Review - Callaham Guitars Vintage S Model Strat Bridge and ABR-1 Gibson Bridge

Bill Callaham really knows tone. Having grown up with all sorts of great instruments with which to develop his ear (Lloyd Loar mandolins and '50s Gibsons and Fenders), he has built his business on helping others reproduce quality vintage tone. With a strong background in machining, a great ear, meticulous attention to detail and a Mechanical Engineering degree from Virginia Tech, Bill and his company, Callaham Guitars, have introduced an unrivaled level of quality to the vintage guitar repro market.

I recently purchased two of his bridges, one a Vintage S Model Strat bridge for my Eric Johnson Stratocaster and the other an ABR-1 bridge with vintage studs, which is a direct replacement for the ABR-1 Tune-o-matic bridge on my '07 VOS Gibson R9 Les Paul. At the time of this writing I have only installed the Vintage S Model on my Eric Johnson Strat, but have not yet installed the ABR-1. I have also previously purchased and installed a couple of Callaham Limited Production Narrow Strat bridges in two of my other guitars, so this is not my first experience with Bill's product.

The first thing you notice when you take one of Bill's bridges out of the box is how much it weighs and the quality of the craftsmanship. These are made from specific steel alloys that Callaham Guitars has found to produce the widest range of frequency response, increase the guitar's sustain and improve note separation when playing chords. I can attest to the fact that these Strat bridges have greatly improved the tone on all the guitars I have installed them on. Immediately after installation I can hear that the guitar is much louder when strummed acoustically, the tone is crisper and more focused and sustain is greatly improved. Plus, the superior machining and quality steel alloy makes for a much smoother mechanical action when using the tremolo and tuning stability is never an issue with one of Bill's bridges.

I can 't wait to get the ABR-1 on my R9 Les Paul and I will post a follow up once it is done. If the Callaham Strat bridges are any indication, then this will be a major upgrade in tone for my Les Paul. If you are looking for that single mod that takes your guitar from ordinary to extraordinary, I would suggest trying a Callaham bridge first before spending money on anything else.

2001 Gibson R7 Les Paul Black Beauty Gets DiMarzio Super Distortion Pickup

While it's true that I love the WCR Darkburst pickup I installed in the bridge of my Black Beauty Les Paul recently, I've just never quite felt the pickup had enough output to properly compliment the guitar. This guitar is very bright for a Les Paul (and especially bright for an all mahogany custom). I even tried pulling the cover off and positioning the pickup as close to the strings as possible. This definitely helped, but I still felt the overall tone was a bit bright.

I happened to have a double creme DiMarzio Super Distortion lying around so I thought it would be cool to try it out and see if the higher output and darker tone would better compliment the natural brightness of this guitar. Plus, it's ultra "'70s cool" to have a double creme DiMarzio Super Distortion in your Les Paul! :)

I have to say that I really like how this pickup sounds in this particular guitar. Even with this pickup the tone remains bright, but with the added output and the darker tone of the Super Distortion the notes are rounder and thicker and sustain has also improved. I may end up keeping this pickup in there! Time will tell. Once I get my recently acquired Duncan Antiquity potted I may very well pop it in the Black Beauty for a quick test. It's nice to have options!

2001 Gibson R7 Les Paul Black Beauty Historic Gets Stainless Steel Stud Mod

After reading about an intriguing stud mod trick on a message board I just had to give it a try. All I needed were a few dollars in parts from a hardware store and some simple tools. Basically, this was a mod to remove the short, soft zinc-based bridge studs that came factory installed on my Black Beauty and replace them with longer, much harder stainless steel studs to prevent the bridge from pitching forward under string tension and to help improve tone.

I stopped by a local hardware store and bought the following parts: several packs of Hillman 6-32 x 1 1/2" stainless steel machine screws and a package of zinc-based 6-32 nuts (don't waste money on expensive nuts, they are only used to remove/install the studs). Once I had

my parts the first thing I did was remove the old strings, stopbar, ABR-1 bridge unit and the thumbwheels from the old studs. I removed the first old stud by installing and locking together two nuts at the top of the stud. I placed one nut on, then the other and locked them together finger tight... using a wrench on the bottom nut and a nut driver on the top nut I locked them tightly in place by turning both nuts gently in the opposite direction at the same time. Then I was easily able to use the nut driver to extract the old stud. I repeated this process on the other stud and then began to prep the new ones for installation.

In order to use the new stainless steel machine screws as Les Paul bridge studs I had to cut off the screw heads. When you cut the screw heads off it is best to use a Dremel cutting wheel so the job is clean and the threads do not get damaged during the cutting the process. It is also important to cut the head off as closely to the top of the screw shaft as possible. We want to be able to use the full length of the screw.

Once I removed the heads I repeated the same process as before with the old studs... locking two nuts together so I could use the nut driver to install the new studs. During installation I could feel the new, longer studs as they began to cut into fresh wood. This is desirable. For some reason Gibson installs shorter bridge studs than the holes they drill into the body. The result is less coupling and therefore less vibration transfer from the bridge to the body. The longer screws that tap into virgin wood insure better coupling and a firmer pair of studs, thus improving tone and bridge stability. Stainless steel is also a much better, more musical sounding metal alloy than zinc, and it's much stronger.

Once everything was re-assembled I plugged in and was pleasantly surprised to hear just how much better the guitar sounded! I didn't expect such an huge improvement, but it certainly was. The tone sounded much more focused, less fuzzy/muddy and somehow clearer. I'm a big believer in this mod and will be converting my other Les Pauls over soon.

Review: 20th Anniversary 2006 PRS Singelcut

I recently got to setup and spend some quality time with a friend's beautiful 20th Anniversary Black PRS Singlecut. This particular specimen has Kluson style "tulip" tuners, standard PRS nut, rosewood board (with birds), maple top, mahogany body, PRS wraparound bridge (with individually adjustable bridge saddles) and PRS 7 pickups (with factory installed electronics).

This guitar is pretty to look at. I really love the look of the natural body binding and, as usual, the guitar has that flawless PRS "dipped in plastic" finish with no imperfections to be found anywhere. The playing action is really good, with a solid neck feel and incredible upper fret access (way better than a comparable Les Paul). The neck is a full profile that feels really good without being too big for those with smaller hands. For those that are new to PRS, the 25" scale length can take some getting used to. If you are accustomed to the 25 1/2" Fender scale length, or the 24 3/4" Gibson scale length, a 25" scale can feel a bit strange with your favorite string gauge (either stiffer or spongier, depending on which scale length you are most comfortable with, Fender or Gibson).

The timbre of the guitar isn't quite Gibson Les Paul… it is a bit more refined with a more "rounded off" tone. Don't get me wrong, it sounds great, but not so much like a Les Paul to my ears. One annoying thing, though… on the four-control Les Paul style layout the volume controls are both located on top and the bridge volume is the rear knob. If you are used to playing Les Pauls this might have you accidentally turning your volume down or up at a gig, but since this is so easy to modify it certainly isn't a deal breaker. If it were my instrument I would definitely rewire the controls to the Les Paul configuration to eliminate any confusion when switching between different guitars.

I really like the tone of the PRS 7 pickups. They have a nice ring to them and are very articulate, allowing for good note separation even with lots of amplifier distortion. Not sure if it is the guitar's wood or the pickups that are lacking that high-end sizzle I like to hear in a good Les Paul, but it is definitely lacking. I'd say this guitar has more of it's own sound (which is certainly not a bad thing). One big plus is that the controls roll off beautifully and allow the guitar to clean up really well on a good, touch sensitive tube amp. Another awesome thing they did was to include a second nut (already pre-slotted) so years later when the old one is worn out you can just pop on the spare, file the slots to perfection and you're done. Nice touch!

I really dig this guitar. The only two things I did to it was to add a set of Schaller strap locks and re-glue the nut, which actually fell off the guitar once I removed the strings. I am not always super impressed when I pick up a PRS, but now and again I grab hold of one that really knocks me out… and this is one such example.

Gibson R7 Black Beauty Les Paul Historic Gets New Electronics Kit and WCR Pickups

I recently posted about a lovely Gibson R7 Black Beauty Les Paul Historic I added to my growing collection of Les Pauls. This is a wonderful guitar that plays beautifully and has a great sound. Even just strumming around on it unplugged the tone is loud and rich. However, I have never been a big fan of stock Gibson electronics and the stuff in this guitar was especially bad. It just had to go!

Since I had some WCR pickups lying around (a Darkburst bridge and a Crossroads neck) that were not being used for anything it made perfect sense to pop them in. But, these particular pickups have double black bobbins and chrome screws and slugs. I knew I wanted to keep the gold hardware consistent on this guitar so I called Jim Wagner of WCR Pickups and inquired about gold screws and covers. Jim, who is a very nice and helpful guy, confirmed that they sold the gold parts I needed and assured me that installing new screws in the pickups was a safe operation that would not damage the internal windings. While I was ordering I decided to stray this once and try one of Jim's wiring kits instead of my usual favorite, the RS GuitarWorks Vintage kit.

Once the parts arrived I got to work installing the gold screws and covers on the WCR Darkburst and Crossroads pickups. Nothing could have been easier! The quality of materials that Jim uses in his pickups is quite evident once you start taking them apart. :) Nice thick, heavy bobbin plastic, high quality screws/slugs and heavy gauge lead wires are a big part of why his pickups are so good. Once I got the screws in I used some putty to dampen the covers before installing them on the pickups so they don't squeal when played on a high gain amplifier at volume. With the pickups ready, it was time to gut the old electronics and install the WCR kit.

I now build Les Paul kits outside the guitar using a piece of card board with holes punched in it to accommodate the potentiometers. This gives you free access to the parts when soldering and you don't burn your guitar in the process. :) Once I had as much of the harness wired up as possible on the cardboard I slipped it into the guitar and finished the job by wiring up the bridge ground, switch leads and the pickups to the harness. One thing I don't like about the WCR kit is the lack of switch, jack and wire. For about the same price as an RS GuitarWorks complete kit you don't get those extras. Something to keep in mind in the future, because this guitar probably could have used a better switch, jack and high quality braided wire. I'll likely put those things in at a later date.

Another thing I did on this guitar was to fix the bridge radius. Gibson never seems to get this right. A Les Paul has a 12" neck radius, but the string slots in the bridge saddles were not cut properly so the strings did not follow the curvature of the neck. Since the D string was the lowest I used it as a starting point and reslotted the other saddles to create a perfectly radiused bridge.

I have some locking Grover tuners on order, which will complete this gem. I love this guitar and the new electronics and pickups really do sound great. It's just classic Les Paul, through and through and it doesn't get any better than that!

Gibson VOS R9 Les Paul Gets RS GuitarWorks Vintage Kit Installed

This is the first post of 2010, so Happy New Year! This past weekend I put an RS GuitarWorks vintage complete kit in my '07 R9 VOS Les Paul. I had previously installed a pair of double-creme WCR pickups (Goodwood bridge, Crossroads neck) in this particular guitar, but I had not yet upgraded the electronics. It was a success! This has always been one of my favorite guitars, and not just due to awesome playability and gorgeous esthetics, but also due to its great tone. This kit coupled with the WCR pickups make this guitar sound even better then ever.

The kit install went smoothly, especially now that I've done several of these Les Paul kit installs lately. I immediately noticed a clearer, more articulate tone when plugging in for the first time after the install. The vintage kit seems to have helped roll off upper frequency harshness while retaining all the good, bright top-end that is necessary for great Les Paul tone.

The WCR Goodwood pickup is known for its perfect rolled off midrange, giving you plenty of spank without harshness plus great low-end response... perfect balance. This kit really helps this pickup shine in all its glory. Same goes for the WCR Crossroads pickup in the neck position. It has beautiful, thick and liquidy lead tones with just the perfect amount of top end "hair" on the notes; and both pickups clean up nicely thanks to the treble-bleed mod I am fond of using.

It is hard to believe that this guitar's tone could be improved upon, but the RS GuitarWorks kit did just that.

New Guitar!! Gibson 2001 R7 Les Paul Black Beauty "Historic/VOS"

I did some wheeling and dealing with some of my old gear to snag a gorgeous 2001 Gibson R7 Les Paul "Black Beauty". It looks to be totally stock and definitely has some gig battle scars, but overall it's in excellent condition and plays beautifully. The acoustic tone is loud and full, and the playing action feels solid and effortless.

This 9.5 lbs. Black Beauty Historic model (the official Gibson name for this line of guitars in 2001... it has since changed to V.O.S - Vintage Original Spec) is the dual pickup version with 7-ply binding on the body, bound ebony fretboard, fat 50's neck, Grover tuners, all gold hardware, block pearl inlays and solid mahogany body and top. The last feature is interesting to note... the body of a Les Paul Custom is a single piece of mahogany with no maple top. The original idea for this model was allegedly from Les Paul himself with the goal of creating a "classier looking" Les Paul that would show nicely on television, which Les Paul was doing a lot of in his career at the time.

I have not even so much as changed the strings on this guitar yet, but I can already tell it has exceptional tone and wonderful playing action. The neck is the extra fat '50s profile and the whole guitar just feels really solid (due, no doubt, to its heft).

I definitely plan to mod this one. It will get locking Grover tuners, an RS GuitarWorks complete electronics kit and new pickups (likely Duncan Alnico IIs).

I'll be posting an update on this once I get all the stuff!