Jackson Soloist USA Trem replacement

[imissedtheapex]

Hi all, new here but I've done my best to search. I have an early USA guitar, I believe it's a 1990 and the tremolo needs replacement. It's a Floyd Rose Jackson/Schaller in black, and I believe it was the JT 590 or 80 but this is where I need help because I can't be certain. It's got the bullet shaped string lock screws, with a 32mm sustain block. The saddles on it have started to crack. I've purchased a replacement used one from EBAY and those also cracked, (the saddles were also smaller and narrower than the one that came on my guitar) so I need to replace the trem with a new one altogether. I have to believe this is a common issue that's popped up and that there is a knowledge base of what fits and is a direct replacement - can anyone here please guide me in the right direction? I believe I have to replace with a Schaller, not an OFR, but not sure which one will fit without having to modify the body at all.

Thank you in advance!!

[pianoguyy]

Most likely a 590.
You should be able to replace both the 580 and the 590 with an OFR if desired. But a recessed 590 may not have enough room for the longer poles of OFR.

But there is a 590 that is still made. Someone else will need to give you the model.


And now that we have that out of the way...

Is it possible that these blocks are cracking because you are over tightening them?

[Number Of The Priest]

I don't have enough info in your original post to determine whether it is the little insert blocks inside the saddles which have cracked, which can happen when overtightening the saddle lock bolts, or whether the saddles themselves have cracked, which isn't impossible but highly improbable given the saddles are solid steel and there are softer components in the JT590 such as the baseplate (especially the non-reinforced intonation screw holes) that are notorious for failing well before the all-steel parts. Anyway, giving you the benefit of the doubt, if either the saddle insert blocks or the saddles themselves need replacing, it would be cheaper to look for replacement parts than replacing the whole bridge. You would need to measure to compare to avoid the scenario you already encountered where a purportedly identical bridge gave you incorrect narrower saddles. Measure twice, buy once.

If you want to replace the whole bridge, keep reading.

Normally the OEM replacement for the JT590 is the "Schaller Tremolo": https://schaller.info/en/tremolos/359/schaller-tremolo

However, I recently learned that there are short bolts available (https://www.thomann.de/gb/schaller_s..._set_short.htm) which are short (like the bolts for the Schaller Tremolo) but skinny and meant to fit through the narrow slits of the whale-tail of the Original Floyd Rose or Schaller Lockmeister: https://schaller.info/en/tremolos/364/lockmeister-6

Knowing this, I would opt for the superior all-steel construction of the OFR or Lockmeister and get the purpose-designed short bolts which should hopefully allow this "hybrid" tremolo to fit in the smaller recess route meant for the JT590 on those early production model 1990s Jacksons.

Writing this is making me wonder if those short bolts will also fit on the Gotoh GE1996T bridge and then you would have a third, superior, all-steel tremolo as a viable choice.

[Dak]

If the rest of the tremelo is good and the knife edges are still good, it seems all you should need are saddles and insert blocks. The Floyd Rose 1000 series fit. I replaced the ones on the JT-590 on my Charvel 650XL with them. They are slightly taller I believe so you would have to re-adjust your action.
1000 Series Saddle Set – Floyd Rose
1000 Series/ Special Series String Lock Insert Blocks – Floyd Rose
looks like they currently sold out though.

[imissedtheapex]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Im definitely not cranking down on the string locks so not sure what has happened. Ill look into the 1000 saddle set.