Hardware on New ES Guitars

[mrfett]

I've been playing my new ES-359 a lot, and was wondering what people's thoughts were on the various "upgrades" for Gibson instruments that some companies tout. The ES-359 is obviously a completely different instrument from my Parker, but perhaps the biggest difference is in the amount of natural "resonance" and "shimmer". I'm not sure yet whether I think this is a drawback: I think I like the Gibson better for overdriven tones while the Parker seems to have a much more complex clean tone.

 

So my question is whether swapping out the bridge and tailpiece on the Gibson for ones that are a different material will make a difference in tone. The Parker has a lot of stainless steel on it: both the frets and I believe the bridge. Of course the construction methods of the two guitars couldn't be more different so I know the tone difference is due to more than just hardware, but I was hoping someone could comment on whether changing components would add a little more sparkle. I can't tell if the comments people make about Faber, TonePros and Callaham are because they had older vintage Gibsons or Epiphones with poorer quality hardware. Is there really a benefit for Custom Shop owners in changing the stock parts?

 

Thanks for any info people have to share!