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Wraparound to dogear/bowtie with a trapeze?

Stratoben127

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Jun 30, 2013
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301
I was looking at pictures of some different '52 Les Pauls with an ABR/Short trap set up and of course TW's former burst "Cooper" with the aftermarket trapeze and I got to thinking I might want to do something similar with my '53 wraptail with humbuckers.

The guitar originally came with a thin-ear bridge and has a transitional neck angle. I only have my phone as a level and it says it's 3 degrees when I do it with my phone on one side and 4 on the other side. The bridge doesn't sit close to the body. In fact, it's fairly high up.

The playability right now with a MojoAxe wraparound is excellent and the sound is very unique. Extremely punchy, but almost metallic. It tends to have some SG characteristics. My main guitar is an SG so I've always liked it somewhat, but I got together with a friend last week who has a '52 with stock P90s and an ABR-1 and a burst and both of them had a similar characteristic that my wraparound '53 didn't have. They were warmer, softer, and had more of a "Les Paul" sound.

I don't want to cut up the guitar for an ABR and stop tail, but I was thinking a cool reversible thing I could try would be to throw on a bowtie or dogbone style bridge (maybe with an ABR on it) and a trapeze tailpiece. That way I eliminate the things I dislike about the wraparound which are the cosmetics and it too close to the bridge pickup to restring without taking the bridge off. Plus I could maybe get some of the sound of a two-piece bridge while creating something unique on its own. I do like to overwrap and I like having a little less downward pressure on the strings, so a trapeze is no problem with me.

I was wondering if there's any reasons this might not work. The guitar is a player for sure. The Sorkin Bowties look great but will a flat bottom one work on an archtop LP standard?
 

MapleFlame

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Jul 3, 2005
Messages
14,044
Could be your pickups or you could try some nickle round core strings. Tone controls help alot. There are other bar variations for traps. With my 52's, the amp it goes through makes all the difference in the world
 

renderit

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Jan 19, 2009
Messages
10,951
Wraparound to dogear/bowtie with a trapeze?

This isn't that kind of place young man. Keep your setchual adventuring to the other forums!
 

smnmy

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Feb 21, 2016
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16
the bridge in the Gbase ad is just a regular Bigsby archtop bridge and might be too high? The original dogbone base has a much lower profile, and does have a slight arch to it also -

4437249283_ef9fe00191.jpg


this example was made under licence by Selmer in the UK in the late 1950s, but presume it's pretty much the same as the original. I filed the base flat for use on a flat top gtr. The current production 'Sorkin'/bowtie base is flat.

{edit:}
It's not obvious in the above pic, but it's a diff shape to the bowtie

4558690186_d80e62b35f.jpg
 
Last edited:

brandtkronholm

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Dec 3, 2006
Messages
2,737
Wraparound to dogear/bowtie with a trapeze?

This isn't that kind of place young man. Keep your setchual adventuring to the other forums!

By the title I was going to say that this should b e moved to the Funny or Interesting Pictures Thread - but then it does make perfect sense in Gibson-speak.

Regarding the dog bone bridge, perhaps pieces of felt strategically placed on the flat base would allow it to fit snugly on the belly of your Les Paul. I wonder how/if that would affect the sound?

What would happen to the tailpiece post holes in the event of a dog bone bridge?
 

DrRobert

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2003
Messages
6,050
How about building a bass of ebony and mounting a tuneamatic on it, to try the idea out? Very low cost, only non-reversible aspect is the trapeze holes around the end pin?
 
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