The Electra Forums

Original Electra-Phoenix tek-glide bridges, the 'vintage strat' style with six mounting bolts, are hard to come by. (perfect example of something rare but not valuable, like my 136 Lafayette. But I digress)

These bridges were used on Electra Phoenixes in 1982 and 3, and were disappearing in 1984. (I haven't compared with the bridge on an 85 X125 though). They were also original on straight-leg Dynasties, probably some early bent-leg Dynasties, Futuras, all the early pointy guitars.





Problem is, they're subject to breakage, either because somebody was brutal with the wang bar (tearing out the casting around the bar threads and making it no longer possible to install a trem bar) or because some genius with a screwdriver noticed the slack in the six bridge mounting screws and decided to tighten them all down, or worse, some or one of them. Tighten those puppies down, grab the trem bar, and proceed to crack your bridge plate.

So... we have all seen these guitars bearing such scars. A guitar without a trem bar is still very functional, but break enough of the mounting screw area and you're screwed. literally. Many of mine have corners broken off, and I have several guitars which would be complete if I had another bridge.

Trouble is, they're an odd width, standard strat bridges don't fit. Until now, that has meant waiting for a Phoenix get parted out,a nd that's not somethign we like to see happen. I keep an eye out though, and after three years I found one bridge on ebay, it just arrived, I'm delighted and it'll be fun to see what guitar it will complete. (I'll keep you posted)

But coincidetnally I just got a batch of strat parts for a friend that I'm getting ready to send off to him overseas. Normally I dont' do strats- they're beautiful but they're just not me. With them was a Squier strat bridge, like from a 90's Squier of some kind possibly? Because they were both there at the same time I compared, and sure enough, they're identical string spacing.

So I'm going to hunt this thing down. If we can find a standard replacement for this bridge, it'll really benefit these guitars and their owners.

Ooh, nice work, Paul! As a matter of interest, my tek-glide on a Westone Spectrum ST is only 2 screws, but other than that looks identical. Also, there is a spares section on this Westone site which is closing due to lack of interest from Westone owners - not me, I hasten to add; I've grabbed what I can while I can! - and there's quite a range of bits. The cross over would be the Spectrum/Phoenix models and possibly the pointies as well...

http://www.westone.info/spares/index.html

...have a squizz, guys ands gals..

I do believe the ST has some flavor of Bendmaster (great bridges) but the same string spacing. Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.