I did not know Steve personally, but I did know his work and let me say, I have never been as impressed with an aftermarket product as I have been with the parts I purchased for my 1952/1956 Les Paul Goldtop restoration/conversion project, see the story in my blog earlier on.
Steve was a Rembrandt of guitar hardware and a Michelangelo combined, he was an artisan, who was a player who understood great tone for himself and his engineering side, where he used apparently CNC machinery to produce these breathtaking versions of primarily Gibson 1950′s hardware. I can really appreciate a fine piece of machined craftsmanship and the ABR-1 that I have which is made of aluminum, is spectacular in quality function and fit, very important parts of the tone/vibration transfer. Also my light weight aluminum tail piece and steel studs are equally superbly manufactured and fit like a glove.
I have been raving for some time about the quality of Steve’s product and those in the know, particularly those with Gibson Historics, know the extremely poor quality of Gibsons modern interpretations of the ’50′s pieces and the Pigtails are as close to and in cases equal or more consistently better than the originals. That is some achievement let me say.
On the left is a picture of the aluminum ABR-1 Pigtail and right next to it is my hand holding an ABR-1 from an all original 1958 Les Paul Goldtop, I was helping sell at the Great American Guitar Show in Philly 2008.
These are various pictures and documents showing tailpieces, comparing the vintage vrs the Pigtail vrs the Historic tail pieces. Notice how different the Historic hardware is form the Pigtail and how closely the Pigtail resembles the vintage piece.
I believe from what I read in my research, before investing in the Pigtail pieces, that Steve meticulously researched the old hardware and digitally measured it, right sown to casting marks, ect.
For example his tail pieces used for a wraparound bridge, such as on a 1953-1955 Les Pauls intonate so much better than the Historic part, The ridge that the strings c go over has been shown to exactly resemble the vintage piece.
With extreme condolences to Steve’s family it is my express hope that someone will continue the tradition of these parts. Steve was primarily a one man operation as far as I know and that is always the hardest scenario to continue.
To those of us that love vintage Les Paul’s and those who GAS over Historics, the loss of Steve is a tragedy on so many levels. I understand that he had a love of vintage aircraft as well.
Something I have always said and I have willingly promoted Steve’s fine product to others looking to upgrade the tone of their Gibson’s be they vintage or Historic, is that if I had , say a 1959 Les Paul Sunburst and wanted to change out the bridge and or tail piece, I would use Pigtail components without hesitation as these fine products are as good as or better than the original as they are more consistent, due to the modern method of construction, the high quality of metals and playing used.
On the right side of the page is my 1952/56 conversion with Steve’s hardware in place. The aluminum ABR-1 really wakes up the tone of the Gold Top and as my luthier had to slightly spray thicker lacquer die to the original configuration of the guitar, where in the conversion to TOM from the original 1952 tailpiece, the bridge was sunk into the body rather than resetting the neck angle.
Since my guitar had to be re-necked due to it arriving with a severe headstock break, necessitating the use of a old wood neck blank, which was set at the correct 1956 style angle for TOM and stop tailpiece, see my Story of My Gold Top, contained in this blog!
I love this guitar and I am honored to have Pigtail pieces fitted and will think of Steve when I play the guitar as I do of the late John Zeidler, when I play either of my two Gary Moore Heritages, as John reworked those for me as well. God bless you Steve and thanks from every guitarist for your brilliant contribution to helping is nail that perfect tone. His hardware is practically built to military specifications, it is that superior.
You will be missed. Dave
