I've encountered the topic of ABR-1 style bridges getting flattened by string tension before... the solution was always either to replace or re-file the saddle nothches to reflect the radius (ie. on StewMac). I've honestly never seen anybody even considering, let alone showcasing, giving a try to straighten the whole bridge, and it's a "so simple that it's embarassing nobody thought of it" moment. I just love how every thing you do goes through the "what can be done in this case and what's the pros and cons of it, what you need to watch out for" thought process that you can clearly explain to your viewers. You're a true renaissance man Ted, both an artist and a scholar to the full extent.
Wow! I just learned something & I've been messing with guitars for 40+ years! Seems like the metal is just too soft for those heavy bottoms maybe. I do know that cast parts can have really uneven grain structure
I know the bridge is one thing, but I'm also learning about the people who like to top wrap, there's a company called Lightning guitars who makes a very cool tailpiece which gives the best break angle to the bridge with the tailpiece completely seated
I'm having one of those days when when everything seems to be going to shit yaknow, circumstances just piled up and now all i can do is to just curl up in bed a and try to start fixing a goddamn mess when i wake up tomorrow. Your videos allow me to relax, and to feel good about something even when everything feels like it's getting to be a bit too much for me, so, thank you. You are an artist.
I was always a "deck the tailpiece" guy. Then I bought a brand new ES-339 when they came out. It came from the factory with the tailpiece off the deck almost 3/8". I was skeptical at first, but it played like butter and sounded fantastic. I decked it, and the guitar lost something special, so I raised it back up. Now I am a believer in moving it to suit the guitar, the overall sound and feel, the style, and the player. Yet another thing that was absolute to me, now in old age learning that there is nuance in everything, and never believe what the internet tells you without some personal experimentation. Now lets talk about those 7.25" Fender necks...
I love your videos, im a cabinet maker from the faroe islands. 50k people and i love doing repairs. You have becially educated me in everything. :P thank you man!!
Thank you for this! I had bought a Casino Worn that I’m coming to realize, needs shims on both pickups (mostly neck). I was just recently trying to find a way around the exorbitant cost of the branded shims and was contemplating making some. Documented procedure “check”! Your show is top drawer by the way. Please keep the great content coming!
About the feel of tension vs scale length and break angle, most people seem to miss a couple things. The sharper break angle with a TOM and tail piece offers a little more friction, not necessarily a problem, but enough to feel, combine that with such short string length between the bridge(and therefore the break angle) and the tail piece, and it generally feels a little stiff. More string length after the break angle, like with a string thru, offers more string to be stretched during play, contributing to a loose feel. Neither really represent problems, just things I've noticed between guitar types, stop tail/string thru/double locked/ect, and the way they feel to play. Cool video as always!
Yeah, the break angle doesn't change the strings' tension but it does change the yield of that little bit of string slack behind the bridge. Bigger the break angle less yield.
You can't have less tension ("looser feel") while maintaining the same pitch. During bends, this "looser feel" would necessarily require you to bend that much further to achieve the same tension required to achieve the same bent note played with the supposedly higher tension created by a sharp break angle. The string can only be one specific level of tension to be a specific pitch and requires a precise level of further tension to be raised to a specific higher pitch. Same pitch = same tension.
The Les Paul classics from that era were SO cool. I'd love one of the gold tops from that era. They then started doing them with those strange green inlays which I never understood.
My Les Paul had bridge sag about 20 years ago and I was able to bend it back with shims and C-clamps on the edge of my bench, approximating the same function as your bench vise jig. At the same time I reduced the break angle and thus the pressure to make the bridge sag by threading the strings into the stop tail backwards and wrapping them over the top. The stop tail is right down on the deck & I still have sufficient break angle that's evidenced by no reduction in tone or sustain. It's held up like this for nearly 2 decades so I guess I must have done something right.
@@jarrusjenkins I considered that too but I'm a fix it 'til it can't be fixed anymore kind of guy. It often makes no financial sense but that's just how I'm wired.
@@jarrusjenkins Gotoh makes excellent hardware across the board with constantly high value-for-money. My favorite is their 201 Fender replacement bridge.
Facing the same P-90 problem, I bought a couple of cheap P-90 covers, and carefully cut the tops off with my bandsaw, creating instant shims. A wee bit of finish work, and they were ready to use. I'm lazy.
Damnit Ted! Most people say that safety never takes a holiday. In my shop, safety doesn't even take a coffee break. Get it together man! HAHA! Great video as always. I have learned so much from you. I thank you sir.
Outstanding info in the Les Paul world of electric solid archtops! Truth be told, all the Gibson guitars I ever played, I've never liked any of them! Whether acoustic or electric, none could never match up to other makers of other guitars. One instrument they do make that I would love to have is the "A" series of mandolins. The ones I've tried were amazing! Even an A0 was wonderful and my Uncle let me try it and it was hard to put it down and I never was one again. There's others like that by other makers and I own a Martin from the late 60s just before they stopped making them and they have tiny necks. I'm 66 yrs old, and my first and last mandolin will most likely be a Martin with its tiny neck. Maybe a Chinese mandolin will cross my path like a Cort or a Harley Benton. Today it's a Martin.
I was trying to figure out how you might go about straightening that bridge and realised that a vise would be involved but was just trying to imagine what kind of spacers would work and of course you produced a really well thought out jig for that ! Nice work Ted !
Great tip on the bridge straightening jig. I've the problem in other videos but have never had one come in my shop. Good to know they can be fixed at least once. Thanks Ted.
Sean its no dumb question at all, I love the thoughts which arise thinking about it. Things like the ABR-1 idea of the longer thinner 6-32 brass screws transferring vibration deeper into the body than the slightly wider Nashville style on heavier posts into metal collars in the body. And then there's the Babicz full contact bridge taking discovery even further. The magic of those sound posts in violins tuning bridge to body response, beyond my comprehension. Wishing I could compare them all to satisfy the curiosity but mostly, my wallet says "Whatcha got is good enough Riv'!"
Outstanding work, as usual. Just wanted to mention that after watching your video on replacing the adjustable saddle, on that 60's Gibson, with a tight fitting plug (in case someone wants to put everything back to stock, nothing was permanently altered) I decided to try it my self on my 65 Texan. I'm very happy with it and I couldn't believe the difference it made in the sound. Night and day difference. I actually made a video of it too. I wish I could have afforded to have a luthier do the work, but with the way the world is today, I decided to try it my self. I am very happy with it. Keep up the awesome content.
Radiusing a floyd rose this way would be an interesting experiment. *I have shimmed several, but for whatever reason it has never performed well so I ended up filing each saddle which produced action that will surpass even hard tail fulcrum tremolos.* The process was unfortunately ridiculously tedious and the saddle order did not descend from strings 3 and 4 like expected. *3 ended up being lower than 1, but it was worth the effort.* *The day will come soon enough when I do it to more guitars now that you can buy a good quality Floyd for $20 out of China.* Another ironic story is 20 years ago when there was a guitar player's chatroom full of virtuoso guitarists, someone spent $400 on a brand new, authentic Floyd Rose made in America and it still had all the out of box issues as the ones from China for $35 in those days! *BTW, the floyds I filed saddles that did the best were oddly enough, string through versions.* I'm working on a mod to convert a locking to string through so the fine tuners can still be used. It's an easy conversion in terms of pulling the bolts and blocks to feed the strings through the bolt hole, but then you have no fine tuners anymore 😒
You could drill a hole trough the fine tuning screws and feed the string trough them, maybe add a washer so that the string can rotate freely (or machine an special screw and insert for this purpose, going between the screw and the string, with some channels for bearing spheres).
@@artbk I have considered doing exactly that now that I have a precision drill press and scrap bridges collected to experiment with, but it will still be a difficult process to coordinate the work and get through the hardened metal. *Strangely, I have used a lot of fender vintage styled 2-point floating tremolos with no locking parts and graphite or even polished aluminum and brass nuts, and once the strings are broke in, they return to pitch accurately like one would never expect.* What I often did was simply tighten the screws heavily on the knobs and this pressure is enough to make the knob quite rigid to turning by hand, so the string pressure shifts don't budge them whatsoever. As of the last few years, I rarely ever lock the nut because I've hardly touched the trem bar whereas previously, I would grab it dozens of times throughout the day. *This habit rose from not wanting to deal with fine tuning them lol.* Anyway, with dozens of guitars packed away that need some minor repairs, upgrades or adjustments, it's time to get busy. *I have a few dozen guitars and only one that meets my standards ATM that is worth playing daily.* It's a long story(longer than this one) as to why, but I have always been a stickler for having no less than 3 grab and go electrics at all times and broke that rule a whopping 5 years ago. This does however exclude 3 8-string guitars that used to be my daily players, but it's just an endlessly long story of digressing lol. I will close by making the point that a couple weeks of playing an 8-string daily makes playing a 6 string like a child's toy. My skillset gets so high from the switch that I feel strangely embarrassed like I'm playing with children's toys.
Always, thank you. Your DIY fix-it jigs always get a "yes and amen" from this hack guitar guy. I'll booger mine before I'll touch someone else's. Always learning. Thanks again.
Just as you said "it's ok don't send them to me", I was thinking, I bet I can send him some transfer punches. It never occured to me that if you wanted a transfer punch you would own them. LOL. Thanks for the content. I love watching it. You've taught me enough to at least setup my guitar.
pretty much all gibson tune-o-matic bridges sag in the middle over time, they're just pot metal. for many years now my routine has been to set one upside down with the ends resting on my opened-up bench vise and _gently_ hammer all over the middle area with my little fretting hammer to sort of "massage" it straight again that works just fine and i've avoided the idea of straight-up pressing it in the vise for fear that it would crack but it might be time to revisit the idea
Coin collectors also know about PVC ruining coins lol. The PVC will leach out and actually corrode a coin. You can remove it with acetone, but there will be a pit left behind.
Man I wish I would’ve studied to be a luthier. I’m too old now to start over in life, being 53. I do home repair and I’m really good at it because of being raised by super anal Tool and Die maker who I could rarely impress growing up. It made me a perfectionist. But I really like this kind of work. Maybe in another life. Great job sir. You always impress.
You inadvertently slipped up and revealed your great guitar playing that it seems you typically sandbag your viewers on. Those are the tasty licks of an Artiste.
I prefer the sound with the tailpiece right on the body (psychological? maybe) and top wrap specifically to keep the strings above the back of the bridge having learnt a few years ago that it is possible, to my amazement, to bend a girder. Also it is probably no bad thing to keep the wound strings away from anythng that will make the tuning potentially stepped or 'notchy'. Entertaining and informative as always. Thanks.
Changing the after length of the string doesn't chance it's tension, but it does affect the strings elasticity. Elasticity is measured over the entire length of the string - as the entire string has to be stretched up to pitch - not just the length of string from nut to bridge.
20:00 i did the same to the bridge of my 1996 studio that was collapsed much worse (Nashville style). I used only my workbench and a clamp. Worked fine and is disks for two years already. I agree that this way of fixing cannot be fine often but it definitely works for years.
I still have all of my 120+ Ken Griffey Jr baseball cards I collected in the early to mid 90s 🤣 plus every other card I had when I stopped actively collecting. Like every 90s kid, I thought it would be my ticket to retire on. Little did we know that the 90s were a bad time for baseball cards. Companies popped up left and right and the market was over-saturated so much that they're worth mostly nothing today. 1989 Upper Deck Griffey Rookie Card was $100 in the mid 90s. I'd be willing to be it hasn't broken $1000 and that's the card everyone wants.
Come on! Get some plastic and do it right! I bet you can do it with files and sanding blocks rather than a router table with a sketchy OSHA-not-approved power switch.
@fenderlead1, foam weatherstripping deteriorates, corrodes metal, outgasses, and may react with the guitar's finish. DON'T DO IT. I've been repairing vintage audio equipment for decades and dealing with crumbly, or gooey, old foam, and the damage it does to whatever it touches, is one of the worst parts of my job.
@@seanj3667 not about doing it right… I’ll probably still have almost a dozen or so leftover from various Lollar pick up purchases lol. It’s about trying new things and thinking outside the box. Someone else mentioned that the weatherstripping form can break down and off gas. That is a valid point! I’ve been using it for about 10 or 15 years and not seen any issues. That said some of the guitars I have are 65+ years old, in that context 15 years is but a blink of an eye.
hi..i love your vids. just to let u know mate try to find the mccarty interview when he says according to seth lover that they will put screws on p90 pickups to let the customer trying to think that he can adjust the power of the sound..wich got no influence at all .pickup raisers are the only effective way to do it. sorry for my english. i'm french.
She's aging nicely. Did you share a video of filling that hole in the neck? It looks familiar, though I've seen pretty much every video you've ever shared - even the earliest ones. Hmm... It might be worth revisiting those. I haven't seen 'em in years.
I just file the saddles.. including the stupid roller ones that wont accept the E and A if you use anything past a 38. seems like the coolest way I've seen yet here.
If you want to go down the sintra rabbithole: museums use a sintra-like product called Komacel for casework. It's artifact-approved, and thus free of nasty offgassing chemicals, though I'm not sure how thin it goes down - we usually get it in 12 or 19 mm.
It took me less than 40 minutes to print four pickup shims on my 3D printer. I can make them any height I want and even taper them if needed. Also, printing the part gives you more options in terms of color.
The piece of technology which likely would benefit you is a small 3 axis cnc router/carver or xtool p2 laser cutter. You could cut risers, pick guards, truss rod covers etc on that and bridges/necks/fret cuts on the cnc. That Gibson sounded amazing
I read, or saw in a video where Gibson sets the neck in a Les Paul with the fingerboard on. Apparently that's the wrong method to get a proper fit. Wonder why they don't set the neck, and then put on the fingerboard? I know people will say "Well that's the way they always did it" but you;d think they'd switch it up in that one particular area.
For this kind of stuff, I prefer to make the router templates on the 3D printer. Best of both worlds. No waiting when you're actually in production, accurate size and shapes, and no messed up/weak/shoddy result.
What's a new ABR-1? Seventy bucks? Not as if it's a vintage piece I'd pay luthier rate to repair. Of course the physics confirms that extra tensioned length for the same tuned length increases overall tension. DylanTalksTone did a great practical experiment on it a few years ago.
OH NO!... an L5 with TWO ALNICO P90's... divorces are expensive I'd do some really odd things to get my paws on a 54' LP custom because of the staple pickup, but an L5... can't wait to hear that one
I honestly go the other way and top wrap my strings on Les Paul's to give them a more "slinky " feel and slam the tail peice like that, I really prefer that for me anyway, just feels nice!
On the subject of tail piece height, I've noticed that having too steep of a break angle can lead to shortened string life, and tuning issues, especially if the string is contacting the bridge itself, and yes "overwrapping" the tail piece can "fix" that as well and can lead to a "spongier" feel to the strings, it also kills sustain and makes changing strings a total PITA in a dark back stage situation... I might have to try yer bridge chiropractor trick, I have a couple that are starting to sag, and I'd hate to put a shiny new one on, would stick out like a sore thumb
Yeah, not a wrapover fan either, unless it's a wraparound bridge to start with. Also, I never deck my tail piece on an ABR style system anymore and just adjust it slowly until I hit that Goldiclocks point where it just feels great for bends but not so loose the strings are too floppy for picking and chords. Everyone can choose what works for them best, but a full decking seems kinda OTT? Sure, you need a break angle but even a few turns will - IMHO - make your guitar feel and play better with zero effect on the mythical holy grail of sustain and tone :)
Bridge on my les paul is collapsed too, always thought that it will have to be replaced, but it's possible to bend it back? Thank you for your wisdom. Love watching your channel
Mike Adams is obsessed with break angle lol. His content was instrumental in me getting a good setup on my jag. Speaking of him, would love to see you work on an offset eventually.
Nice neck jig. If you reheat that metal it should realign the atoms to make it stiffer. Not sure what the correct temp would be for that metal but even a heating with a hair dryer would be better than room temp. Preheating before putting it in the jig should prevent possible cracking or breaking.
Even Gibson has used different sizes over the years. Epiphones from the same time period can have different shaped covers and even differently made pickups. No consistency at all. Good call on the Sintra for shims. I have a guitar that needs a shim like this, I some of that stuff in my scrap bin, I will give it a try. Man, that sure is a purty Les Paul. I've seen mashed in bridges before, I was working on a brand new Schechter 7 string a few years ago with an expensive Tone Pros bridge that was even worse then the one in this video. Dude special ordered the guitar, could not for the life of him get the buzz out of the middle strings.
