Gretsch 6120 floating bridge.

Greg

So I've got a 2012 6120-DSW and it comes with a compensated Bigsby bridge, ie: it's not a tunamatic with individually adjustable saddles.

The issue I'm having is not really intonation but more that the bridge 1. when resting in its natural position, doesn't let the strings line up correctly with the pickup's poles and with the edges of the neck and 2. because it's a floating bridge, it moves very easily when I rest my hand on it or, when I've put it in a position that lets it line up with the neck and pickup poles correctly, when I bend a string upwards.

What I've thought are my options so far are:

1. Spend money on buying a Synchro-Sonic bridge and pinning it. (Don't really want to do this because I don't want to spend money or ruin the guitars period-correct looks)
2. Gently sand the bridge's feet and possibly the surface of the guitar where the bridge rests in its best intonation position. (Sanding the guitar... YIKES!)
3. Perhaps there is a way to realign the Bigsby, bridge and strings with their correct placement relative to the neck and pickup poles.

Could anyone offer any other possible suggestions or solutions?

Here are a few picks of the bridges:

Compensated Bigsby:

Synchro-Sonic:

Bob-Dubery

Find the position where it intonates properly. Thereafter change strings one at a time.

AlanRatcliffe

Q: if you pull the bridge slightly to one side or the other, do the strings line up with neck and polepieces?
If they do, then you just need to reseat the bridge, which is a fairly common thing on that type of bridge. I use sticky sandpaper stuck to the top of the guitar, then just move the bridge back and forth between neck and tailpiece over the sandpaper to reprofile the bottom of the bridge to the top.

The other way to do it (especially if the grooves in the bridge are badly spaced is to file the top of the saddle and recut the grooves.

You can't do much about a rocker bridge rocking though. A lot of guys used to replace the top part of the bridge with a model with roller saddles (Schaller IIRC), but that does change the look.

Greg

X-rated Bob wrote Find the position where it intonates properly. Thereafter change strings one at a time.

Setting the intonation is fine, the problem is really that when the strings are on, their most natural way to rest would be as straight as they can, and when I bend strings upward, the bridge gets pulled up into a place where the strings are at their straightest, the problem is that at their straightest, they're not inline with the neck and poles correctly.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote Q: if you pull the bridge slightly to one side or the other, do the strings line up with neck and polepieces?
If they do, then you just need to reseat the bridge, which is a fairly common thing on that type of bridge. I use sticky sandpaper stuck to the top of the guitar, then just move the bridge back and forth between neck and tailpiece over the sandpaper to reprofile the bottom of the bridge to the top.

The other way to do it (especially if the grooves in the bridge are badly spaced is to file the top of the saddle and recut the grooves.

You can't do much about a rocker bridge rocking though. A lot of guys used to replace the top part of the bridge with a model with roller saddles (Schaller IIRC), but that does change the look.

A: When I move the bridge slightly to one side for the strings to line up with the neck and pole pieces properly, the strings don't seem to be at their ideal resting place, which is why they then get pulled into their ideal resting place when I bend upwards.

I think what I need to do, is when I put the strings on, is to have them come over the bigsby's string bar slightly to the right of their anchors so that the strings will pull the bridge into the correct position. They come over pretty much exactly ontop of their anchors at the moment. I've not had this issue at all before, it must just be that I restrung it poorly.

It's worth noting that my Electromatic's bridge rarely moves when I put pressure on it, the 6120's seems to be particularly slippery on the top of the guitar.

EDIT:

Thanks for the help, I've moved the strings to the right of their anchors as they come overs, this seems to be leaving it in place. Sorry for wasting your time!