SchallerRoller Bridge, Chrome

I've been playing 50+ yrs and still Love it. I put this on my USA Gibson 335 to replace the originaltunomatic bridge... which had some sharp edges that hurt my hand. Just dropped right on the original bridge posts. Little did I know it also had other benefits. 1st no more sharp edges.2. the rollers allow for precise string spacing including not letting hi & loE strings get too close to fingerboard edges and slip off while bending or using vibrato. 3. The most surprising benefit, it Increased the string resonance through the bridge into the body and what seems to be clearer and louder tone playing acoustically. It was a win, win, win 🏆Be sure to take a picture of the old bridge... so you can match settings to get close with the new bridge. Also I use my Snark tuner to set the intonation. 1st tune up with tuner. Then fret each string at the 12th fret to see on the tuner, if it matches the open string.Adjusting the bridge making the string shorter... raises the pitch, making the string longer... lowers the pitch. When the open string matches the 12th freted string on the tuner... you got it. It usually takes a few tries.You can also see how the string going over the roller makes this process easier. And the string contacts more surface area on the roller versus the old fine tipped tunomatic bridge. Then after the setup for the rest of the life of your guitar... you get the best performance. I've used 2 of them so far. I feel and hear that they are Wonderful.

I picked up this bridge because of how it allows you to adjust bridge height, intonation, and alignment. Most bridges do not feature that alignment adjustment, so that's unique and VERY useful to have. Very smart design.MAJOR PROBLEM: contrary to the way this bridge is promoted ("a drop-in replacement for most tune-o-matic style bridges!"), this bridge is designed for ABR-1 style tune-o-matic bridges. The spacing/alignment/measurements are ever-so-slightly different on guitars with Nashville-style tune-o-matic bridges. (E.g. if you have an Epiphone guitar, you've likely got Nashville-style).So as a result, this bridge is NOT a direct drop-in replacement for many tune-o-matic bridges.Schaller does sell an adapter for import guitars. However, the adapter is useless as an adapter, because it doesn't address different spacing/alignment. I found a different adapter that DOES work for this bridge. It's sold by Philadelphia Luthier Tools and Supplies; go to their website, and search for "Conversion Post - Import Nashville to ABR-1". The SKU should be "BP-4024".If Schaller sold an adequate adapter, or sold a Nashville version of this bridge, I'd have rated 10 out of 5. The design is clever, and the bridge itself is well-machined.However, it really seems like the Schaller company is not receptive to the fact that this bridge - even with its current adapters - simply doesn't work for a large segment of the tune-o-matic bridge market. Their idea is that "our STM bridge follows the original standard measurements from the beginning of bridges for guitars. All bridges which don’t follow this international standard are wrong." Sure, you can argue whether ABR-1 or Nashville is "right" or "wrong" or whatever, but the fact is that either way, this issue makes the STM bridge a lot more difficult to use.

I ordered this great looking, well-designed roller bridge from Schaller to complete the installation of a Bigsby B5 tremolo and Vibramate V5 on my Gibson ES-339. Unfortunately, the Schaller bridge doesn’t fit a Gibson ES-339 without modifying the guitar. Not gonna do it. I sent it back for a refund. (The Bigsby works fine without it anyway.)