Tailpiece swap question

I have a customer with a mid 60's SG with a Lyre Vibrola. He is considering (against my advice)
swapping the Lyre for a Sideways vibrola. My question is, will the sideways piece cover all the
mounting holes in the body from the Lyre? From what I can tell through a little on-line research,
the holes near the rim look very similar. I'm just not sure about any other holes on the top.

Tough question, not sure if this will be any help but here's the mojoaxe instructions for their design with some info about the old ones, scroll down a bit to "sideways conversion kit": http://www.mojoaxe.com/


I read the reissue/modern sideways units from Gibson were also redesigned. Tough call, they look to cover a similar surface area but it almost looks like that open triangle on the vintage sideways might expose the holes towards the top of the lyre? I'm sure with the two in hand he'd be able to tell right away before making any big changes.

I had the lyre on a SG/LP Custom reissue, loved that guitar and dug the hardly used trem at that.

The original "Sideways" vibrola is a piece of crap! I would sincerely talk your customer out of even doing this. It may cover the holes, but most of the assembly is cast metal and would deaden the tone/sustain vs. the steel build of the long or short Vibrola.

Thiese pics might give you a better idea. The Vibrola from my '63-'65 Firebird VII over the top of the Sideways Vib on my '63 SG.








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As you can see, the front mounting holes of the later style Vib would be visible if you removed the cover of the sideways Vib but would robably be hidden when the cover was on. But why would you want to make the change? I think the sideways Vib looks quite cool but is completely useless as a Vib in my experience. Which is why I removed the springs on mine and replaced them with Steel tubing. It's now locked down and the tuning is completely stable.

altoricky said:

Thiese pics might give you a better idea. The Vibrola from my '63-'65 Firebird VII over the top of the Sideways Vib on my '63 SG.


As you can see, the front mounting holes of the later style Vib would be visible if you removed the cover of the sideways Vib but would robably be hidden when the cover was on. But why would you want to make the change? I think the sideways Vib looks quite cool but is completely useless as a Vib in my experience. Which is why I removed the springs on mine and replaced them with Steel tubing. It's now locked down and the tuning is completely stable.

Click to expand...

Thank you sir! That's exactly what I was looking for.

The change is purely visual / sentimental. It will also be locked.

Thanks again for the pics! Perfect :salude