Loose Nashville bridge anchors

Seziertisch · August 2023

I recently purchased a Blackstar Carry on which comes with a Nashville-style bridge.

In the course of doing a set up I discovered that the bridge post anchors were sitting quite loose in the body, and could easily be pulled by hand.

Now, I have a spare Tuneomatic-style bridge from ABM lying around that I was intending to put on it anyway, and in terms of replacing the Nashville anchors, I have two options available - a set of regular 1" Tuneomatic posts or a set of solid 1-piece Nashville to Tuneomatic conversion studs/posts.

For the first one, I would have to plug the existing holes and redrill, and for the second, though they fit the current holes they are also slightly loose, not moving around inside the holes but not sitting snug by any means. I know there are various techniques to either shim the hole or slightly increase the diameter of the bottom anchor part of the conversion posts to tighten the fit, but what would people recommend?

I don't have a huge amount of experience of such things, but I think that even if the conversion posts are not sitting snug in the holes as they are one solid piece (as opposes to a post screwed into an anchor), there shouldn't really be any performance issues when strung up? Though maybe a tighter fit would bring a sonic advantage?

WezV · August 2023

Depending how loose the anchors are I would either just use a small dab of glue on the side to hold them, or plug and re-drill if really loose.

I wouldn't look to change them for something else unless I wanted to change the bridge

Seziertisch · August 2023

WezV said:

Depending how loose the anchors are I would either just use a small dab of glue on the side to hold them, or plug and re-drill if really loose.

I wouldn't look to change them for something else unless I wanted to change the bridge

I think a dab of glue should be sufficient. Any suggestions as to what to use?

WezV · August 2023

depends how loose it is.

Wood glue if its not too bad as that will swell up the wood to regrip the insert, it will also firm up the wood in that area.

Thicker superglue if it has a little more play. I go for a gel type so it stays where you put it. I wouldn't use a thinner glue for this

Epoxy if it's got more space and needs the gap filling properties

For each, just a little glue on the side of the insert should be sufficient - you don't want glue on the threads!

All will release with a bit of heat if they ever need to be removed in the future

ICBM · August 2023

You can also wrap them with paper masking tape - if you cut the strip just wide enough so it folds a couple of mm round the bottom, it won’t get pushed up as the insert goes into the body. One full turn may be enough, if they’re almost tight anyway.

If you do use epoxy, fit them with the posts in place and screwed fully down, and a dab of grease on the end - this will stop any glue getting forced up into the threads or sticking to the post.

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Loose Nashville bridge anchors

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