Bridges and Tailpieces

 

As you know Gibson has used a wide variety of tailpieces and bridges over the years. Many look similar and others completely different. Gibson bridges and tailpiece also were made of different material for specific guitars and from specific eras. I will mention a few in a quick summary that may be helpful to the beginner in the vintage guitar parts market . Since most collect and play guitar from 1930 to the present I will focus on that area primarily .

Most of the original tailpiece were trapeze style as there were no solid body guitars at that time.  Gibson tailpiece were made of metal and again had various patterns but the styling was consistent. The Gibson bridges were made of wood either of  rosewood or ebony but there were other exceptions.  The more elaborate the guitar  usually the more elaborate the bridge and tailpiece were

Then came the solid body Gibson Les Paul . The bridge and tailpiece were molded into one unit and was used from 1952- mid 1953 . By the end of 1953 Gibson had made a wrap around style bridge again one unit served as both bridge and tailpiece. Along around 1955 Gibson invented the ABR-1 style bridge and it was used in conjunction with an array of tailpieces depending on the model guitar. This model Gibson bridge was made of nickel would see slight variations but is still used until this day . At this time Gibson started using Bigsby tailpiece on many of their guitars although they did not manufacture and design  the part themselves. Trapeze tailpieces were continued and are still used today on many model Gibson guitars.

 From 1955-1962  The Gibson ABR-1 bridge had no retaining wire which held the saddles into the bridge base. Gibson changed the bridge to have a retaining wire in late 1962 this prevented saddles from falling off when a string broke. This was a big problem if  you were on stage.  In 1965 the bridges changed form nickel to chrome it was a transitional year so both styles were used. In 1966 Gibson obtained a pat number for the bridge and a pat# was now stamped on the bottom of each bridge along with the Gibson name.

The tailpiece saw  little if any change other than the fact that they changed from nickel to chrome plating . Today most styles are still used.

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