Wrap Around Bridges...what effect on tone?

krameree

Hi
I have Schaller 455 fitted on one of my guitars...the guitar is pretty bright sounding both acoustically and when plugged in.
I know there is a whole other debate about bright guitars but park that to the side..

How have you found other wrap around bridges? Im looking at the Gotoh 510 and even the Wilkinson as replacement options but before I splash the cash thought I'd ask

ICBM

It's hard to be certain since I haven't done that many A/B comparisons - and it's almost impossible to do it while retaining the same strings, so you're comparing older strings on one to new ones on the other - but my impression from trying many different guitars with different types is that if there's a rule of thumb, it's that the heavier the tailpiece, the more bassy/trebly/scooped the sound, and vice versa.

sweepy

swap the studs for Tonepros locking ones, massive difference imho

hotpickups

sweepy said:

swap the studs for Tonepros locking ones, massive difference imho

Yep I agree. I used those on my Les paul when I had one. Also an aluminium tailpiece. Does make a difference i.e. no snake oil  

lincolnblue

I'll be honest and say I didn't realise there were different types. I had an old Indie LP copy which had a normal tailpiece. I ended up changing the way I strung it so it was wraparound without knowing you could get specific wraparound types. 

My conclusion though was that the wraparound method improved sustain slightly and it did sound nicer

YourArsenal87

hotpickups said:

sweepy said:

swap the studs for Tonepros locking ones, massive difference imho

Yep I agree. I used those on my Les paul when I had one. Also an aluminium tailpiece. Does make a difference i.e. no snake oil  

+1 on the aluminium tailpiece.

rlw

I fitted a Mojoaxe very lightweight aluminium tailpiece to my LP Special in place of the standard one.  It moved the balance of tone massively upwards, exaggerating the upper mids and taking the lower mids away while still being boomy as a very boomy thing at the bottom.  Fucking hated it.

Now have Stewmac Golden Age intoneable bridge which weighs a lot and has brought more depth and brought the lower mids back too.

And the locking studs do make a difference too.

Philly_Q

Calling @FelineGuitars, who has used most of the different wraparound bridges on the market on his builds.

The Schaller 455 is a nicely made bridge but looks a bit old-fashioned, especially that removable bit the strings anchor in.  There are more elegant alternatives nowadays.

On the whole I'm in favour of the lightweight aluminium wraparounds (and tailpieces) but they don't necessarily suit every guitar, sometimes I've swapped a bridge or tailpiece and felt the clunky old zinc thing that was there before sounded better.

FelineGuitars

The 455 is no longer made but the new Schaller Signum is a beauty 

You can indeed improve the 455 with a set of locking studs from Tonepros

The Gotoh 510 is lovely, and the Graphtech Resomax is too (gotoh looks better in my opinion)

The Faber wraptail is lovely and pretty much the same as the Schaller Signum

grungebob

I’m toying with changing mine and have been recommended the Schroeder bridge. It looks bloody lovely but it’s USA only so will cost some to import. 

skay

rlw said:

I fitted a Mojoaxe very lightweight aluminium tailpiece to my LP Special in place of the standard one.  It moved the balance of tone massively upwards, exaggerating the upper mids and taking the lower mids away while still being boomy as a very boomy thing at the bottom.  Fucking hated it.

Now have Stewmac Golden Age intoneable bridge which weighs a lot and has brought more depth and brought the lower mids back too.

And the locking studs do make a difference too.

@rlw ;I put a mojoaxe on my Junior, and even though being lighter than the OEM Gibson one, it didn't change the sound as far as I recall. Thinking about it now, I installed a Shed P90 pickup at the same time, so maybe these complimented each other and was a happy accident. 

It was a different story when I changed from a mojoaxe to a tone pros adjustable bridge, as the rowdy character disappeared and the guitar lost its balls and power, so the type of bridge was more important than what it was made of.

The mojoaxe is going back on, and hopefully it can be set up for near-perfect intonation, as I've found wraparound bridges definitely add something desirable to the sound, although as you experienced, the 'best one' won't necessarily be the right one.

krameree

@FelineGuitars I like the look of the Gotoh, are they easy to adjust to the correct radius? my guitar is a 10" and I believe they are 12 or 14...

Philly_Q

ABM's bridges interest me because they make them in both aluminium and bell brass.  I'd like to try two otherwise-identical bridges on the same guitar to see how noticeable the difference is.

https://abm-guitarpartsshop.com/ABM-GUITAR-PARTS/Wraparound:::256_88.html?MODsid=6170d7019daafa52bb93890ab42668fa

pintspiller

Make sure to double check the post spacing as some use metric and some use imperial. 

I was lucky when, on my Gordon Smith, bridge saddle screws wouldn't bite again when it came undone during a setup and I just swapped the whole thing with a 455 I had used on a Hondo LP copy. I didn't realise at the time that GSG either used OEM or copy bridges.

Philly_Q

pintspiller said:

Make sure to double check the post spacing as some use metric and some use imperial. 

I was lucky when, on my Gordon Smith, bridge saddle screws wouldn't bite again when it came undone during a setup and I just swapped the whole thing with a 455 I had used on a Hondo LP copy. I didn't realise at the time that GSG either used OEM or copy bridges.

That reminds me, I put a 455 bridge on an old (late 80s, early 90s) Gordon Smith years ago and I seem to recall it being a very tight fit, but it worked.  I think I had to pull out the bushings and replace them with the Schaller ones, but that might have just been me being fussy.

It seems like things have become more standardised nowadays, at least for things like the post spacing on bridges and tailpieces.  The main thing to watch out for is whether the screw threads on the posts/bushings are metric or imperial, and even then you can usually get both from the same manufacturer. 

I recently bought a Gotoh 510 bridge for my new(ish) Gordon Smith GS2.  I haven't fitted it yet (maybe sometime before 2025) but I assume it will fit as GS use the same bridge on some of their guitars.

GSPBASSES

If anybody is looking for a Schaller 455 bridge David Dyke has still got a few in stock, only gold and black.

Seziertisch

The ABM 3024 would also be probably be worth checking out, they offer it in both aluminium and brass.

krameree

I went with the Gotoh in the end, feels and sounds great..

noisepolluter

I tried a Faber aluminium bridge to replace the stock Gibson lightning bolt one on my special. I’d say it added a noticeable zing and hardness to the unplugged sound, though it’s harder to say if it made a big difference to the electric sound.

I then put the Gibson bridge back on as I found the wrapped portion of the strings near the ball end would stick out the back of the Faber bridge and create awkward break angles where they wrap over. If nothing else, it just looked unsightly and made string changing more of a faff.

At the same time as I put the Gibson bridge back on I also fitted locking studs, and found that the guitar had beefier resonance and sustain, and it also improved the intonation at the higher frets as the compensated saddle wasn’t tilting forward anymore. 

From now on I’ll just be sticking with the Gibson bridge, especially as I’ve also just had the nut slots properly fettled - they weren’t cut deep enough initially.  

Hendrixaxe66

Seziertisch said:

The ABM 3024 would also be probably be worth checking out, they offer it in both aluminium and brass.

I was looking at the ABM 3025NA (nickel plated aluminium) bridge, as used on the PJ Eggle Macon junior, for a new Les Paul Junior double cut build from GSP Basses.

Patrick Eggle said in a recent interview that supply and lead times from ABM were generally poor but he continues to use them as they're so good (milled from one piece of either aluminium or brass)

Charles Guitars have none in stock at the moment and are waiting on the next batch to be manufactured. However, there's no indication when they'll be available. I was lucky enough to grab the last brass one in stock from Glued on Music yesterday so I can crack on with my build.

I figured if the brass isn't to my liking I can always swap it for aluminium later as they use the same steel bushings and posts.

fretfinder

I’ve put Mojoaxe wraparounds on my 50s LP Juniors and I don’t think they’ve altered the sound significantly - they were incredible sounding raunchy guitars with balls before I made the change, and they still are but they now have much improved intonation. They also don’t seem to tilt forwards as much as the original Gibson bridges because the Mojoaxes are a tighter fit in the stud slots.