Gotoh from Japan is great quality. I bought this second hand just to test it out.

This is a traditional bridge modeled after Fender's own assembly. And its the cheapest 6-Screw bridge they offer. This is a Vintage Spacing on both saddles and mount screws.

TREMOLO PLATE

Chrome plated with a polished top and non-polished underneath, The pivot edge has tooling surface and the holes are countersunk.

Holes for intonation screws are drilled center along the up-bend.

Taking it apart, i was surprised to find that they have layered on a thin film of clear grease between block and plate to prevent corrosion. Nice touch that.

The mount holes are drilled along the pivot line. This is done by other high-end makers like Callaham and Wudtone. This allows the unit to pivot more naturally, but more importantly more smoother without grinding the screws too much.

BLOCK:

Block is not cold-rolled steel but regular cast steel. Powder coated with a more shiny finish than others.

Strings are NOT deep drilled and are dilled 1 cm (0.4") down roughy. (did not have a caliper handy)

Spring holes are countersunk.

SADDLES:

Saddles are standard nickel plated and they are regular tool-bent sheet metal steel. nice and rounded on the bend with complementary tooling marks as normal , They are not in a V-shape like PING saddles are but lovely U Shape.. The nickel is not polished super smooth but acceptable enough.

Gotoh does not stamp anything on their saddles which i find slightly boring. They should i think.

Screws and springs are good quality. The E & G saddle has shorter springs which is nice.

The height adjustment screws are up for filing them down a little. The outher two saddles has shorter screws, but even height on the four middle one.

COMES WITH:

The usual supplement.

• 1 full size chrome arm in 10-32 Imperial with white tip.

• 5 medium "Fender tension" springs

• 6 chrome screws (Shorter than US Fender issue)

• 2 nickel Claw screws

• 1 Claw

• Allen-key for saddle-height adjust

USAGE:

Action is nice and smooth. However i used the US stock screws and not the chrome. For some reason they seemed to work better on the mount screws that was supplied.

It works smoother than a stock tremolo largely due to the holes drilled closer to the picot axis. So if you think the Callaham is too pricey, you can get the same machining on this one. Just not Stainless and not for the tighter tolerances Callaham operates with.

Thread Tollerance Arm:

Two thumbs up on this one. The normal wiggle you hope to expect.

They are similar to USA Fender tremolo on tolerance, But far from PING tremolo which are awful.

However, you still should wrap some plumbers tape to get it more wiggle-free. I would definatly buy a Callaham block for this one.

VERDICT:

I give it a 8/10.

As a fan of Gotoh products i was hoping for a little better polished bridge out from what i have seen from their stock photos. But this is a good quality tremolo bridge no matter, especially when you can pick this up for around $50. For that price, it is absolutely worth it and then some.

They offer it for Left handed too and in colors