AMA3: The One Stop guide to Guitar Bridges, Humbuckers and Neck Shapes

An easy guide for Intermediate Guitarists. I try to distill my learnings into some quick tips with a touch of deep dive on Gibson and PRS
Ask me Anything Episode 3
2:30 How to choose the right Guitar Bridge for you
14:02 How to make sense of different Humbucker options
20:52 Biggest myths about Guitar neck shapes

[@valdazis]

"What 150 guitars taught me?" - that I need to start playing them.

[@ministryofguitar]

haha true

[@emptypromises2962]

While I'm no where near to having owned 150 guitars, I do have been buying and selling guitars as a sort of side business for a year or so and that has taught me to be content with owning only a few good guitars for my personal use. There is very much to find out about a single guitar. To really get to know it, is kind of a beautiful thing and having too many instruments prevents you from discovering that. Plus, there's a hell of a lot of work to keep many guitars in working order and set up to a high standard. I have four personal guitars and that's more than enough for me. 🙂

[@sirbaronvoncount4147]

Simplicity is divine. The one piece bridge thats intonated is my favourite

[@salildeshpande7]

right? it sits closer to the body and it looks better too

[@Xnake]

Leo Fender's G&L designs: -Dual Fulcrum Vibrato bridge. -Saddle Lock Bridge. -MFD (Magnetic Field Design) pickups. -Expander Switch. -Tri Tone Preamp. -PTB System (Passive Treble Bass). -Z-Coil. -Jumbo Single Coil. -V12’s MFD humbucker.

[@juggert]

MFDs, the Saddle Lock bridge and the Dual Fulcrum are underrated

[@balmain2496]

I knew this channel would blow up. You’re already getting noticed by the big boys, keep doing your thing !!

[@ministryofguitar]

Thank you for your kind words. Appreciate the support

[@allenmitchell09]

I shared the channel with the guitar player in my band, I’m a drummer primarily btw, and I really never do that unless it’s like somebody we know or something. He hasn’t mentioned watching yet but he probably will. Utkarsh’s perspective as a person in a completely different part of the world than me is very interesting.

[@Claimjumper55]

As for bridges, I like them all and have quite a few different styles (Hipshot, Tune-O-Matic, Floyd, Kahler, Wilkinson, PRS Trem, Bigsby, Edge, MusicMan, TonePro, Strandberg). For pickups, I like humbuckers most followed by P90's and finally single coils. Some of my favorites are SD JB/59, SD Nazgul/Sentient, SD Slash set, EMG 57TW/66TW, EMG Bonebreaker (ceramic bridge/Alnico neck), Suhr SSH+/SSV, Suhr Thornbucker+/Thornbucker, Gibson 57 Classics, DiMarzio 36th Anniv. PAF's, DiMarzio Illuminators, DiMarzio Evolution, Bare Knuckle Aftermath, PRS HFS/Vintage Bass, and Friedman Classic 90 P90's. I can adapt to most neck shapes as long as they don't get too chunky. I really like PRS Pattern Thin, ESP Extra Thin U, ESP Thin U, Schecter Extra Thin C, EBMM Majesty, Suhr Modern, Charvel C shape and EVH Wolfgang C shape.

[@yourpowell]

So glad this channel came up as a suggestion in my feed. I’m amazed you don’t have many more subscribers! Great videos!

[@ministryofguitar]

Thank you for your kind words. I started doing these videos ‘properly’ about 6 months ago. All I can say is that tech companies take their pound of flesh but I enjoy making content so I don’t mind

[@westhamdan49]

This was so informational. Thank you.

[@salildeshpande7]

nicely explained! I think before I splurge money on a Gibson I'm going to get an Epiphone SG Special with the P90s that has your fav kind of one piece bridge and see if I like SGs.

[@thepostapocalyptictrio4762]

Not a huge Epiphone/ Gibson fan, but I do love the Epiphone SG Special. p.S. get strap locks for it, that guitar has so much neck dive, it ‘s like a dowsing rod.

[@eigenvector77]

Like you, I have tried all sorts of necks from 1 inch baseball 59 types (warmoth), 1 inch v necks to super thin wizard necks. IMHO, I rather go for a neck that is in between these 2 extremes - like a fender strat or 60s LP style neck. I also found that a flatter fretboard radius between 12 to 16 inches also seems easier to bend and play as the action can be quite low, about 1.5-2 mm on the low E. My favorite necks are Ibanez AZ roasted maple, Kiesel standard neck, PRS pattern thin, Gibson 60s style, and fender standard strat. If I could customize a neck, I would get a 24.594 inch scale guitar with an AZ roasted maple neck, ebony 12 or 14 inch fretboard.

[@SpyderTK]

The pickups are really about the chugs, I love this dude.

[@HarryK-HK]

Nice video, well said and well done. Thank you.

[@ministryofguitar]

Thank you for your kind words. Appreciate it

[@user-jy3io4iz2p]

On my fourth guitar (Ibanez hh and Squier sss from late 90's early 2000's) and now Gretsch Electromatic hh and Sire S3 hss. Never spent over $400 and that is fine for some noodling as a hobby. Got no expensive amps (Boss Dual Cube as Marshall Origin 5c) yet do own few pedals (Boss ME-80, DS-1,ProCo RAT, Ibanez 850 OD, Warm Audio JetPhaser, Carl Martin SurfTrem). As a soundscaper this even more than I need, the Dual Cube line outs into monitors sounds pretty nice having bass (MiniMoog out of a KingKorg synth) and drums (TR-707 or CR-78 out of a TR-8s).

[@markcarleton6647]

Another great video Utkarsh. Another term I’ve heard is decision fatigue - when we feel overwhelmed by lots of choices / options. I have a PRS Paul’s guitar with on order with the one piece bridge. I’ve been wanting to try one for a while.

[@ministryofguitar]

I agree on decision fatigue. Separately, I am confident the single piece bridge will not disappoint you. Let me know how it goes when you get it

[@DE-GEN-ART]

ive had about 100 guitars in my lifetime so far, and ive come to the conclusion: i like a fixed bridge for the tuning stability, the shape of the neck really doesnt matter to me but if i had to choose a thin modern c like the ibanez wizzard profile, locking tuners, stainless steel frets, and a single over wound humbucker in the bridge and hotwired with a single momentary killswitch no tone no volume, just a humbucker wired to a sanwa killswitch to the output jack. that is my favorite configuration, a reliable workhorse that stays in tune. every floyd rose ive had i always had trouble keeping it in tune, but as you said ive only had the 1000 series and those are notorious for shit quality, and the six saddle trem like in a strat is alright but it too is pretty unstable. but just because i have a strong preference for a reliable guitar doesnt mean im opposed to buying guitars with different hardware or configurations. i like variety too just so im not playing the same guitar too much, its good for the creative process

[@eigenvector77]

The best Floyd rose variant imho is the Ibanez Joe Satriani js1200. Stable as a rock when setup right.

[@babarasad]

Hi Utkarsh. I would like for you to make a video specifically on guitar humidity and climate control. Very often people buy expensive guitars but they do not maintain them properly, or keep them in the correct environment. It would be nice to talk about what type of dehumidifiers are being used, as well as humidifiers. You can also talk about the Boveda humidity control packs, having a hygrometer, etc. Also, for the people who live in the Indian subcontinent, how hard is it to keep your guitar in it's optimum temperature and humidity.

[@ministryofguitar]

It's a great idea. And a topic that I have spent some time on given as you know I have 80 guitars that need to be stored carefully. I will make a future video on this

[@babarasad]

@ministryofguitar great! Looking forward to it.

[@dejavoodoo7204]

Great vid 👍. I've always had plenty of budget guitars in my collection which 99% of come with narrow thin necks. Being so comfortable with this feel I've also now become aware of how dramatically cheaper vintage guitars with narrow thin necks are, and can actually see a way of obtaining just about every electric & acoustic on my wishlist for a small fraction of the price compared to versions of the same model than may have been made only months earlier.

[@WendigoSotomonte]

Bridge : 1st Hipshot, 2ndFloyd, 3r Tune O matic Pups: 1st Nazgul, 1stSentient, 2nd BlackWinters. ( or any splitable high gain ) Neck Prof : IDGAF

[@juanvaldez5422]

PRS single cut single piece or the PRS tremolo bridge… Pickups : Gibson never made a bad pickup (Dirty Finger my favorite high gain pickup ) especially if you are sitting in your room alone .. In the mix : 85/15s with TCI split (will do everything) .. But my favorite buckers has to be the Lindy Fralins pure pafs in a PRS McCarty S2.. Seymour Duncan , like all them , have a weird upper mid frequency response . DiMarzio always have , to me , a smooth upper mids . I have never tried bare knuckle or Lollar but I want to.. Oh yeah , the Fishman Fluence pickups are great . I was afraid of them because I thought they’d be like EMGs . They are not

[@ministryofguitar]

Yes I agree with a lot of what you are saying. My preferences are different (I love EMGs for example) but that's the magic of choice and different tastes. Thank you for sharing

[@BZHShooter]

In the 58/15 family my favorites are the 58/15 MT (on my Special Semi Hollow LTD). The tapped pickup tones are just awesome, I don't feel like I need to switch to my Silver Sky for most things S Type style. As a PRS guy I do enjoy your videos. Keep them coming. Thx !

[@ministryofguitar]

Yes the 58/15 MTs are also quite nice . I have a special semi hollow. Will cover it some time . Thanks for sharing

[@allenmitchell09]

Has anybody made a trem system with a twist/torsion spring? I can imagine a design but not sure if it’s already been done. Think the spring in a clothes pin.

[@jowyong6769]

Nice insights. As far as neck profiles go, I do prefer the thinner Fender and 60s Gibson ones, even the Ibanez wizard necks feel nice to me. My Tele on the other hand is spec-ed with a '57 Soft-V, which was a little too chunky for comfort at first though I soon got used to it. The ones that really impede my playing are the huge 50s Fender necks (you can also find those profiles on some Paoletti models) and the Gibson baseball bat necks circa '52 - '58... 😅 Don't really have a preference for tremolo bridges though the one that produces the nicest sound to my ears is the Jazzmaster one 🤷

[@ministryofguitar]

Face palm. I completely forgot to mention the Jazzmaster trem. I like them a lot

[@Aonghuis]

I thought Gretsch came out with the Tremelo prior to Fender releasing their own version.

[@joshuaschecter]

PRS necks are interesting. I don’t have as many PRS guitars as you but I have 4. A couple being the pattern shape and they are both different. Which is interesting as I was under the impression that the pattern carve was done with the CNC and they would all be very close. I find it amazing how different they feel. I know they do hand sanding and finishing. However, the two guitars feel like they have completely different carves. One is a Paul’s the other is a Hollowbody II. Paul’s feels wider but about the same thickness while at the same time completely different. I enjoyed your video. Thanks

[@ministryofguitar]

You are a 100% right. There are subtle variations. The other thing I have noticed is that consistently the pattern necks on singlecuts feel chunkier than those on double cuts.

[@9unslin9er]

I've tried almost every humbucker out there, and I find little wrong with a Duncan 59/JB set. Strats, my favorite is G&L's CLF100 neck/middle with a DiMarzio Super Distortion S (single-coil sized humbucker) bridge.

[@9unslin9er]

I'm a hardtail guy. Prefer Gotoh tune-o-matics and tuners for Les Pauls, but for Strat-style flattops, G&L's Saddlelock bridge is the best bridge ever made.

[@MrACangusyoungDC]

Bridges is a reason why some people are convinced wood can't make a difference. A low mass bridge will get more influence from the wood. If you were around 8-10 years ago the wood thing was mostly driven by Will's Easy Guitar and he wasn't saying wood impossibly can't make a difference but he was on mission to make everyone stop caring about it at all. He build Floyd Rose loaded guitars and I would guess higher output pickups. So during all this he actually tried how right he was and then saw Boudreau Tonewood Debate Guitar Build series (look at part 24 1min. comparison!) and heard that hotwired pickup output quite a hefty difference between only wood, and actually admitted that his first standpoint lacked nuances. I saw that comment saying that and appreciating Boudreau's work. Now that comment and all his old content is gone. He has MS and seems to be suffering which is awful but I don't know why he didn't try to gather all the nuances he learnt to try to make all internet people get along. Instead, I heard him guest some channel to talk about it now in a way that only works because people have seen the cherry picked Jim Lil table tele. I also think this low mass thing is related to legendary (producer switch) Lee Sklar saying that mandolin frets make his bass sound most like a fretless. Skinnier and lower mass hardware of vintage spec. stuff is more influenced by wood, still that can is fooling because the clarity and mid-forwardness, where humans hear details best, of the true vintage low output pickups is most of that. It does get complicated when you are advicing people around this because it's arguably great to not care about wood significance or degree of insignificance if that phrasings sits better with you. It's only easy to advice not putting a super heavy bridge on and jumbo frets on a ES335 if you want it sound most like that very typical Fluty sound of the semihollowness. Make It Wit Chu is a great display piece. So is some Peach Guitars video of a 60s true vintage vs reissue ES335 comparison. To those who argue about hearing semihollowness my argument is all in what you hear different in those true vintage ES335 vs identical spec hardware and measurements to same era SGs or what have you.

[@wagonet]

Subbed

[@ministryofguitar]

Thank you

[@leoranu7129]

Please make a video on fret sizes... Medium jumbo, extra jumbo and jumbo frets since u hav guitars to compare these..and there r not a lot of videoson this topic

[@ministryofguitar]

Ok good idea for the future. Thank yoy

[@leoranu7129]

@@ministryofguitar thanks from India ..keep making such videos...

[@ltgray2780]

Gotoh makes a superior 2 screw vibrato also. BUT, a properly maintained quality Floyd Rose has no peer when it comes to performance capabilities.

[@ministryofguitar]

I agree to an extent. I think for 90% of applications , the PRS tremolo performs equally as well. For extreme pitch situations, the Floyd is better . But the convenience of the PRS tips it over for me

[@robmcd]

@@ministryofguitarwould a knife edge out perform an Ibanez Z ball bearing trem?

[@sirbaronvoncount4147]

“The soft bigotry of small differences” is a quote i have often heard

[@rodjos5463]

👍

[@stevenpipes1555]

You covered a bunch of fulcrum trems but you didn't cover Kahler. That is an entirely different design than the others. That might be a useful future video. If you don't have a guitar with a Kahler, you need one!

[@ministryofguitar]

Yeah I realized I forgot Kahler. I have a Kahler on the first Gibson I ever bought. A Gibson Shred X explorer. To be very honest, not a big fan (I significantly prefer Floyd Rose), but I should have covered them

[@williamtm1965]

You forgot Khaler bridge

[@fdre3wsd]

hmm interesting

[@riffmondo9733]

That you have an impulsive buying disorder?

[@andyw6026]

Sorry to say this young man....I've watched a good number of your online video's (and I've had the opportunity to lead, globally, in multi-billion dollar industries too)....but what I see in your content seems to me to be generally in the following order.....1. major personal insecurity, 2. an appearance of compensatory over-self-confidence (which is clearly not natural for you), 3. a small amount of financial "success" and 4. a much smaller amount of actual musical ability.....I'm sure you can continue on KZbin, but I'd caution folks to consider these thoughts when they listen to you....

[@thepostapocalyptictrio4762]

Basically you described every guitarist KZbinr. Good job, bro. We WERE watching a video here.

[@jkeating7906]

I don’t really see how any of that warrants a “caution” to the viewers. He has repeatedly stated that he is an intermediate-level player with a keen interest in guitars and he is simply sharing his experiences from the perspective of someone who has owned a lot of guitars, which viewers find interesting.