Quantum Strummer
Senior Member
A couple evenings ago I changed strings on my Nightbird, moving from DR Pure Blues to my new favs: GHS Burnished Nickel Rockers. 11 gauge with a wound 18 G. But before I pulled the old strings I used 'em to make starter slots for a "new" bridge. I've had this gold ABR-1 for ages…don't even remember where or when I got it. The previous bridge, put on a couple years ago, was a TonePros Nashville type. A good enough unit, but it comes pre-slotted and I've never much cared for the resulting string spacing on this guitar: a touch wide and not properly centered on the fretboard.
I made the starter slots the old Gibson way: by fitting the bridge unslotted, then lining up the old strings as desired and tapping each one a few times with a small hammer. This ruins the wound strings…no matter. Then I tuned down the strings, but before removing 'em completely I used part of an old wound .018 to floss each starter slot.
After cutting off the old strings and fitting the new ones I got out my nut files and used 'em to shape each slot to taste. I ended up making the slots a little deeper than normal, due in part to radiusing the string heights to match my Nightbird's relatively flat fretboard. Then I finished up by flossing the slots again.
Last night I fine-tuned the intonation, and you can see the result of the whole shebang in the pics below. Note that the strings aren't all that well aligned with the pickup polepieces. Doesn't matter. (The p'ups are a DiMarzio PAF-alike/Dual Sound set, wound to 7.5 & 10.9 KOhms DC resistance respectively, normally not my thing but just fine in this guitar.) The Nightbird plays & sounds great, maybe better than ever.
-Dave-
I made the starter slots the old Gibson way: by fitting the bridge unslotted, then lining up the old strings as desired and tapping each one a few times with a small hammer. This ruins the wound strings…no matter. Then I tuned down the strings, but before removing 'em completely I used part of an old wound .018 to floss each starter slot.
After cutting off the old strings and fitting the new ones I got out my nut files and used 'em to shape each slot to taste. I ended up making the slots a little deeper than normal, due in part to radiusing the string heights to match my Nightbird's relatively flat fretboard. Then I finished up by flossing the slots again.
Last night I fine-tuned the intonation, and you can see the result of the whole shebang in the pics below. Note that the strings aren't all that well aligned with the pickup polepieces. Doesn't matter. (The p'ups are a DiMarzio PAF-alike/Dual Sound set, wound to 7.5 & 10.9 KOhms DC resistance respectively, normally not my thing but just fine in this guitar.) The Nightbird plays & sounds great, maybe better than ever.
-Dave-