Kawai / Teisco
4 "nuclear" Teisco pickups; 6 Rocker Switches.
Tone right down to a banshee's bones.
1967?
HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS KAWAI / TEISCO'S POOR BRIDGE DESIGN:

This bridge would work just fine and fully accurate for slide guitar since compensated intonation is for finger playing to compensate for string stretch when fingering strings upon the fretboard;  While a purely slide guitar's saddle should be perpendicular to the strings and non-compensated to allow for modified Just Intonation.  A compensated or intoneable bridge is required to intone a happey medium if dedicated slide playing will include fingering behind the slide.

This bridge on this guitar is height adjustable but has a straight saddle perpendicular to the strings and is not compensated nor is it compensatable as-is.  The saddle piece floats on thumbwheels secured to a bridge plate that is screwed down to the guitar body by 2 screws.  HOWEVER, there are many options for a compensating bridge or saddle if desired (listed here in order of least invasive and complexity):

()  The treble-side bridge plate mounting screw can be removed, allowing the bridge plate to tilt it's treble side forward and still held in place well and tight by the remaining screw on the bass side, allowing a straight saddle compensation like on any number of guitars such as flattop acoustics, vintage Danelectros, and even some Gretschs.

()  There are any number of compensatable or intoneable bridges available to replace this original bridge, and the chances are good that just the saddle part could be found to match up with this guitar's bridge plate post spacing.  Finding a compensated or intoneable bridge or bridge saddle to fit this bridge's base plate studs span should not be overly difficult;  Visit Allparts and Warmoth online parts for ideas you might prefer.  Measure the Kawai's stud spacing and studs diameter to provide the parts houses' sales reps who are always eager to help fit parts.

()  A replacement floating compensated saddle piece could be machined for this original bridge plate, even with common hand tools.  I have a hand-made one on my personal Danelectro 1457 which works like a charm.

() A bridge plate for tuneable saddles can be fabricated quite easily out of angle aluminum or steel stock to match right up to the mounting screw holes of this guitar's bridge plate (no additional screw holes to drill).  Or a similar flat stock piece made to match the stud spacing of a desired floating bridge saddle assembly such as a Fender Mustang, Jazzmaster or Jaguar.

() I have compensatable bridges but would require drilling small holes for the receiver stud cups.

() With minimal mounting holes drilled for their mounting cups, a Fender Mustang, Jazzmaster or Jaguar bridge could replace the entire original bridge assembly, allowing for good vibrato string action across the saddles even with this guitar's existing vibrato, or a Bigsby or Gibson Vibrola vibrato replacement.  The Gibson SG / Firebird "Vibrola" is by far my favorite vibrato assembly, affording up and down pitch action that always returns back to tuning if, as with all vibratos, the strings are pre-stretched.

() Gibson / Epiphone style Tuneamatic / Stop tailpiece combos or stand-alone stop tailpiece bridges could be installed via more and larger holes drilled into the body.  Round or roller or graphite saddles on tuneamatic bridges work much better with vibratos than wedge ridge saddles common on tuneamatic bridges.

() Click Here for an extensive pre-loaded search for guitar bridges and vibratos on ebay.

()  Click Here for other parts dealers.

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