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hi, long time listener, first time caller. i just picked up a no name guitar for 25 bucks at a goodwill. electronics all seem in order, but the tremolo arm/bridge unit is all fucked up. looks like its put together wrong, & the strings are all stretch over the bridge pick up, and its already set to its lowest height, it kinda looks like it might be a hollowbody Kay, or something similar. any suggestions?

Maybe post a few pics? What kind of vibrato? If it's a hollowbody, is the vibrato like a Bigsby or something?

its almost like a bigsby. i've been looking for a schematic of how to properly put these things together. i took it apart, and paid poor attention to how it was constructed in the first place, and now i'm in a tight spot. i managed to snap this one before my camera ran outta batteries.



the arm is pressed against the body, as you might be able to see.

It's a Teisco. For one thing, you need a spring between the bolt (where the arm joins) and the ring below. Also, you don't have a bridge at all. There was one at one time, which wasn't attached to the body, but sat on it, held down by string pressure (with felt on the contact side). I'd start looking at bridges on ebay--if you look at enough hollowbodies, you'll see what I mean.

awesome, i understand now. that;'s one of those things that, as soon as its pointed out, you smack yrself because its retardedly obvious. anyway, much thanks for the advice, and for not ridiculing me for my obvious mistake.

nice looking guitar, btw..

No problem. How else are you going to learn?

BTW, this is on ebay right now, and looks similar to yours, though the photo isn't clear on the bridge, which looks attached there.

But here is an example of the bridge base I'm talking about. The bridge itself would fit on the two posts.

Here is one branded as a Norma. This is probably the bridge configuration your guitar had.

On the pickups, do they look gold in some spots, or are they all silver-looking? If they're gold under the silver casing, that's the same pickup as what I have in the neck position on my baritone, and you could sell them for $50 a piece on eBay if you want.

Maurice has linked to the one piece you need for the bridge, and for the other piece, I highly recommend a roller-type bridge, which is what I put on my Kimberly (aka Teisco) guitar. Love it. Something like this is great, because it's got all the pieces in one. Only it's gold-ish, so...

If you do a search on eBay under Musical Instruments->Guitar for "roller bridge" you'll find a bunch of examples of what the bridge itself is like, what it costs, all that.