the bridge sets and just slide the bridge back and forth until the bottom of the bridge matches the shape of the guitar top.
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where can I buy an El Rey bridge base separately? can you post a link, please?
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Feis
I actually would start simple. Try replacing the wound g with a plane g and see what happens. I might buy a few wound g’s in different gauges and see if one solves the problem. I buy my individual strings from Juststrings.
StewMac is one of many places that sells archtop bases and bridges, I buy a fair amount of guitar parts from them.
You bought used, it may well be as simple as the wrong string guage.
good luck
