Replacing bridge and tailpiece

[Bluediver]

Hi. I am thinking about replacing the bridge and tailpiece on my H157.

Does anyone know which make these are and where can I get replacements?

(UK based if that matters)

 

Edited Wednesday at 11:20 AM by Bluediver

[TalismanRich]

That version of the tailpiece and bridge was made by Schaller of Germany.  They still sell the roller bridge, but I don't think the tailpiece is a current item.  Thomann is a Schaller dealer.  

https://schaller.info/en/bridges/

If you want to change the style to a more common bridge and tailpiece,  many people here swear by the Faber units.   The trick it to make sure that you use the correct spacing.

 

Edited Wednesday at 12:52 PM by TalismanRich

[tbonesullivan]

On 6/11/2025 at 8:49 AM, TalismanRich said:

That version of the tailpiece and bridge was made by Schaller of Germany.  They still sell the roller bridge, but I don't think the tailpiece is a current item.  Thomann is a Schaller dealer.  

https://schaller.info/en/bridges/

If you want to change the style to a more common bridge and tailpiece,  many people here swear by the Faber units.   The trick it to make sure that you use the correct spacing.

 

They really seem to have pared down their lineup, though after the leadership transition and issues that's to be expected. When I put my H535 "back to stock" years ago, they still had the tailpieces, but now they seem to no longer be offered. The roller bridges are still relatively popular for use with bigsby and other tremolo style tailpieces.

I've never really noticed a huge deficiency in sound quality from using the bridge, and still remember Vince Lewis saying he liked that bridge because he said it gave him a warmer sound. Still, I don't play my H535 much at all anymore. I've tried to love the stock Schaller Golden 50s for years, and they are great clean, but I really need to get around to having them replaced with something else.

Edited Thursday at 01:33 PM by tbonesullivan

[bolero]

That is a nice looking top!

How about a pic of the whole guitar?

[Bluediver]

14 hours ago, bolero said:

That is a nice looking top!

How about a pic of the whole guitar?

Here you are... with it's H150 brother

[bolero]

Beauties!!

Cherry Sunburst is such a classy finish

[DetroitBlues]

Hardest thing is about swapping is the inserts.  I cannot remember, but I think the bridge is metric and the tailpiece is imperial.

Its been a long time since I swapped the original bridge/tailpiece out on those old schallers.

[bobmeyrick]

I've changed a few Schaller bridges/tailpieces and I can confirm that both the Schaller and Nashville bridge posts are 5mm thread, so you don't need to change the inserts if you're replacing the Schaller bridge with a Nashville bridge. Same with the tailpiece studs, thought the thread is 5/16" rather than metric.

On my H150 VSB I'd replaced the Schaller with a Nashville setup, and decided to replace the Nashville with the Faber ABR-1 conversion. This involved using a 5mm bolt to gently extract the bushings. I needed to make the hole slightly deeper, but aside from that the process was pretty straightforward. Some photos of the procedure...

 

[bobmeyrick]

I should add that the Faber posts came with a metal tube that fits over the thread so you can use a hammer to (gently!) tap them in. Also there was a fine-tuning version of the Schaller tailpiece...