Gave my Traditional some TLC today..

DirtySteve

DirtySteve

Ambassador of Hold My Beer
Country flag
I got my new RS Guitarworks harness installed, also a new reverse zebra Wolfetone Timbre Wolf bridge pickup so it looks right now. I went back to the original ABR-1 bridge (I had an aluminum Nashville on it) and decided to try stringing it up the regular way, I've top wrapped for years. Not sure if the bridge is going to stay, but that's an easy experiment to see which one I like better, I just wanted to put it back stock and go from there. I had to raise the tail piece a little to clear the back of the bridge, but not much. With the Nashville bridge I top wrapped simply because I had to raise the tailpiece higher than I was comfortable with to clear it. I also scraped and re-oiled the fret board.

I'm really happy with the results. :yesway:

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I will say this though, when I removed the bridge and tailpiece today I noticed that top wrapping has pulled the tailpiece up on the back side causing it to tilt forward and dent the finish underneath it on the front side. I wish I had taken a pic so you could see what I mean. Luckily it's under the tailpiece so you can't see it unless you remove it. I've never had that happen before, it kind of pissed me off when I saw it. It's the only flaw in the finish...so far...and I did it.
 
Thatbastarddon said:
If I had a husk, with no stopbar, I’d think about it…or a top wrap that was not working as desired…like tilting forward too much, and/or putting too much stress on the inserts…
Click to expand...

One of the things about it that interests me is that the strings look like they come out about half way between normal and top wrap on a regular stop bar. Maybe if someone buys my speaker I'll try one...unless I can think of something better to do with the money. But that's a big "maybe". I'll say this in favor of normal stringing, it took way less stretching to get the strings to stabilize than it does when top wrapping. I really liked that part.
 
DirtySteve said:
I will say this though, when I removed the bridge and tailpiece today I noticed that top wrapping has pulled the tailpiece up on the back side causing it to tilt forward and dent the finish underneath it on the front side. I wish I had taken a pic so you could see what I mean. Luckily it's under the tailpiece so you can't see it unless you remove it. I've never had that happen before, it kind of pissed me off when I saw it. It's the only flaw in the finish...so far...and I did it.
Click to expand...
I have been slowly adding Tone Pros locking studs to all my tailpieces to prevent that. It locks the tailpiece to the stud so it doesn't tilt. Especially nice on guitars like SG Juniors and Specials that have the tailpiece bridge.

SS1 – TonePros Sound Labs International
 
Ok, I have slight issue...

The Nashville bridge I've been using is aluminum from Philadelphia Luthier and is considerably lighter weight than the stock Gibson ABR-1 that I just put back on. I like the look and feel of the stock ABR-1, but the tone is considerably darker than the aluminum Nashville bridge.

I'm looking for a better sounding ABR-1 than the stock bridge. My biggest issue is that most replacement bridges only come with the direct mounted posts and I need bushing mounted posts. The only ones I find that use bushing mounted posts are Faber and Tonepros, but the best I can tell, they don't come in aluminum.

Does anybody have any recommendations for a replacement ABR-1 (preferably with pre-notched saddles) with bushing post mounts that's better than the stock Gibson Bridge?
 
I've used top wrap for a couple years,
1. To make the strings "feel" slinkier,
2. To sink to the tail piece to the body. (More resonance)

Overall I don't perceive all that much measurable difference. YMMV .
 
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