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The guitar is Washburn G5V, I suppose it's around 25 years old. It's a great sounding guitar I'd like to keep for a long time, and there's a problem with the vintage Floyd Rose bridge - it has these hex bolts that lock the strings in and they're all worn out and I'm having huge difficulties changing the strings cause my hex key can't screw the bolts out.

Sample bridge with the bolts in:

Floyd rose example with bolts

Sample bolt extracted from the bridge:

My hex key and a bolt

Dimensions:

2mm thickness 12mm length (with head top) 10mm length (without head top)

No local shops have bolts of the corresponding width, and I haven't been able to find these online for purchase. Where can I get new set of bolts for installment? Also, the local guitar repairman had no clue. I'm lucky to have gotten the hex key from a nice guy in a guitar shop, their guess was "You'll never find this for purchase. Better off buying a new bridge."

Can this be ordered from Floyd Rose directly as bridge parts?

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    Even if you could find that for purchase, +1 on getting a new bridge. You might pull one of your pickup ring screws and find a matching ones at a hardware store and replace those also, just to keep things nice and un-rusted.
    – Todd Wilcox
    May 5, 2015 at 15:21
  • Why don't you speak to Washburn about it. They may be more than willing to help keep one of their oldies going.
    – Tim
    May 5, 2015 at 16:18

2 Answers 2

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The correct name for these screws are "Metric Socket Head Cap / Allen Screws (DIN 912)". Google this for your area.

Here in the Uk M2 X 12 are aprox £5 per hundred.

Are you sure of your dimensions as Floyd Rose being a USA company the may be using American standard threads. The following may be used.

1-72 UNF 1.854mm or 2-64 UNF 2.184mm

1-64 UNC 1.854mm or 2-56 UNC 2.184mm

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  • +1 for 'non-metric'. American stuff is (and was) usually imperial. Strings are still quoted as 'thous'!
    – Tim
    May 5, 2015 at 16:52
  • another +1 for Imperial… there'd be at least one more for Whitworth & derivatives… no wonder you can never find a spanner to fit… took me years to find a socket driver to fit my Rikki truss-rods & still have enough play to actually turn them.
    – Tetsujin
    May 5, 2015 at 20:00
  • @Tetsujin Actually for small sizes under 1/4 inch us British used to use BA series screws. 8 or 0BA is near 2mm.
    – david strachan
    May 6, 2015 at 13:15
  • I'm glad we went metric ;)
    – Tetsujin
    May 6, 2015 at 13:48
  • I've found them finally on ebay UK. Gonna order them. I'm from Croatia so no way I could have found it here locally.
    – Glorious Kale
    May 7, 2015 at 12:19
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Unless you find a place that stocks vintage parts, I'd suggest going to your local hardware store, as they may have these. Some may even be able to fabricate them for you.

That said, the whole trem looks like it needs some serious TLC - you could do as the guitar tech suggested and replace it.

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