Adjustable bridge

The bridge won't move around because it has adjusters in the legs. You'll just have more control over the string heights.

 

I have an Epiphone acoustic guitar that I really like, my girlfriend gifted it to me after her uncle gifted it to her (she doesn't play, fingers are too small). It's the FT-130. It basically has two large screws, one on either side of the bridge, If anyone is familiar with this style of adjustable bridge can you please either tell me how to use it or send me a link to a site that will? the action is pretty low on the high strings and I'm getting a lot of buzzing (more than I should). Thanks for any help you can give!

 

That type of guitar bridge was used by Gibson and Epiphone in the 1960s, as I recall. It has a ceramic saddle which is adjustable for action height by turning the two screws on either side. You use a flat blade screwdriver to turn the screw clockwise to raise the action height, counterclockwise to lower it. You can adjust the treble side and the bass side independently. If you want to raise the action height, slacken the strings before making any height adjustment. Then retune to pitch after the adjustment.

 

Some folks have had trouble with adjusters getting kind of loose after a while. This can cause them to lean towards the neck, which in turn can cause them to fall down. I think there's a lot of factors that go into this - quality of the bridge, quality of the adjusters, how much adjustment you do, etc. I think if you have to raise your adjusters more than just a little bit, your bridge is too short.

Other folks feel that the adjusters affect the sound that's transmitted through the bridge into the body of the bass.

I had adjusters for quite a while without any problems. I noticed that I hadn't touched them in a long time so I had a new fixed bridge made using my adjusted bridge as a pattern.

Cindy

 

If you live in an area where the temperature and humidity are more constant, you might not need adjusters...but here in Michigan, they're pretty essential for me! The top of the bass can expand or contract quite a lot, changing the string height drastically. An adjustable bridge is really handy for keeping the strings at the right spot...some players have Winter and Summer bridges and switch them out when they need to. Me, I've never had trouble with a well-made adjustable bridge. Plus, if you like to experiment with different strings (as many of us do sometimes) it's nice for that...lower tension strings often need a little more string height.