bridge for S-100
OK Sam,
I looked at the photos. Those are not the original bushings. They came with the Gotoh bridge and the studs. You have several options here.
The guitar is refinished, so if you are going to leave the finish you will be able to see the repair, when you decide to plug the holes and redrill the body for the proper bushings.
If I were you I would try and make the Gotoh bridge work for you. It is actually a good bridge and I understand that right now it is too high to get a nice action. My question is: How much would you like to lower the bridge?
I noticed in the photos that you still have some room under the t.o.m. bridge. If you take out the bushings and remove a circular section of wood around the edge of the holes (about the depth of the bushing-collars that are resting on the top op the body right now) you should be able to set in the bushings a little deeper. By having the top of the bushings flush with the top of the body, you will be able to lower your bridge a little bit.
That would be option one for me. But first you should make the measurements, to see if that would work.
If the bridge needs to go even lower than that, you might need a different bridge. The photo doesn't give me that much info but I have a feeeling that we are talking about a very early '70s S-100. The neck on those are sometimes set in at a very shallow angle, which does not allow for a whole lot of bridge movement towards the body.
By the way, if the guitar is indeed from that particular period, then there might be a label glued to the inside of the control cavity on the back.
If there is no label you still might be able to figure out the date of the guitar by looking at the pots. If they're still the original ones they could tell you from what period the guitar is.
Keep us posted!
Hans