How to Install a Compensated Wraparound Tailpiece

Fitting a compensated wraparound tailpiece is a twenty minute job with no drilling, no routing and nothing filed. If you can change your own strings you can do this. What follows is the sequence we use in the shop, including the two places where people usually go wrong.

Everything here applies to the Music City Bridge Stud Finder and The Savvy. The Trapeze Wrap-Over mounts on the original trapeze rods and has its own short note at the end.

What you need

• A fresh set of strings, the gauge you actually play
• A tuner you trust, preferably a strobe or a strobe app
• A small ruler or string action gauge
• The hex keys that came with the bridge
• A soft cloth or a piece of low-tack tape to protect the top

Work on a padded surface with a neck rest. Take a photo of your current setup before you start, it makes going back to stock trivial.

Step 1: measure what you have

Before anything comes off, note your current action at the twelfth fret on both the bass and treble side, then check the intonation of each string. You want a reference point. If the guitar has been fighting you, this is also the moment to confirm the problem really is the bridge and not a high fret, a badly cut nut or a bowed neck.

Step 2: remove the old bridge

Slacken the strings until they are loose, then lift them clear of the bar. On most wraparounds you can slide the old bridge straight off the studs. Keep the original bridge, the original studs and the original hex screws together in a bag in the case. On a vintage guitar those parts are part of its value.

Step 3: check the studs

This is the first place people get caught out. Gibson used several stud diameters over the years and a bridge that rocks on its studs will never hold intonation no matter how well it is set. Fit the new tailpiece dry, with no string tension, then see how it sits. If there is play, replace the studs. A set of MCB Locking Studs gives you a tight fit plus a locking interface that stops the bridge leaning forward under tension. It is the single most effective upgrade you can make to a wraparound guitar.

While you are here, check that the studs are seated square in their bushings and that neither bushing is lifting out of the top.

Step 4: fit the tailpiece the right way round

The second place people get caught out. A compensated top is not symmetrical. The longer side of the compensation line goes under the wound strings, the shorter side under the plain strings. Look at the top edge in raking light before you string up and confirm which end is which. On the Stud Finder the extended collar goes on the treble side, over the stud that sits further forward.

Step 5: string up and set height first

Fit the new strings and bring them up to pitch. Stretch them properly, then retune.

Set your action before you touch anything else. Adjust both stud heights until the twelfth fret measurement matches what you had before, or a little lower, because these tailpieces have a lower profile than a vintage bar and you can usually gain something here. Keep the bar as level as you can. The point of a compensated top is that you no longer need to tilt it.

Step 6: check intonation

Compare the fretted twelfth fret note with the twelfth fret harmonic on every string. On a correctly matched compensated wraparound you should land close on all six without doing anything else, because the compensation is machined into the part.

If the wound strings are consistently sharp and the plain strings are fine, the bridge is very likely on backwards. Go back to step 4.

If the error is large and in the same direction on every string, the geometry is wrong for your guitar. That normally means a Savvy has been fitted to steeply offset studs. Our Stud Finder or Savvy guide explains how to tell.

Step 7: check the break angle

Look at where each string leaves the top of the bar. You want one clean contact point and daylight behind it. If a string is still lying against the metal behind its breakpoint you will hear sitar buzz. Raising the bridge slightly usually solves it. If it persists on one string only, look at the nut slot rather than the bridge.

Step 8: play it for a week

New strings settle, a new bridge beds into its studs and a guitar that has just had its action changed will want a small truss rod tweak. Leave it a week, then do one final pass on height and tuning.

The Trapeze version

On a 1952 or 1953 Goldtop the Trapeze Wrap-Over uses the original trapeze rods, so there are no studs involved. Slide the old bar off the rods, slide the new one on and string over the top rather than underneath. Nothing is drilled and the original bar goes back on whenever you want. Set the height at the rods, then check intonation and break angle as above.

When to hand it to a tech

If the bushings are loose in the top, if a stud has been re-drilled at some point, or if the guitar is valuable enough that you would rather not be the one holding the screwdriver, take it to a repairer. It is a twenty minute job for them too.

Questions about your specific guitar are welcome. Send a photo straight down onto the bridge and studs and we will tell you what you are looking at.

The full Music City Bridge guide · All parts in stock in Belgium