Guyker Bridge through body strung bass mod install; gsr200 ibanez

 the only high mass bridge with saddle walls i could find with a solid rear wall was the guyker. unfortunately, its full of design flaws. since there was no option but to make it work, i had to just fix all the flaws.

1. the saddles arent through threaded, so the screws cant pass through for increasing string length. theres only approx 7mm of intonation adjustment (without the screw falling out) because of this. the saddle height & lateral adjustment are the reason they couldnt thread through.

2. the screws are way too long, the saddles at the front of the bridge are as far back as they can go. but for some reason they will adjust forward right off of the bridge. theres no way any strings besides extra light gauges will be intonated correctly like that. im using 50/70/85/105, & the 105 requires the saddle to be just 24mm from the rear wall.

 3. the reps that sold me the guyker bridge didnt know what the thread size of the hardware was, & were cunty about it, telling me to just buy it & figure it out myself. which i fucking had to do because theres no alternative & those cunts know that. FOR THE RECORD, THE SCREWS ARE M3x0.5 THREADS. the screw lengths i ended up using were 20mm for E, & 25mm for A, D, & G. the set screws for height & lateral adjustment are also the same thread.

4. the included mounting screws are punier than the factory ibanez screws, but since they are flat heads, i had to use them on the x4 rear screws, but i used the coarser threaded/thicker round head ibanez screws for the x2 front screws.

5. guyker boasts about their lateral saddle adjustment, but its basically pointless because the saddles themselves are slightly wide set, compared to the stock saddles. with the E & A adjusted to the right & D & G adjusted to the left, the strings BARELY BARELY BARELY make it onto the fretboard. the only adjustment you could make to this would take the strings over the edge.

6. they used non conductive paint, or enamel or something. this would ruin the ground for anyone not aware of string grounding. leaving it factory from guyker would inevitably allow 60hz hum to run rampant. after careful contemplation, i found that the best way to ground the strings would be possible through another modification that was necessary. since im doing through body stringing, i had to deburr the factory holes for through body entrances, which exposed a bit of the steel & since the strings pass through there, its a great spot for full constant contact for ground. the witness points on the saddles had approx .6kohms resistance with the intonation screws, so it was less reliable than bare steel, & i definitely wanted to avoid sanding or modding the witness points. after exposing the underside of the bridge to contact the pot ground wire, i found the intonation screw did have near zero resistance to the exposed spot, but the string entrance for through body was still more reliable.

7. i found the bottom lip of the saddle was too near the string entrance on the E when correctly intonated, so i had to actually grind away material there to avoid stress on the string at that point.

8. so not as much a flaw, but it wouldve been amazing to not have to change holes, but this is how i did it. i recorded the original bridge position with masking tape, marking the string position & saddle positions. after adjusting for the rear wall thickness & moving as far away as i could without compromising the end of the instrument, i marked where the new holes would need to be. i thought if i was lucky i could skip plugging holes  but x4 of the new holes were too near the originals, so i just plugged all the old holes with toothpick splinters & titebond wood glue, left to cure 24hrs.

NOW, i was finally able to get to the actual install.

i used an 1/8" drill bit for the string holes. i used a 1/64" drill bit to pilot the new mounting holes. on the back i used a 5/16" spade bit to pilot the ferrule holes, then widened that with a 3/8" drill bit (wiggled around to ease ferrule install, since 3/8" was still super tight). i sealed the exposed fresh wood in the holes with india ink & a q-tip. i used a clamp to press in the ferrules because using a hammer on a musical instrument is for mongoloids. since i didnt use a drill press because i dont have access to one  i free handed it & there was slight drift as the bit reach the back of the bass on the E, but its so minor it had absolutely no consequence besides an aesthetic irritant.

i found that the precut hole in the bridge for strings was 1/8" but the widest point on the 105 string was actually .126" (1/8 is .125) so i had to very slightly widen that hole & the hole in the wood to accomodate the E.

my first bass ever in high school had silk winding on the strings, & the strings that i bought afterward had silk winding. i found that lately, its nearly impossible to find strings with silk winding. i guess companies have convinced consumers that they dont need it. i ended up buying ernies because theyve always been reliable on my guitar, but i added 3:1 ratio 3/16" heat shrink tubing to the tuner ends of the strings. you cant insert the heatshrink into the tuners so i made sure to leave a thumbnail length of bare string to go into the tuner hole. this is both to protect my tuner posts, as well as securely anchoring the strings in place & killing any possibility of headstock buzz.

using a long scale (37.25") to taper string set just BARELY made it past the nut by less than 1/2"!

i was able to perfectly intonate all the strings & set my height for string/neck gap & my neck was bent back into perfect alignment after adding full tension back onto it.

it was a huge pain in the ass but im super happy with the result. 

the only things left to do on this bass is replace the shitty old pots the prior owner burned when they were soldering with new a500k pots & the shitty rat nest cable harness with nice shielded wire, then replace the nut with a custom cut Tusq nut.