Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Ok so I have some PIO tone caps and nice 550K pots from Grindy to fire in my 2008 SG standard. I was thinking it would be a good time to do some other stuff as well. I'll replace the pups eventually, but for now I am looking at the bridge and tailstop. It currently has the standard Tune-O-Matic Zamak bridge and Zymack stoppiece. I had read an article somewhere (cant find it for the life of me now) where a guy had done a bunch of work on his SG, replacing the Zamak with chrome plated brass, and had also replaced the bridge screws with longer brass screws so that he could screw them right down into the body and make contact with the wood. He was claiming a fairly siginificant increase in sustain from this, which is something I am looking for in making these upgrades.

At any rate, keeping in mind I am a total noob when it comes to guitar modding and therefore unable to sort the wheat from the chaff for the info out there on this, is it worth replacing the bridge and saddle, if so what are good options. What do people like for the saddles, brass, steel, ?? Does replacing the bridge screws with longer ones seem like it makes sense to others? Sould I get the nut redone at the same time, I think I have finally setteled on my preferred string guages (10, 13, 17, 28, 38, 48).

Any other must do upgrades/mods that people can suggest?

For background, I play in a cover band that plays a pretty wide range of rock related stuff (we'd make a decent wedding band, flame away) with a range of sounds from clean to full on distortion. Personally I lean towards the heavier end of things. Here is our setlist from our first set of our last gig:
-Talking Heads, This must be the place.
- Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like you
- Joan Jett - I Love Rock and Roll
- Canned Heat - Going up the Country
- Fleetwood Mac/Vampire Weekend - Everywhere (Played VW style in the FM key)
- Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag
- Supergrass - Alright
- Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
- Weezer - Buddy Holly
- Black Keys - Tighten Up
- White Stripes - 7 nation army

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

I'm a spec guy and tried many different combinations of everything that regards hardware and electronics, not neccessarely on my guitars but on customer instruments that i perform mods on.

Most of the time company's that make product that «Really» have an influence on the tone, are'nt cheap....sad story.

For your SG, since your gigging, reliability and constance is the key in my opinion.

I would with any doubt replace the tune-o-matic and stop tailpiece with ABM aluminium tail and bridge.

The general consensus about hardware and instrument in general, is that mass/volume is the key to tone, well............i do not agree with that (flame thrower ready).

Mass or weigth also act as a «damper» when you push that principle too far, it just absorb any of the expression or dynamic you could have in your playing. Yes you will have sustain for days, but it will be a «flatline sound» if i can say it that way.

So yeah, aluminium bridge parts, with graphtech saddles, rust resistant, less string breakage and freaking accurate. I would also change the nut for a TuskXL white or black....it's up to you.

Anyway, this is just my opinion and i'm most of the time in the marginal «school of tought».

That's a pretty cool cover band setlist!

First thing I'd do is get some locking tuners on there.. I went Sperzel crazy with a couple of my guitars, and tuning is rock solid. They might add weight, but SG's are already poorly balanced guitars.

How bout some TonePros locking studs for the stopbar tailpiece? I wager that'll increase your sustain.

And of course (puts on broken record..) I love roller bridges. I never broke a string again (at the saddles) after putting those on my Les Paul. Those little 'V's' can be like scissors if you are an aggressive picker..

GFS sells pretty nice knockoffs of all these things, assuming they're not currently messing up orders.. a handful of people were having issues recently..

ps- I just picked up one of these roller bridges for my Epi Supernova, and it's my favorite roller bridge now.. super comfortable for palm-muting, and it locks to the posts. It looked ugly close-up on the website, but it's very understated once on the guitar.
http://store.guitarfetish.com/Wilkinson-Brass-Roller-Bridge-Locking-Studs-Chrome_p_866.html

I just put a bigsby on my SG; used a vibromate so it's completely reversible. I'm extremely happy with with it (being a bigsby lover already) - it definitely added punch or something to the guitar; it sounds more beefy without being more distorted now. It also seems to balance slightly better with the increased mass towards the ass end.

I also have Tonepros tuners & bridge on it; but I built it that way and can't comment on any improvements there. I do like 'em though.

Thanks everone for the suggestions so far!!

So new bridge, tailpiece and nut for sure. Morgan that is a sexy looking SG, and I dig the bigsby's for sure, but am going to hold off for now.

I am liking Grindy's suggestion on the Aluminum bridge and tailpiece, any good brands?? The Tone Pros website is killing me, I cant figure out what is brass and what is aluminum. I am liking the "Locking" idea, should I be looking for both locking bridge and locking stoppiece? If I get a locking tailpiece should I also be getting the locking studs, or is that redundant?? I had also read about the GraphTec saddles previously, and one of their "Labs" is here in BC so I might stop by next time I am in Van

I learned that I totally misunderstood what a locking tuner is today, I figured it was locking the rotation of the tuner shaft, not locking the string in the shaft through hole!!!! Those Sperzels are dead sexy so might try some of those (on another note, i dont find the balance of my sg to be an issue, I play it pretty high up though (think Tom Morrello).

Also PP I like the look of that roller bridge, looks like a cam shaft to me! And thanks for the compliment on our set list! The second set has a few mellower funkier tunes as well.

Keep the suggestions and discussion coming. "Pretend" i know nothing about this.

Morgan, I have a huge boner for your SG. I do love me some bigsby!

and seriously... an SG just doesn't look right with a fixed bridge.

Thanks!? It's one of the cheap faded series ones. Bought the body/neck off eBay for under three bills & built it up from there. Finally scored the bigsby/vibramete used for less than a benjamin. Plays great!

Here's a link to ABM site, http://www.abm-mueller.com/index2.html, their stuff is really expansive.

You can view the product, but for full description and product number, you must download their catalog.

Their product are offered in any alloy or metal you want.

They have roller bridge, tail piece with fine tuners, pretty much everything.


Sexiest floating trem ever!

+1 for bigsbys! And I have a roller saddle bridge that helps keeping the bigsby in tune. Locking tuners as well...

Get someone to cut you a good compensated bone nut. I did my first one a year or two ago on my strat and I couldn`t believe I could actually feel and hear a noticable difference-you could use tusQ too but I get my blanks cheap so I use bone
and I will always give a vote for a bigsby , they are great.

with my LP, I got 'only' the TonePros locking studs, and that did the job for the stopbar.. it's locked down tight.

The roller bridge from GFS I mentioned locks to your original posts with setscrews and an Allen wrench, so that takes care of tightening up the bridge. Add locking tuners, and you're pretty much locked-n-loaded from beginning to end.

I would also go for a bone or Tusq nut..

And yes, Morgans' SG is dead-sexy..

57' Classic pickups sound awesome but are a little pricey.
For the bridge id recomend callaham or tone pros, ive used the callaham bridge in one of my strats and it sounds killer, tone pros is supposed to be pretty sweet too(theyre also alot easier to get a hold of). im gonna try the tonepros/kluson tuners and if theyre good ill let you know

I've got a graphtech resomax bridge in my epi sg and i'd recommend it, I got it cheap off of ebay with a black tusq xl nut which i'd also recommend. sounds alot better and has fewer tuning issues with them installed