Fender Classic Player Jaguar/Jazzmaster and Wilkinson Roller
Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 7:11 pm
This is a reference thread for people that might chance across it on Google or what have you for retrofitting the Wilkinson roller bridge to a Classic Player Jaguar or Jazzmaster adjust o matic bridge.
WILKINSON ROLLER
FENDER ADJUST O MATIC
I had my project guitar routed specifically for the Classic Player adjust-o-matic (tune-o-matic, TOM, whatever) bridge assembly. The Wilkinson Roller bridge has the right spacing (i.e. how far apart the big metal bridge posts are), but the Classic Player bridge has the chunkier import bridge posts while the Wilkinson is designed for the 4mm Gibson sized posts, you can see the size difference in each post by comparing the ends of each bridge.
In short, the Wilkinson bridge mounting holes are way too small. The Wilkinson bridge posts also do not screw into the Classic player cup thimbles either. All I had to do was buy these conversion posts from Musikhaus Thomann and with a bit of wriggling to get the Wilkinson on (it is a tight fit) the problem was sorted. Fully functional and adjustable.
http://www.thomann.de/gb/abm_2548n_brid ... _m4_m8.htm
Expensive though. I would appreciate people contributing if they have any other options.
That's all this thread is for, basically to marry the same search terms together to help Googlers. I don't think pictures would help but I can certainly do some if it's helpful.
As for the performance of the bridge. No tone difference, not much better better tuning stability, but the trem feels smoother to use and I have no more high e string breakages, which was a massive problem with the previous bridge.
As for the radius mismatch (12" or whatever to Fender's 9.5") please read honeyiscool's excellent thread on modding it with beer cans...
http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45554
WILKINSON ROLLER
FENDER ADJUST O MATIC
I had my project guitar routed specifically for the Classic Player adjust-o-matic (tune-o-matic, TOM, whatever) bridge assembly. The Wilkinson Roller bridge has the right spacing (i.e. how far apart the big metal bridge posts are), but the Classic Player bridge has the chunkier import bridge posts while the Wilkinson is designed for the 4mm Gibson sized posts, you can see the size difference in each post by comparing the ends of each bridge.
In short, the Wilkinson bridge mounting holes are way too small. The Wilkinson bridge posts also do not screw into the Classic player cup thimbles either. All I had to do was buy these conversion posts from Musikhaus Thomann and with a bit of wriggling to get the Wilkinson on (it is a tight fit) the problem was sorted. Fully functional and adjustable.
http://www.thomann.de/gb/abm_2548n_brid ... _m4_m8.htm
Expensive though. I would appreciate people contributing if they have any other options.
That's all this thread is for, basically to marry the same search terms together to help Googlers. I don't think pictures would help but I can certainly do some if it's helpful.
As for the performance of the bridge. No tone difference, not much better better tuning stability, but the trem feels smoother to use and I have no more high e string breakages, which was a massive problem with the previous bridge.
As for the radius mismatch (12" or whatever to Fender's 9.5") please read honeyiscool's excellent thread on modding it with beer cans...
http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45554
