Official Luthiers Forum!

Does anyone have a PDF of the layout and dimensions of such a bridge? I need to build a slightly oversized one for a restoration I am doing now and want it to be perfect.

Regards.

Dumb questions: Is it possible to trace around the original? If the original bridge is not in the building, trace the bridge footprint from the soundboard?

_________________
Peter Havriluk

I have an old plastic one from the 60s that I can trace and measure, but I won’t be home to do it until late this month. This is one that had the ceramic adjustable saddle. I don’t think they are all exactly the same. I made a new one for a Gibson slope shouldered dread from the 50s a few years ago. It looked a lot like this plastic one but I don’t think it was exactly identical.

They're not identical and the plastic ones dimensionally deform a great deal in time which is one of the reasons why they are replaced one by one through the years. What a stupid idea these plastic bridges were, what were they thinking.....

Gibson 'management' were thinking whatever their accountants told them to think (I think).

_________________
Peter Havriluk

The bridge that I removed from the guitar was not original and was terribly made. As such the foot print is not there either. I appreciate it Bob but I need to try and get this one done this weekend. Those plastic bridges... Yikes what the heck were they thinking? This is an old LG0. I've not dated it but by the looks of it, it dose not appear to have the holes for the hardware of a plastic bridge.

Exactly!

JF early on Dave did a video of replacing a plastic bridge on an LG0 or LG1 can't remember which one and that video has brought us dozens of Gibsons to have the bridges replaced and new wooden ones made. An exact replica of something that never was on the guitar anyway might show a lot of the damage the plastic bridge did to the burst before it was replaced. Or, it may be an opportunity to have some creative license with the dimensions.

These LG0's/LG1's are not valuable and there are tons of them around so a strict restoration regime is really not warranted and from the sounds of it there was some poor prior work too.

Here is a link to our video page and there is a Gibson bridge replacement video that you might enjoy. If you have not seen the "cold bridge removal" video get a drink and enjoy it it has a surprise ending.

http://www.annarborguitars.com/styled-4/index.html