Has anyone else put a Guildsby or Bigsby on their X-170?

[dbirchett]

I bought an X-170 second hand many years ago. Great guitar but I am of the school that every guitar needs a Bigsby. So, I found a Gold Guildsby on Ebay and had a friend put it on. Here is my problem: the bridge.

Because of the narrow neck angle on the guitar, the bridge has to be very low profile. I didn't want to use the wooden bridge that came on it because it was compensated for a wound 3rd string and because it was, well, a wooden bridge. I figured that the strings sawing back and forth would damage the slots. So I put on a tune-a-matic type (I think a Gotoh) and it works reasonably well. But because of the narrow angle, as I move up the neck, the action gets higher and higher. I did shave quite a bit of wood off the feet of the bridge and it is sitting as low as it can. The neck is pretty straight. Now mind you even so it plays better than my Starfire, my Gretsch 6120, my G&L, Strat or Tele so maybe I am worrying about nothing of substance.

But for those that have added a Guildsby to their Mini-Manhattan, did you have problems like this? What did you do to resolve it/them?

 

[GAD]

Can't help you, but that is a damn pretty guitar!

 

[Walter Broes]

I don't have one, but I've seen quite a few of them. Yes, a lot of them have a very shallow neck angle.

 

[dbirchett]

Can't help you, but that is a damn pretty guitar!

Thank you GAD. Guild does make some of the most beautiful guitars around and their sunbursts are second to none!

 

[Guildadelphia]

if there's still a little space left between the bridge thumb wheels and the base and there's still enough break angle for the strings to stay put in the bridge saddles, then it looks like you're good to go unless you find the action still too high. Another option (and one that was stock on some Guilds with a shallow neck angle) would be to take some metal off the bottoms of the bridge ends where they contact the base. Easy job if you have a grinder or you could take it to a machine shop...just need to make sure there is still enough break angle over the bridge so the strings don't pop out when you play. Beautiful X170 by the way.