Should I replace this bridge?

[iiipopes]

Of course, the point of using something wood to tap the saddles is so you don't mar the bridge or scratch the finish on the bridge. The trade-off of the more complicated intonation procedure is supposedly to have better tone and intonation. I will leave it to others to comment if that is actually the case.

And - here's another tip. Put flatwounds on the thing. That way, you'll only have to screw with the bridge once every decade or so...

GHS Progressives used to be so consistent that once I set the relief and intonation on my Rickenbacker 4002, (yes, "2," not "1" or "3") and believe me, if the OP thinks his bridge is tough, try setting dual hairpin truss rods and bridge saddles that have to be pre-threaded because the intonation screws actually thread to the bridge frame on both sides of the saddle, I never touched it in over twenty years.

 

[obrienp]

Of course, the point of using something wood to tap the saddles is so you don't mar the bridge or scratch the finish on the bridge. The trade-off of the more complicated intonation procedure is supposedly to have better tone and intonation. I will leave it to others to comment if that is actually the case.

Yep, got that the use of dowels, chopsticks, etc, was to avoid damaging the finish. I just didn’t have the patience and needed to adjust the set up for two reasons: action was too high and intonation not quite there; changing from flats to round wounds, which kind of goes against your second point.

The Gotoh is much easier to adjust but it doesn’t have a locking mechanism, so it is likely to need tweaking periodically. It is marginally heavier but has brass saddles instead of steel, which I prefer. Tone wise it is about the same as the OEM but I have changed the strings, so difficult to compare. I don’t feel I have lost anything by changing to the Gotoh.

For me, putting D’Addario nickels on the Elwood has really improved the tone, growl and bite. The flats just seemed to deaden it. Obviously, this is really subjective and I know lots of folks prefer flats. I just didn’t think they worked on my Elwood. I know it means I am going to be changing strings more frequently, so ease of setup will be a benefit.