Stratoben127
New member
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2013
- Messages
- 301
I was looking at pictures of some different '52 Les Pauls with an ABR/Short trap set up and of course TW's former burst "Cooper" with the aftermarket trapeze and I got to thinking I might want to do something similar with my '53 wraptail with humbuckers.
The guitar originally came with a thin-ear bridge and has a transitional neck angle. I only have my phone as a level and it says it's 3 degrees when I do it with my phone on one side and 4 on the other side. The bridge doesn't sit close to the body. In fact, it's fairly high up.
The playability right now with a MojoAxe wraparound is excellent and the sound is very unique. Extremely punchy, but almost metallic. It tends to have some SG characteristics. My main guitar is an SG so I've always liked it somewhat, but I got together with a friend last week who has a '52 with stock P90s and an ABR-1 and a burst and both of them had a similar characteristic that my wraparound '53 didn't have. They were warmer, softer, and had more of a "Les Paul" sound.
I don't want to cut up the guitar for an ABR and stop tail, but I was thinking a cool reversible thing I could try would be to throw on a bowtie or dogbone style bridge (maybe with an ABR on it) and a trapeze tailpiece. That way I eliminate the things I dislike about the wraparound which are the cosmetics and it too close to the bridge pickup to restring without taking the bridge off. Plus I could maybe get some of the sound of a two-piece bridge while creating something unique on its own. I do like to overwrap and I like having a little less downward pressure on the strings, so a trapeze is no problem with me.
I was wondering if there's any reasons this might not work. The guitar is a player for sure. The Sorkin Bowties look great but will a flat bottom one work on an archtop LP standard?
The guitar originally came with a thin-ear bridge and has a transitional neck angle. I only have my phone as a level and it says it's 3 degrees when I do it with my phone on one side and 4 on the other side. The bridge doesn't sit close to the body. In fact, it's fairly high up.
The playability right now with a MojoAxe wraparound is excellent and the sound is very unique. Extremely punchy, but almost metallic. It tends to have some SG characteristics. My main guitar is an SG so I've always liked it somewhat, but I got together with a friend last week who has a '52 with stock P90s and an ABR-1 and a burst and both of them had a similar characteristic that my wraparound '53 didn't have. They were warmer, softer, and had more of a "Les Paul" sound.
I don't want to cut up the guitar for an ABR and stop tail, but I was thinking a cool reversible thing I could try would be to throw on a bowtie or dogbone style bridge (maybe with an ABR on it) and a trapeze tailpiece. That way I eliminate the things I dislike about the wraparound which are the cosmetics and it too close to the bridge pickup to restring without taking the bridge off. Plus I could maybe get some of the sound of a two-piece bridge while creating something unique on its own. I do like to overwrap and I like having a little less downward pressure on the strings, so a trapeze is no problem with me.
I was wondering if there's any reasons this might not work. The guitar is a player for sure. The Sorkin Bowties look great but will a flat bottom one work on an archtop LP standard?