1983 SC-3 Dual-Fulcrum saddle height adjustment screw size

[DavidS]

Hello everyone...

As the subject states, I have an '83 SC-3 in my shop getting new frets. Because the owner has locked down and blocked the tremolo I can't raise the bridge, and the saddle screws aren't quite long enough to get the action up over the new frets. The old frets were extremely worn!

All the allan screws I have for bridges have a much finer thread... I'm guessing these are 4-40 or 3-48?

Anyone know what size they are?

Thanks in advance.

[Challenger]

You said the vibrato was locked down. Does that mean it was all the way against the body of the guitar? If so, the vibrato plate needs to be raised back to factory specs and floating parallel and above the guitar body. You should not deck a dual fulcrum vibrato like you would with a Strat. The dual fulcrum vibrato is supposed to float above the guitar body.

[DavidS]

Ok, that wasn’t the question. The customer has played the guitar this way for at least 20 years. It’s also had the two single coils removed and a pickguard added.

Lots of people block tremolos on guitars to make them hard tails.

The guitar played fine with the worn frets, but now the saddles need to come up just a hair higher than the screws permit.

Do you know what size set screws it uses?

[Craig]

Ok, that wasn’t the question. The customer has played the guitar this way for at least 20 years. It’s also had the two single coils removed and a pickguard added.

Lots of people block tremolos on guitars to make them hard tails.

The guitar played fine with the worn frets, but now the saddles need to come up just a hair higher than the screws permit.

Do you know what size set screws it uses?

I searched our site and did not find the thread size for the saddle height adjustment but you could remove one of them and take it to a local hardware store to get the right thread pitch and length you need.

For blocking DFV tremolos, see this post: How do I block the tremelo on my guitar?.
As Challenger mentioned, the bridge plate should be parallel with the body.

Hope this helps.

[Keith R]

I watched a YouTube vid just last night where someone had replaced - quote - "the standard M3 6mm" grub screws with M3 8mm screws, in order to raise the height of the saddles while dropping the height of the bridge itself...

[Craig]

I watched a YouTube vid just last night where someone had replaced - quote - "the standard M3 6mm" grub screws with M3 8mm screws, in order to raise the height of the saddles while dropping the height of the bridge itself...

However, the US set screw (SAE) has a different thread pattern from the metric screw thread pattern. G&L switched to metric in 2006.
See: Can you tell me which allen wrenches I need for my G&L?.

[john o]

interesting, i adjusted the truss rod on my '07 asat the other day: 1/8 " fit