Four Uncles Restorations ABR-1: How Does It Compare To Gibson, Faber & Callaham?!

Oh look, it's another rabbit hole to disappear down....!!

When chasing after the classic tones of the Gibson Les Pauls of the late 1950s, we nerdy guitarists obsess over every small detail....from how the capacitor connects between the volume and tone pots; to the type of magnets in our PAF replica pickups; and the particular shades of sunburst nitrocellulose lacquer.

But there's one component that has tended to get overlooked in this pursuit - the ABR-1 bridge. Various companies have produced versions of the legendary Gibson metalwork - including Gibson themselves - but according to Dave Stephens (of SD Pickups HD Lab fame) they all fall pretty short of the mark...though the Fabers sound pretty close.

Not satisfied with this, Dave - along with three others - formed Four Uncles Restorations, and set about creating the most vintage-correct ABR-1 the world has seen since those golden years. No stone was left unturned...all measurements are spot on; the metal alloys have been custom-poured to match the originals (the compositions were discovered though destructive testing of vintage bridges...yikes!); and they're all made and finished by hand. No wonder they're very expensive and hard to obtain.

Today, I wanted to compare this astonishing bridge to the 'best we've had' Faber offering. But then I thought...the likes of Callaham and Gibson also make ABR-1s that are held in high regard; so why not include them in the shootout? So that's exactly what we're going to do...compare 4 of the best ABR-1 replicas out there. Will the money-no-object Four Uncles come out on top...?!

What do you think? Which was your favourite? Which sounded more like 'that' classic tone? Comment below!

Amps are a Dr Z Z-Wreck and Vajra JTM45 clone 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
6:50 Clean Playing
10:54 Cranked Amp Playing
16:44 Outro

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