Rickenbacker 230 adjustment

brian · Post by **brian** » Tue May 11, 2004 7:35 pm

Does anyone know which size wrench is used to adjust the string height on a 230 ?

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Wed May 12, 2004 10:03 am

If it is the original bridge that you have there, good luck finding an allen wrench to fit it! It is REALLY small. Those are a Schaller bridge, and they still make that bridge. You can get it from Stew-Mac and other places. The reason I mention this is because my '89 230 had one of these, and the holes were so small, I couldn't find anything to adjust it, and so I would have to adjust them by hand with the strings off and the bridge saddles loose. Quite a hassle! The ones Schaller makes that you can get from Stew-Mac have a much bigger adjustment size, which is a standard one like 1.5 mm or something along those lines. I put one of these on my 230 and relegated the original to a test guitar. Works much better! Of course maybe only some of the early 230's had the bridge with the smaller adjustment...I'm not sure there. Best bet, go to a hardware store (not Home Depot!) and test different sizes of allen wrenches until you find one that fits. Also, make sure to unlock the lock screw before trying to make any adjustments!

brian · Post by **brian** » Wed May 12, 2004 10:20 am

Thanks, yes mine has the really small size as even a 1.27 mm is too big. I will continue to look.

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Sat May 15, 2004 8:17 pm

You may end up like I did and decide you won't find one that will fit, and just get a new bridge from Stew Mac. The new one is a standard size, and other than that, looks just like the 230 bridge. If you have another guitar to put the bridge on, thats handy. If not, then I guess you end up with an extra bridge.