L.R. BAGGS PICKUPS
X-BRIDGE (FIXED)
INSTALLATION MANUAL & USER'S GUIDE
483 N. FRONTAGE RD.
NIPOMO, CA 93444
1. PACKAGE CONTENTS
One (1) fully assembled X-Bridge
Five (5) mounting screws
One (1) prewired ster eo o ut pu t ja ck w it h wa sh er a nd n ut
One (1) volume pot (5 Megohm) with pre-soldered capacitor
One (1) hex wrench fo r tremolo arm and saddle height adjustments
One (1) piece of 10" insulator sleeve
One (1) coaxial cable
2. OVERVIEW AND CAUTIONS
The Fixed X-Br id ge is made as a rep lacemen t fo r the b as ic Strat-ty pe fixed brid ge, but will rep la ce many other fixed bridge s with some
modifications. It i s intended for us e only with gu it ar s tha t have through-body s tr ing hol es. The pa ss ive s tereo k it provides for independent
outputs for the magnetic and X-Bridge pickups via the tip and ring contact s of a s te reo jack. A vo lume p ot for the passive X-Bridge take s th e pl ace
of the middle tone contro l. The tone functions are summed onto the other tone pot.
The included wiring directions are intended for a t ypic al t hr ee -k nob St rat but may be altered to sui t ot he r configurations.
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We do not provide in stallation advice or sup po rt for home o r hobby is t installat ions. Installers: pl ea se read t he instructions carefully befo re
proceeding. We w il l no t be r es po ns ib le for any damage to the guitar or personal injury resulting from installation, us e or misuse of the product .
Do not lif t the saddles up off the bridge plate to see how high they will go! This tempting investigation has a high probability of damaging
the pickup. There is ample pickup wire to allow the full ran ge o f sa dd le m ovement for hei ght and intonation.
3. INSTALLATION
1. After removing the ex is ti ng bridge fro m your gu it ar, lay your new X-Br idge on t he top su rface and line p the six s tr in g holes i n the b ri dge with
the six string holes in the body. Ch ec k to see if the five hole s in the br id ge for the mounting screws line up with the holes in the body from the
bridge that you are rep la ci ng. If so, conti nue wi th s tep 3. Otherwise, see step 2.
2. If the holes do not line up you wil l nee d to drill new holes with a 3/32 " dri ll bit. With the bri dge in pos itio n over the si x str ing hol es, scribe a
mark i n each of t he five screw h ol es, remove the bridge and drill the hole s 7/8" deep. It may be neces sary to f il l the original hole s prio r to drilling
the new ones. Do n ot m ou nt t he b ri dg e to t he b od y at this point.
3. R emove the existing ground wire that goes from the old bridge to the control cavi ty.
4. Both ends of the coax ia l cab le are pre -s ep arated; if you lin e up the ends you'll see that one end is sho rter than the othe r. The shor t end gets
soldered to the circuit board on the bot to m side of the bridge. On the circ uit board the re is one round sold er pad and one squ are solder pad.
Solder the tip of the braided wire to th e square pad and the inner wire
to the round one. Be caref ul to ke ep the sol der connec tion s as fla t as
possible so that the bridge will sit evenly on the body of the guitar.
5. Temporar ily feed the co ax wire into the electronics c avity t hrough
the ori gi na l ground w ire h ol e (in some cases it may be nec es sa ry to
slightly enla rge this ho le ) and set the X-Br idge on top of the guitar, in
position.
6. Temporarily scre w the bridge o nto the b od y. When you tighte n down
th e screw s, the h igh p oints from the so ld er co nn ect ions wi ll li kely
preve nt the br id ge from sitting flat against the top. If the screws will
no t compl etely d raw the b rid e again st th e top und er re as ona ble
pressure, remove t he bridge and slightly dee pe n the i ndentations in
the top caused by the solder pads and coax (using a drem el router or a
small chisel) un ti l th e bridge will sit flat on the top. Do no t make the
indentation for the coax to o dee p; the braided por tion of th e coa x wil l
be come the ne w b rid ge groun d w ire. To m ake ad equat e g round
connection it must b e un de r pr es su re w he n th e br idge i s se cu re d to t he
top.
fig. 1
No te: b raiding grou nds to bridge
7. Now a tt ach th e X-Br id ge to the guitar w it h th e mo unti ng s crew s
provided.
8. Cover the coax wi re i nsid e th e elec tron ic s cavity w it h the 10" piece of
insulator sleeve provided (you may need to tr im this to si ze ). Use th e
cable tie to secure the in su lation slee ve and to bundle the other wires
together, as appropriate.
9. Disconnect a nd rem ove th e exis ti ng jack and m id dl e tone pot from t he guitar, replace t he m with the prewired stereo jack a nd five- meg volume
pot incl ud ed in the kit, and connect as sh own in fi gu re 1. Re move the wire that con nect s the middle ton e pot to t he switch and so ld er a jumper
between the two lugs on the switch fo r th e tone controls.
Note: The volume pot has a bypass capacitor pre-soldered to it . This capacitor maintains the high fre quen cy re spon se of the X-Bri dg e a s i ts
volume is red uced. Do n ot r em ove it.
4 . A L T E R N A T E I N S T A L L A T I O N S
A. (Re pl ac es step 9) If you wish to retain the stock cont rols and do not
want a volume con tr ol for the X-Bri dg e, r ep la ce t he e xi st in g ja ck w it h th e
prewired st er eo jack provi de d. S olde r the red wire fro m the pre wi re d
harness to the middle pin of the volume pot and the shield wire to a p ot
case. Next, solder the hot (center) wire from the coax to the whi te wire
from the prewired jac k ca bl e in si de o f th e control cavity.
B. If yo u wi sh to re ta in all of the stock controls and you want to add a
volume contro l for th e X-Br id ge, it will b e ne ce ss ar y to drill a new ho le in
the p ic kg ua rd to add the X-Bridge vo lume pot. You may also need to
enlarge the cont ro l cav ity on the guitar. Conn ect everything to the jack
as shown in figure 2.
No te : There are othe r s trat mod els that have diff erent tone co ntrol
connections. If you have on e of these, just leave the tone knobs the way
they are and solder the vol ume po t as s hown.
Note: do not combine the X-Bridge a nd magnetic p icku ps onto t he same
volume pot.
Caution: E xcess movement and un du e st ress on the pickup wires could cause serious damage to the pickups.
fig. 2
5 . U S E R ' S G U I D E
A guitar equipped wit h an X-B ridg e req ui re s the use of a stereo 'Y' ca bl e to acc es s bot h the X-Bridge and ma gn et ic pick ups. This is a cable that
has a stereo plug on one end an d spl it s off into tw o mono plugs at the oth er end, one for ea ch sign al . The ma gn et ic pick up s wil l be on the 't ip '
and the X -Bri dg e will be on th e 'ring.' Each s igna l will requ ire its own indi vi du al channel, even in a combo amp. D o n ot pl ug them into the same
channel.
For best low end response, the X-Bridge should be plugged into am pl if ie rs, effects or D.I. s that have a one megohm or higher input im pedance.
This is standard, but if the X-Bridge's low end sounds wimpy, look into this. D o no t pl ug t he X -B ri dge into passive D.I.s,
For opt im um results, the X- Brid ge and the mag ne ti c pi ck up s sh ou ld be in pha se wit h ea ch oth er whe n th ey are mixed together. If the y ar e in
phase, the mixed soun d wil l have a full , ri ch tone qual it y. If they are out of phase, th e mixed soun d may be thin thro ugh the low mids and bass
range. Since there is no phase stan da rd for magnetic pickups, there is a sig ni fi ca nt chance tha t the mag ne ti cs will be ou t of phase with the XBridge. To furt her comp li ca te mat ters, there is no phase st an da rd eve n betwee n the adjacent ch an ne ls in dual-channel amps. The two chan nels of
dual-channel amps a re sometimes out of phas e with each other. Since it i s likely that the most common usage for the X -B ri dge will be into these
amps, we encourage you to exper im ent with phase to achieve the best results.
To change the pic ku p phase relationship wi th the passive ki t, you must inver t the phase of one of the signals out bo ard of the guitar. Our Para
Aco usti c D.I. box work s won de rfully with the X-Br id ge and pro vi de s ins ta nt phas e con tr ol and E.Q ., and acts as a direct inpu t to the P.A. for it. If
you do not have a Para Acoustic D.I ., the simplest solution is to tr y an ot he r am p.
Another option is to run the tw o sig na ls through separate amplifiers that are spa ce d as far ap ar t from each other as the 'Y ' cab le will al lo w. T he
phase relationship is not important when t he X -Bri dg e is routed to the P.A. amp. I f you pl an to on ly u se t he X -B ri dg e al on e (for i ts a coustic so un d) ,
then phase in relation to the magnetics does not matt er a t al l.
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