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I'm a big fan of the original Leo Quan Badass bridges. I have a couple. One is on a early -70's 2-pickup Ibanez that was inspired by the Gibson Melody Maker. The original bridge was badly rusted and also had a crack in it. The other is on a '1966 Guild Starfire IV I stumbled on around 1978 in a small music store. The original floating bridge was missing, so I installed the Leo Quan using a couple of studs I also had to install. Originally, I was going to use the wrap around feature of the Quan bridge/tailpiece. But I eventually decided to keep the original Guild Harp tailpiece. In my opinion there are a unique characteristic of Guild's from that era and an example of elegance missing in many modern guitars. I recently had to replace the Nashville bridge on my 1980 Gibson Les Paul. It had begun to sag. i choose a replacement by Gotoh, which looks great, is beautifully machined and assembled. I'm very pleased with it so far. As for this video, it's an excellent look a many add on bridges. Thanks!

Good info. I'm very naive to this sort of thing. Thanks for sharing your insight and knowledge.

Don, to be vintage correct you should do 50's wiring on the electronics. It does make a difference, and personally I like it a lot better than the modern wiring with a Les Paul type guitar.

Great!! Love the channel Glad you can continue your friends guitar legacy. I Restore old cars and guitars. I play Hammond organ so obviously as we were broke in 1968, I learned how to fix them and amps and also antique radios. Thank you for sharing. I have a 72 telecaster bass; I hate fender bridges and I put on a badass. If your naysayers are so offended by your choice of bridges, I’m waiting to see their TH-cam videos. 🙏🙏

Those strap buttons are not like the ones on my 1952; the tops should have a distinct ring on the rim and be essentially flush with the countersunk Phillips oval head screw. But they shouldn’t hurt the sound very much…

Enjoying this!! Could that really be an Accuspray gun?? I’ve had one forever and I really like using it.

Could you make profile template of top?

Starp butt looks like olf charvel buttones

Those strap buttons look like the Dunlop strap buttons I put on all my stuff. Kind of refreshing seeing a Les Paul of this vintage getting treated like a guitar and not some crazy museum piece.

I’ve actually really liked watching this series. At first I was like how can you actually improve this that much? But it definitely looks better.

Does the MM have a carved mahogany top?

This is totally not something that I would normally split hairs about with someone else's build, but since you asked: the strap buttons are not factory for a '53, but probably came off of the same donor guitar as the pot's, which date to '76 and the reflector knobs, which first came out in 1960 and were still being used in the late '70s (in '53 the original knobs would have been amber tops). Looking great; I hope to see and hear it played in a club in the near future.

This build series has become part of my Monday morning coffee routine. Also, Don, if you want vintage correct parts, in the future, I would recommend you check out Realistic Relics. They’re based here in Canada.

Oh I love the ibanez “rubber tire” knobs! They are the best. Your melody maker is very cool. Not original strap buttons fyi…That goldtop is going to be fantastic!

Thanks Don. Enjoying your take on this great guitar. I dressed up my 2010 Tribute with speed knobs and brown back cover plates, to give it a relatively original appearance…

Looking good, Don! Thanks for the control cavity shots! Yes, the cavities were a two step machining process. The first step did the basic overall shape of the cavity in the mahogany, and the second was to roughly match the angle of the underside to the carve of the top, so they could use short shaft pots, and the sleeves of the pots wouldn't be pushed at two different angles, resulting in excessive friction. It was that secondary routing that leaves the "eyebrows" over the neck volume and tone pots, and the chew mark on the edge by the bridge volume. I've never seen a 52/53 up close, and I was very curious what that second wiring channel was. A run to the tailpiece makes perfect sense. Thanks for sharing!!!

The original quality of manufacture was good, so good that you are able to restore this to a full functioning tool for yet another generation of use! And hopefully will be restored again as needed. Really enjoy this series. Thank you for bringing us along, can’t wait to hear your play it when it’s done!

Those Centralab pots, (1347641) were made in 41st week of 1976. It's a shame they're not the original pots. The top refinish work looks excellent!

Goodmourning

You have to love how easy it sounds in the instructions! Then you get your hands in there 🤔. Unless instructions are Chinese translation 😢

Sam Deeks is a great man to watch he has some really great ways to combat a lot of problems and always give a good load of advice, long videos but well worth watching and he’s an absolute genius and a very nice guy

Shellac dissolves with alcohol, why not just use that with rags to melt off the shellac and leave the lacquer?

Thanks for sharing Don. Great information and perspectives on each Bridge Over Troubled Water. 😉

Paint is def not what it used to be. I have had some real struggles with brand name - supposed high quality paints lately.

Well done!

Check out Glaser guitar here in Nashville. Music city bridge is THE best.

I think some of these people are unaware that you got a hodge-podge setup with this guitar and you're finding a way to make it work well. I've never used a Badass bridge myself, but if you want to use it, since it is your guitar, all these critics should stuff it. :)

This is why I like Stratocasters

Perfect intonation is a myth. And guess what? The way pianos are tuned is a compromise too. Google 12TET Don... It is good enough for rock and roll...

The Badass bridge is a great choice for your 53 Don. I like to watch Gorilla guitar repair too.

Guitar repair @String Tech (Mike McConville ) Is a amazing Luthier and been a Luthier and repair guy for over 50 years ,he also makes some nice tools ,and tech decks that he sells

Have you looked at the babicz replacements ?I put one my a Customers 78 P bass because the Fender Badass bridge was worse than the original bridge and basically unusable and I sent back the fender bridge and he loves the babicz ,IDK how well the LP Babicz bridges are but the Bass Bridges are really nice.good Luck it sure is a nice guitar

If you're going to put on an already inappropriate bridge why not just go ahead and convert it to a 2 piece Nashville type bridge with a stop-bar tailpiece?

Same people who criticise the bridge didn't say a word about You resting the neck on that LP. I also don't like how it looks, but who cares about my opinion? I might suggest putting a Schaller signum which looks a bit better, but why buy a new one when You have such a collection of spare parts? And obviously for purists this still won't be goid enough.

Wound up here thanks to Canadian national treasure, Ted. You make excellent videos. Glad to subscribe. Just a musician and songwriter but like to learn how guitars work and how to fix 'em. I'd rather be gardening while a luthier takes care of my own. Especially after sanding through the spuce veneer on a perfectly fine Takamine F340. And setting a zither on fire.

Great breakdown. I have a heavily modded 63 melody maker. Somebody had put a bigsby on it when I got it. But it has been through a couple Leo Quan badasses. In fact I think I still have a couple old ones sitting in a drawer. Too bad about the quality control issues on the new one you are using. Amen to your praise of Ted and Dan. I always enjoy your content. Cheers

Thanks for all the detailed research. That said, I think I'll stick with (original) Wilkinson bridges; I currently have a wraparound on my LP Jr DC and two Strats with trems, all of them work perfectly - no dimension hassles, weird harmonics or anything else. I have two other projects underway and I've been considering a couple of alternative brands, one of them being a Hipshot but seeing seeing the shortcomings you pointed out I'll - as stated above - stick with Wilkinson. If it ain't broke...

Buddy, the heck with the haters. I had a Badass on my '55 Junior for years, only changed it because I found a compensated Aluminum stoptail brought the action down further than the Badass could. (Early shallow neck angle guitar). People got it in their heads they get to dictate what other people do with their stuff. It's YOUR guitar. Rock the Badass. Love what you're doing here🤘

Hey! Thanks for the shout out friend! Cheers!

Man…wraparound bridges are a pain in the ass! Of all the wraparound bridges, I have found the Hipshot to be the most effective. It’s also a bit non vintage looking. Never noticed the odd harmonics. I understand the Glaser is the best vintage stuff but I have not tried one yet.

This is great info- The wraparound bridge is daunting for me, you've done the research so we don't have to! Much appreciated.

Hi. Some thoughts on intonation and musicality. Just seen a couple of Teds videos, with 1940s Epiphone archtops, with frets set the 'old fashioned' by 18th method and how musical they sounded compared to modern necks, computer calculated. And setting Gibson's up to play good! Hope the gold top comes up good.

You need “The Stud Finder” by Music City Bridge. It’s specifically made for those Les Paul’s that have the wraparound tailpiece.

ever heard of a Music City Bridge ? May be worth a look and has locking post.

Beautiful job

Why not get the music city tail peice? Isn't that the one Tom Bukovac promotes? I've thought about ordering 2 one for my SG special and one for my les paul special have you seen bad results with those or isit cause they cost an arm and a leg? Genuinely curious. My 62R SG special has the lightning bar and it's not bad honestly but the regular stop bar wrap around on the TV LP special is not so great but it also isn't out of intonation super bad either but if I can fix it by simply putting the music city on no adjustments I will. If im understanding they literally supposed to not require any adjustments

It's your guitar, Don. Screw the purists, use what you like.

I had a '63 or newer Epiphone Coronet with the original lightning bridge. I was young and dopey and filed grooves in the back side in order to get rid of the sitar sound coming from some of the strings due to the bridge leaning. Then I replaced it with the Schaller 455 bridge. It worked well, but since I've never been in a recording session, have no idea if the intonation was good enough. It was good enough for rock and roll, though. I felt bad about hacking up the original bridge when I sold it, as I put the original one back on.

Just wondering if you ever looked in to the factory Gibson, or who knows who makes it for Gibson intonational bridge like used on the Tony Iommi SG?

Hey there gang 😁