Setting the Bridge on a 5120

[amdyck]

I just bought a Gretsch 5120 on impulse. I liked the look, the sound and the nice feel of it. No fret buzz, and chords sounded good at every position. I have a question about the bridge: Is it supposed to lie parallel to the bridge pickup or at an angle. An explanation why would be appreciated. Alan

[Norm]

Angle is determined by how the intonation is. It varies slightly from guitar to guitar and must be properly done for the thing to play in tune.

Too compliated to detail here. Go to google, search guitar intonation and check out more than one site until you think you grasp what is required. If you have an electronic tuner it is easier to do

[Joeb]

Yes you can place the bridge on a angle. It helps with the tonation of the strings. I too have aG-5120 guitar and must say over all it's worth every penny that I paid which was $400.00 about 5 years ago. I see that they went up $30.00 more these days. My friend do yourself a favor and change that cheap stock bridge with a Gretsch bar bridge. which I did and it really gave me the tone and sustain thaI was looking for. After that another must is a pickup swap.Those stock hummbucker sound okay but there's no high end and sparkle to them. I installed a set of Gretsch filtertrons that I got off E Bay for a $100.00 . My G5120 Orange baby plays and sounds like it's big brother the real G 6120. Good luck . Joeb

[Joeb]

That's $300.00 dollars more not 30. jb

[Norm]

Yes you can place the bridge on a angle. It helps with the tonation of the strings.

You can't just slant it for looks. Setting intonation is a process involving making the 12th fret harmonic match the 12th fret when noted. It requires a good ear or an electronic tuner to do right and if you don't get it right the guitar won't play in tune. The intonation process might end up with the bridge being slanted. Hopefully that's what Joeb means. Mine is slanted just a bit.

Some bridge manufacturers drilled the post holes in the bridge base so the bridge sits on its base a little slanted. I suppose the idea is to not have the bridge look so slanted when the intonation is set.

[rhudson]

The intonation thing is pretty simple. Just tune the guitar to pitch using an accurate electronic tuner. Note the first string at the 12th fret accurately. If the note is flat, move the bridge toward the neck. If it is sharp, move it away until both the open note and the fretted note are accurate. Do the same with the 6th string. Recheck the first string and retune all of the strings to pitch. The guitar is an imperfect instrument. It will never be in tune on every fret with every string. But, with a bar bridge, this is quick and is good enough for me and the girls I hang with.

[amdyck]

Thanks for your answers lads. I don't have an electronic tuner but will muddle thru anyway. I do have an "A" tuning fork. Do I have to tune the guitar to "concert" pitch to match things up at the 12th fret ? I usually tune my guitars below concert - just a habit I suppose. Alan

[amdyck]

I didn't get an answer to my question about needing to tune to "concert" pitch, so I will assume it's not necessary and just use my ear and see what happens. I once read an article about Carlos Montoya. It said that he always tuned below concert pitch. I liked the way he folded the D string over the A string to get the sound of a snare drum. It wowed the audience!

[Norm]

It's not a requrement (tuning to A-440)

Jerry Reed and Chet both had no guilt trauma tuning either side of 'standard'. Chet liked to tune a little sharp in his early days. Said he liked the sound of it but I also think it made it tougher for people to copy his chops. Every time I got a new album I'd "key" the songs and aways hated it when he did that.

Setting intonation is a matter of harmonic physics to get the bridge in it's most advantageous position and relies on the physical properties of a vibrating string. It doesn't care what note the string is tuned to.

[amdyck]

You're absolutely right Norm, about the length of the string being important and not the pitch. I took physics in university and should know that - for shame ! It's been a long time since I took "the mechanics of vibrating strings" and I didn't get any high marks in it. But... I looked at Gretsch's videos on how to do it and they help a lot.

As a post script - I saw the videos on comparisons between the 5120 and it's big brother the 6120. Seems the 6120 has more of an edge - a bit sharper sound. The 5120 sounded mushy. I also saw TV Jones replace the humbuckers on a sunburst 5120 with classic TV Jones Filtertrons and I couldn't detect much of a difference! Any comments on this ? Do I just have bad hearing ?