Gibson J45 Progressive has a progressive bridge.
 

I know many players think this model J45 is goofy (robotuners, wacky bridge, too expensive, etc., blah blah,), so go ahead and flame me and get it out of your system if you must.

If you're not already typing a flame reply, this guitar is a peach!

I got a *great* deal on it brand new, with the intention of removing the IDKHTTMG (I don't know how to tune my guitar) tuners and replacing them with standard Grovers, which I did. It is beautiful, with the best sunburst finish available (IMO) on any current Gibson model. The real MOP split parallelogram markers make the guitar look very nice, and the neck carve is very close to my R8 Les Paul, which is perfection for me.

The internal L.R. Baggs Lyric mic/pickup is amazing. It sounds better than a close-mic'd large diaphragm condenser.

The problem is the bridge: it worked perfectly fine for eight months, but recently has started to collapse in the center. If you're unfamiliar with this J45, it has a bridge similar to a Les Paul. It's a metal tray supported on each end by adjustable screws to allow easy adjustment to string action. But it's now gone to a concave condition, causing buzz on the A, D, G, and B strings.

I'm a guitar tech with 30 years' experience and I've seen this problem before on older Les Pauls, SGs, and certain ES-series models.

I contacted Gibson (via their Web page) to see if this is a known issue; if it is, I hope they have a fix for it.

Anyone else with this model J45? You seeing similar issues? Or am I the only goober with the goofy bird house guitar that plays and sounds *wonderful* when it's working properly?

Cheers!

I haven’t seen it or heard of this particular problem prior to your post, but now I’m aware of the possibility. Thanks for the heads up.


whm

Thank you. I'll post back in this thread if Gibson comes back with a response.

You may find out more about this issue if you also post on the Gibson Forum.

I would love to see pictures.

Fascinating. A "guitar tech with 30 years' experience" can't tune a guitar?

Addendum: Couldn't help but notice that the poster's AGF username Peegoo is the English phonetic spelling of the pronunciation of the Mandarin Chinese word for: butt, bottom--that Chinese word is pigu. Fascinating.

PM sent about warranty work. Is there an authorized Gibson warranty shop near you?

Are you kidding? It's tough to tell on the internet.

Inyo, you apparently missed the joke.



Gibson Customer Service replied to my email and gave me two options: ship the guitar to Bozeman, MT for a bridge replacement, or take it to a local G-certified repair shop for warranty service. I chose door number 2 because I prefer not to ship the guitar, and the nearest shop is 30 minutes away.

If they sent me the part directly, the guitar (and the replacement bridge) would go out of warranty.

So that's good news...we shall see if this fixes the issue.

thegreatgumbino -- thanks. PM reply sent.

There's a certified G service center 30 minutes from my driveway. Gibson will send the replacement part there and they'll do the work. It's a simple drop-in part, but I'll play nice ;)

Closing the loop on this issue.

Gibson sent the part directly to me, and it's the same as the original part. Rather than roll the dice and possibly deal with another bridge failure, I decided to modify the bridge to accept a standard acoustic saddle.

I used a stick of pau ferro, cut to the same size and shape as the TOM bridge, so it slips right into place nice and snug. I slotted it and profiled the top to match the radius of the strings. It looks good, and plays and sounds fantastic.

Here's a picture of the horrific desecration.

https://ibb.co/ge0z38

Good looking work. Glad it worked out to your satisfaction.

You are talking a foreign language to me. I have never even laid eyes on one of these J-45 Progressives.

One of my Gibsons is a 1961 B45-12 with the old fashioned ADJ saddle bridge. In the 1960s Gibson went to oversized laminate bridge plates to support these heavy ADJ saddle bridges. The J-200s actually were equipped with tune-o-matic moustache bridges. While you obviously know more about this design stuff then I do, what is Gibson using to support these new fangled bridges as if it is collapsing what is underneath would seem to be the most likely culprit.

That's the issue with this design: there's nothing but air beneath the center of the metal bridge that contains the saddles. It's like a typical Tune-o-Matic bridge on a Les Paul/SG/335. There is a threaded post at each end of the bridge that allows up and down adjustment for overall string height.

If you look at the first pic, you can see the two threaded brass inserts that accept the threaded posts.

The metal bridge is under-engineered; the alloy is too soft for the size of the piece, or the piece is too small to account for ductility of the alloy. And because it's cast and machined, much of the material is removed from the middle of it to allow the saddles to drop in. That further weakens the piece. This piece is a bit smaller than what you see on Gibson's electrics.

I suppose one could do away with the posts and make a flat shim for the metal bridge to rest on, but that adds more mass to the entire bridge.

I thought about this option too, but then decided to go with a wood insert and Tusq saddle because it adds very little weight. It is much lighter than the stock configuration. Intonation is bang on.

So the same way many deal with the older ADJ bridges when they do not want them.