Les Paul with Faber Tonelock bridge / tailpiece (long post)
May 21, 2015 5:49:52 GMT -7
"Z" Steve, Mark (Basement Enthusiast), and 2 more like this
Post by premiumplus (Dave) on May 21, 2015 5:49:52 GMT -7
So after Christmas last year I got the chance to meet some of you at Mike's Muzeum and ended up talking at length with Mark about aftermarket bridges for Les Pauls. I ended up buying a couple of sets from Faber, the complete master kit with replacement studs, bridge, and tailpiece.
I bought a 2003 Les Paul Premium Plus which is a beautiful guitar, but it's always been missing something. It was boomy with the neck pickup and shrill with the bridge. And so I started changing pickups, pots, capacitors, volume kits, on and on. I've been making changes to this thing for a long time but never was truly happy with the tone. So I got the bridge kits from Faber, and put one in my 335 and the other in my Les Paul. Here's the kicker to the whole story; the lightweight locking tailpiece was back ordered and I only had one, so I put it on my 335. The other tailpiece was delivered a few days later, but I didn't install it until yesterday because I was so happy with the 335 that the Les Paul has been hanging on the wall for 4 months.
I installed the tailpiece, and the difference was truly night and day. WOW. The boominess and shrillness went away, the guitar opened up and is a different instrument. I still can't believe it. I just picked it up and played it unplugged for a few minutes and it was hard to put down, it sounded so good.
I always thought that the bridge and the locking stud system would make the biggest improvement. Not so, in this case. With the new tailpiece, you get different size spacers that go under it to set the height. Then you tighten it up and it locks down to the body. I set it up so that the strings break over the bridge at about the same angle as at the nut. It sure makes the strings feel slinkier. With the stock tailpiece, I had tried different heights and I tried top wrapping the tailpiece too, but none of those things made the difference that the new locking tailpiece did.
Whatever the reason, the guitar is now calling me to play it like it never has in the 12 years I've owned it. The tone is fat, the neck pickup now sounds defined and powerful, it's not muddy at all (which I have never seen in a Les Paul). The neck pickup has lost it's strident character and has a great punch and clarity. The funny thing is that no matter which pickup I had in there, the guitar always sounded the same; it was out of balance in terms of treble to bass. Not any more. It goes to show that a guitar is really the sum of it's parts.
Sorry for the long post, but I'm so happy about this that I had to describe it to you all. I'm SO glad that I didn't give up on this guitar.
I'd be really interested to hear what you guys think about the relationship of tailpiece height to tone. What kind of angle do your strings have at the tailpiece?
I bought a 2003 Les Paul Premium Plus which is a beautiful guitar, but it's always been missing something. It was boomy with the neck pickup and shrill with the bridge. And so I started changing pickups, pots, capacitors, volume kits, on and on. I've been making changes to this thing for a long time but never was truly happy with the tone. So I got the bridge kits from Faber, and put one in my 335 and the other in my Les Paul. Here's the kicker to the whole story; the lightweight locking tailpiece was back ordered and I only had one, so I put it on my 335. The other tailpiece was delivered a few days later, but I didn't install it until yesterday because I was so happy with the 335 that the Les Paul has been hanging on the wall for 4 months.
I installed the tailpiece, and the difference was truly night and day. WOW. The boominess and shrillness went away, the guitar opened up and is a different instrument. I still can't believe it. I just picked it up and played it unplugged for a few minutes and it was hard to put down, it sounded so good.
I always thought that the bridge and the locking stud system would make the biggest improvement. Not so, in this case. With the new tailpiece, you get different size spacers that go under it to set the height. Then you tighten it up and it locks down to the body. I set it up so that the strings break over the bridge at about the same angle as at the nut. It sure makes the strings feel slinkier. With the stock tailpiece, I had tried different heights and I tried top wrapping the tailpiece too, but none of those things made the difference that the new locking tailpiece did.
Whatever the reason, the guitar is now calling me to play it like it never has in the 12 years I've owned it. The tone is fat, the neck pickup now sounds defined and powerful, it's not muddy at all (which I have never seen in a Les Paul). The neck pickup has lost it's strident character and has a great punch and clarity. The funny thing is that no matter which pickup I had in there, the guitar always sounded the same; it was out of balance in terms of treble to bass. Not any more. It goes to show that a guitar is really the sum of it's parts.
Sorry for the long post, but I'm so happy about this that I had to describe it to you all. I'm SO glad that I didn't give up on this guitar.
I'd be really interested to hear what you guys think about the relationship of tailpiece height to tone. What kind of angle do your strings have at the tailpiece?