[hmmm_de_hum]

Ok so i recently got my halo octavia from a member of this forum, except that it comes with a hipshot bridge, of which i have never used before.

Upon coming to restring it, i found that i had no clue what the fuck to do... as far as i can see the entire bridge piece has to be removed and the string threaded through the underneath of the bridge....meaning i have to completely reintonate and adjust string height each time i change strings?

Seems like a lot of unnecessary work just to change the strings.

If anyone could shed some light on this i would be most grateful...

[MF_Kitten]

is it one of the octavias with a trem? if so, then you just detune the strings till they´re loose, and then you find the screw on the saddle that tightens/loosens the string clamp thingy... then, remove string, and re-string!

id it´s a fixed bridge, and ou can´t see how the strings are attached to the guitar, then i have nooo clue...

[jammy]

If it's a hipshot fixed bridge the strings should be threaded through the instrument from the back

[MF_Kitten]

oh, well that´s not really a problem then, it´s string through body!

just stuff the strings through the holes in the back, and they´ll come up from behind the saddles, and tadda, there you go :P

[hmmm_de_hum]

Thats the problem, is looks like a string through from the top, yet there is no string through section. There seems to be a small routing under the tail piece where the ball end sits, held in place by ferrules of the bridge.

I'm not that much of a noob

[msherman]

Are there string ferrules on the back of the guitar?

[keithb]

Originally Posted by msherman

Are there string ferrules on the back of the guitar?

Maybe it's mis-strung right now.

[Edroz]

[hmmm_de_hum]

Ok let me just see if i can get some quick shots up, but no there isnt any ferrules on the back of the guitar, there is no evident string through system i can see.

Give me a couple of mins to try and get some snaps

[msherman]

Well, obviously, they omitted drilling the string Ferrules, and modified the the bridge for top loading, hense the rout under the bridge. They would have had to modify the holes in the bridge similar to a keyhole in order for it to work properly.

[hmmm_de_hum]

Ah ok that would explain it, so its going to take me a while each time i restring (reintonate, string height etc)

[Scott]

How do the existing strings come off?

If your bridge looks like this one, then it should be string through the back of the body (You can see the holes in this pic)




Edit: That's pretty lame to forget to add the Ferrules, and deciding to MacGyver it afterwards.

[msherman]

I think he bought chris9`s guitar, and it has the string through Hipshot in the pic above.

Any experienced Luthier in your area should be able to drill the holes in the body and install the ferrules for you.

[hmmm_de_hum]

Yeah is it chris9's guitar, really sucks they didnt include ferrules. Oh well thanks for your help guys much appreciated, here's the shots that took forever to upload...

Backside



Bit blurry but underneath the saddle i can see the ball end



Ok i may look into that in the near future, cheers Mike

[keithb]

Man that's weird. Can you just sort of lift up on the saddles and get the string out, or do they have to come all the way off? You may want to get some Elixir strings to give yourself more time between string changes.

[JJ Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by hmmm_de_hum

Yeah is it chris9's guitar, really sucks they didnt include ferrules. Oh well thanks for your help guys much appreciated, here's the shots that took forever to upload...

Backside



Bit blurry but underneath the saddle i can see the ball end



Ok i may look into that in the near future, cheers Mike

...................Man, that is fucking retarded. Did Chris9 explain any of this to you when you bought it? I'm assuming no since you had no idea. That's DEFINITELY not cool. And it's also definitely not cool that they just screwed the bridge down and didn't drill any holes for the strings, unless Chris SPECIFICALLY ordered it that way, and I can't see that. That's a pretty damn big oversight, especially on a custom guitar Chris waited a long time for.

[Scott]

If I had to guess, i'd say Chris never even went to change the strings, since when he was selling it, he said it didn't really get played. He probably didn't even notice.

[D-EJ915]

that is such an epic fail I can't even believe it, definitely get the ferrules routed for it, it'll be so much better.

I think I would take it to some tech and have them drill the holes out, if there's not some smart technique that we all missed here.

[JJ Rodriguez]

Are there any grooves in the wood behind the bridge for the string to pass through? PM W4D here on the forums, he's the owner of Halo, maybe he can work something out with you, although it being from someone else might complicate things.

[Metal Ken]

yet another in the myriad of reasons not to buy a halo. I remember they made a big deal about this guitar going to chris9. And for some 'special custom shop guitar' to not have the bridge properly applied? (Nevermind all that "Oh, we'll fix it for you" crap they do on here -- this SHOULD not have happened on a custom guitar)

In order to ship this out, this means they had to have strung it up. And in order to do that, they'd have to have seen the problem at the factory.

[jammy]

That makes no sense at all!

My thoughts - He forgot to drill for the string ferules before finishing and didn't fancy taking a drill to it afterwards, so routed out the pocket to accept the ball ends under the bridge plate. There's a chance this will have been OK'd with the original purchaser. I wouldn't let a guitar out of my workshop like that (unless perhaps it'd been ok'd by the buyer)

[JJ Rodriguez]

Yeah, I remember when the problems came up after the big Halo blowout sale, and Waylon kept saying that these weren't the CS guitars, they were the imports. Well, I guess that argument is out the window.

[Scott]

I thought this was also an import though?

[action=Scott]researches[/action]

[JJ Rodriguez]

If it's an import, that's even worse, since CNC should be doing it. I don't think the imports would be hand built. That means all the Octavia imports would be fucked up like this.