Time flies! Well, it's been a while, and I thought I'd post photos & commentary on my Winfield (short) Vintage Accent Vibrato Spring. I intended to install a Mastery bridge (and new strings, of course) all at the same time. On those occasions that I remembered to check on bridge availability, none were in stock. I finally acquired a bridge a short while ago. This is my model 1996 (very similar to a 325C64):
1. (see photo #1): Here's a profile shot, and you can see the break angle is not the greatest. However, at least the guitar is playable now. (You can imagine what the taller RIC modern spring would be like.)
2. (see photo #2): Here's what happens when you lower the movable Accent portion: the vibrato arm becomes positioned lower and now gets hung up on the control knobs; skims across the top of the mixer and stops at the bridge volume. Loosen the arm's screw a little and you can lift it over the knob. I decided just to take the arm off until I really want to use it.
3. (see photo #3): I adjusted my nut slots slightly and adjusted the Mastery bridge height (overall & string saddles). I was able to intonate the low strings (6-4) pretty well, for not being individual saddles. The high three strings were troublesome. The strings were all flat and I stopped adjusting the saddles forward when I saw that the saddle adjustment screws were fading deeper into the saddles; did not want to lose screw engagement. So, those strings are still slightly flat; I can't hear anything wrong.
I have very slight string buzz on my B string, all up and down the headstock half of the neck; seems like the neck needs a little more relief. I was hoping the buzz was isolated to one high fret. But, I am not going to mess with the truss rods. The buzz does not come through the amp, and is just barely noticeable. Maybe some unintentional relief will appears after a few days of sitting. (I put D'Addario Chromes, flat wound, 12-52 on. I have doubts that heavier E and A strings would affect the vibrato significantly further. I have some TI George Benson Jazz Strings in reserve, 12-53; less overall tension.)
My only real disappointment was finding that the neck (& middle) pickup tone control did NOT change the tone whatsoever. I examined the electronics, measured everything, check grounding continuity, spent hours on YouTube seeing how to do all this. I did resolder a couple of suspicious connections; no change.
Pots: I found it easiest to measure across the outer terminals directly. I thought this might not work properly, since they are wired up, but YouTube guys do this. The tone pots are 189 and 184 k ohms. The two volume pots are 98 and 99. The mixer pot is 188. So, nowhere near 330, esp. the volume pots.
Caps: The two main tone caps are 0.057 and 0.058 uF; slightly exceeds 20% tolerance. Surprisingly, this guitar has a treble cap, measuring at 0.005 uF.
No tone control at neck: I measured pot resistance throughout the entire range of each pot; full off thru full on. All pots responded as they should, 0 thru max respective pot resistance values, and they all seem to be audio/log pots. So, I know (think) the errant neck tone pot seems to be OK, not defective as it ranges without problem from 0--184 k ohms. I could not find any ground shorts when I inspected the wires in detail. There has to be something fundamentally wrong here. Mis-wired? I don't think so. Anyone here have a probable cause? I'm going to open up my 330 guitars and see how they are wired, make comparisons. I'm hoping to see something different that will clue me in on the problem.
- String break angle with Winfield spring
- Altered Accent arm position with new spring
- Mastery Bridge intonation screws