Jack Hack

[PhilT]

Another thought about the 3 point - in the Ripper it adapts very well to string thru mounting without any modification I can see. I suppose that was accidental, or was it deliberate?

[uwe]

They did that on the Ripper and RD only, funnily enough not on the Bicentennial TBirds or any other bass that featured the three point. My guess is they were aping the original P-Bass as the commercial be and end all at the time, it's no secret that the Ripper was Gibson's giant step towards the Fullerton Dark Side.

[Pilgrim]

Don't tell any of this to the 2-point on my EB-0.  It works great and intonates well, but too much info might incline it to get ideas and misbehave.

Don'chew boys go corruptin' my bridge!   

[uwe]

We don't mean those two points, the bar bridge type, they are ok, much stabler than the later intonateable ones. We mean this here (stringholder just outta sight, huh, Dave?  ):

[Pilgrim]

oooOOOOOOOOooh.

Never mind. 

[Dave W]

Gibson's designers at least considered a separate bridge and tailpiece for the original EB-0. About 15 years ago in Vintage Guitar magazine, John Slog showed a prototype or maybe early production model that had one. I suppose cost was the reason it wasn't put into regular production.

[Basvarken]

Interesting. Do you have that article somewhere Dave?

[vates]

yes, that's an interesting fact

[uwe]

I didn't know that either, there would have certainly been enough room for it on a short scale, not so sure, however, if it would have worked on an EB-0L or -3L. And the initial bar bridges were more stable anyway due to the thicker studs and a tighter connenction between studs and bridge. They only tip forward if the studs do due to the wood wearing out, but the later bridges tip forward on the basis of both the wood and their flimsy fastening on the (thinner) studs.

The concept works barely on short scale basses with their limited string pull, but certainly finds its master on long scale basses with their mighty D string pull. But then the long scale versions came out after the evertilt bridges and once they were built, Gibson relatively quickly came up with the three point.

[Dave W]

I don't have my old VG mags anymore, don't think I ever scanned the article. John Slog of Guitar Villa wrote regularly for VG ca. 1994-96, maybe he still has a photo.

Of course this was well before the long scales. Maybe the lower tension of the short scales influenced their decision not to use it, since they did use it on the T-Birds just a few years later.

[Dave W]

Wait! I did scan it!

[vates]

great! thanks

[Basvarken]

Awesome Dave!

That bridge configuration looks exactly like the (sixties) Thunderbird bridge set up.

[dadagoboi]

Awesome Dave!

That bridge configuration looks exactly like the (sixties) Thunderbird bridge set up.

I agree.  The string spacing is too wide for the EBO neck but otherwise a better solution than a 3 point IMO.

It's unfortunate there's no provenance on this bass so we have no idea if the author's speculation is true or if a later owner of the bass did the work, not Gibson.  The TBird bridge appears to be located exactly on the same line as the original bridge  Plugging the original anchor holes and redrilling wider for the TBird anchors would have been easy...I think I'll do that with mine tonight

Many thanks for the article, Dave.

[Dave W]

He didn't really say whether or not he knew the provenance of this bass.