Four Uncles ABR-1 bridge just in and...

[Wizard1183]

No I am not only saying I am satisfied, and I feel because these are two competitors, like sports, it is fine to drop what we think is the best. I am saying this as my honest opinion and from the opinion of a few others with vintage guitars, the Cooper bridge is better in our comparison compared to the Four Uncles bridge. We compared it with a bridge you purport to have given you sound you claim is high and above everything you have tried.

I’ve not tried ANYTHING else except for vintage correct thumbwheels and the FU bridge.

I think the best part, is that Cooper flatly told me that it may not make a difference in sound for me, yet it did slightly, whereas the posts I've seen by Dave Stephens on Facebook and others claims that the Four Uncles bridge will upgrade the sound of our guitars for vintage accuracy or whatever that means. I even did one of the tone tests Dave did himself by dropping the vintage pieces on the table and comparing them, the Four Uncles still sounded different to my old ones and so did the Cooper. All the bridges had a different sound. From a quality perspective though because the Cooper is CNC and Four Uncles bridge is sand cast (which the originals were die cast), we expected the Cooper to be more precise, and it is. I still feel, there are too many outside factors to effectively conclude that it is the bridge though, could it be the posts? Could it be the thumbwheels? What about my amplifier? The speakers and the capacitors?

I’ll say this: while the sound tone whatever is significantly better than a stock historic? It’s NOT more vintage. It’s just better tone. And I did nothing to the amp. The settings stayed exactly the same and the the strings were exactly the same between stock bridge and FU. Not changed to new strings. It was louder in volume through the amp. Not huge but it’s louder clearer and better tone. I know, it’s hard to describe? But just note that if you’re running stock gear and you change to correct thumbwheels and bridge? You SHALL hear a difference.

I am just tired of the snake oil claims made by certain companies about their products especially in our quest for vintage tone. I agree we all like what we like. The most recent Historic we had to compare was a 2021, but when my M2M comes this year, I'm swapping it out for the Cooper. I think both would be great options, but we found the Cooper was better. This area is swelled with PAF like sound debates.

 

[Wizard1183]

did you guy's see posts 321-326 or 289 ????

Yes I did and I don’t care about samples. 99.9% of the time I’m gonna listen to music through my phone speakers if it’s samples. Therefore shitty quality. No point in listening. I bought the bridge. I like it. If you wanted EVERYONE to hear your sample like you been saying at least 20x? You’d have posted the damn things via sound cloud or posted the links. Not have pm you to hear the shit.

 

[m bernardi]

Yes I did and I don’t care about samples. 99.9% of the time I’m gonna listen to music through my phone speakers if it’s samples. Therefore shitty quality. No point in listening. I bought the bridge. I like it. If you wanted EVERYONE to hear your sample like you been saying at least 20x? You’d have posted the damn things via sound cloud or posted the links. Not have pm you to hear the shit.

well son, they were done in a professional studio. And I don't have sound cloud and for some reason I could not post them. Even the 4uncles e-mailed me and said they liked them!! Maybe you should save for a good set of studio monitors then listen to shit phone speakers!!!

 

[Wizard1183]

well son, they were done in a professional studio. And I don't have sound cloud and for some reason I could not post them. Even the 4uncles e-mailed me and said they liked them!! Maybe you should save for a good set of studio monitors then listen to shit phone speakers!!!

That does it! You convinced me! I’m going buy some professional studio monitors to listen the your sound clips since it’s a must hear kinda thing! I mean I’m on phone at work and things listening and what not. I guess it won’t kill me to lug some monitors with me everywhere I go so I can listen to the best sound possible wherever I am. Can my phone connect to them? That’ll be great!

 

[m bernardi]

That does it! You convinced me! I’m going buy some professional studio monitors to listen the your sound clips since it’s a must hear kinda thing! I mean I’m on phone at work and things listening and what not. I guess it won’t kill me to lug some monitors with me everywhere I go so I can listen to the best sound possible wherever I am. Can my phone connect to them? That’ll be great!

I'M sorry your at work all the time doesn't McDonald's give you time off??

 

[Wizard1183]

I'M sorry you’re at work all the time doesn't McDonald's give you time off??

Yea, i just had 3 whole months off. And November and December I’ll have off too. They’re great. Would you like some fries with that?

 

[timsmcm]

Have any of you folks had the ability to test the kms abr to the cooper musical components abr to each other? i am not worried about cmc machined or casted, not worried if saddles fall out if strings break. dont care if one looks more vintage than the other. i want the tone and i also want the gold color to match.

 

[maarvold]

My LP Heritage 80-Standard had a Nashville TOM on it. Aside from the bridge, bridge posts/thumb wheels and anchors, I changed everything on that guitar to make it as much like a 'burst as possible. And I was mostly very happy with the guitar.

I am a Beano freak and spent A LOT of time copying Steppin' Out and, in particular, Hideaway. Near the very end of Hideaway, on the high E string, EC bends the A up to a B at the 15th fret and that note just completely sings. On my guitar, the 13th and 14th frets sang, but the 15th fret was always a bit dead and lacking in sustain. For quite a while I made the assumption that the reason was the Heritage Standard probably didn't have a long tenon neck. After I had the the Nashville bridge anchors pulled, end grain-turned plugs glued in their place, the proper bridge posts, thumb wheels and FU ABR-1 bridge installed, that note completely came to life--just like the 13th and 14th fret. So in addition to really liking what the FU bridge did sonically, this was an unexpected bonus. Dave Stephens was saying how the guitar would never be fully right--like the old ones--until I made these changes and he was certainly right about that. YMMV

 

[Wizard1183]

My LP Heritage 80-Standard had a Nashville TOM on it. Aside from the bridge, bridge posts/thumb wheels and anchors, I changed everything on that guitar to make it as much like a 'burst as possible. And I was mostly very happy with the guitar.

I am a Beano freak and spent A LOT of time copying Steppin' Out and, in particular, Hideaway. Near the very end of Hideaway, on the high E string, EC bends the A up to a B at the 15th fret and that note just completely sings. On my guitar, the 13th and 14th frets sang, but the 15th fret was always a bit dead and lacking in sustain. For quite a while I made the assumption that the reason was the Heritage Standard probably didn't have a long tenon neck. After I had the the Nashville bridge anchors pulled, end grain-turned plugs glued in their place, the proper bridge posts, thumb wheels and FU ABR-1 bridge installed, that note completely came to life--just like the 13th and 14th fret. So in addition to really liking what the FU bridge did sonically, this was an unexpected bonus. Dave Stephens was saying how the guitar would never be fully right--like the old ones--until I made these changes and he was certainly right about that. YMMV

Gibson’s ABR-1 doesn’t compare. Now they supposedly changed it this yr. Is it as good as FU? Idk? I don’t care. At some point they’ll run out of ideas to charge for a more accurate reissue. Then what?

 

[Evol]

One important thing that not many people talk about are thumbwheels and posts. Many older Historic guitars have these components made of steel and not brass (soft brass is the best). Changing just these parts is already a big step forward regardless of which bridge you use. My 2 cents.

I forgot this video. The bridge is stock but the thumbwheels and posts are NOS soft brass.

 

[Wizard1183]

I forgot this video. The bridge is stock but the thumbwheels and posts are NOS soft brass.

Yea I changed my thumbwheels to brass because Gibson still uses steel unless they switched completely in 2019? I heard it was hit n miss. I never A/B’d bridges but changing thumbwheels and Bridge definitely made it sound better. Warmer and better sustain where I wasn’t getting it.

 

[maarvold]

I forgot this video. The bridge is stock but the thumbwheels and posts are NOS soft brass.

Sounds good. Seems like I always like the sound of right hand fingers & thumb on El Gtr.

 

[deytookerjaabs]

FWIW...

I was curious about the sort of ABR-suck timeline and found there to be many varied claims about old ones. What's odd the mold appears to be identical in all old sloped ABR's up until they changed the bridge design itself, it's the stamp that changes.

So I de-strung some happy guitars in the quest for a tone-aissance and posted this on TGP as well.

By some magic I got 3 identical ABR's? A pat#, chrome ABR-1, early wired gold ABR-1:

They all pinged a high F when tapped at the G slot and weighed the same within 1/10'th of an ounce, pinged the same when dropped on the desk. Maybe I should try the cooper and my bag of randoms too.

However, I'm ashamed to admit that the desk is, in fact, veneer.

 

[ToneHenge]

Have any of you folks had the ability to test the kms abr to the cooper musical components abr to each other? i am not worried about cmc machined or casted, not worried if saddles fall out if strings break. dont care if one looks more vintage than the other. i want the tone and i also want the gold color to match.

From my knowlegde. FU doesn’t make a gold bridge. Cooper is the only one at the moment that makes a vintage correct gold piece. If you’re after a modern equivalent, why not get a Faber or Gotoh and be done with it.

The whole ethos of CMC and I imagine FU is to capture vintage correct, warts and all. I know because for my CMC bridge and my friend’s FU bridge the saddles and screws fall out like my vintage pieces. Moreso on the FU bridge though. The CMC is extremely well made in comparison to the FU. However, the CMC bridges at the moment are completely sold out.

 

[timsmcm]

I am not necessarily looking for modern in fact it does not bother me in the least to have saddles that fall out. But what I am looking for is for the main bridge part to be made of the right material and the saddles and screws to be made of the right material. Don't want a wired bridge, don't want anything made of aluminum, had that doesn't sound right at all. That is why I was looking at the cmc or the kms abr-1.

 

[m bernardi]

some one was looking for sound samples off the fu bridge can you send me your e-mail again to backstop62@aol.com

 

['59]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat improved tone, really, my Murphy Lab sounds a lot better with this bridge ! Clear and warm tone on all strings, notes are richer fatter fuller.

View attachment 16069

Hi!....are you still using 4U bridge?....do you think is worthing the money for?....

 

[GastonG]

Hi!....are you still using 4U bridge?....do you think is worthing the money for?....

Oh yeah ! (for both questions)
I also use their thumbwheels !

 

[Bwagster]

$611 for the bridge and thumb wheel is nuts. Wow

 

[Wizard1183]

$580 for the bridge and thumb wheel is nuts. Getting ready to place an order.

So it $1000 for Gibson P.A.F.s but they selling like hot cakes…