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Hi all,
I have been having problems with strings breaking right over the tune-o-matic bridge, the high E on one of my new guitars broke 3 times in the last few months, I smoothed the edges of the slot a couple of times thinking I had just left it a burr or something that was causing it to break, but it broke again. and yesterday the D string on my other guitar broke at the same spot...? all have been while playing... It seems like I have a fairly shallow break angle over the bridge as well?
Has anyone experienced this, or have any suggestions?

Thanks, Jebarri

Hey man I used to have this problem with my PRS SE. Strings would break every show. I bought some plastic string guards that go on a trem bridge. They fixed the problem. You might want to find something similar for the tune o matic. Good luck.

What size and brand of strings are you using? I have never really had a problem with breaking strings, but the way I understand it with the tun o matics is that if the string binds in the groove when you bend and such, you can break them. You can try making the groove a little bigger, or get a roller bridge.

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

Do you have your stop bar all the way down? If you have too steep a break angle behind the saddle the strings break on the saddle from the extra tension.
I actually put my stop bar all the way down, and put the strings in the front and wrap them over the bar. If you look, there's a ball end receptacle on the front of the stop bar. You have to round the hole over where the string exits the stop bar, where it wraps over, or it'll break there instead, but the strings will pass over the tunematic saddle at a gentle glide instead of a sharp angle.
This method has it's critics I'm sure, but I NEVER break strings anymore since I started doing this about ten years ago.

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Old growth, shmold growth!