Bridge / Action adjustment

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Action adjustment

When the action of your Teye™-guitar is off, more than likely this is mainly due to the long neck adapting to different climate, humidity, or the like. A simple twist to the truss rod should immediately correct this.

When raising or lowering the bridge actually becomes necessary, please observe the following closely!

A-series (and some S and T-series instruments; the 5-string guitars, and basses*)

All A-series guitars have the Teye handmade bridge. To adjust the action, follow these steps:

  1. loosen the locking nuts on top of each post with a 7/16 inch wrench. Take the utmost care in not damaging the aluminum bridge frame!!! You can do this by taping the bridge frame with sturdy, thick tape; by using the utmost caution; by using a socket wrench, or a combination of these three. When using a socket wrench, it is advisable to grind off the rounded-over easy-find-the-nut-edge.
  2. remove the nuts and the split washers, and raise or lower the bridge with the thumb-wheels. It is advisable to first lever the each side of the bridge upwards with a large blade screwdriver before you turn that thumb-wheel, using the tailpiece as pivot point. Make sure you protect the tailpiece with sturdy carton, wood, or plastic. All these metal parts are aluminum, and hence very soft and easily damaged. The thumb-wheels may scratch if you turn them without levering the bridge upwards.
  3. when the desired action is achieved, you must adjust the Allen set screws that are the bridge studs in order to compensate for the raising or lowering of the thumb-wheels. After you have lowered the thumb-wheels, these bridge studs could now poke through the locking nuts and irritate your playing hand; when you raised the thumb-wheels there might not be enough thread left to install the locking nuts. When turning the Allen hex studs, keep the thumb-wheels from rotating with your free hand.
  4. now  it is time to re-install the split washers and locking nuts. Use the same care as under point 1). Squash the locking nuts all the way til they’re flat. If you wish to install fresh nuts, these are 1/4-20 according to the SAE index.

S-series with workshop-installed bridge (serial numbers from the early thirties onward*)

  1. loosen the locking nuts on top of each post with a 7/16 inch wrench. Take the utmost care in not damaging the aluminum bridge frame!!! You can do this by taping the bridge frame with sturdy, thick tape; by using the utmost caution; by using a socket wrench, or a combination of these three. When using a socket wrench, it is advisable to grind off the rounded-over easy-find-the-nut-edge.
  2. remove the nuts and the split washers, and raise or lower the bridge with the Allen set screws that are the bridge posts. It is advisable to first lever the each side of the bridge upwards with a large blade screwdriver before you turn that Allen screw, using the tailpiece as pivot point. Make sure you protect the tailpiece with sturdy carton, wood, or plastic. All these metal parts are aluminum, and hence very soft and easily damaged.
  3. when the desired action is achieved, it is time to re-install the split washers and locking nuts. Use the same care as under point 1). Squash the locking nuts all the way til they’re flat. If you wish to install fresh nuts, these are 1/4-28 according to the SAE index. Some older S-guitars may have 1/4-20 nuts.

S-series with retro-fitted Teye-bridge (serial numbers up until early thirties*)

  1. loosen the locking nuts on top of each post with a 7/16 inch wrench. Take the utmost care in not damaging the aluminum bridge frame!!! You can do this by taping the bridge frame with sturdy, thick tape; by using the utmost caution; by using a socket wrench, or a combination of these three. When using a socket wrench, it is advisable to grind off the rounded-over easy-find-the-nut-edge.
  2. remove the nuts and the split washers, and raise or lower the bridge with the thumb-wheels. It is advisable to first lever the each side of the bridge upwards with a large blade screwdriver before you turn that thumb-wheel, using the tailpiece as pivot point. Make sure you protect the tailpiece with sturdy carton, wood, or plastic. All these metal parts are aluminum, and hence very soft and easily damaged. The thumb-wheels control the rotation of the dual-thread bridge posts, which in turn screw in and out of the original Gibson/TonePros-style bushings inside the body.
  3. when the desired action is achieved, it is time to re-install the split washers and locking nuts. Use the same care as under point 1). Squash the locking nuts all the way til they’re flat. If you wish to install fresh nuts, these are 1/4-28 according to the SAE index.

T-series

  1. loosen the locking nuts on top of each post with a 7/16 inch wrench. Take the utmost care in not damaging the aluminum bridge frame!!! You can do this by taping the bridge frame with sturdy, thick tape; by using the utmost caution; by using a socket wrench, or a combination of these three. When using a socket wrench, it is advisable to grind off the rounded-over easy-find-the-nut-edge.
  2. remove the nuts and the split washers, and raise or lower the bridge with the Allen set screws that are the bridge posts. It is advisable to first lever the each side of the bridge upwards with a large blade screwdriver before you turn that Allen screw, using the tailpiece as pivot point. Make sure you protect the tailpiece with sturdy carton, wood, or plastic. All these metal parts are aluminum, and hence very soft and easily damaged.
  3. when the desired action is achieved, it is time to re-install the split washers and locking nuts. Use the same care as under point 1). Squash the locking nuts all the way til they’re flat. If you wish to install fresh nuts, these are 1/4-28 according to the SAE index. Some older T-guitars may have 1/4-20 nuts.

*how to distinguish between the different bridges and posts?

  • The Teye-A-series bridge has six Phillips-head intonation screws with the heads on the pick-up side of the bridge.
  • The workshop-installed S/T series bridge has six Allen hex set screw intonation screws with the socket ends on the tailpiece side of the bridge. The studs upon which the bridge rests have Allen-type hex socket ends.
  • The retro-fit S-series bridge has six Allen hex set screw intonation screws with the socket ends on the tailpiece side of the bridge. The studs upon which the bridge rests have flat tops.
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