Roller bridge: Just a Gimmick? | Guitar Tech Tips | Ep.88 | Thomann 

Almost all bases...have a luthier instal a "zero" fret by cutting the nut in half and placing the nut in front of it. The zero fret lifts the strings a fraction so they don't bind in the slots of the nut. The nut still functions as before to align the strings and prevent side to side play.

I've had both, and the graphtech isn't what it's cracked up to be. The tone is great and they're nice and light, but they aren't nearly as effective for tuning stability as a roller bridge.

How was the sustain was there any difference

Same here. I love them.

Same situation with my guitars

Only on my les Paul as well to limit string breaks.

I agree. My buddy had sharp saddles, broke strings all the time. Roller everything is good. Roller: bridge saddles, nuts, string trees.

true...i have a 14" radius bridge on my 12" radius epiphone...NO ISSUES...in fact a bridge slightly flatter than neck feels great to me...did it again on purpose on another guit

I hope they make versions with other Radiuses to accommodate various Guitars

Two of the three roller bridges I tried that were stated to have a 12" radius were actually 18" to 20" the last one I bought and now use was a true 12" radius and it works out great with my Bigsby. I actually bought it because the original roller on the guitar I bought (used) was a 20" and my neck has a 12" radius. All Parts sells shims (Amazon has them) for locking roller bridges so you can adjust the radius by individual saddle if you want. Or you can make your own shims. I didn't need to use shims after I found the correct radius bridge but it was an option I considered. I was more concerned about the action on my D & G strings setting a higher limit than I wanted for my B & E (not to mention E & A) vs. staying in tune. Staying in tune was not really an issue and I ride the Bigsby a bit harder than demonstrated here some of the time when I use it but I do bend the shit out of the G, B & A all the time. I not saying I didn't have to check my tuning between songs here and there with the roller but I always do anyway with any guitar I play since the Snark type tuners came along a few decades back. Between bends and whammy I tend to push it sometimes.

The metal zero fret nut on the 2015-2016 Les Paul Classic is pretty low-friction, unless you use flat-wound strings. And even with flat wounds, it is better than a plastic or bone nut.

Thanks a lot Charles! :) Cheers //Kris

That's the ultimate safety right there! 👍 I bet it's a cool guitar! Cheers //Kris

Thanks a lot! //Kris

I'm really curious as to which brand you bought. 10 minutes ago I ordered an ABM roller bridge for my Country Classic 6122 - 1958, I hope this noise issue is relevant for different brands!

What?

You'll love it! ABM has mind blowing quality! Cheers //Kris

On Gibson LP with tusq xl nut and les trem I tried two roller bridges, this abm and tonepros, both did not work well enough, strings do not return to zero, but stay a bit in the direction of the last trem arm move.

Put a piece of foam underneath pickup !

Are you talking about adjusting the intonation on the bridge (with the skrews)? Or about filling and re-drilling the bridge posts? Either way, yes it's possible to fix. Learning to do it yourself is worth the time.

What bridge do you use for your Jazzmaster? The TOM (or AOM) on mine are cut too low I think so my strings sound tinny and metallic

@@josuesorto3453 i went with a roller bridge by ABM. But there are other options by mastery a.o. but whatch out of these are made to replace TOMs or the original type of moving bridge.

Haha, thanks man! 😄 Well, actually anyone who watches our "Better tuning stability with a bigsby" episode can get this same bridge setup. But yeah, the safest way is going for a good quality roller bridge, like this awesome ABM. Cheers //Kris

I understand why they made it that way but I think it is still bad design. Having a grub screw from the back or front like Tone Pros is better or a nut at the top to lock like Fader. In every other way the ABM looks high quality. It seems that nobody solves all the problems with these bridges.

I'd like to know more about this.

😄👍

The rollers have some play (air gap), so for slight moves of trem, rollers tilt on their base back and forth, and really roll with more substantial trem dives. These ABM bridges have much less air gap than TonePros, though.

rocker bridge is supposed to wobble

@@ericajohnson7535 of course.

The colours are just for personal preference, you can pick half a dozen. The whole single-colour display changes. Think of the striped disc as a rotating wheel. If it's perfectly in-tune (to 0.1 cents!) it's stationary. If it's sharp it drifts clockwise. Flat counterclockwise. The speed of the drift tells you how far off. It's a different technology and visual representation than the traffic lights in say Boss/Snark. It doesn't need multicolour, the speed of the spin gives you that info. Iyswim.

I have the same problem with my roller bridge, it’s almost like a clicking noise.

@@PaulCooksStuff This is very accurate, thank You 💓 Why there are two stripped discs? Is it different harmonic frequencies or what?

@@ArturBrzozowski444 there are vids and tech descriptions of how strobes work on the Peterson website. I read them once, but I haven't needed to remember the details. Just direction of rotation and speed were the only things I needed to remember to use it. The shape of the stripe seems historical to me - older mechanical strobes used that pattern, so they mimicked it in the electronic display for familiarity I guess.

@@PaulCooksStuff Right, they have manuals 😅 You're great man, thanks once again!

Do you recommend Les Trem II? I'm thinking about installing it on my Epiphone LP Special and I'm worried about tuning stability

​@@ArturBrzozowski444 I have zero tuning issues with my 335 style HB. The other thing you should definitley install is a *String Butler* (Look at Darrell Braun's review for more). I also gave it a Graphtec TUSQ nut, and the Les Trem II itself is flawless. And it has a far greater range than any Bigsby. It also looks nicer if you ask me. Not as clunky and massive as the Big Bs.

IT'S A CONSPIRACY!!! 🤣 Thanks buddy! //Kris

Did you have problems with Radius. I read earlier about some problems with the radius being different on roller saddles then Gibsons

@@MrTestallica I had one I took to a luthier and I just wasn’t possible. String butler helps with most tuning issues though. My ‘96 r8 it was close. The middle strings have low action but no buzz. The others are fine but a touch higher. The strings are more level than the radius but it’s barely noticeable unless you really look for it. It won’t work with all gibsons though

Hey, do you mean the roller bridge? There's a gear link in the video description, check it out. If you mean the standard bridge, it's just the one the guitar came with (original Gibson ABR-1). Cheers //Kris

Tele? Tune-o-matic? This does not compute.

@@Ndlanding I'm saying that my first guitar was a tele, so I got into the habit of putting my palm ON the bridge when I palm muted, and when I started playing a Gibson I discovered the Tune-O-Matic would dig into my hand and make me bleed if I tried those tricks with that bridge. But when I switched to a wilkinson roller bridge it felt nice again.

@@baileywatts1304 I think I see, but I've used both bridges for many years and I can't see how a T-o-M can dig into your hand, since it has no protruding screws. I always try and shim Fenders (if I really have ot) so that the grub screws are as low as possible, cos I do hate them sticking into my delicate mitt.

You need new springs.

It's an ES-330L and I think they only made these around 2015. So it has the contours and pickups of a 335 but it's full hollow. Cheers //Kris

The pattern around the letter should stand still if the string is perfectly tuned.

You made a point: swapping the bridge might change the tone…!

I'm not certain I can hear that, but the roller bridge is certainly not darker sounding.

Yeah. That did seem to be the case.

Filed. You should try a roller bridge sometime. Especially with wound strings.

No meter what nut you have, bridge can bind your strings and get tilted. Also gibson headstocks have some much angle down and to the side, so that does not completely solve the nut binding.

​@@iromanovsky but...nobody said anything about the nut ...this is about the bridge saddles. The nut can also be cut to a proper angle and lubricated and you will be fine (its not as easy on G Les Pauls, but if its done right, your strings wont get caught on it)

I was thinking the same thing. With the low-friction roller bridge, tuning should be smoother and more responsive to small changes in both directions, up and down. Adding a zero-fret nut or roller nut would reduce the friction even more. Locking tuners with less than one turn of string on the post would add to the responsiveness. You should have been able to get that strobe pattern to stand still on every string before starting the test.