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The 10-Minute Fix for Annoying Bridge Screws

North East Guitars

317 views

here’s nothing worse than sharp bridge saddle grub screws digging into your palm while playing.

Instead of waiting days for deliveries of shorter screws (or spending extra cash), here is a quick, 5-minute workshop hack to cut and clean them up yourself using basic tools.

In this video, I take you through trimming down the saddle screws on my latest single P90 build, cleaning up the burrs, and setting them flush so the bridge feels smooth underhand. Stick around until the end for a quick sound demo of the guitar!

🔧 Tools Used:

Allen key / hex wrench
Wire cutters / snips
Dremel / rotary tool (or a hand file)

💬 Join the Discussion: How do you handle tall bridge screws—do you modify them yourself in the workshop, or order specific lengths online? Let me know in the comments below!

If you enjoyed the video, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the bell for more DIY guitar mods, builds, and tips from North East Guitars.

Timestamps: 0:00 - The Problem: Painful Bridge Screws 0:50 - The Quick DIY Fix & Tools 1:25 - Cutting Down the Grub Screws 2:00 - De-burring with the Dremel 3:02 - Reinstalling & Checking Action 4:00 - Close-Up & Comparison 5:05 - Final Thoughts & Sound Demo

11 Comments

@PlentyLeft 1 day ago

Why is it that i fall in love with every new build you do?

@jonahguitarguy 6 hours ago

I've done this on some set ups. I realized at some point that with bolt on necks it was a lot less work to shim the neck heel a bit. Adding a 1/2 of degree of neck angle raises the saddles enough to bury the screws. Sounds good, you should keep it.

@borgonianevolution 19 hours ago

That was one of the reasons I try to stay away from those types of bridges. I would probably do the same thing if / when I need to use a bridge like that. Its funny though. I just checked my two Jackson basses. The four string has the screws sticking up like that but the 5 strings are proper length where they are down into the saddles like you made yours. They are twins one being 4 one being 5 so one would think they would have the same standards.. I will remedy that when I get around to giving them some love over the winter.

@602North 23 hours ago

Beautiful, my friend!

@jaxsndave 1 day ago

O man,, that looks awesome.. your as impatient as me..

@micksguitarsarecool 1 day ago

never thought of just using side cutters, nice. use a spare saddle to hold the screw while you sand you wally! When's the next full guitar build vids?

@GUITARSandGIZMOS 1 day ago

Yeah, I'm guilty of getting the time wasting ones. I'll have a go at your method now as I have, to no surprise - a Greco (SE-700 S-style) with very long and nasty, sharp height adjustment screws. Good one Chewie. Thanks for showing me the easy way to do this. I think I've been led to believe that the ends that are cut would be crumbled and not go into the screw grooves after - but from what I have learned here is that it seems they do. 😄.