Show me your 3 point replacement bridges hipshot/babicz

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I have a non-reverse thunderbird incoming and I'm not a fan of the stock gibson 3 point bridge, so I'm looking into replacing it with a Hipshot SuperTone or Babicz. I slightly prefer the look of the hipshot in pics of just the bridge, but the babicz can be obtained at a lower cost from bass direct.

 

I've not seen a lot of pics with these fitted, so if you have one, feel free to post a pic or two here — it will greatly help me see which one I prefer the look of when fitted.

[NancyJohnson]

If you peruse my old posts, you'll see dozens on my flock of Gibson Thunderbirds, reverse and non-reverse stylings; whenever I had a new one arriving, first course of action was to rid the bass if the three pointer.

 

While the Supertone is well machined/tooled, the Babicz is just better by design.  It feels better, looks better and despite being a wholly different animal to the three-pointer it doesn't look wrong or out of place (if that makes sense).

 

I'm an advocate of the addage 'if it ain't broke', but the three-pointer is a truly horrific bit of engineering and that Gibson have (aside for a handful of times) stuck with it, speaks volumes.  I'm sure that once you have it set up, saddles notched with a file to the correct depth, intonation set etc. it'll do the job, but nah.  I wanted a bridge that gave me a full range of adjustability, didn't fall to bits when you changed strings or cut my wrist when I was palm-muting.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by NancyJohnson
New last paragraph.

[NancyJohnson]

These were my main two, both Gibsons.  Bottom one was a very scarce Gothic; maybe 150 globally.  Both had Babicz bridges.

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by NancyJohnson
Apostrophe auto correct fail.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I've found some pics. I'm interested in how the chrome bridges look fitted, so that's what I've been looking for. Not as many thunderbird pics — especially non-reverse as I'd hoped

 

 

I think I'm now leaning towards getting a babicz based purely on aesthetics; the overall shape of the hipshot looks a bit more out of place on a thunderbird than the babicz. I'm not in love with the branding being so prominent though.

 

 

[NancyJohnson]

1 hour ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I've found some pics. I'm interested in how the chrome bridges look fitted, so that's what I've been looking for. Not as many thunderbird pics — especially non-reverse as I'd hoped

I think I'm now leaning towards getting a babicz based purely on aesthetics; the overall shape of the hipshot looks a bit more out of place on a thunderbird than the babicz. I'm not in love with the branding being so prominent though.

 

 

 

You might be hard pushed to find many chrome ones on Thunderbirds largely to the finish mismatch; as most of the current crop of Thunderbirds carry black hardware.

 

[neepheid]

NR Thunderbird with chrome Supertone.  Sorry the image is a bit painfully cropped...

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by neepheid

[neepheid]

Zoomed out, chrome hardware, but before I fitted the Supertone.  Hope that helps piece the picture together.

 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

The bass arrived today and I'm very pleased with it. I'm now leaning towards ordering a babicz.

[msb]

I have four basses with the classic three point bridge , and have replaced three of them. I should confess that I was always able to set the 3 points exactly where I wanted things , but thought the Hipshots looked much better. (I suppose that makes me shallow) On the other hand it’s much easier to palm mute , and they are much simpler to set up , with much more control. 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I've just ordered a chrome babicz from Bass Direct. The stock chrome 3-point bridge doesn't actually seem too be as bad as I expected. It seems to be a bit sturdier than I recall the black 3-pointer was on an epiphone thunderbird I used to own. I've managed to adjust it, but I've not replaced the stock roundwounds with my favoured cobalt flats yet — I'll do that after I've fitted the babicz.

 

[kodiakblair]

23 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I've just ordered a chrome babicz from Bass Direct.

Proof my timing is cr@p 

 

There's a fella over on TalkBS named Scott Dasson (godofthunder). Scott's nuts about old Gibsons but not too keen on the 3 point bridge so he came up with an alternative; calls it the Badbird.

It's a 2 part design so no good if you don't fancy screwing a tailpiece to your bass.

 

Here's Scott and some happy random punter with his 'improved' T-bird😄

 

 

 

 

[NancyJohnson]

16 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

Proof my timing is cr@p 

 

There's a fella over on TalkBS named Scott Dasson (godofthunder). Scott's nuts about old Gibsons but not too keen on the 3 point bridge so he came up with an alternative; calls it the Badbird.

It's a 2 part design so no good if you don't fancy screwing a tailpiece to your bass.

 

Here's Scott and some happy random punter with his 'improved' T-bird😄

 

 

 

 

 

The Badbird is a direct replacement for the two piece bridge of yore; it does not replace the three pointer on the existing holes/studs (the bass will not intonate). 

 

Scott did make a prototype two part bridge to replace the three-pointer...it required an anchoring plate to hold the ballends and a long throw harmonica style bridge unit that floated/sat on two of the studs. I don't believe he actually put it into production.

[msb]

The Babicz is a beautiful drop in solution.

[neepheid]

Having used both, I prefer the Supertone.  I find the Babicz fussy and overengineered.  Each to their own.

[msb]

Gibson was using Babicz as a stock bridge for a spell. 
 

I bought my first Hipshot through a posting on another forum , the link took me to the Hipshot Outlet on E-Bay. The ad specified that they would only ship in the continental US. So I messaged Hipshot , and began to correspond with the lady who looks after their Outlet. She was outstanding , customer service well beyond anything expected. As there were no returns she asked for a bass pic to insure it was the correct bridge. She did ship to Canada.
And even though I picked up the next two bridges used I had decided I liked Hipshot. 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

It has just arrived. It was easy to fit and the adjustments aren't as fiddly as I expected. I've put on a set of Ernie Ball 40-95 cobalt flats so I need to set the truss rod before adjusting the bridge, but my initial impression is good, and I don't think the bridge looks out of place.

 

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[msb]

Looks really good!

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I was a bit concerned that my choice of the lightest set of cobalt flatwounds were too light to pull any relief into the fairly chunky neck of the bass, but I've just given the truss rod a further tweak and managed to get more relief than needed, so I dialled it back a little and it looks like that has done the job.

 

Now when I press down on the first & fourteenth fret the gap between the string & top of the fret nearest the midpoint is about the thickness of a business card  which is what I was looking for. I'll let it settle overnight and check again tomorrow, then I should be able to finesse the action and intonation at the bridge.

 

The method of adjusting the string height on the babicz is a great piece of engineering that works really well. setting the intonation is a bit of a faff as you need to loosen the lock bolt in front of the saddle, and if you don't slacken off the string, the ball end gets in the way preventing the screwdriver from making the adjustment.

 

Given the choice of the Hipshot Supertone or Babicz, I don't think there's a wrong answer and I'd probably have been just as happy had I gone for the Hipshot.