replacing saddles

DirtySteve

DirtySteve

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What are the best replacement saddles for a Gibson ABR-1 wireless bridge?. Some numb nut set up my LP (previous owner had it setup...poorly) and the notches in the saddles were cut way deep. I ordered a new replacement Nashville bridge but it totally killed the mojo and liveliness of the guitar, it was like the tone knob was rolled way down and muddied up the tone. I tried it twice to be sure it wasn't just me being nitpicky and it's not. It's a tonepros AVR-II not a cheapo.. So I went back to the stock bridge, but with the strings so low in the saddles it's messing with my palm muting and making it hard to control like I like and all I feel is the pointy corners of the saddles under my hand. I thought I'd just get used to it, but I'm not and it's getting to be annoying.

Anyway, I just rather replace the saddles if I can, do any of you guys have any recommendations or advice?
 
DirtySteve said:
What are the best replacement saddles for a Gibson ABR-1 wireless bridge?. Some numb nut set up my LP (previous owner had it setup...poorly) and the notches in the saddles were cut way deep. I ordered a new replacement Nashville bridge but it totally killed the mojo and liveliness of the guitar, it was like the tone knob was rolled way down and muddied up the tone. I tried it twice to be sure it wasn't just me being nitpicky and it's not. It's a tonepros AVR-II not a cheapo.. So I went back to the stock bridge, but with the strings so low in the saddles it's messing with my palm muting and making it hard to control lik1640048507080.pnge I like and all I feel is the pointy corners of the saddles under my hand. I thought I'd just get used to it, but I'm not and it's getting to be annoying.

Anyway, I just rather replace the saddles if I can, do any of you guys have any recommendations or advice?
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Personally I like the nylon saddles.
It helps keep the microphonics to a minimum and helps sustain to be more controllable.
If it's a real Gibson bridge, then go buy real Gibson parts from a Gibson dealer.
1640048507015.png
You can probably tell that I like Gibson hardware / PUs and Gibson in general.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
Personally I like the nylon saddles.
It helps keep the microphonics to a minimum and helps sustain to be more controllable.
If it's a real Gibson bridge, then go buy real Gibson parts from a Gibson dealer.
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It's a Standard so it's a real Gibson bridge. I have read many pros and cons about the nylon saddles and I am curious about them. I'm a hard rock guy and I wonder how nylon saddles are with high gain chug. I have it stuck in my head that nylon saddles would "mellow" the tone, maybe not true, but it's the way I think of it.

What do you mean by "helps sustain to be more controllable"?
 
DirtySteve said:
It's a Standard so it's a real Gibson bridge. I have read many pros and cons about the nylon saddles and I am curious about them. I'm a hard rock guy and I wonder how nylon saddles are with high gain chug. I have it stuck in my head that nylon saddles would "mellow" the tone, maybe not true, but it's the way I think of it.

What do you mean by "helps sustain to be more controllable"?
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I would say that nylon helps decrease the ringing / microphonics / squealing that happens with boosting the gain way up.
I would not hesitate to use that for metal music. No it really didn't make it mellow but I tried it both ways and I thought the nylon worked better.

Many people think that metal / brass saddle / nut is going to improve the sustain or improve the sound.
But I found that it's really the opposite.
I didn't find any advantage to using any of the metal / brass or whatever parts.

The real deciding factor was the wood that the guitar is made out of.
I think that has the biggest influence of all.
I think it worked best with a nylon nut and nylon saddles.
 
jtcnj said:
can you just file the ends of the existing saddles a bit?
IF not for total height then just to relieve the pointiness?
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I thought of that, like filing them flat on top like Nashville saddles are, but I didn't know if I should do that. And honestly, that seems like a lot of tedious work to me, I think I'd rather just replace the saddles.
 
eSGEe said:
tusq
graphtech.com

Guitar Parts, Upgrades and Accessories

Graph Tech is the worlds largest nut and saddle manufacturer. The makers of Tusq, String Saver Saddles, Ratio Tuners, and many other high quality Guitar upgrade parts and accessories. We have everything you need to upgrade your guitar, bass, ukulele, mandolin and many other stringed instruments!
graphtech.com graphtech.com
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My bridge is stamped Gibson ABR-1 on the bottom.
 
smitty_p said:
What are your thoughts about using Graphtech saddles?
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It's a string saver concept which is less friction than brass or whatever metal.
I used a graphtech bridge and it worked good on a Les Paul.
Graphtech is actually Gotoh hardware I'm fairly certain. Graphtech seems to be the US distributor for Gotoh and they sell Ratio Tuners, Tusq nuts, and other parts.
 
NOW u guys tell me about GOLD Metric? Saddles for a Washburn HB 30 bridge? What would you guys suggest here?

DO the saddles made over seas do metric saddles like they do Tuner bushings, Stop Tail and Bridge parts specs like bushings and threads for the screws etc?
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
It's a string saver concept which is less friction than brass or whatever metal.
I used a graphtech bridge and it worked good on a Les Paul.
Graphtech is actually Gotoh hardware I'm fairly certain. Graphtech seems to be the US distributor for Gotoh and they sell Ratio Tuners, Tusq nuts, and other parts.
Click to expand...


THE GRAPH TECH STORY​


In the early 80's, Dave Dunwoodie, Graph Tech's President, was mid-performance at a gig in his hometown of Vancouver, Canada. Hitting the tremolo bar on his first Fender® Strat (he was a Gibson® man) during a guitar solo, he was immediately introduced to the problem of string binding on traditional guitar nuts
1640228066018.pngGraph Tech branded products sit at the top level of each product category we enter, offering patented technologies through innovative research, development and testing accomplished within our laboratories in British Columbia, Canada.

About us​

Graph Tech Guitar Labs is the first high performance guitar component laboratory of its kind, offering the guitar industry a powerful research and development facility, trusted and utilized by the majority of major guitar manufacturers, including: Fender, Gibson, Godin, Epiphone, Carvin, Taylor, Walden and Yamaha.
 
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Session 5 said:

THE GRAPH TECH STORY​


In the early 80's, Dave Dunwoodie, Graph Tech's President, was mid-performance at a gig in his hometown of Vancouver, Canada. Hitting the tremolo bar on his first Fender® Strat (he was a Gibson® man) during a guitar solo, he was immediately introduced to the problem of string binding on traditional guitar nuts
View attachment 77475Graph Tech branded products sit at the top level of each product category we enter, offering patented technologies through innovative research, development and testing accomplished within our laboratories in British Columbia, Canada.

About us​

Graph Tech Guitar Labs is the first high performance guitar component laboratory of its kind, offering the guitar industry a powerful research and development facility, trusted and utilized by the majority of major guitar manufacturers, including: Fender, Gibson, Godin, Epiphone, Carvin, Taylor, Walden and Yamaha.
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I still think Graph Tech is actually Gotoh.
I think all the parts they sell come from China or Japan.

I still see nothing wrong with using Gibson parts for a Gibson bridge.

But I still think that using metal saddles or a metal nut...does not actually have any advantage over bone, nylon, or other alternative material.
The non-metal parts always seemed to work better, and sounded better, had better sustain.

The most legendary guitars in all of history --- used nylon nuts.
 
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Amp Mad Scientist said:
I still think Graph Tech is actually Gotoh.

I still see nothing wrong with using Gibson parts for a Gibson bridge.

But I still think that using metal saddles or a metal nut...does not actually have any advantage over bone, nylon, or other alternative material.
The non-metal parts always seemed to work better, and sounded better, had better sustain.
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You would need back to back testing to prove the theory. I can't see a softer, less dense material having more sustain. The Gibson nylon saddles were more of a vibrola thing, IMHO.

I like metal saddles and I prefer brass nuts.

All my guitars have insane levels of sustain and unplugged volume/liveliness.
 
Robert Herndon said:
You would need back to back testing to prove the theory. I can't see a softer, less dense material having more sustain. The Gibson nylon saddles were more of a vibrola thing, IMHO.

I like metal saddles and I prefer brass nuts.

All my guitars have insane levels of sustain and unplugged volume/liveliness.
Click to expand...

I would take a crappy sounding guitar...(dead sounding / no sustain / etc)
I would change the nut, bridge, saddles, pickups, even pickup rings, strings, electronics, pots.....
and it still sounded like crap, no matter what parts were on it.

After years of this, it turned out that the biggest factor of all was the wood.
The wood made the biggest difference by far.
And you can reach this conclusion after trying to make a crappy guitar sound good..it won't, no matter what.

So it really didn't turn out to be a "parts issue."
It's what holds the parts together, that is the real issue.
 
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