Il Sung Bridge on Squier Bronco

Dec 7, 2018
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I'm thinking about putting an Il Sung BB104 bridge on my Squier Bronco. Reason being it's an older Bronco and you cant adjust intonation for each string, only E,A and D,G. But it's a lovely little guitar I rescued from the garage that was sitting there for years as an unwanted present for my son. I recently liberated it, shielded it, put a McNelly BroncoMaster pickup in, cts pots, a mustard cap and a new set of strings. It's the first shorty I've had and I really like it.
I've already got an Il Sung bridge on a Retrovibe and TBH it's a brilliant bridge for the money. So I'm thinking of doing likewise on the Bronco. The Bronco is a cheap guitar so I don't want to spend stupid money for a Hipshot etc, (been there done that on other mods).
Here's the rub, the Bronco bridge is 18mm spacing, but the Il Sung is 19mm. I know if I'm going to go through with this I'll have to re-drill the body for the 4 mounting screws at the bottom instead of the 3 top 2 bottom on the Bronco bridge, but that's not above my capabilities.
What I'd really like to know is will this bridge fit the Bronco without the E or the G slipping off the fretboard.
I've measured the Bronco and The Retrovibe. (Bronco is 30" Scale and Retrovibe 32" scale BTW so we're not really comparing apples with apples).
Bronco;
@ Saddles - 53mm centre E to centre G.
@ Last Fret - 46mm centre E to centre G.
@ Nut - 32mm centre E to centre G.

Retrovibe;
@ Saddles - 58mm centre E to centre G.
@ Last Fret - 50mm centre E to centre G.
(I'm doing a coarse call here and measuring up from the last fret an inch due to scale difference of 32" to 30" and hopefully getting a position that's kinda relative to the last fret on the Bronco, on the RV)
@ 1 inch up from last fret - 49mm
@Nut 34mm

I've never really noticed before on the Bronco, but I think the bridge is off centre. These photos show the 'E' has a couple mil more land than the 'G'.
Do any of you think I can pull this off with the increase in spacing without the outer strings slipping off the fretboard? Or am I courting disaster with a capital D 🤔
IMG_2733.JPG

IMG_2734.JPG

Fine at the nut..
IMG_2735.JPG

Il Sung on RV
IMG_2736.JPG
 
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The total center-to-center spread for a 4-string with 18mm spacing is 54mm. For 19mm spacing it's 57mm. A bridge with 19mm spacing has the E and G strings 3mm farther away from each other than a bridge with 18mm spacing.

This means the E and G will be spaced 1.5mm farther apart at the 12th fret (half the string's distance to the bridge) and about 2mm farther apart at the 19th fret (roughly 2/3 the string's distance to the bridge).

So if you have enough room for the E and G strings each to be 1mm closer to the edge of the fretboard at the 19th fret (or something approximating that, like 1.25mm closer to the edge for the E string and 0.75mm closer to the edge for the G string) you should be OK.

If you change the nut, calculating the geometry gets a little more complicated, but since you're not this is pretty straightforward: In a sense what you're doing is widening the base of a triangle a little.
 
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I have a newer Sonic Bronco that came stock with the 4-saddle bridge & it plays fine with what measures out to be a 19mm spacing at the bridge, though I am measuring 28mm (E>G) spacing at the nut.

Neck measures 38.3mm at the nut & 58.5mm at the 19th fret.