How to increase break angle lyre tailpiece?

[erok3]

I picked up an SF iv with lyre tailpiece. The break-angle is a bit too shallow for me. Is it OK to bend the lyre a bit? Action is fine, don't want to raise it.

 

[SFIV1967]

Welcome to LTG!
You talk about the "normal" Guild Harp Tailpiece, right? (Lyre is a Gibson name).
I guess you can unscrew it and slightly bend it, just avoid that it sit on top as it may rattle maybe.
What year is your SF IV from? Post some pictures, we love pictures!

Ralf

 

[erok3]

I picked up the 1981 SF4 that was at Twin Town in Minneapolis. It is fine the way it is I would just like it a little "tighter". Maybe put 11's on it and adjust the truss rod would be fine. I typically use 10's on my 25.5 scale guitars.

 

[Zelja]

Break angle does seem a pretty big factor in guitar tone. It's very different on the 2 S-100s I have (the 77 has a much sharper break angle than the 72 mainly due to the bridge positioning & some other changes in the guitar design) & they sound very different. The 77 is a lot tauter & brighter sounding.

Saying that, I don'y know if you will get a huge change in the break angle by bending the tailpiece down - I can't imagine it would be more than a few degrees difference (at least looking at the harp tailpiece on my CE-100D).

 

[jimmyl51]

I would be VERY careful trying to bend anything on one of these tailpieces. I had an older Artist Award a number of years ago. I NEVER tried to adjust anything on any of my guitars in regarding to bending things. I woke up one morning a number of years ago, opened up the case of the Artist Award and found the tailpiece neatly broken off . Have only seen this once in my many years of playing jazz guitars only seeing it on this guitar. Regardless I went through absolute hell trying to find an exact replacement for that guitar...........jim in Maine