1968 J50 saddle repair

[jcmartinez]

about a year ago in finally identified and 'got into' my old all-original gibson. i tried to see how to tweak the sound of the adjustable bridge (acutally adjustable saddle) just to play with it and see what i could get out of it.

 

many great suggestions were made by members of the forum. i tried switching out the rosewood for tusq, and found this didn't make a huge difference. also, the tusq piece was slightly shorter (less vertical height) than the rosewood, and i found i had to keep the screws pretty far out to keep the guitar from buzzing. likely required a shim under the tusq piece.

 

anyway, just some follow up and i'll post pics later. i took the guitar to a hidden legend in south georgia named ronnie griffin. look him up online.

 

long story short: i told him i wanted to keep it forever and was less worried about keeping everything perfectly original than i was about getting as much sound as i could from the old girl...

 

he took the guitar in, took off the entire bridge, finished it, leveled it back down, greglued some bracing that was loose inside, filled the adjustable slot mechanism with a piece of rosewood that matched the old bridge perfectly, and cut and shaped me a new bone saddle.

 

and WOW. what a difference in sound. probably due to everything getting fixed at once, but really incredible craftmanship and change in sound.

and he charged me LESS than what he told me it would be. told me 'once i got in there, i didn't have to do as much as i thought i might have to do.'

 

who does that anymore these days!!!???

 

can't recommend him enough. he's near the FL/GA border.

 

-jcm

[RobbieC]

I don't know Ronnie, but I'm in middle Georgia. I just did the same thing to a '64 Texan. The change to the instrument is entirely reversible, but the change in volume in tone is incredible.