So here is my question. I’m interested in buying a 2016 Sg faded cherry. With all the fakes out there I’m always Leary. Well I always thought the posts for the bridge were solid. No holes as seen in the photo below. This one has holes. I’ve seen other photos of Sg guitars from that year with the same bridge type. The sg photos on tjebgibson website in 2019 are solid posts. Is this a legit Gibson bridge for a 2016 faded ? All signs seem to point to yes but I figured I should ask the experts here. Ty in advance.
I have been doing it wrong with my post 2014 Gibsons??/ .. I never knew!. I been spinning the adjustment wheel this whole time.
I had not played an SG for years until 2016 and this was the one that got me back into them. Doesn't get anymore legit than that. 2016 SG Faded
Talk about minimal front side bevel on that lower horn ! It must all be on the back necessitating maximum neck access. Because that horn sure looks thin !
I usually play the neck of a guitar, not the bevels of the horns. No bevels on the horns pictured below and no problem with upper fret access from my experience. In addition, I never feel the need to swap out a perfectly functioning Nashville bridge for an ABR-1. In fact, I find that a simple Wraparound Bridge works just as well as any other type of bridge.
We have the bevel and abr1 "upgrade" committee's to contend with my friends. It seems to be a modern trend because back in the early 80's nobody I ever knew compared SG bevels and thought they had to take off their Nashville to put on an old fashioned abr1. I think it's a computer age trend.
Personally, I don't get it about the ABR-1 bridge. I don't know why anyone would be interested, or waste time and or money on installing one. Maybe if restoring an antique guitar. Otherwise I'm skeptical. It has less room for intonation, which is why it was replaced with the seventies harmonica bridge (which I believe was superior in function) and which was replaced in turn with the Nashville bridge. The Nashville bridge is what Gibson engineers came up with in order to accomodate players needs to install a variety of string gauges. The ABR-1 bridge was designed and manufactured in the dark dim days when guitar strings came in only one gauge: heavy. I've read many OCD posts about the tone-sucking characteristics of this alloy, or that, but none were convincing, and most sounded shrill and pointless. They make me skeptical. I've read posts about the tonal advantages of the even more antique wrap-over bridge. I've tried top wrapping my Nashville bridges, and seen very little difference. So I'm open minded, but skeptical. I mounted a Gotoh "Nashville" bridge on my Epiphone ES-339 and noticed an immediate improvement over the stock part. It's just better made, IMHO. And it has enough room to intonate 11s, or 10s... and very likely even lighter gauges. So I'm for high quality parts that fit really well and give me the ability to intonate my guitar properly. Those factors are what I think are important in a bridge.
Agree 100%. Nashville is a huge upgrade to ABR, which is of course why Gibson changed them. If I bought a guitar with an ABR the first thing I would do is change it out for a Nashville.
I know a lot of folks like the looks better. To me the ABRs look dainty and delicate compared to Nashville's (and in reality they are a lot more prone to failure).
The main reason an ABR1 is better is because guitars with an OEM ABR1 screw the studs directly into the wood. Replacing a Nashville with an ABR1 and adapters doesn't change the fact that you are still screwing the studs into metal inserts. That being said, when I put new pickups on an SG, the ones I wanted came with nickel covers. The tuners were already nickel, and I had an 80s ABR1 (wire) and tailpiece in nickel removed from another guitar just sitting in a drawer. I bought adapter studs and installed them, along with a Creamtone wide bevel pickguard. I am very happy with the look of the guitar. Was there an improvement, or even a change in the tone of the guitar? Beats me. But it look marvelous to my eyes.
I have a question about the ABR-1. My 1993 Special came with a ABR-1 with brass saddles and I was finding diffucult to intonate it properly. As an emergency I started to use a nashville that was laying around with the ABR-1 studs (that made the bridge a bit loose) while I was looking to buy the proper bridge. I've never found an original ABR-1 so I decided to buy a Gotoh ABR-1 and I could feel a huge improvement on the intonation but realized that the bridge is still a bit loose. Is that a problem if I use it this way?
Probably not, the strings will hold it pretty tight while in tune. I recall seeing sleeved studs on a couple of the old SGs I've worked on and assume that was the reason.
