M*3 guitars.

[raygun85]

The strings aren't touching the bottom of the string guide at all now. I didn't notice if that was happening with the NOS. But of course, they do touch the sides. The string guide doesn't sit on an angle at all, it sits flat at the end of the fingerboard. The headstock angle is 7 degrees, less than most guitars. So the break angle isn't bad at all. Very little tension. We took the specs from a '64 model.

From my own personal observation, I've never played any Mosrite guitar that stayed in tune (when using the vibrato.) But I'm also very meticulous and the slightest variations drive me crazy. What may sound awful and unacceptable to me may be not be so bad to other players. However I always blamed the poor tuning stability on the vibrato. Later I began to suspect the zero fret/string guide combination as common sense told me there would be more friction. This has been a source of debate with my dad for well over a year now. He convinced me it wasn't a problem, so until recently we never looked at that. We were at wit's end on this current prototype so I got my magnifying glass out and insisted we study the way the strings move across the roller saddles when using the vibrato or bending the strings. It took hours until we finally eliminated the bridge. I started to suspect the zero fret/string guide combo again. After arguing a little bit we finally agreed to just have a look. We made sure the strings were not touching the bottom of the string guide. But there is still friction on the sides where the strings touch. Thats natural. Same thing with the zero fret. So we always dropped it down and tuned it *up* to pitch. I put a mark on the strings with a permanent marker near the zero fret. Finally, I noticed that when pressing down on the vibrato, the strings would move forward across the zero fret but would not return to their original seating - in effect, stretching the string and raising the pitch! The lubricant did the trick. There isn't a whole lot more to say. It stays perfectly in tune now, we literally can't get it to go out of tune now. Same goes for our other Mosrite guitars. Which causes me to believe, as I did from the beginning, that there is just a lot of metal-to-metal friction up there.

[oipunkguy]

good stuff to know matt. I'm glad you're looking at these things. personally I don't use the vibrato that much compared to a lot of surf players I've seen, so i doubt I'm as picky on the subject as you are. But I can't wait to get home and look at my mosrites and see if the strings sit on the bottom of the string guide or not. can't wait to see new pics on the website

[raygun85]

I don't think they're supposed to ride on the bottom of the string-guide...but on our duplicates they may not have been exact. However, there is still friction because the strings touch the sides walls of the slots. If the tuners were brought closer in like Nokie Edwards' HitchHiker model then there would be less friction. But that wouldn't have the classic look and the headstock would have to be restyled to accommodate the repositioning of the tuners. And there is friction on the zero-fret...so don't know what to about that. The easiest solution (which is still just a band-aid) is to use nut lubricant. As I said before, a small price for the vintage styling.