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Best/Most Vintage Accurate Repro Bridges and Tailpieces?

electricsky

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Joined
Nov 14, 2008
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341
Most of the Retrospec parts are/were held in high regard. The bridge was constructed differently to an original. The pigtail and DMC are built closer to spec

Are they the same weight and metal type as the original vintage ones ?

I noticed the bottom of the Retrospec ABR1 seems different than the original one ( even when not speaking about the missing abr1 logo) .

As we can't be sure they are made exactly with the same % of metals used in the alloy ( and we don't know if those metals are made exactly the same way and they are not and we can't know the differences ) , at least i think it is important to get some with the same weight , to get the closest as possible to the original tone ( when someone wants to get the original tone obviously ).
 
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electricsky

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Nov 14, 2008
Messages
341
I weighted the abr1 of my Les Paul gold top 56 , it is 52,84 gr .
The studs are not the 1" but the shorter ones ( i think they are the same size as on the R9 , unless they now use 1" ones ) and one weights 13,38 gr .
Thumbwheels and posts are both non magnetic , brass i suppose .

Something weird happened , when i put back the stud i had unmounted and the TP , the 56 Gold Top seemed to have more air, more high end in the tone and more sustain ! lol
I have it for several years but i don't change strings often ( even quite rarely and i usualy never break strings even if i bend them much ) and i have always thought it had a rich medium tone with less high end than the earlier ones i have had ( 53, 54 , 55 ) but the tone really seems to have gain some high end and sustain !
Who knows , the stud migh have been mounted badly ( i don't lock them down to the top as i don't like to have much tension on the strings ) or maybe just slightly less tension on the strings make it reach a sweet spot and let the high end really appear.

And by the way , i remember a topic where Tom W. was saying the necks he prefers are the 56 ones and on this one, it is more of a C than a D neck shape , with less shoulders than on the 53,54 and 55 i have had which had a bigger neck with more shoulders .
IT's a really nice neck , not too big nor too small .
 
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electricsky

Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
341
I removed the strings to weight the TP of my 56 Gold Top, the weight is 28,63 / 1.009 oz or 29,63 gr / 1.045 oz ( stupid as i am i did not write it down directly and just saw i had written both in two different places but it is one or the other for sure. I' ll verify again but i think it was 28,63 gr) .
 
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electricsky

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Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
341

I use a mojoaxe compensated wraparound bridge / TP on one of my original 50's Les paul Gold top , it works fine to get it on tune for the ones which are slightly out of tune when you play high notes on the last few frets near the body but there is a difference of weight between original wraparound TP and mojoaxe one if i remember well and the tone it gives is a bit different , brighter .

By the way, someone was speaking about Throback , are their PU covers the closest to original ones , compared to Retrospec or other repros ( i mean about appearance , type of metal used and thickness ) ?
 

electricsky

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Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
341
I weighted both original 54 wrap around and mojoaxe compensated wrap around and i made a mistake saying the mojoaxe was heavier cause the original is 33,37 gr and the mojoaxe 33,57 gr , so they are nearly the same weight .
That said, ,if i remember well , the first studs he had sent me that were longer than the original ones made the tone quite brighter , whereas he sent me some other studs that were the same length as the original ones after that and the tone was closer to the original one ( i found back some emails i had sent to mojoaxe ).
 

electricsky

Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
341
Just weighted a wired ( reference PBBR-015 gibson part ) abr1 Gibson and it is 50,66 gr , whereas my original 56 one is 52,9 gr and a non wired reissue abr1 from Gibson i believe , is 55,4 gr .
And also 6 new saddles for non wire abr1 from Crazyparts.de , nickel plated brass which weight 4,6 gr for all 6 .
i weighted some 60's wired abr1 , all with nylon saddles :
64 SG STD : 49,24 gr
65 SG STD :49,72 gr
68 ES335 : 50,22 gr

68 Es335 Thumbwheels = 8,69gr and posts 3,2 gr

It seems there can be some weight differences between abr1 that were made within a few years difference , so i would be curious to know the weight of several abr1 made between 56 and 61 for example .

I tried my 56 Gold Top unlugged , with different abr1 , the original , the wired and non wired reissue and i didn't hear much difference .

I heard a slight difference with the 2 or 3 big strings but i would not really be able to describe it and i believe the difference i have heard , was because both abr1 reissues had new saddles with no notches made on the saddles , so the strings are higher on the 2 reissue abr1 s and i had the feeling the 2 or 3 bigger strings might have moved more than with the original one which has notches on the saddles, so they are held more firmly in place ,than the strings on the reissue abr1s which have no notches on the saddles .
 
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djcmusician

Active member
Joined
Apr 29, 2015
Messages
263
@electricsky interesting observations. I had a kit LP Junior and used the Mojoaxe wrap tail compensated bridge. I also found that guitar to be exceptionally bright and eventually sold it. Never compared another bridge on the same guitar.

I noticed Mojoaxe offers ABR bridges as well as regular stop tails. I wonder how they compare.
 
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