Al waldron Posted June 26, 2021 Share Posted June 26, 2021 Hi, years of not buying Gibson due to a luthier telling me to stay aware due to workmanship issues. I’m now 56 played Geetar since I was 14 and never owned one until now. a beautiful J45 in heritage burst, low action nice easy to play neck. Just lovely custom shop jobby. So to a question for you all. Do I keep the adjustable bridge. To me it’s a good guitar but the sound to my ears is a tad metallic and sustain is clipped. I love the guitar but feel it bud a bit lacking in volume also. Is it worth me inserting a rosewood and bone effort? I love the sound of classic j45s but over here in the uk to try and find the finish of the heritage burst or similar is near on impossible. Hummingbirds are a 1k increase. They sound to have more treble cut to my ears. has anyone removed the Adj bridge and been blown away by the tone or am I wasting my time. I’m not saying the tone is crap with the adj bridge just different. any advice welcome. Thankyou Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedzep Posted June 26, 2021 Share Posted June 26, 2021 That's a complex set of questions, especially given that your ear isn't too happy with the tone. There are saddle swap out stories pro, con and more I've read here. The two adj bridge guitars I owned, a 60's B25 and a later J45, were subject to my trial and error. Hated ceramic, rosewood was quiet, and bone was best, but I still detected a hollowness. Again, just my own ears. In the end, I removed both, including the grommets, and had rosewood belly down bridges put on. For what it was, I was happier with the tone, and feel the contact with the top was truer in how it resonated and wore in. I guess you'd have to price it out with your luthier. If you thought you might sell it, you'd want to leave the bolt sleeves in so it could all be put back. Now, I'm sure I'd never want any flat top equipped with an adj bridge set up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbpicker Posted June 26, 2021 Share Posted June 26, 2021 I think I’d be tempted to sell it intact, Al, and get something with the tone you’re looking for. You might spend time and money and still not like the outcome. rb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortyearspickn Posted June 26, 2021 Share Posted June 26, 2021 I would experiment with strings and (assuming you use them) picks before I took it apart. Older strings,, thicker pick, etc. And I wouldn't bring it to the luthier who is anti-Gibson. But you certainly can expect, all other things being equal, that changing the bridge will affect the sound. Probably in the direction you seem to be looking to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuestionMark Posted June 26, 2021 Share Posted June 26, 2021 (edited) I own a 2006 Custom Shop 1964 J-45 Reissue with an adjustable bridge. I’m glad it came with an adjustable bridge. It’s one of the things that made that model year special. The only change is it came with a tusq saddle rather than a ceramic one. I liked the tusq saddle but found that out in the marketplace there were now also bone saddles for adjustable bridges. I tried and used the bone one for about ten years. However, in the past few years I went back to the tusq saddle that came with the guitar as to my more current ears, the tusq one actually sounded better. But, I had learned a few things from my experience with its adjustable bridge since I purchased the guitar new. Those things being, 1) Just because the guitar has an adjustable saddle doesn’t mean it should be in its lowest height. The guitar sounds a whole lot better and fuller and louder with the adjustable saddle doing its job of raising the strings a bit to put some added tension on them and establishing a break angle with tension. What’s nice is its easy to adjust that tension with a couple of screw turns. Lowering the strings so they have not enough tension, but are super low, is not optimum for the guitar. Adjusting the bridge so it has the right amount of tension and string height works and tension break angle does wonders for the sound. 2). I switched to Medium strings. This in itself added a bit more string tension and coupled with adding a bit more tension via the string height being easily raised to a sweet spot, did wonders for the guitar’s sound. And made the adjustable bridge a true enhancing tool to the guitar. That higher tension makes the top vibrate whether it be the tusq or a bone saddle. With the correct height and tension and optimum break angle I found the tusq sounded better for my fingerpicking style. 3) With the string height not being as low as possible, the guitar’s break in period sped up to a fixed bridge’s timetable…when it was adjusted too low because it could be adjusted too low, the top just wasn’t vibrating. Lesson learned,…raise the height and tension to where the guitar plays optimally sound wise. Use Mediums, too. This is a workhorse guitar and is meant to be treated like a workhorse. The rest will take care of itself sound wise. The adjustable bridge is great in my Custom Shop J-45. Regarding the screws being too high when I rest my hand on the bridge. That goes away too when the bridge is raised a bit to add the correct tension and best height needed for the strings on the guitar. I mention that I primarily fingerpick on my guitar. But, I also run a bluegrass jam and do a lot of strumming and flat picking on it. It handles both quite well with the saddle being raised for volume and tension. I think users get too caught up with the adjustable saddle being too low because it’s easy to make it too low, without tension or enough height. Setting it up to maximize the sound and tension and height and break angle is the key. Just my experience. QM aka “Jazzman” Jeff Edited June 26, 2021 by QuestionMark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75 Hummingbird Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 Very good points Jazzman . I think Al has entered the Rabbit Hole lol . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 https://forum.gibson.com/topic/163619-j45-custom-shop-adj-advice-needed/?do=findComment&comment=2106427 "Now, regarding the OP... what's up with that? What does this have to do with the Gibson Custom Shop? And why did you make an identical post in a thread about bridge pins which has nothing to do with the topic? Why did you register under a different name and make a third identical post to a yet another thread? Sorry if I'm being harsh and I'd like to be proven wrong, but this all looks pretty fishy... 😉" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortyearspickn Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 (edited) 48 minutes ago, Boyd said: https://forum.gibson.com/topic/163619-j45-custom-shop-adj-advice-needed/?do=findComment&comment=2106427 "Now, regarding the OP... what's up with that? What does this have to do with the Gibson Custom Shop? And why did you make an identical post in a thread about bridge pins which has nothing to do with the topic? Why did you register under a different name and make a third identical post to a yet another thread? Sorry if I'm being harsh and I'd like to be proven wrong, but this all looks pretty fishy... 😉" Yep. Sort of weird. I've seen Newbies post the same question on 2 different forums but not 3x on the same one. With different signon names. Edited June 27, 2021 by fortyearspickn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 I'm a moderator on several forums, and this is the kind of activity that sets off my "spam dectector". 🙃 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.