Nashville vs ABR-1

[jim in texas]

Don't think me too stupid but what is the difference between a Nashville and a ABR-1 bridge? I thought all TOM's were the same until I saw the word "Nashville bridge" in a thread. Now I'm confused.

I posted an earlier thread about a TOM style bridge w/ tp that locks itself with set screws but so far have had no responses. The product is called a Tone Pro and it's suppossed to increase sustain and improve intonation/tuning stability because everything is locked in place. Have ya'll ever heard of such a thing?

 

[BrianGWN]

Jim, briefly the two variations of the Gibson tunomatic bridge are the older ABR1 and the later Nashville.
The ABR1 is the style found on vintage Gibsons. It originally did not have a saddle retaining wire but that was added at some point. It mounts to the guitar using two posts that thread directly into the wood, sort of like a headless machine bolt, number 6 with 32 thread. This bridge is the one used on all the Historic and reissue style guitars. It is also on some regular production guitars such as the LP Classic. Replacements are available in nickel and gold finishes, but apparently also a few models (some version of the SG?) has a chrome ABR1.
The Nashville bridge was a version that came out I believe early in the days of the Nashville plant, late 70s, so I guess it would be a no-brainer as to how it got it's name. It uses a different style of saddle and mounting arrangement. The saddles are held in place by individual "clips". The guitar body will have an insert that accepts the thumbwheel/post. I believe the saddle adjustment screws have a metric thread, and with many of the Nashville bridges on the bottom side they have "Made in Germany", so they are probably made for Gibson by Schaller or ABM. These bridges are used on the modern regular production LP Standard, Custom, Studio guitars. As such replacement Nashville bridges are only available in chrome and gold, at least I have never seen or heard about a nickel version.

As to the Tone Pro bridges, I recall KKarl checked them out at one of the west coast NAMM shows. I don't recall if the bridge itself is made by the vendor or whether they are actually Gibson tunomatics that have been modded to have the locking set screws.