My experience with notorious Gibson 3-point bridge

[4andnomore]

Well, it’s generally considered to be much preferable for the entire bridge to be in contact with the body for sonic reasons. You don’t see boutique builders and higher end production basses Using an elevated bridge.

This is the same argument for using high mass bridges on a p-bass, when in fact many payers end up going back to the original vintage style bridge. It looks good on paper but sin't necessarily true in the real world. My ears tell me the Gibson sounds extremely good
with the three pointer. Just sayin'.

 

[ajkula66]

My ears tell me the Gibson sounds extremely with the three pointer. Just sayin'.

If your bass sounds good to you, that's all that matters.

Now, you won't know whether it would sound even better with a Hipshot unless you try it...

 

[Peteyboy]

If I'd known there was a Feline Guardian of the Thunderbirds I wouldn't have been so blithe...

 

[4andnomore]

One could argue biggest design flaw is that the saddles fall out when the strings are removed, and who would think to check if they are numbered? So, the saddles get put back in the wrong order and are perpetually out of line with the fingerboard radius. Next guy comes along and has no idea what's going on... and so it goes.

If your bass sounds good to you, that's all that matters.

Now, you won't know whether it would sound even better with a Hipshot unless you try it...

If it ain't broken...

 

[ajkula66]

If it ain't broken...

Oh come on, this is TB and you've been here for a very long time...of course you should try to fix it. Buy both the Babicz and Hipshot....I double dare you not to...

 

[4andnomore]

Oh come on, this is TB and you've been here for a very long time...of course you should try to fix it. Buy both the Babicz and Hipshot....I double dare you not to...

One for flats, one for rounds - brilliant!

 

[Pauly 4001]

When I was 16 I bought an EB4L with the 3 point bridge. I'd only been playing for 2 years at that point, but even I could not get past that design-flaw of a bridge. As soon as I saved up a little more $ I took it to a shop and had them put on a 1st generation Badass. I have never regretted that.

Here's a shot of my EB3-L when I bought it. The original tilt o matic was included and truly lived up to it's name. It could not be set up, well at least by me but it was quite worn and had some mismatched bridge posts and other troubles. I immediately replaced it with the Hipshot.

The Ripper is prospering with it's original 3 point though if you call this prospering:

 

[godofthunder59]

IMO its not a bad bridge and I happen tp like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree.Youare entitled to your opinion - no need to trash mine.

You opened up the can of worms, where's your sense of humor? If you're going to play a Gibson bass you're going to have to develop thicker skin.

 

[4andnomore]

You opened up the can of worms, where's your sense of humor? If you're going to play a Gibson bass you're going to have to develop thicker skin.

Don't make me post a picture of that tree.

 

[Peteyboy]

Here's a shot of my EB3-L when I bought it. The original tilt o matic was included and truly lived up to it's name. It could not be set up, well at least by me but it was quite worn and had some mismatched bridge posts and other troubles. I immediately replaced it with the Hipshot.
View attachment 3846177
The Ripper is prospering with it's original 3 point though if you call this prospering:

View attachment 3846193
View attachment 3846197

String- thru on the Ripper? I guess I never realized that. I wish all basses had a zero fret and were string-thru.

 

[Peteyboy]

Don't make me post a picture of that tree.

Is it on one of those stands with 4 legs or a solid base that makes full contact with the floor? Because I feel like the pine just RESONATES better with the...

God, since I got laid off I've got way too much time on my hands.

 

[Tim Skaggs]

As for not being able to adjust individual saddles... If the bass is properly made the saddles on the 3-point should follow the radius of the fingerboard nicely.

No more calls please, we have a winner....

 

[Jeff Hughes]

I have had the 3 point bridge on three basses, and none of them every gave me a problem at all. One was on a 79 Thunderbird, one was on an Epi T bird, and one is on an SG bass. I only own the SG bass currently.

I never adjusted the bridge on the 79 once. The tech who worked on it probably adjusted it, but I tweak my Fender bridges far more than I ever did to that 3 point.

My SG bass was used, and it came with the front post higher than the back two posts as I have heard that this is optimal for 3 points. I also got the mod bar off eBay, and the action, sustain, and resonance are perfect.

Sure the saddles fall out if you flip it over, but just don't do that. I actually like that there are only five parts to the 3 point bridge excluding the posts. Consider a typical Fender bridge has four springs, usually eight set screws for height, four adjustment screws for intonation, and four saddles. Twenty pieces to that bridge.

But of course like any part, there could be some that are duds. But having three of these from different periods and product lines with no issues, must mean something.

 

[TBird1958]

I’ve got a lot of Vintage Thunderbirds, and Vintage Guild‘s with 3 point bridges. I’ve never had a problem with them, and don’t understand why so many people don’t like them, and have had trouble with them. I don’t doubt their experience, but I’ve never had any bad experiences with them.

Ditto on the Thunderbirds, I've never any trouble with my 3 points, and I don't buy the "sustain" argument at all because it's not an issue with a Thunderbird. I could work with a Babciz if I needed to, but never a Hipshot, talk about something that just looks wrong, no way I'd ever have a bridge that overhangs the center block.

 

[M.R. Ogle]

I think the fact that I've HAD to deal with so many Gibsons (both the basses and guitars) that had the studs pulling out, the three-point bridges that shed their saddles into the carpet (grrrr...) and lack of fine-tunability, after about a dozen cases of each (over the years) you really get to think, "Boy... they never bothered to fix this problem, these things SUCK!".

If you just have one bass with the three-point, it's not great, but works "okay".. if you're not a fine-tune setup freak who continuously tweaks with things, then you probably just don't think it's THAT problematic.

I have owned two Rippers, an EB-3 and a G-3. The G3 was by far my favorite, and It had a more "conventional" bridge.

 

[ajkula66]

I think the fact that I've HAD to deal with so many Gibsons (both the basses and guitars) that had the studs pulling out,

I'd love to understand what people do in order to get the studs to pull out. Seriously. I've owned a ridiculous amount of Gibson guitars from all segments of post-WW2 era and have never had that happen. And it's not like all of these were bought brand new - a lot of them were older than myself - or were in perfect shape. Some of them were not great instruments in other respects either. But I honestly never encountered that one, and I bought my first (used) Gibson guitar back in 1980.

 

[TBird1958]

I'd love to understand what people do in order to get the studs to pull out. Seriously. I've owned a ridiculous amount of Gibson guitars from all segments of post-WW2 era and have never had that happen. And it's not like all of these were bought brand new - a lot of them were older than myself - or were in perfect shape. Some of them were not great instruments in other respects either. But I honestly never encountered that one, and I bought my first (used) Gibson guitar back in 1980.

Like I said earlier, it helps to be at least half as smart as the thing you're trying to do.

Seriously, who turns bass over to change a set of strings out? Hello, workbench.

 

[Jeff Hughes]

Contrary to my previous post, a 3 point bridge is actually nine parts rather than five.

 

[4andnomore]

Contrary to my previous post, a 3 point bridge is actually nine parts rather than five.

And a typical Fender bridge has 21 parts not including mounting screws, so 25 give or take.

 

[Thegrandwazoo]

Most people start on Fender-esque basses and to them, The Oil Rig offers a very counter-intuitive experience. The lack of ability to adjust the height of the individual string is a big deal to many, along with the silk portion of the string often extending over the saddle. There have been reports of the posts pulling out of the body as well, although I've never experienced that myself.

Now, imagine that you were a bass player in the pre-Internet era and had no one to guide you on how to adjust the 3-pointer. You probably wouldn't have been a happy camper. Additionally, imagine thousands of people having that experience and voicing their grief to anyone willing to listen, which inevitably got all the imperfect aspects of the bridge in question magnified to intergalactic proportions over the next 40 years so nowadays most people believe that it's just a crap design.

I learned to live with The Oil Rig back in the late '80s on my RD Standard long before replacements became available, and was able to set it up to play beautifully after some initial head scratching. Having said that, any bass with with a 3-pointer that would enter my house nowadays would get a Hipshot swapped in within a week, no questions asked.



Gibson never cared much about the bass players, and the folks that run the show nowadays care even less than usual. IMO, that is.

My $0.02 only...

Agreed, on all counts. Yeah, they sorta suck. No, they're not unusable. Yes, they can be set up perfectly if you know what they're doing. Yeah, the Hipshot replacement is 100% worth it, and any 3-pointer I'll ever own will get one IMMEDIATELY.