The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

"Close" only counts in horseshoes eh?
I don't know what the centre to centre measurement is on the PE's but the Prestige is 73mm.
You can read a bit more about it here: https://westone.forumotion.com/t6166-westone-rainbow-1-need-bridge-tremolo

As you can imagine we've had many discussions on how to find a reasonably priced solution to this problem over at the Westone Forum, lots of unhappy owners out there! Here's another possibility if you're OK with a Bigsby, don't know of anyone who's tried it though: https://westone.forumotion.com/t7129-towner-vibrato-retrofit-for-bigsby-mod-on-broken-prestige-rainbow-thunder-stoptail?highlight=prestige+stop+tail
On it goes. . .

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"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

You're right ................it needs a hell of a setup. It also arrived with no action.......strings running over the top of the neck pickup And I bought this (shipped) from a music store who reckons they get a tech to run their eye over everything. Anyway I'll be able to sort it out .

Stupid thing re that cap nut is I specifically queried it and whether the saddle was secure without it. Grrrr.......the guitar is so irreplaceable I will just need to find a solution. So far (if I have the thread size correct) I think I have found something that might do the trick and look okay from a toymaker part retailer.

The joys of buying amazing guitars that haven't been produced for decades with unique parts.

These days anyone can claim to be a guitar tech. Sadly most are ID10TS. I recently bought a guitar that a "tech" had gone over from Sam Arse and not only was the intonation wayyyy out but the neck had serious back bow, so much so that it was fretting out at the 16th fret! The morons had no idea it had a two-way truss rod and to boot they trashed the low E locking tuner forcing me to replace them with Guyker locking tuners.

The moral of the story is expect a guitar from a "guitar store" to be all kinds of fooked up. That way you are never disappointed.

Not bad for one week's work I have the 2 "cousins" now. To be honest I overpaid in trade terms for the Prestige 250 (an Ibanez AZ worth a few hundred more in the market than he was asking) but his asking price was fair ($AU1000 = $US650) and I wanted to grab the Prestige 250 so it didn't disappear while I was raising cash after already buying a PE-R80 this week. I do have another higher end AZ anyway.

The Prestige is a little bit more dinged up than I'd like on the top but both these guitars are rare as hen's teeth and I figure I've done pretty good to get these 2 inside a week. If I need to replace the Ibby (or upgrade the Westone if I ever see one , esp in the sunburst ) I can always do those things. Now to try and forget the ticking timebomb tailpiece and enjoy it. I might be able to call myself a "collector" now .

NICE.

Since you have them both together, can you compare measurements of both tail pieces? They look pretty close and I'm wondering if they're the same?

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Quality service since 3:00 last Tuesday

Nicely done!
Two gorgeous instruments right there.
You could always drop the tuning to relieve the tension a bit on the stop tail. (They apparently tend to break at the A or B string position.)

Like Jorg, I too am curious to hear what the C to C dimension is on the PE stop tail.
Not holding my breath though.

Even if it turns out to be the same, that's interesting, but where do you get one??

_________________
"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

I have a feeling that is an optical illusion and the PE-R is a fair bit wider. I am on the road and won't be back for a few days but later in the week I'll check it out and give the best estimate I can (distance between centre of screw/bolt) without removing the strings.

Not an illusion at all, my PE-R60 as well as my RS-600 both measure 73mm.
I had a feeling they were the same. I mean, I understand making an oddball size but I couldn't see making two or more one-offs within the same company.
I would imagine they would try to keep tooling to a minimum.
What exactly does that do for us? I don't know but somehow I feel we are a little bit closer to finding a solution.

And another thing...
I'd be willing to bet the bridges are interchangeable as well. I can't find a good pic of a Prestige bridge, do they use the same nuts as the PE?
I see the Prestige and the PE-R80 as basically the same guitar.

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Quality service since 3:00 last Tuesday

Got back earlier than expected. This is the best I can do without taking off 2 new sets of strings......... there seems to be a 1-2mm difference with the PE model being wider. The screw heads that the bridge fits around are totally different sizes (clearly bigger on the Prestige) , but not sure about the posts/thread width etc..

Hmmm, looks awfully close but not really definitive.

For an accurate measurement I think you need to remove the stop tail and measure C to C of the holes (better, inside edge to outside edge) with electronic calipers, or at least a machinist's steel rule.

It's very easy to be out a couple of mm by eye balling it with a wooden ruler eh?.

_________________
"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com