Gibson bass with Warwick two piece Bridge

[n!k]

Didn't someone here do this? Can I see a picture? I'm bound and determined to do away with the 3 point bridge and especially delicious is the fact that Warwick bridges come in black hardware. Oh Outpost, hear my prayers!

[Dave W]

I don't remember if anyone did this, but remember it sits higher than most other bridges.The LP Standard basses handled that by having an angled neck, and Warwick by recessing the bridge. But IIRC most basses using the three-point don't have either. It will probably depend on what bass you plan to use it on.

[n!k]

That is interesting information. It would be for a Thunderbird, but the 3 point already sits pretty darn high up, especially the saddles.

[rockinrayduke]

Hipshot Supertone bridge.

[Chris P.]

I thought about the same thing some days ago. Warwick offers it's bridge at the website.

BTW: My '76 Bird with 3-point bridge is the bass with the lowest action I have.

[gweimer]

I've got a gold Warwick bridge.  To me, it looks like it might ride a little high on the body, but without an actual Thunderbird to look at, I couldn't say for sure. 

btw - the bridge is for sale, if anyone is interested.

[OldManC]

Remember Uwe put a Warwick on his EB0 conversion. If you're willing to route, it could work. I've heard good things about the newish Hipshot bridge (which is a drop it replacement for a three point) but it supposedly will leave a mark in the finish, so it's not a transparent replacement (though certainly less invasive than the Warwick).

[Chris P.]

I've seen that bass in real life, but I guess I didn't payed enough attention.

You mean Uwe routed the body to fit the Warwick?

[OldManC]

You mean Uwe routed the body to fit the Warwick?

The bridge has a foundation that's designed to sit inside the body, so unless he modified it he'd have to.

[uwe]

The whole Warwick bridge concept is based on the routing - there is no Warwick bass (or any other bass using it including my above pictured EB-U - thanks George for saving me the trouble to post it from my photobucket account, you are herewith my official archivist!) without that route. The bridge components of the Warwick are deeply recessed as the bridge consists of an anchored base onto which another same-sized component is attached via allen screws and the saddles are mounted only on that second component.

So a routing must be. And actually the LP Standard confirms that because it originally came out with a three point bridge before Gibson switched to mounting the Warwick bridge. The Hipshot Supertone is therefore less invasive. That said, it doesn't have the range of a three point which can get both very high and very low. The Supertone can go low enough for buzzfree action, but not low enough for John Entwistle type "strings on the other side of the neck"-shredding-"I-don't give-a-damn-if-every-note-buzzes"-action. At least not on my Blackbird.

Uwe

[n!k]

My beef against the 3 point isn't really the action (I have mine as low as I'd ever want it), it's that it's unstable (the entire thing can fall out during a string change, saddles launch out when you break a string, etc.) and not easy to adjust on the fly (a slight intonation tweak is easier on a fixed bride). I would prefer a brass bridge like an alembic but I have no idea who makes one or where to get it. The warwick bridge seems to do the trick and I like that it's black. I like the Hipshot but they have no plans to make a brass version (after several updates they said it was because they cannot get a supply of brass material large enough for the design, although I believe they said they still would do it if they could secure such) and I don't like aluminum bridges.

I'm open to suggestions though! Anyone know of a good brass option?

[Nocturnal]

If this link works it should show you a Fenderbird with the Warwick bridge installed. I think it looks pretty cool on there.

http://www.fretsonthenet.com/tbirdrings.jpg

[Dave W]

That does look great. You can see it's recessed.

[ampang]

As fas as I have seen I can confirn that the warwick bridge is too high without routing. I have placed one on a guitar-to-bass conversion and I had to find a workaround for making it work. I have converted into a bass this epiphone here:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rosetti.co.uk/products/epiphone/pics/ltd57lpJunior.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rosetti.co.uk/products/epiphone/ltd57lpjuniorreissue.htm&h=500&w=164&sz=9&hl=en&start=14&um=1&tbnid=_JxU0U7rOlvd_M:&tbnh=130&tbnw=43&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlp%2B57%2Bepiphone%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3DBuB%26sa%3DN

by changing the nut and the bridge and I wanted to use a bridge with a tailpiece because I wanted to fill a bit the empty space behind the bridge and maybe give a little more tension to the strings.

Instead of routing I have used a dirty workaround and I have used just the upper half of the warwick bridge not mounting the base but only the part with the saddles directly attached to the bass body. It works pretty well like that and without routing I can revert back to guitar someday.

[Chris P.]

My girlfriend has that guitar. You conversed it to bass!?!?! Pics!!