Congrats on 100k views dad!

Fyi I called Gibson and they told me Nashville bridge screws face towards the TAIL. ABR1bridge Screws face neck. Not trying to be a know it all,i was just trying to find out cause I kept seeing them every which way. I really enjoy your Videos.

Bridge screws do not always face forward on Gibsons. Gibson uses more than one type of bridge, primarily the ABR-1 and the Nashville. One has forward screws, other has rear screws.

I bought a Les Paul Traditional, 2015 model. The Nashville bridge came with the adjustment screws facing the tailpiece and the saddles all had the flat sides facing forward.

Thanks for the information. I'm currently restoring my old Les Paul Studio and want to get it back to like new condition. The factory bridge settings were a big question mark for me. This was helpful. 👍🏻

I like your argument for having the tail-piece low, but not too low. It makes sense that it puts lets pressure on the tail-piece support posts, not sure if it really affects the sustain though. Ever since I saw a video with Slash's guitar tech I've set mine up higher, so the angle from saddle to tail-piece is only about 10 or so degrees. Apparently this way it reduces the chance of string breakage at the tail. I believe it helps too with tuning the wound strings, as less angle decreases the chances of the windings 'catching' on the saddles.

Very helpful. Thanks. This was driving me crazy. I have a 2016 Traditional and I prefer the screws facing the back.

I have Gibson Les Paul custom and from the factory Tail piece all the way down. Nashville bridge screws facing opposite to yours. It plays flawlessly happy to keep it that way the next time I change strings.. keep it simple

Many thanks. Sorted my SG copy by reversing the bridge (screws facing tailpiece), swapping saddles around, changing their order to reflect string size and filing screw seats.

I do not think too many of us are playing in front of 5000+ crowds bending the high E 12th fret F# up to Ab and holding it forever like Carlos on Europa. Just set it up to your preference and ROCK!!! AKKA-DAKKA BABY!!!

Thank god for this video. I made some dumb adjustments on my TOM bridge guitar and could never get it to play right. All good now.

I have a 2020 Epiphone ES-335 Blueberry burst and you're correct. That's how my guitar was configured out of the box.

Thanks for sharing this. I have spent time getting to know my guitars better and the individual characteristics at the headstock (tuners, nut, geometry, etc.) and tail (bridge & tailstock) that impact its performance (sustain, tuning, etc.). There are things I have learned and some I have a theory about relating to best practices I'm working through. Sharing this as a baseline parameter really helps as this is the way Gibson comes out, set up from the factory. There is a reason for this, and it would be nice to hear right from them on why they went about what they did from their mouths. Knowing what changes do and their related improvements and compromises when doing them is valuable as one works to get the best setup for you and your guitar.

I have 2 LP's with nashville bridges made in different years. Both came from the factory with the screw heads facing the tail piece.

Good vid. I'm liking the fine tuning tail piece. Thanx.

Yeah, congrats (Dad). I just subscribed!! Very intelligent stuff.

I've always wondered about this,thanks for finding out...

Nice video bro,finally someone gets it right, the point of intonation is where the string eventually rest on the saddle, no matter what the saddle looks like, which way it's pointing or what it is made out of, some are nylon,the tuneomatic bridge always seems to be cock eyed,I imagine it's for intonation purposes,makes the stop bar look like it's off too, I'm not a big fan of wrapping strings over the tailpiece, I will save my old strings especially the unwound E and over wrapping puts a big dent in the strings,I tried it but didn't like it at all,easier to just raise the stop bar, and it looks better and feels better.

Joining late here. I have three Gibsons all originally with Nashville bridges and all came from the factory with the screws facing towards the tailpiece. If you look at the Gibson website, all the guitars sold with ABR bridges have screws pointing towards the neck and if with Nashvilles they point towards the tailpiece. Adjusting intonation from behind is easy; I do not understand why Metalcop thinks otherwise. The Nashvilles have greater range for adjustment and the screw heads are lower down in the body. As noted a million times, in most cases, it does not matter which way around the bridges are as long as the saddles are angled the right way and provide enough movement for intonation. One important watch-out that no one ever talks about is that if the bridge is simply turned around, the saddle notches are now wrong. In most case, it's probably unnoticeable but the notches, if done right, orient the string spacing and string in alignment to the pup pole pieces. Typically the bass string saddle notches are wider and lower that the high strings so turning around can result in a high E sitting loosely in a low E saddle slot. This can result in buzzing; I've seen and fixed this on other guitars by simply swapping the saddles around.

I have a 2011 Gibson 50's Tribute Les Paul and it came from the factory with all the flats facing the front and the screws facing the back. Plays and intonates just fine. Something you forgot to mention though is that the saddles come in three different heights with the two tallest in the middle (D and G) and the two shortest on the outside (high and low E) to compensate for the radius of the neck.

On the Tune-O-Matic, the direction of the intonation screw-heads is only a matter of personal preference and for practical purposes. If you have the back piece higher than standard, it's just impractical to adjust the screws if the heads are facing the back, so it's usually easier to have them facing the neck. Also the height of the two pieces is personal preference, and will affect the string action / string height. Some prefer them higher, some like them lower. As long as the strings dont touch the back-end of the sadle piece as shown in the video, you're fine. Sometimes you need to adjust the height slightly different on each side (bass / treble) as well, to avoid strings that buzz on the lower frets. Generally, the less of an angle you have on the strings from the back piece to the saddle piece will cause less string tension, and will make strings easier to bend. Depending on the string thickness you use this might need some adjustment as well. Which way the individual intonation "shoes" are facing is usually set up like you show in the video, bass strings lean one way and treble strings the other, but this is also something you might need to change if you can't get intonation right, and need more or less range for tightening the string tension. Every guitar is different, and a lot of these adjustments are only personal preference. Epiphone Les Paul guitars often come with a horrible setup, so this is usually a trial and error process to get strings not buzzing and to get intonation right. In the end it all comes down to first adjusting the setup to make the guitar sound right from a technical perspective, intonation, string height / buzzing, etc, and the rest is just personal preference.

Great vid. I've been contemplating getting another stop bar tail piece for my custom shop LP so I can overwrap, and not mar the original. AND..my super expensive custom shop LP came with the bar right on the body with all the strings digging into the edge of the bridge...gotta love it...🤨

I found cranking the tail piece all the way down increased tuning stability, and switching the metal saddles for Tusq saddles prevented any broken strings (this on a '67 SG with 12's).

This is the best video on this so far. Very helpful, thx.

I believe the Nashville style bridge has the adjustment screws towards the tailpiece.

Hello from Northern Ireland. 👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻

Received a factory fresh Gibson LP last month. Screws were facing the tailpiece.

Wow! Thank you so much! It's the video I needed.

adjustment out of the equation the sloped side should face the tail bar because of the downward angle.

Excellent video my brother! This really helped me out and I appreciate it. Thx man

Super informative...Thanks for helping to clear that fog.

I think the saddle screws pointing neckward would allow greater access for adjusting, easier to put a screw driver over a pickup than around a string perhaps. Just a note: I recently discovered while trying to switch from chrome hardware to black that some of these black bridges and tail pieces are not conductive, thus not able to provide a ground for the strings.

My 2010 Gibson Les Paul has the screw heads facing the back and the saddles all lean the same way. Works great.

The wraparound palmmute you mentioned is purely personal preference. You can way easier vary the amount of palm muting having the strings be the guides and not have a stop.. I came here to check what is the factory way of the bridge screws pointing at, but mmind you that there must be a reason for it to fit 2 ways. same with the stop bar. You could put that backwards, if you'd have a tailpiece to loop the strings around. Thanks for the ball end tip, gonna do that, I do see what you mean, i'm wondering is it required for the fat strings but i'll see that shortly after cracking open a fresh set of ernies

Just bought a 2017 Gibson Firebird HP. Owner bought it in 2017 and pretty much never played - just kept in the case. Everything is MINT. Even the film is still on the pickguard and Gibson G-Force tuners. Plays amazing BUT I've got a buzzing from the open low E string. Once any note is fretted - buzz is gone. Suggestions?

All the necks are hand set(on Gibsons not Epiphone) into the body so there'll be slight variations between the measurements. And the saddles point a specific way depending on how the tech set the neck. There is no right direction per say. The flat side of the saddle and bridge itself can point either way depending on the guitars intonation needs.

Fwiw: The decked tailpiece on that LP will eventually cause the bridge to collapse -that's 1 reason to top-wrap. Your 'FT1' tailpiece is a TP-6 and the string angle from a decked TP-6 to the bridge is the same as a top-wrapped std tailpiece.

Thank you, mister.

was looking for a video like this and your honest as well. Well done. Definitely like this video.

ABR-1 & Nashville bridge adjusting screws are opposite. The ABR-1 screws are near the bridge pickup, the Nashville bridge screws are near the tailpiece.

This video helped me out a lot. Thumbs up.

If I am not mistaken the Nashville type bridges (without the wire) will face the intonation screw heads facing the tail of the guitar. The ABR1 is the opposite and will have the head of the screw facing the headstock.

If your just worried about string tension on the tail piece just add some washers so you can still tighten it it up to the body..I've never had an issue doing it that way and play tens.

With the adjustment-screwheads facing the tailpiece, its just a bit trickier to adjust. But is the better position for sustain and tuningstability. In this position, the force of the strings pushing the saddles via the neck is resting on the screwheads thigt to the bridge, and not the tiny C-rings. And if the bridge gets turned arround, you have to considder also swapping places of the saddles to its previous string, otherwise you end up having the wider slots on the thinner strings and therefor some buzz

great very helpful video. I have an Epiphone SG it's a great player with a great neck however the lowest strings will not intonate and the bridge seddles are set up just like yours. I'm going to have to flip around the low E the A and the D just so I can get more reach so that they're not flat intonation at twelfth fret.

knew some of the tips ,but still interesting Thanks

Many types of TOM ABR-1’s have adjustment at the rear/neck. Modern or Nashville style, etc have adjustment at the front/bridge.

Excellent video dude. You answered a lot of questions.

Thank you, thank you x 1 billion. I searched everywhere for the answer to this due to me messing with my Gibson Les Paul Standard bridge, then not knowing where it should be to be at spec.

Absolutely agree with Sunbrook Condo: "Bridge screws do not always face forward on Gibsons. Gibson uses more than one type of bridge, primarily the ABR-1 and the Nashville. One has forward screws, other has rear screws." Another thing: those posts doesnt seem to be from Gibson. The tune-O-Matic bridge dosent have slottedd posts...

I own a '94 Les Paul Studio from new and it came with a Nashville Tune-O-Matic with the intonation screws facing the tail piece instead of the neck. I checked some pictures from when I just had the guitar and also from current LP studios and their set up is similar to mine. Apparently factory settings vary between models.

I wonder when they standardized this: my 93 SG ‘61 reissue came with the screws facing backwards. I’d like to swap it around though because the strings ride on the screws without the stop being kinda high up.

The screw heads are facing the tail piece on my LP Custom and on my Epi Sheraton they are facing the neck either way is fine with me.

That is a metric Epiphone Nashville TOM bridge not a 1950s or 60s ABR Tune O Matic. The first TOM ABR 1s had saddles that fell out when there were no strings on the guitar. Then they added the retaining wires, with the ABR 2 TOM. Then came the move from Kalamazoo to Nashville and the bridges got wider and the saddles were held in with small spring C clips. Put some small heat shrink or some fiberglass & silicone wire protector over your strings behind the bridge. Then came the vertical adjusting TOM bridge with brass, steel or plastic saddle inserts, but it was short lived.

Caution when running the tailpiece all the way down to the body! This increases downward pressure on the bridge, and sometimes the bridge will even collapse! I had a brand new Gibson Les Paul from the factory and could not figure out why it wouldn't intonate correctly until a very good guitar technician discovered the bridge had collapsed (had sunken in the middle), so the string heights no longer matched the radius of the fingerboard, and thus the guitar would not intonate properly. (This condition is almost not perceivable by the human eye, but laying a 6" rule across the deck of the bridge will reveal it.) Installing a new tone-pros bridge corrected the issue, but I've been considering top-wrapping in order to reduce some of the downward pressure on the new bridge, as I still have the tail piece screwed all the way down to the body. I'm constantly worried the tone pros bridge may also collapse. But because of what happened with the original factory bridge, I personally see the advantage of top wrapping more as a means of reducing the chance of collapsing a bridge - not necessarily as a tone improvement or string tension reducer. Think I'm going to try it soon. I just hate that it leaves string marks on the tailpiece.

Good video I have my first Les paul and this video was helpful Thanx

I just read that historically, the ABR-1 bridges come from the factory with the screws facing the neck, while the Nashville bridges come from the factory with the screws facing the tailpiece.

Great vid! My guitar was built with issues. It is a 2017 Les Paul Standard. This guitar was built with a compound radius, I bought it new keep in mind.. it is as it came from Gibson, now it starts at the nut with a radius of 9.5" then goes to 14" at the last fret, now continuing the radius to the bridge it would likely be a 19-21" radius..what did Gibson do? Slapped a standard Nashville bridge on it and called it a day. Im not sure what Gibsons radius is but Im guessing its 12" maybe..nowhere NEAR what is needed.. the result? very high action on the A,D,G and B strings after the 10th or 12th fret. Why bring this up? Its to point out that even Gibson sometimes has trouble innovating.. great, compound radius but its not what it should be because of a bridge that basically doesnt fit. Since the Tune-o-matic was made I believe there has been VERY little to improve this (by todays standards) archaic design. I realized the only way to correct the issue was to be able to individually adjust the string height. No Tune-o-matic does this..but Babicz. I am no "employee" or am I "paid to endorse" Babicz but it was truly my only solution. This bridge not only allowed me to get the action on my Les Paul incredibly low it also eliminates any mystery about saddle direction and it tightens down to the body which increased resonance by 15-20%. Did it increase sustain? Hard to tell..it didn't hurt it. Its solid to the body unlike the decades old ABR1 that sits on threaded steel pins. As far as the angle going from the tail peice to the bridge..the Gibson TP6 micro tuner is not near as low or have as much angle as a factory tail peice personally I dont see a need for such a drastic angle. I LOVE the TP6.. I think they should be standard on every tune-o-matic guitar made! Gibson only used them on their Super Customs and a couple other top of the line guitars..I have them on all the guitars that will take them.. My 18 HPll SG also sports a Babicz and TP6 and is dialed in so sweet it makes your teeth hurt to play it! Thanks for your video!!

Yes, this video is helpful. One more reason for having the tailpiece raised a bit, is to relax the tension on the strings a little, and it makes it easier to bend the strings. Gibson has used 10s for a long time, but 2 or 3 years ago, started putting a 9 gauge on the high E string. It does make it easier to bend, but it sounds bad. Use a 10 gauge, and raise the tailpiece a bit, and you should like it.

If the saddle facing forward or backward doesn't matter why are they designed the way they are? The string slopes upward from the tailpiece. One side of the saddle is like a small ramp, guiding the string up, leveling off to allow the string to leave the saddle from the flat side and head straight toward the flat side of the nut, where it then ramps down toward the headstock. You wouldn't install a nut with the ramp side facing the fretboard.

Cool info! I have a 2010 Gibson Les Paul Traditional Pro I that I bought new. It was a run GuitarDenter did with Gibson that spec’d a Traditional (the standard prior to 2008) - in 2008 they chambered the standard and started screwing around with the electronics. The Les Paul Trad Pro I is a two piece Mahogany body, plain top, classic ‘57 in the neck and a Burstbucker 3 in the Bridge with coil taps on the volume knobs. As long as I’ve been playing and setting up guitars, I can never remember which way the bridge screws point. The info about the direction of the saddle angles is really useful. I made a mistake, thinking I would “improve the tone” (it made literally no difference to my ears) of replacing the stock tailpiece with a 50s correct aluminum one. It worked, but the tailpiece was about 1/8” thinner so it sat at a slight angle. As OCD as I usually am, it never occurred to me to buy posts that fit the tailpiece properly. I believe after 5 years I started to notice a finish crack on the bottom of the treble side post. The tailpiece angle was causing unhealthy tension on the post, which fortunately only affected the finish, not the wood - phew 😅. The original went back on pronto. Huge Sykes fan - love the Sykes spec!

My 2016 Les Paul Traditional came with the bridge screws facing toward the tailpiece, and all saddle flat sides facing the pickups from the factory

Why would you palm mute anywhere near the stop tailpiece? People keep saying that the string irritates their hand but you mute at the bridge so.....?

My Gibson was absolutely Perfect from the factory! It was dialed sweet! Then I put New strings, and all the screws got moved, Lol.... It's my first Gibson, I had no idea about how anything worked. But you definitely need guitar setup tools if you're gonna have the gibson tune o matic or whatever it's called......you could also use some RTV or dab of silicone to keep the screws from moving when you take the bridge apart. But yeah ,those screws move SO easy when you switch strings, it literally takes Nothing for them to get Out of wack! But my Gibson also has Locking Tuner Pegs......which is a Game Changer.....so I will take Gibson style setup ANY day over other crap, Lol.

Thank you. This is exactly what I needed to know

Dave's world of fun stuff is also a great channel to learn about how to set up and the proper factory settings.

I don't think the tail piece affects sustain at all. You can pick a note and put your finger on the string in between the bridge and tail piece and there is no difference in the note sustaining. I tested this on an oscilloscope to prove it.

This might be an old video, but the first thing I noticed were the peanut butter pretzel squares in the background... :)

my tunomatic is setup the same way with the steps i dont know if the shop done it when it was installed but its standard screws to the neck too

Doesn’t top wrapping itself create an abnormal pressure on the tailpiece? It’s not really designed to take the string pull over the top.

Thanks!

Nashville towards the neck unless you cant get to them, the ABR-1 (wire type) towards the back tail stop, again if you can get a screw driver to adjust it. cool guitars"

What about filing a little groove in the back of the tune o matic where the string would touch

TP-6 and the floyd rose locking nut and roller bridge and my les paul stays in tune finally.

Thank you !!!

My epiphone had a weird setup quite high on the base side low on the treble side... but it was realy high on the base side

Wrap Teflon tape around the bridge screws so they screw in tight. Restring the strings over the top of the saddle.

Very detailed thanks!

Aren’t the individual saddles cut for each string size? Flipping the bridge, I would think, would throw off intonation and saddle height radius’.

Would it be the same on an Epiphone Sheraton Pro II ? Thanks for the clear video.

Just asking around about this (sorry ahead of time about the long comment). I just received a Guild Surfliner ordered from Sweetwater, which has a tune-O-matic style bridge with no tailpiece since the strings come through the back. I did not pay for Sweetwater to set it up because I was going to take it for a setup locally. I’ve only set up Strat bridges. So my problem is that the bridge is set almost as high as this one, but unlike the guitar in this video the strings are still low, the neck is nice and straight and it plays smooth under my fingers. Also, because of how high the bridge is set, the strings pass over it at a rather sharp angle. So my concern is that I won’t be able to lower the bridge at all without needing to adjust the truss rod. Based on this description, does it sound like this guitar needs a neck shim? If so I’m sending it back. Or, is a high bridge and bridge pup acceptable if the strings are low? Basically I don’t want to spend the time and money on a setup and end up being told it needs shimmed. It looks ridiculous compared to the ones I’ve seen online, or any setup for that matter.

I like the tail piece up a little, as I feel it takes some of the tension out of the strings. It reduces the overall length of the string travel just a little.

Gibson and Epiphone are and have been setting neck angles horribly for decades. This is why you have sky high Tuneomatics and pickups. To make matters worse. They and many others feel they need to set the tailpiece flat against the body for best tone. Make sure you have a good set of steel studs and bushings that fit tight then top wrap the strings and raise the tailpiece for tone and playability.

great video.. the tailpiece for you has to be absolutely symmetrical, that is to say exactly the same height in the two pivots, left and right?

Awesome video. Ive been looking for this forever.

Great video. Thanks for the upload. I'm getting back into playing guitar and this video helped me a lot.

I have a New York Pro, which has the same kind of bridge setup. The adjustment screws were facing toward the back. If I turn them to the front, the only one flat part that is facing toward the back is the lowest 6 string. There is the wire soldered to hold them down. I could unsolder it to change them to face like in the video. But I don't know if it really matters. I do want to adjust everything to get a better intonation and tuning quality, so I am trying to find videos on it. I did have someone years ago, at a guitar store do the intonation, but it has never been right to where tuning it would come out even. I found it in a pawn shop.

I think you face the screws whichever way you can to get better access, but it doesn't really matter. BTW would you notch the saddles so the sting doesn't go sliding around and create multiple grooves (each with their own tuning LOL).

Your bc rich is awesome!🎸

You did not speak about the bridge angle offset. This topic is critical for intonation.

Also, if you have the tailpiece that low you can collapse the bridge.

My Gibson Studio came from Gibson with the TOM screws adjusting from the opposite side as this.

Hi. There’s a correct string standard angle between brigde and the tailpiece?

My low E string saddle is all the way back,the intonation is perfect,is that normal?

I just bought a brand new Les Paul Standard yesterday, Mojave Burst 2018...right out of the box, the bridge saddle screws are facing towards the rear, not towards the head stock, but the owners manual says it should be the other way around...lol.

Personally, Just wonder what the wood tone is like on the mockingbird?

Did you ever put on the Kluson locking tuners? I have the same guitar and don’t know if I need the set with the bushing or the nuts.

Good work, thank you X

Hi, Im building from scratch , What is the common design length/ spacing specs between the End Piece, The String Bridge and the pick up? Thank you

You also don't want to crank the tailpiece all the way down even if there's bridge clearance because over time this will cause the middle of the bridge to cave in, which will cause the middle strings to buzz (and the buzz will have NOTHING to do with fret issues or backbow!). And you REALLY don't want to do this on a vintage guitar because then you'll ruin the bridge and likewise ruin the value. I'm not an expert.......I've just been watching StewMac videos :)