Jazzpunk Posted May 10, 2009 Author Posted May 10, 2009 One of the things that skews my ears towards wood bridges (I think) is that my first "real" jazz guitar was a 1954 Gibson ES-175 with a P-90 and the wooden bridge. I guess I'm doomed to hearing that as the "right" sound for me, especially when practicing unplugged. Man you sure set the bar high for yourself early on! Ever thought of throwin' some P-90's in the 575? Ingeneri got me thinking about it with his posts on the subject!
backline Posted May 10, 2009 Posted May 10, 2009 Man you sure set the bar high for yourself early on! Ever thought of throwin' some P-90's in the 575? Ingeneri got me thinking about it with his posts on the subject! Though I do love P-90's on almost any body style but especially hollowbodies, I couldn't be happier with the HRW's on my '07 H-575. They do the raw bluesy thing great, but they can also be sophisticated and Hi-fidelity when I dip out the midrange in my amp setup. My '54 ES-175 was the first guitar I ever played a jazz gig on, c 1975, at a lil' ol' piano bar where two friends and myself (trumpet and another guitar) played for tips on Sunday nights to almost nobody. The thing was, in the next room there was a pinball machine, and anytime someone dropped a coin into it, or the bartender in the room we were in opened the cash drawer, a huge "Ka-chunk!" came out of my amp! I pulled the guts out of that guitar and shielded everything with metalized tape, which cut the interference about in half. I miss that guitar sometimes. It had a better acoustic sound than a '51 L-4C I had later on, which of course made it pretty feedback prone. But it was my first real jazz guitar. I have no sense though, so it got traded in on a green Gretsch Anniversary I tried to turn into a jazz guitar. "D'0H!"
SouthpawGuy Posted May 10, 2009 Posted May 10, 2009 I had the Tune-o-matic fitted to mine by Wolfe Guitars before I bought it. I went for this option because I'm a long time blues / rock player with jazz aspirations and I really do like to bend those strings. It is also strung with 11s, relatively light strings for a 575, which would probably move on the bridge while playing. About 10 years ago I had a cheap Aria jazz guitar with a wooden bridge and I kept putting it out of tune when playing because the strings would move, I think I did have even lighter strings on it though. The bridge can be seen fairly clearly in this pic
Jazzpunk Posted May 12, 2009 Author Posted May 12, 2009 My '54 ES-175 was the first guitar I ever played a jazz gig on, c 1975, at a lil' ol' piano bar where two friends and myself (trumpet and another guitar) played for tips on Sunday nights to almost nobody. The thing was, in the next room there was a pinball machine, and anytime someone dropped a coin into it, or the bartender in the room we were in opened the cash drawer, a huge "Ka-chunk!" came out of my amp! I pulled the guts out of that guitar and shielded everything with metalized tape, which cut the interference about in half. Great story, I can totally picture it!
smurph1 Posted May 12, 2009 Posted May 12, 2009 Tune-o-matic bridges work really well on jazz guitars, and can get more sustain and brightness than wood bridges.I have come to prefer the wood bridges, but that's just me. I like the vintage Charlie Christian sound with the woodier thing and less sustain. Fortunately my H-575 with the HRW's still can be very versatile with the stock wood bridge, but I have often gone to a tune-o-matic on an archtop for a variety of reasons. Oddly, I have also sometimes put (cut down) wooden bridges on say, Epi Casinos to get a better jazz thing. But that's a different structure in the body, and I seem to always be looking to "de-ping" the trebles for jazz (usually not required on a full archtop). R U sure you want to do that? It's your guitar but I would be loathe to mess with such a beauty..My 2 cents..Rock ON..
Jazzpunk Posted May 13, 2009 Author Posted May 13, 2009 R U sure you want to do that? It's your guitar but I would be loathe to mess with such a beauty..My 2 cents..Rock ON.. No turning back now! I'm in to a wide range of jazz tones from acoustic and woody to electric and bluesy so I'm sure I'll dig it. If not I can always just change it back.
backline Posted May 14, 2009 Posted May 14, 2009 ...sure I'll dig it. If not I can always just change it back. The beauty of an archtop stand-off style bridge! It can be easily changed. I think I remember trying a tune-o-matic (with old nylon saddles) on my current H-575 for about five minutes! It wasn't what I wanted - I knew that immediately - for unplugged practice, so I just slacked the strings halfway, tipped the bridge over and dragged it out from under the strings, threw the wood upper part back on, and was done in a couple of minutes. I'm a big believer in changing tones with bridges and/or saddles.
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