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Returning to stock hardware...

Classic

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I'm considering returning my '07 '57 Ri back to the stock hardware - bridge, tailpiece studs etc. Why shouldn't I be doing this? And will it make the guitar sound darker?
 

tdarian

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I'm considering returning my '07 '57 Ri back to the stock hardware - bridge, tailpiece studs etc. Why shouldn't I be doing this? And will it make the guitar sound darker?

What hardware is on there now?

On my 2011 R7 just migrating from steel Tailpiece studs to Brass (they were brass in 2007) takes quite a bit off the top end and also flattens dynamics a bit.

I'm not sure about the wired vs non wired ABR-1s as far as tone goes, curious.
 
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fjminor

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I'm considering returning my '07 '57 Ri back to the stock hardware - bridge, tailpiece studs etc. Why shouldn't I be doing this? And will it make the guitar sound darker?

I believe if you turn the lights lower or off all together in the room, the tone will become much darker than when lit........



























:dude: :jim :salude

j/k

However, I switched a couple of my guitars back to stock because I was readying them for sale then decided not to sell after the switch, however, after switching back to stock tuners, stock bridge, stock tailpiece and stock P/U Rings - I did not notice any dramatic tone difference. Which made me wonder why do I buy these AVH parts..???:hmm :## :hee
 
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Classic

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I switched a couple of my guitars back to stock because I was readying them for sale then decided not to sell after the switch, however, after switching back to stock tuners, stock bridge, stock tailpiece and stock P/U Rings - I did not notice any dramatic tone difference. Which made me wonder why do I buy these AVH parts..???:hmm :## :hee

What made you decide to keen the guitars after switching back?
 

Big Al

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Really??

Just do it. If you don't like it redo. Do you really need a vote, or a million different opinions about a guitar only you know?

Why'd you change the hardware? I never had to on any of mine. What was wrong that you corrected, and why would that be different now?
 

fjminor

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What made you decide to keen the guitars after switching back?

Purely costs, if you have after market expensive parts in your historic and sell it with such, I find no one wants to pay for it, and you will take a bath on them trying to sell, continually lowering your price. Take them out, sell them separately or save them for another guitar.

In addition, when playing the guitars after switching back to stock, they pretty much sound the same, maybe a small percentage different with the bridge and tailpiece.

My days hunting for the next great set of P/U rings are so over. So when any of my guitars go up for sale, they go back to stock, and I sell most of my guitars for the lowest price that I believe would strike the sale.:dude:
 
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BIG Dave

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The only thing that still bugs me on new Historics are those terrible pickup covers. Can't get past the radii. Looks so wrong to me. Everything else I now live with.
 

Classic

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Really??

Just do it. If you don't like it redo. Do you really need a vote, or a million different opinions about a guitar only you know?

Why'd you change the hardware? I never had to on any of mine. What was wrong that you corrected, and why would that be different now?

This is a good challenge Big Al and I can't really remember why I made the initial change other than for asthetic/Historical purposes. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the original parts.

Guess I was just interested to see who else had tried the mods and gone back, or not modded at all.
 

1jamman

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I'm not 1 of those who feels the need to swap out every part possible. I will change the pickups and other parts in 1 Historic I've chosen to be a test guitar , for just that purpose , it a tester , then anything goes. It's value (imo) as an unmolested stock guitar is gone . Unless something like a pot goes bad and I'm happy with its tone and playability, it all stays. For me it's all about playing and making music that's important .

Do what makes you happy. It's yours . Money comes and goes . Most guitars are not really good investments . But they can make good music .
 

Classic

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So I changed the tailpiece back to stock and wonder why I swapped it out in he first place. The sound is thicker, with more mids and I like it much better. Guess I've learned the lesson not to just swap parts without due consideration for what it's doing to tone.
 

landminelenny

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The only thing that still bugs me on new Historics are those terrible pickup covers. Can't get past the radii. Looks so wrong to me. Everything else I now live with.

Yeah those pickup covers look awful. I imagine Gibson will re-vamp the remaining various incorrect looking parts in the near future and market them as their latest accurate spec Historic guitars.
 

Classic

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I continued the next step of returning to the original metal hardware by reinstalling the 2007 wired ABR1. Now this surprised me as the sound did change here and again it was a preferable change. More body and more mids but also further balanced the bridge and neck pickup. I'm starting to believe that Gibson did know what they were doing even if some elements didn't look vintage correct. I don't know how brave I am in returning the abr Thumbwheels and tailpiece studs to stock but I might in time.
 

slammintone

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The only thing that still bugs me on new Historics are those terrible pickup covers. Can't get past the radii. Looks so wrong to me. Everything else I now live with.

I have to agree wholeheartedly but, the shiny ones do look a lot better than the phony aged ones. I mean I like aged PAF covers but the aged Burstbucker covers just look generic. What really sucks is those funky Gibson covers actually sound better IMO than the TV Jones or older Throbak covers I've tried on Burstbuckers in the past. Dang it all. Come on Gibson, give us some pickups that look as good as they sound. And I do like their sounds!:dude:
 

jwalker

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What really sucks is those funky Gibson covers actually sound better IMO than the TV Jones or older Throbak covers I've tried on Burstbuckers in the past. Dang it all. Come on Gibson, give us some pickups that look as good as they sound. And I do like their sounds!:dude:

The older ThroBak covers were actually TV Jones covers that I had ground buffed and plated. The current ThroBak Maximum vintage P.A.F. covers are made with my own tooling and are thinner that the old TV Jones covers.
 

TM1

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The older ThroBak covers were actually TV Jones covers that I had ground buffed and plated. The current ThroBak Maximum vintage P.A.F. covers are made with my own tooling and are thinner that the old TV Jones covers.

It's been my experience with the Throbak covers that they are sonically Transparent. These are the ones that Jon makes, not the previous TV Jones ones(although those weren't bad and certainly better than anything Gibson makes).
 

slammintone

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The older ThroBak covers were actually TV Jones covers that I had ground buffed and plated. The current ThroBak Maximum vintage P.A.F. covers are made with my own tooling and are thinner that the old TV Jones covers.

Cool to know the new ones are thinner Jon. The old ones you had certainly looked great and sounded great on your fine pickups for sure. Actually they sounded great on a set of Wolfetones I had too. Pretty sure I'd bought them covers from you to try on the Wolfetones but I also tried them on the BBs from a 2007 R9 and they didn't work as well as they looked in that application. Wish Gibson would start buying your new :salude covers!! I wouldn't mind trying a set of your new covers on my newest R9. The factory covers are hideous.
 

TM1

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I wish Gibson would start using Jon's pickups instead of fooling around with there bullshit. They haven't made a decent sounding pickup IMHO since 1974(but even the T-Tops were hit or miss..)
 

Big Al

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This is a good challenge Big Al and I can't really remember why I made the initial change other than for asthetic/Historical purposes. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the original parts.

Guess I was just interested to see who else had tried the mods and gone back, or not modded at all.

Yeah, I figure if there was a sonic reason, or a compelling reason, you might remember. Still, it is so easy to do, why not jump in and do it?

I have a stash of old 50's parts I've used to place on 50's guitars. I must confess that many years ago I decked out some of mine in original 50's parts. Pickups, truss covers, Klusons, Nylon nuts, stop bar and ABR, everything except the rings. After I got over the "How cool is my guitar now with 50's parts" thang I started feeling phony.

I put the stock stuff back on. For me it isn't an issue, but I am with Big Dave about the covers. It isn't a big issue, but it still bugs me enough to change them when I change pickups. I have left them on the guitars I've left stock.

I think it is different for each person and that opinions can, and do, change over time. Normal human behavior.:hmm
 

Classic

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Want to share my further experience with you all.

Last night I got my amps out to play and have a bit of a tinker with my overall setup including pedalboard, pedal order and interface. I also took the opportunity to use a couple of my guitars just to see how the sound varied between them

Amps used: Bogner Shiva EL34NR and Budda SD45
Guitars used: '99 Gibson LP Classic and '07 Gibson '57 Ri LP Standard.

As you all know, I've been exploring returning my '57 Ri back to stock hardware and stopped short at the bridge thumbwheels and tailpiece studs. Playing the Ri through both the Bogner and Budda, I was very happy.

Well, since then I decided to return my Classic completely back to stock hardware (plus WCRS American Steele pups) just to see what happened. Last night was the first time I had to use the guitar through the amps and man did it sound good. The sound was round and full. It sounded BETTER than my Ri. How could that be??

In the spirit of this thread I decided to make the jump and put back the original/stock Thumbwheels and tailpiece studs and give it a go. Man what a difference. The guitar previously sounded quite flat, although full. Now it sounds round and full. There's more character to the tone and possibly even more output. Also the two LP's now sound much closer in tone.

The first question everyone will ask is about setup. I measured everything and returned it all back to exactly the same setup again, with the same measurements and distance of pickups from strings, so that's not part of the equation.

All I can say from my experience of modding and de-modding is there is no reason to mess with the stock hardware on these guitars. Gibson did know what they were doing after all.
 
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