Callaham CNC Billet Steel ABR-1 Bridge

what do you make of this:

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=569202

http://www.callahamguitars.com/abr1.htm

That's a new one on me. I thought the "rule" was that Strat bridges were best in steel - as heavy and dense as possible - but ABRs should be aluminium (like the Fabers) - as light as possible to let the vibrations through.

So now there's a new theory?

:roll:

Mike

Mike,
the Farber ABR's are also made from steel with brass sadles.
The stoptail's are made from alu.

Volker

settebello said:

Mike,
the Farber ABR's are also made from steel with brass sadles.
The stoptail's are made from alu.

Volker

Click to expand...

Oh? OK! Strange things, Gibsons....

Silly theories

stratman323 said:

That's a new one on me. I thought the "rule" was that Strat bridges were best in steel - as heavy and dense as possible - but ABRs should be aluminium (like the Fabers) - as light as possible to let the vibrations through.

So now there's a new theory?

:roll:

Mike

Click to expand...

are you positive that the faber bridge, not the saddles, is steel?
the website only mentions that the saddles are machined from one piece brass or something

Bridge is steel, saddles are brass, tailpiece is alloy or titanium.

Mick

What's the improvement over the original 1959 abr or the Faber bridge? That Callaham seems to have retaining wire while both, the vintage and the Faber bridge has none.

If some hardware maker out there wants to improve a real 59 abr, just make an abr copy with no retaining wire and a set of interchangeable saddles of different alloys; brass, aluminium, steel...

ganzua said:

What's the improvement over the original 1959 abr or the Faber bridge? That Callaham seems to have retaining wire while both, the vintage and the Faber bridge has none.

If some hardware maker out there wants to improve a real 59 abr, just make an abr copy with no retaining wire and a set of interchangeable saddles of different alloys; brass, aluminium, steel...

Click to expand...

It's sort of been done by Pigtail Music, and he offers brass or heat treated aircraft alloy saddles.

And he does an ABR out of a lightweight alloy as well. All his ABRs have no retaining wire.

JVsearch said:

ganzua said:

What's the improvement over the original 1959 abr or the Faber bridge? That Callaham seems to have retaining wire while both, the vintage and the Faber bridge has none.

If some hardware maker out there wants to improve a real 59 abr, just make an abr copy with no retaining wire and a set of interchangeable saddles of different alloys; brass, aluminium, steel...

Click to expand...

It's sort of been done by Pigtail Music, and he offers brass or heat treated aircraft alloy saddles.

And he does an ABR out of a lightweight alloy as well. All his ABRs have no retaining wire.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion I'm currently using a Faber bridge and it is great. The only thing I don't like is that I can't remove the saddles so I can try other alloys.

The Pigtail lightweight bridge is quite interesting. I wonder if it is a good idea to install a light piece of metal as bridge. Perhaps you lose some sustain, I don't know.

ganzua said:

JVsearch said:

ganzua said:

What's the improvement over the original 1959 abr or the Faber bridge? That Callaham seems to have retaining wire while both, the vintage and the Faber bridge has none.

If some hardware maker out there wants to improve a real 59 abr, just make an abr copy with no retaining wire and a set of interchangeable saddles of different alloys; brass, aluminium, steel...

Click to expand...

It's sort of been done by Pigtail Music, and he offers brass or heat treated aircraft alloy saddles.

And he does an ABR out of a lightweight alloy as well. All his ABRs have no retaining wire.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion I'm currently using a Faber bridge and it is great. The only thing I don't like is that I can't remove the saddles so I can try other alloys.

The Pigtail lightweight bridge is quite interesting. I wonder if it is a good idea to install a light piece of metal as bridge. Perhaps you lose some sustain, I don't know.

Click to expand...

Maybe, but I've heard that lighter metals transfer vibrations quicker than heavy ones, so the light weight bridge may possibly give more attack and brightness.

However, anything that passes a sound vibration through it will filter it in some way if only slightly, although we're only talking about the vibrations going from the bridge and into the body - not a huge amount of these get into the electrical system and get amplified (but they are there, and part of the overall tone, some come down the neck as well).

I think the main thing you want with a bridge is that it doesn't set up its own resonant vibration and feed that back into the strings (at least not too much).

You could try changing your ABR posts for some other metal, many Historic nuts like to change out the Gibson stock posts for stainless steel posts. They're only machine screws with the heads cut off after all. I've heard claims of better sustain, note separation and some extra brightness. Some guys have even used longer screws and driven them deeper into the body wood. There's of course some people who tried it and didn't like it. It's a bit of a black art, what works for one guitar may not work for another. But for about a dollar and no permanent mods to the guitar, it might be worth trying.