What's up with my Ibanez Lo TRS Saddles?

[Line6cfh]

I have an old Ibanez RG7420 that I'm trying to bring back to life. A few of the saddles needed to be replaced due to the screw holes getting stripped, hence the chrome ones among the black ones in the picture. I ordered a 6 string version of a Lo TRS bridge off of ebay and swapped out the worn out saddles only to find now, each of my strings are now at different and uneven heights and are generally just f*cked up. The A string is the worst, it now sits super low. The A string saddle is one of the original saddles too. I don't get it...

I thought Lo TRS saddles would be interchangeable and a quick fix, but obviously not. During this replace/repair session I did completely take apart the entire bridge and clean the heck out of it and reassemble it. The saddles are now not in the original order as before I took the bridge apart. I have taken apart/ worked on/cleaned these particular bridges in the past and have never had this issue. All my saddles are now all mixed up and I don't think I can put them back the original order, not that that matters because I replaced 3 of the saddles anyways.

Anyone out there in heavy-metal-land have any suggestions? I know I could swap the entire bridge for a OFR 7 or the likes, but I'm really not trying to put any more money into this guitar. Definitely not another $250 for the mentioned OFR 7.

Thanks for reading.

 

[cardinal]

From the pictures I could find quickly, it looks like the LoTRS trem used a flat baseplate, which means that for the bridge saddles to have a radius, the saddles are different heights. At least on a Floyd, strings 1 and 6 use the lowest saddle, strings 2 and 5 use a medium saddle, and strings 3 and 4 use the highest saddle. On a 7 string, the middle three strings use the same (heighest) saddle.

If that sounds like what you have, take it apart again and line up the saddles from lowest to heighest. Put the heighest saddles in the middle and the lowest saddles on the end.

 

[beyondcosmos]

Literally commented 2 minutes ago on another original RG7420 post on the poor quality of the Lo-TRS system.

Honestly, I'd just get the Floyd Rose OR route out the body for a Lo-Pro 7.


You could also thread the strings through the saddles so they're linked into the saddle without the screw pressing in (i.e. like an Edge Pro 7 or the Edge Zero systems where you don't clip the ball and just saddle it).

 

[ch8ind]

I took apart my old 7620 years ago and didnt mark anything, but on the back it seems to have some numbers 5,5,3,3,3,2 and 1. the 1 seems to have a big seven on it. or should I go by size?

 

[Adieu]

Floyd-family saddles are RADIUSED, and as such NOT freely interchangeable

On 6-strings, that means there are 3 pairs of interchangeable saddles: E/e (short), A/B (medium), and D/G (tall)... furthermore, some neck radiuses will require saddle shims to be installed

For 7 string Ibanez branded bridges... who knows. Might be a totally unique set of saddles, might be 3 pairs off the 6 and 1 unique, or might be creative use of shims

 

[c7spheres]

- I'm not certain about the TRS trem but on all the LoPro's I've had the saddles were always identical. I've never noticed any different height saddles but the base plate is radiused on the LoPro so they match up. That low A string has always been a normal thing from what I remember and is remedied with a saddle shim, but even without the shim it doesn't seem to throw off the height over the fretboard noticably.
- This also may be more noticable if using fatter strings rather than what comes stock on the guitar.
- I've been meaning to order some shims because my guitars are still like this after all these years. I've procrastinated because it never bothered me that much, but I really should do it just because.
- That being said the LoPro Double edge with piezo's tend to "want" to be put back in the same place because although they are identical saddles still, the peizo elements on some of them are not seated and epoxied properly causing the element height to be a little different. It's more noticeable with these and still not a big deal really unless you have issues with the piezo element not getting enough downward pressure to work properly causing either a buzz or low volume when using them. In that case either reseating the element or using a shim is necessary.
- It's best to radius it if possible just to match it, imo