A question for Ibanez GB1O owners (about the bridge).

[antonioc67]

Hello all,
I’d like to make a question to all ibanez GB10 owners since I have one (my wife’s gift) from june.
The guitar and her setup is perfect with the original strings on (flatwound 0.11 d’addario) but I noticed watching the neck profile that the bridge bolts are not perpendicular to the top plane, they have an inclination toward the headstock:



The bolts are not bent but it almost seems to be drilled not perpendicular to the base of the bridge. The GB10 is a 2022 japanese one.
I know that this argument was treated in another topic but I saw an identical guitar (I searched for a second hand one a 2018) with the same kind of bridge with the same shape, pretty identical.
so I kindly ask to GB10 owners how their bridges are… just to understand if I have to replace or revert mine… if the thing is physiological (I can live with it) or pathological
I played the guitar few, since I practice early morning with kids sleeping, so I play a solid body…. storing her correctly.

Thank you very much for your support,
AC

[Jimmy blue note]

On both of the GB10s in my shop, there is a slight lean in the other direction. Both much closer to perpendicular it should be noted. I worked on the Ibanez production line and the all had a slight cant in the direction opposite yours. If I came across anything like yours, I would have reversed the base immediately and reset the intonation.
Somehow I suspect someone removed the bridge to change the strings and inadvertently reversed it.

The force is distributed optimally when the bridge saddle bisects the breakover, and a perpendicular angle off the top is pretty close to that.
As an Ibanez tech having worked on George Benson's guitars, it's my opinion that you should reverse the base.
But that's just one opinion.

Before you go changing anything though, try pulling the saddle into a better angle by hand, that wonky angle can result from someone tightening the strings without relieving the discrepancy between the tension on both sides. The saddle has a little play in it and somebody may have thrown fresh strings on it and allowed the tensioning of the strings to pull it out of optimum alignment. Of course I can't tell what's happening from a photo but now you can try some of these things.
Good luck and I hope you play it long and with joy. You're lucky to have that guitar and even luckier to have your wife. Write her a song.

[tpandela]

This is the bridge angle on my 1987 MIJ GB-10. I hope this helps.
Sorry about the size of the pic...

Tp

[Woody Sound]

Somehow I suspect someone removed the bridge to change the strings and inadvertently reversed it.

But wouldn't that put the saddles in the reverse location of where they should be, messing up the intonation?

OP: Can you take a picture looking down at the bridge from the top?

[antonioc67]

But wouldn't that put the saddles in the reverse location of where they should be, messing up the intonation?
OP: Can you take a picture looking down at the bridge from the top?

yes here she is….

[antonioc67]

This is the bridge angle on my 1987 MIJ GB-10. I hope this helps.
Sorry about the size of the pic...
Tp

ok, so… slightly tilted toward the (opposite) tailpiece side… thank you

[antonioc67]

On both of the GB10s in my shop, there is a slight lean in the other direction. Both much closer to perpendicular it should be noted. I worked on the Ibanez production line and the all had a slight cant in the direction opposite yours. If I came across anything like yours, I would have reversed the base immediately and reset the intonation.
Somehow I suspect someone removed the bridge to change the strings and inadvertently reversed it.

The force is distributed optimally when the bridge saddle bisects the breakover, and a perpendicular angle off the top is pretty close to that.
As an Ibanez tech having worked on George Benson's guitars, it's my opinion that you should reverse the base.
But that's just one opinion.

Before you go changing anything though, try pulling the saddle into a better angle by hand, that wonky angle can result from someone tightening the strings without relieving the discrepancy between the tension on both sides. The saddle has a little play in it and somebody may have thrown fresh strings on it and allowed the tensioning of the strings to pull it out of optimum alignment. Of course I can't tell what's happening from a photo but now you can try some of these things.
Good luck and I hope you play it long and with joy. You're lucky to have that guitar and even luckier to have your wife. Write her a song.

Thank you so much, I’ll keep you updated.
I read my wife your post, she sent you a hug…
saying she should deserve something that blings…

[Jimmy blue note]

But wouldn't that put the saddles in the reverse location of where they should be, messing up the intonation?

OP: Can you take a picture looking down at the bridge from the top?

Foot and saddle are separable and the shafts are a constant distance. For myself, I don't remove both at once, I change strings one at a time to avoid any mixups, but be that what it may, people do remove strings all at once. The saddle can remain as it is, take the foot (base) out, spin it around 180 degrees and put it all back together. Take out your tuner and find the right place for best intonation and action and that's it. The angle is reversed, the saddle is where it wants to be.

[antonioc67]

Foot and saddle are separable and the shafts are a constant distance. For myself, I don't remove both at once, I change strings one at a time to avoid any mixups, but be that what it may, people do remove strings all at once. The saddle can remain as it is, take the foot (base) out, spin it around 180 degrees and put it all back together. Take out your tuner and find the right place for best intonation and action and that's it. The angle is reversed, the saddle is where it wants to be.

so I loosened completely the strings in order to reverse the bridge base and tuning correctly the 12th fret which had a pitched down 1st string and a pitched up 6th string.
the unmounted base looked like this, the bolts don’t seem bent, only drilled tilted:



then I checked if the saddle was positioned properly and it was… so I rotated the base only after writing down the two previous heights with a caliber, to restore the same action.



I marked the previous position of the bridge base with the mask tape and after the tuning I basically had a counter-clockwise rotation…



Retuned… and that’s it. At a first sight it seems much better. This is the view from the opposite side:



Let me know what you think, thank you so much.
I ordered a graphtech resomax bridge (as spare, just in case) but I’ll prefer for the moment to keep the GB10 unmolested.
But if you think that the tilting is too much I can try a swap.

[antonioc67]

This is the bridge angle on my 1987 MIJ GB-10. I hope this helps.
Sorry about the size of the pic...

Tp

I tried to make the same photo with mine… and it looks like this:

[Jimmy blue note]

There you go. Perfect. And that is the way it was intended to be.
Now you have decades of music ahead with that guitar. Best wishes for a happy and musical journey together.

[Woody Sound]

It looks like someone put the saddle backwards on the base when they switched to ebony, then put the whole thing back on according to the saddle, making the base backwards.

Looks good now, I think that will work. You might even get a slightly bigger tone.

[AllanAllen]

Huh, my bridge tilts the same way. I’ll have to fix that

[equenda]

This is a photo of the bridge in my 1979 GB-10. Almost perpendicular to the strings. Any kind of angle of the bridge with the strings (different from90°), seems illogical to me.....



Ettore Quenda.it - Jazz Guitar - Chitarra Jazz

[Jimmy blue note]

This is a photo of the bridge in my 1979 GB-10. Almost perpendicular to the strings. Any kind of angle of the bridge with the strings (different from90°), seems illogical to me.....



Ettore Quenda.it - Jazz Guitar - Chitarra Jazz

Logic vs physics I guess. The force vector being exerted onto the top is indeed coming from straight down, but that force is being not from a string that is perpendicular, but from a string that is at once anchored at one end to a nut exerting a slight downward angle and the tailpiece anchor which is a shorter length and a notably greater angle.
If your string lengths were equal and anchored on the same plane, your angle of bisection would be perpendicular to the top. The greatest force and most stable angle is the bisection of the angle of the breakover; that allows you the greatest equality of force on both sides to exert the force vector to impart the greatest kinetic energy directly to the top.
Vectors do make logical sense when you see the forces that create them.
But it's close enough that what makes aesthetic sense to you shouldn't adversely effect your sound, so play on and make beautiful music.
The issue is, when it's canted forward, it's creating an unstable downward force...not desirable.
It's easier to see and understand if you play Violin or Cello, where an ostensibly back leaning cant is a solid set up. Straight up and down, not so much, forward cant is courting disaster.

[Jimmy blue note]

Hello all,
I’d like to make a question to all ibanez GB10 owners since I have one (my wife’s gift) from june.

I was so touched by the brief reference to your wife giving you that gorgeous guitar that I started a thread about the players, the guitars and the loved ones who brought their guitars into their lives.
Speak for your guitar - Your stories of a time someone gave you your guitar
If you care to share, I love a good story. I find them even more interesting than the guitars themselves.

[jzucker]

But wouldn't that put the saddles in the reverse location of where they should be, messing up the intonation?

OP: Can you take a picture looking down at the bridge from the top?

don't think so. My gb10 bridge screws are perpendicular from the base so that wouldn't matter. The wood is flexible. I notice that it's possible to tilt most wooden bridge screws toward the front or back. Especially if the bridge is higher.