Gibson TRI-4 wedge bridge

Gibson wedge bridge. This 1980s Gibson bridge was first used on the Gibson Victory bass and later the Explorer. This was a sturdy design, sitting flat against the guitar body and held in place with just three screws. It was the first Gibson bass bridge to offer 3-way adjustment of each saddle, allowing perfect intonation, height and side-to-side positioning of each string. Intonation is set by turning the screws at the rear of the bridge unit. As publicity at the time states: 'the mass of the heavily chromed, die cast, bridge/tailpiece adds appreciably to the brilliance and sustain of the Victory bass guitars'.

The bridge itself was designed by Tim Shaw and Charles Burge of the Gibson R&D department in Kalamazoo, who filed the design for patent in 1981. The patent was granted in 1983 (no 4,385,543), though the bridge itself was produced for Gibson by Schaller in (then West) Germany; the underside is marked 'made in Germany'. For more information about this bridge, see the 1981 Gibson Victory bass owners manual.