A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

So I just got a new Xavier PRO830 guitar. I bought it with the intention of putting a vibrato on it. I bought their bridge that was made for use with their Extrem vibrato. O have a couple pf issues.

1. The bridge height is crazy high. they say their bridge is only 1/8" higher than the normal tele style bridge and that I will need to shim the neck. As you can see in the pic the string are about a 1/4" high, that's a little much to shim! I have watched YouTube videos of guys that have modified their bridges by grinding slots in them so the strings don't touch the back of the bridge, I may just do that, but I was really hoping that this was gonna be a plug and play.





2. When installing the Extrem Vibrato one of the screw heads broke off. I know I need to extract the screw, so I tried to take one of the other screws out and the head on that screw broke off too!! Has anybody here had a similar issue and what did you use to alleviate it?

3. One of the tuners was installed crooked, I fixed it, but I really was disappointed about the quality control on that. I have purchased quite a few guitars in my days, never have I had a guitar delivered with a crookedly installed tuner.



So this is the guitar I got today. Once these issues are taken care of I am sure I will love this guitar. I haven't even plugged it in yet!

Okay, I fixed the guitar. I watched a few YouTube videos to help be get the broken screws out of the guitar. I'll go thru the process I did.

I also fixed the crooked tuner. I filled the hole with a toothpick and re drilled.

I took the GFS Roller bridge off. Th action was crazy high, about 1/4" at the 22nd fret. I put the original back on, but I scalloped it so the strings didn't hit the back of the ashtray. I used a triangle file I got from Harbor Freight to start, then finished it off with a larger file. I screwed the bridge to a 2x4 so I could get a better hold on it. I taped off the ashtray so I wouldn't accidentally scrap it with the file.



Next to get the screws out, I bought a set of diamond hole drill bits. I drilled some screws into a 2x4 to practice on. Then I drilled a 5/16" hole in a scrap piece of wood to use as a template. I mounted it to the guitar and started drilling. Once the holes were started, I took the board off and continued. I checked frequently to see if the screw was getting loose. Once the screw was loose, I took a needle nose pliers and started to unscrew it. When it was out far enough. I finished with some locking pliers.









Once the holes were drilled, I filled the holes with some hard wood doweling. I started with 5/16" doweling, but the hole was a tad big for the, so I sanded down a 3/8" dowel and glued them into the holes. Then I let them set up for a couple of hours.



After the glue was set up, I mounted the Extrem to the body, One of the screws didn't break off. so I used a #8 one inch wood screw to mount it. I checked the alignment and tightened the screw so the Extrem wouldn't move. Then I drilled the holes. I used a centering bit, so the holed were dead center. But this only started the holes. Then I finished drilling the holes with a 7/64" bit that I taped off to make sure I didn't drill too deep.



Holes drilled, I finished screwing it off.





Now that the guitar is finished I spent a couple of hours playing it. I am very impressed. The neck is a little chunkier than I like, but the sustain is forever!

Happy new Tele Day!

Love this guitar. I'm glad that you got it working.

Great that you got this fixed. How do you like the GFS vibrato?