A few months ago, I made a video comparing the Four Uncles Restorations ABR-1 bridge to some of its competitors - with some interesting results. But underneath that video, Dave Stephens (one of the Four Uncles behind that ABR-1!) left a couple of comments - and he had some views on the particular guitar that I was auditioning his bridge with.

Specifically, I mentioned in the intro of that video that (being a guitar built around a modern Nashville bridge) I was having to use some Royal Mount adaptor inserts to allow me to install a vintage-spec ABR-1. But Dave is of the opinion that inserting a lump of metal under the bridge is terrible for the tone of the guitar; and that the video wasn't a useful experiment as a result.

That got me thinking - just HOW much difference does using the inserts make compared to having the thread going directly into the wood top? So, I purchased another set of Royal Mount fittings - this time with just the threads designed to screw directly into the top of a guitar - and decided to perform a little surgery on my Lester. In this video, you will see me plug the existing holes with some hardwood Maple; and then re-drill down through the dowel to accommodate the vintage-spec posts. Then, we can find out exactly how bad the Nashville inserts are for the tone, by keeping everything else exactly the same.

What do you think? Was there a difference? And if so, is it worth being concerned about? Comment below!

Guitar is a Gibson Les Paul Standard w/ ThroBak SLE-101 PAFs. Amps are a Dr Z EZG 50 & a Vajra JTM45 clone.

Amps running into a Zilla Studio Pro 2x12 cabinet loaded with Celestion AlNiCo Gold & G12M Heritage Greenback speakers. Recorded with Aston Spirit Condenser, '70s Sennheiser MD441 and sE RNR1 ribbon mics, with a Schoeps CMC6 room mic. Spring reverb is a Dr Z Z-Verb unit.

0:00 Intro
4:21 What Are We Doing?
5:38 Making The Conversion
8:02 Clean Playing
11:23 Gain Playing
15:01 Outro

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