Guitar Bridge?

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On a typical fender guitar the bridge


(The bridge is the thing under the pickups right? )
has screws holding in those weird things in this picture:



I haven't a clue of the names but basically A in the picture adjusts the
height of those things & twisting B in the picture adjusts the distance
from the metal, is there a serious way to understand not only the names
of these things but what they do for a guitar & how to set them up?
It would be really helpful, I took these things off my guitar to clean it
& I had tinkered with them before anyway, want to know how to actually
use them, I think they were causing guitar notes on certain frets not to
sound right as my neck isn't warped.

Also wondering about C in the picture, it's basically a screw on the
whammy bar set up, could that possibly have loosened over time or
anything so as to be detrimental to a guitar?

Thanks for any help

Alanstrainor

A will adjust the action of the guitar ie the height of the strings above the frets, generally if this is too low the strings will buzz. The higher it is the harder it is to play, so there is a sweet spot, but it's down to preference really. You should adjust these in pairs, taking each string separately and not having the saddles sit unevenly.

B is what you use to set the intonation there are plenty of guides on how to set this up online, just google it.

C Are the anchoring points for the tremolo, when you use the tremolo arm to move the bridge, it pivots on these points, you really shouldn't have to move these.

RedDragonJack

I have to admit I don't understand how B works either, what is intonation exactly?:o

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RedDragonJack wrote: »

I have to admit I don't understand how B works either, what is intonation exactly?:o

My lack of knowledge of what intonation is has been the bane of my
existence on guitar for the past 10 years!!!! :mad::mad::mad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZVRCMJLnm4

If your guitar is not intonated as a whole you could have 6 strings in tune
seperately but together they don't work!! I've played gigs & worrying
ceaselessly about this problem ruining a song, this is shocking!!!

fuzztone

A is a bridge height saddle screw. This determines the height of the saddle so you can adjust the action of each string on your guitar. Using these to lower your strings closer to the fretboard can make your guitar easier to play, but if it goes too low it may start buzzing.

B is a saddle intonation screw. This is used to adjust the intonation of your guitar. Intonation can be explained as the capacity to play in tune throughout the entire length of the neck. If you notice that chords sound out of tune after you tune up your open strings it means that the instrument requires intonating.

This is quite simple to do and there is a guide to adjusting intonation here: http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/intonate.htm

C not fully sure what you are pointing to here, are you referring to the 6 screws on the bridge?

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My god, I honestly wondered why my harmonic notes sounded off on the
12th fret, man if only I knew then what I know now Cheers man,
you don't know how f'ing cool this is to me :cool:

fuzztone wrote: »

C not fully sure what you are pointing to here, are you referring to the 6 screws on the bridge?

Yeah it's the screws holding the tremelo whammy bar thing in, I'm glad I
didn't mess with them things because of problems caused by f'ing intonation!

Alanstrainor

Intonation is to do with the length of usable string ie from the bridge to the nut.

Every guitar has frets which decrease in size as you move up the fret board. The distance that each fret is set to is calculated by working off a set "scale length". So that every fret moves exactly one semi-tone, no more no less. This scale applies to the string.
If you set your guitars saddle to be tightened as much as possible so it's right at the back of the bridge, it means that the length of the string is longer than it should be, meaning that the scale at which the string is set is wrong. So you could tune say your A string perfectly, but as you move up the frets the guitar will go increasingly out of tune as a result of the string length being wrong.

Apologies if i've explained that poorly!

But the way to set this, is to play an open string, for example A, and tune it with a tuner if you have one. And then move up 12 frets and play the harmonic over the 12th fret and compare the notes. They should be exactly the same. If not, you need to adjust the screw B. I actually can't remember which way to turn it if it's sharp or flat! You'll find out pretty quick though.