Epi Les Paul owners - Do you upgrade your bridge & tail piece?

[darth_tar]

My Tribute to 1955 has the original bridge and tailpiece. Everything is perfect, I'm not changing them!

 

[Supersonic]

I changed the bridge on the LP Standard that I put a Bigsby on, but only because the guy I bought the Bigsby from included it in the deal. It's an All Parts roller bridge and I've decided I don't like it. I'm either going to put the Epi bridge back on or get a different model roller.

My other Epi LP Standard is completely stock except for the knobs.

 

[elephantrider]

I've never upgraded that hardware. pups for sure. wiring occasionally.

 

[Rick Davey]

Love my LP as is, except those trashy looking IMO) plastic knobs had to go. Telecaster knobs lookk great .

 

[Raiyn]

Love my LP as is, except those trashy looking IMO) plastic knobs had to go. Telecaster knobs lookk great .

Sorry, but I don't even have Telecaster knobs on my T-style.

 

[Rick Davey]

Sorry, but I don't even have Telecaster knobs on my T-style.

It's all personal preference. I might even like your choice. What are you using on your Tele?

 

[Raiyn]

It's all personal preference. I might even like your choice. What are you using on your Tele?

It's still a work in progress, (which I plan to finish soon) but while these might just seem like a variation, they're different enough that you don't see them everywhere.

This is from he mock-up stage before I even thought about getting the iron out. I didn't even have the guitar yet.

The stock knobs on my Jag were Teles.

They just look so boring.

They were swapped for something evocative of the traditional knobs, yet different.


I just think Tele knobs are played out.

 

[Roscoe]

Simple question, do you keep your Epi Les Pauls stock or so you upgrade the bridge & tail piece? If so, to what?

I have an early 2000’s limited edition LP studio with gold hardware, Grover machine heads, and dot inlays. My other Epi is the special edition ‘66 G-400 (without the coil split pots), nickel hardware, and Grovers also.

Both are modified the same. Gotoh tune-o-magic bridge and tailpiece, Seymour Duncan JB/SH combo, CST pots, Mallory caps, switchcraft output jack and toggle switch, and a graph tech nut.

I smoothed the frets out and set them up. They play and sound good.
I have a friend that has a dozen guitars. Half of them are Gibson LPs. He loves my LP and says it plays better than any of his Gibsons, and sounds great.
Simple question, do you keep your Epi Les Pauls stock or so you upgrade the bridge & tail piece? If so, to

Simple question, do you keep your Epi Les Pauls stock or so you upgrade the bridge & tail piece? If so, to what?

 

[Kostas Kritsilas]

I have a 2001 Epi LP. I don't know if it is some type of sub-model or not, but I think its just a standard. I like it, play it, and it sounds good to me. I have changed the bridge and tailpiece to Tone-Pros. When I got the guitar, the bridge had started to bend, so I felt that I needed to replace it, and if I were to replace it, I wanted something better than the original bridge that had bent, and I wanted a longer intonation range (i.e. more travel in the saddles). I guess I could have just bent the original bridge back to its original shape, but that would just have delayed the bridge bending again. I am a fan of the Tone-Pros. They gave me what I was looking for, and also a little bit better definition and clarity, which I attribute to the abiltiy to take out any slack between the bride and posts using the Tone-Pros bridge locking screws, and I went with the Tone-Pros tail piece because of its ability to be locked down as well. So far, so good, both of the Tone-Pros appear to be quite solid, and they stay put on the rare occasions that I remove all 6 strings at one time.

 

[spupilup]

I just bought a Special last month. It has the wraparound tailpiece that’s compensated. It weighed almost 100 grams or a little under four ounces. I immediately removed it and put a beautiful Faber compensated wraparound bridge with lighter weight studs on the guitar. It probably saved me at least three ounces, maybe more, bringing the total weight of the guitar down to 7 lbs. 10 oz. It’s just a few ounces heavier than my AO 50’s Tele. The best feature of the Faber is how it seemed to increase the sustain and bite that was already outstanding. I feel like Nigel Tufnel talking about sustain on his ‘59!

 

[DECEMBER]

I tune to drop-D, A=432Hz with 54 38 28 20w 15 11 on my LP, so the stock bridge doesn't always have enough range to intonate properly. I swapped the bridge for a Hipshot Tone-A-Matic. The saddles have more range of movement than typical TOM bridges, and there are set screws to push the bridge off the posts in either direction, so it has a very wide range of intonation.
It's $200 but I figure just get the best available and be done with it. It's lightweight and the non-glossy black finish nicely matches the non-glossy black guitar.

 

[nemesis0710]

Yes, against a Gotoh GE103B-T-CR TOM style. Mainly because of the intonation, but I reinstalled the original ABR style bridge because I like the sound better. I don't know if it's my imagination!

 

[BGood]

Yes, against a Gotoh GE103B-T-CR TOM style. Mainly because of the intonation, but I reinstalled the original ABR style bridge because I like the sound better. I don't know if it's my imagination!

Funny how some keep chasing their tail around. Thanks for having the guts to admit that.

If it ain't broke ...

 

[chadbrochills]

Depends on the guitar/situation. I replaced the bridge on my '04 LP Goth with a GOTOH bridge because it got really nasty somehow while in storage. And replaced the bridge on my Eastman SB59/v because it was rattling. Upgraded to a Faber locking bridge, now it's perfect. My other Epi's still have the stock parts.

 

[Norton]

sometimes yes. I do like the look of an ABR1 on the traditional gibson shaped guitars (335/lp/sg etc)

Lightweight tailpieces also can be cool. but It's a case by case thing with me.

You can fix 99% of bridge rattles with loctite. and The pots and Pickups have been super solid for like 10 yrs now.... at this point in the game you're going to need to spend some serious $$$ to get a big jump up in quality as far as pickups goes.

Hardware?

well, if. you've got to have brass saddles on a steel bridge then you'll need to swap that out.

Nothing wrong with hot rod modding a guitar.

 

[AJ6stringsting]

Simple question, do you keep your Epi Les Pauls stock or so you upgrade the bridge & tail piece? If so, to what?

Yes ....

 

[Equalphone]

Yes ....View attachment 23419

That bridge looks like a PITA to adjust the intonation. Are there adjustment screws I can't see in addition to the allens that lock it down on top? Or do you have to just slide it to a new position with a guess and lock it down with the allen?

 

[Equalphone]

Can I assume from these posts (no pun) that the spacing between the post centers/mounting bushings is the same on an Epiphone is the same as the Gibson parts?

Anyone know if the Epi ABR-1 ferrules are the same OD as the GIbsons with ferrules? Could you swap ferrules from Epi to Gibson and use Gibson posts?

 

[BlueSquirrel]

I just bought a Special last month. It has the wraparound tailpiece that’s compensated. It weighed almost 100 grams or a little under four ounces. I immediately removed it and put a beautiful Faber compensated wraparound bridge with lighter weight studs on the guitar. It probably saved me at least three ounces, maybe more, bringing the total weight of the guitar down to 7 lbs. 10 oz. It’s just a few ounces heavier than my AO 50’s Tele. The best feature of the Faber is how it seemed to increase the sustain and bite that was already outstanding. I feel like Nigel Tufnel talking about sustain on his ‘59!

@spupilup Interesting ! Did you have to remove / change the inserts in the guitar's body or were you able to drop the posts into the inserts ?

 

[AJ6stringsting]

That bridge looks like a PITA to adjust the intonation. Are there adjustment screws I can't see in addition to the allens that lock it down on top? Or do you have to just slide it to a new position with a guess and lock it down with the allen?

About the bridge, someone at GFS, knew how far to put the saddles on the Wilkinson Roller bridge, it came out of the box perfectly intonated .
The other two for my 1974 Gibson LPC and 1971 Gibson Flying V, both only needed slight adjustment on the G and D string .

The Wilkinson Roller Bridge is far better than style of Gibson / Epiphone bridge. Like a Tone Pro, the Wilkinson locks down at the mounting post, as well as the saddles.
The tuning stability improved by at least 85% and with the Schaller tailpiece with fine tuners, making ease of tuning just inches away ( instead of 2 ft.) , I can do two Whole step bends and not going out of tune .

After installing the roller bridge and the fine tuning tailpiece, my two LPC's and Flying-V's tuning stability improved by 85 % - 90% .