Any video on how to notch bridge saddles of an ABR bridge?

[rick66]

i'm going to be getting a tone pros ABR bridge soon (thanks chet.) the saddles, however, are not notched. i really have the desire to learn more about maintaining and repairing my guitar. i'd like to notch these myself. can anyone post a link, if you know of one that may exist on the net, of video that actually shows this process being done? thanks in advance for any help.

[wilder]

I hate to tell you this but Gibson notches them at the factory by hitting the strings with a hammer. Dan Erlewine discusses this in his book "How to make your Electric Guitar play Great". It's a great book, but my copy is loaned out right now so I can't recall what his preffered method is.

[rick66]

thanks.

[indytruckboy]

He says to smack with a plastic faced hammer. The bridge metal is soft. He then goes on saying that depending on the model, Gibson may hand file the slots further. He also notes that this ruins the strings.

[tac5]

The "hammer smack" trick works great. It can ruin the strings so I just loosen the old ones enough to replace the old bridge. It doesn't take a very deep slot to hold the strings securely. I don't cut mine as deeply as Dan Erlewine suggests, just make sure the slot is smooth with no burrs. I bought a new Les Paul Standard last year that had the slots cut too far to the bass side. After a price adjustment (for a new Tone Pros bridge) I redid it and it plays great.

[Cackalacky]

I've had good results with the hammer method on a Gibson ABR1. However, I also have a Tone Pros version of the ABR1, and the hammer method didn't work at all, which leads me to believe the Tone Pros bridge is a harder material. I ended up using a razor saw to mark where I wanted the notches and nut files to get sufficient depht.