Manchester Guitar Tech
Tune-o-matic bridge as found on Gibson and other guitars was designed by Ted McCarty and introduced in the mid 1950s as the ABR-1. The design was updated by Schaller in the 1970s and the new bridge being termed the “Nashville” bridge by players as its introduction coincided with the Gibson factory’s move from Kalamazoo to Nashville. …
NOTE This applies only to the original Schaller bridge and exact copies. I often read that people find it difficult to change the saddles in a Gibson “Nashville” bridge. This bridge was introduced in the mid 70s, replacing the original ABR-1 Tune-o-matic bridge which had been designed at Gibson in the early 1950s by Ted McCarty. …
Another EJ-200 lefty conversion, this one in sunburst. These really are cracking acoustic guitars with bags of tone and volume. This example (sourced from Thomann) has much better neck angle than most so I was able to get a low action with plenty of height left on the saddle. I’m thinking that I really should …
The top on this Gibson J-200 has bellied a bit, so much so that the lacquer on the top has started to crack. Consequently, I had trouble getting a low action and thought the guitar might be suitable for the JLD Bridge system, which can correct bowed tops. Installing the JLD system was straightforward enough. …
Here’s another Epiphone left hand conversion I did recently, this time a natural finish guitar. I invested in a Stewart Macdonald saddle routing jig and yes, one day I’ll take the protective paper off it! I used a Graphtec Tusq nut and saddle as I like the consistency of the material, plus it’s easier to …
The owner of this Dell’Arte DG-P1 “The Pigalle” oval soundhole gypsy jazz acoustic guitar was finding the high action a bit hard to handle so brought it in for a setup. As you can see the solid rosewood bridge isn’t adjustable and to take wood off the bottom would have disturbed the nice “moustache”. The only …
Note: In this post I refer to “left-handed” and “lefty”. This refers to a guitar which is strung, looking at the guitar face on, with the 1st string on the left and the 6th string on the right. A customer asked me to convert their brand new Epiphone acoustic to left handed. It seems that …