Soundclip; Wraparound Bridge Goodness: Music City Bridge Savvy

[GuitarIV]

What's up folks,

So I had my Gibson Custom Shop Junior for about a year now and I'm pretty happy with the guitar! Fat baseball neck, plays like a dream and resonates like crazy.

Now I never had a wraptail bridge before, but I'm a bit strict about intonation, so naturally it didn't take long till I started doing some research on the matter. All my Teles have compensated saddles as well.

Came across the Music City Bridge offerings by watching some Tom Bukovac videos and I decided to order one. After messaging MCB directly they recommended the Savvy in aged nickel together with their locking studs to prevent bridge tilt and 2 days ago the package arrived.

Here are some pics:



Glad they recommended the aged version as the guitar has the V.O.S. treatment and my sweat already started eating the original bridge and studs. Looks good on the guitar! The Savvy is a bit beefier than the original, but from afar you really can't tell a difference.

Also went ahead and gave the guitar a proper cleaning:



Here you can see the neck tenon:



Time for some oil:



And the new bridge with the locking studs:



Here you can see there is zero lean with the studs tightened:



And the final result:




So here's my first impression:

Wow. I didn't even intonate or touch anything, I just measured the old position of the studs so my string height would stay the same, installed the new bridge and the intonation was spot on! Every single string.

Now that I let it sit for 2 days I have to slightly move the bridge closer to the neck, but we're talkin a few cents on the lower strings.

The bridge feels great, the sound hasn't really changed, if anything it has a bit more body to it but the weather has gotten cold and humid so that might contribute.

The guitar sounds in tune all the way up the neck and string alignment over the fretboard is perfect.


What can I say, it does exactly what the folks from MCB promised! Perfect Intonation and no bridge lean so no sitaring. Improving an imperfect design to suit the 21st century.

It is a bit pricey but worth it imho. Highly recommended!

All that's left to do now is to play this baby some more. In tune, all the way up the neck that is

Cheers!

 

[gsgtrman]

Music City Bridge does some great work. I would, and do recommend that particular bridge/tailpiece combo to my customers that own Juniors or SG Jr's, really any guitar with wraparound setups. I use the locking posts on a Les Paul tailpiece because I prefer to top-wrap my strings.
MCB has great customer service and make a thoughtful, quality product. Nice job on your Junior!

 

[GuitarIV]

Thanks man, it really is a great improvement, highly recommended!

The Junior sounds even better now because everything is in tune. I did a short soundclip playing the Saxophone Solo from Sades Smooth Operator:



Sometimes all you need is a single pickup, your tone and volume controls and a solid bridge

 

[StrummerJoe]

Right on! I love it when a product lives up to expectations. And it looks great too.

Congrats!