Brand new forum member and Heritage owner here. Question about bridge height

Gergo

Gergo

New member
Hello there, I have been a lurker here on and off for a while, as well as a guy who has always wanted to try out a Heritage. Well, I finally pulled the trigger and got a H-150 P90 Standard.

It arrived the other day, and is a beauty. Beautiful finish and the P90's sound huge! I can not find any flaws in the finish, and the fretwork is perfect. I have to wonder if they pleck the frets on the Standard series.

While the guitar plays like a dream, with low action, it does bother me that the bridge is almost totally bottomed-out on the treble side. I would have almost no room for adjustment down if ever needed in the future. Seeing how this ain't exactly a cheap guitar, this kind of bothers me. Purely an OCD thing I guess. My question is that is this something I need to be concerned with, and therefore need to send it back, or is this not uncommon with Heritage guitars and I need not worry. I have photos of both the treble and bass sides of the bridge here. 

Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks

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Hmm, fair question.  I don't have a model with that bridge and I've not enough experience to really 'know', but think/opin that it's a valid concern of yours.  Seems limiting to not have the ability to further lower the bridge (easily, via thumb screws as designed) in the future should the neck angle alter a bit.  P90 150 - very cool guitar, nice choice!

 
Contact Heritage, however ... if it already plays to your satisfaction with low action , how much lower do you need it ?  

 
Gergo

   Concerning being OCD, me thinks you don't have all your badges yet.

I have three Heritage gits with P90 and this is my take.

Unlike with humbuckers p90 do not have rings to adjust pickup height, you have adjustable screws for each string that appear REAL close to the strings and therefore limit how much you can lower the action.

This appears due to the top carve and set neck angle. 

My concerns (additional) would be the lack of clearance as the strings just clear the back of the bridge and thus you could not deck the tailpiece.

The bridge has anchors that limit lower adjustment that can be removed and replace with screws. The saddles on the treble side can be filled down. 

The bottom of the bridge can be filed too. On my P90 gits having similar issues I replaced the stock hardware (I am MORE OCG) with Fabar AB-1 bridges that are more narrow and thus provide more clearance at the rear and have direct replacement screws without the anchors.

As you love everything else, you may want to work on some fixes rather than exchange and hope the replacement is perfect.  As these are mostly handmade, neck angle and top carve will differ.

Good luck!

 
 Afaik soapbar P90's have a pair of screws in the middle you can tighten down to lower them into the body cavity.

That is a bit odd the tailpiece is high & the bridge is so low. There are a lot of factors involved with setup, so without the gtr in hand difficult to speculate though. How low is your string action?

 
I wouldn't think it unusual for the tailpiece to have more space than the bridge.   The top carve drops down there.   I remember them saying that the CC guitars have a different carve than the standard line (if memory serves me).   I don't know if it's a deeper carve or not.   Maybe one of you folks with both types can compare and comment.

My only guitar that has the bridge decked is my Vint 54 Strat.   I don't use the whammy, it's never been screwed it in. 

 
bolero said:
 Afaik soapbar P90's have a pair of screws in the middle you can tighten down to lower them into the body cavity.

That is a bit odd the tailpiece is high & the bridge is so low. There are a lot of factors involved with setup, so without the gtr in hand difficult to speculate though. How low is your string action?
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The string action is fine. I was just concerned that if I every need to lower them more, I would not be able to do much. Obviously there are fixes for that though

 
TalismanRich said:
I remember them saying that the CC guitars have a different carve than the standard line (if memory serves me).   I don't know if it's a deeper carve or not.   Maybe one of you folks with both types can compare and comment.
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You're right, Rich.  I recall Edwin Wilson saying that the CC tops were spec'd to the carve of a particular Burst he liked.  I've compared my CC to my '06 25th Anniversary, and the CC's top carve is much shallower!  To keep the break angle at the back of the bridge right on the CC, my tailpiece is not nearly buried.  The flat flange on the bottom of the tailpiece stud is 1/8" off the top.  Seems counterintuitive though.  That's with the original hardware.

 
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