Zenon 60's Off-Set Bridge Modification

[Tiga]

I posted on here a little while ago about how I picked up a pair of 60's Japanese guitars at a garage sale for $25 each. I did some rehab work on the Silvertone but the Zenon Off-set guitar has just been hanging on the wall waiting for attention.

I've recently been thinking about ordering a gibson scale conversion telecaster neck from one of the few builders that make such things (warmoth, musikraft, tonebomb) to put on either my Squier '51 or my Tele barncaster. I was thinking of going with some sort of thick fatback profile but without having much experience playing a neck that chunky I was worried I would end up with buyers remorse. Typically fat backs are .99"-1.0" thick.

I then remembered my Zenon guitar had a pretty thick neck. Sure enough this guitar is 1.77" width at the nut and is .97" thick at the first fret. The back has a flat section and has a lot of girth in the shoulders. Glorious.

So I thought if I could get some strings on this I could mess around with it and see how I get along with the large neck. The problem was the guitar came with a plastic bridge - and it was a mess. Parts of the top were chipped off and the first time I touched it is cracked right down the middle. Glued it together but it sill isn't useable.

Needed to come up with something.

[Tiga]

I found these cheap mustang bridges on Amazon ($9) so decided to pick up a pair of them. Once I got them I honestly have no idea how these are to be used. There is nothing to adjust the height of the bridge (the posts are hollow) and the bridge studs are open on the bottom. Maybe I just don't understand....

However I didn't need the studs or posts - all I need is the top piece. I drilled some holes at the location of the thumbwheel posts and used the cutting wheel on my dremel to remove the bridge posts.

Reinstalled the saddles and placed the bridge on the guitar - looks good. Need to see if it will take strings.

Put some 9's on it - and it works!

Now the bridge and guitar need adjustments, lots of them. In fact the whole guitar is going to be a HUGE project to get the most out of it. This will be an upcoming project soon. For now this was just a "proof of concept" that I could craft some sort of bridge for it and get some time playing that massive neck. And in that I think this was successful.

At first the neck felt a little akward - yes because it's thick but also because the fretboard is flat and the frets are very tiny. But you know after just a few minutes it was feeling pretty good. After a little while longer I was enjoying the feel of the neck. So the big wins of the night are 1. I think I can get along with a Fatback neck - hope to order soon. 2. The Zenon is a viable project to get it playable.
Fun.

[andrewsrea]

Typically, that style of bridge is found on offsets with a Jaguar style tremolo, and they sit in recessed cups, which allow the bridge to rock back and forth with the strings and the trem action.

[Tiga]

Yeah my CV Jaguar has a similar bridge - but as I recall the studs were cupped on the bottom and the bridge has adjustable rods that are pointed on the end that comes through the bridge posts. You use an allen wrench to raise/lower these rods to adjust bridge height and the bridge rocks on these.

These things I bought have none of that - weird.

[dante001x]

Great job on the bridge mod! The neck sounds like a beast, but it’s awesome you’re getting comfortable with it. Those Mustang bridges are odd, though, right? Definitely not what I’d expect for something like this.

[Tiga]

Yes they are different for sure. Although I think set up properly they can work well. On my CV Jaguar i had to wrap a little electrical tape around the posts to limit the "rocking" of the bridge. It still rocks but no as much - not it works great and stays in tune.