Guitar Parts Maker ABM Mueller is gone…
UPDATE: ABM Mueller has returned! For more, read Guitar Parts Maker ABM Mueller Is Back!
ABM Mueller, makers of high quality guitar parts and a headless bridge seen on several featured guitars, appears to be out of business. Their site is still up but word on this Project Guitar Forum thread is that the owner has passed away, the company sold off its production machinery and the company put up for sale.
For headless guitar makers, its truly bad news since there aren’t many off the shelf options to begin with – see Guitar Building Resources for Headless Guitar Designs. If we’re to continue building headless guitars, we’ll have to find new sources or come up with creative approaches based on conventional guitar parts. One fine example of this latter approach is the previously covered Scott French SF3 Travel Guitar. It uses Steinberger tuners, a conventional TOM bridge and a stub “headstock” to retain conventional strings. Meanwhile, outfits like Allparts may still have ABM bridges in stock.
Updates to follow as warranted…
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There is ETS. They are a bit more pricey, I don’t think they had a line of single bridges w/ tuners (so us compound scale, aka multi-scale, aka Fanned-Fret (R) folks would have to come-up with something else) and the only way I’ve been able to get any kind of a price quote was through a US manufacturer that used their parts on their guitars.
Ray
Agreed, Ray. Unfortunately, my inquiries have fallen on deaf ears. Although my article on headless guitar resources is far from an endorsement, I’m hesitant to put the name out there without something to show for it – like a return email. 🙂 Maybe the third times the charm. I’ll try again.
Well, there you go. I was hoping for someone to take over it, but alas, I think the market is too small, for having that kind of machinery up and running just for the sake of headless guitars. I have just come over a Steinberger licensed bridge, which I am going to replace the ABM one, because the ABM is JUST too wide. So I have an ABM 4 string bass bridge left over to anyone who makes their own headless neck which is a tiny bit wider than original Steinys necks.
Pity, because I thought ABM was of a sturdier material than licensed Steinies (Zen-On or whatever they’re called in Korea).
ETS seems a little more posh. I hope they can get up and running a little more high profile now, since there’s not too many around. ETS can swallow the demand there is. It is actually a too small business to run, but since ETS can make bridges saddles, for ORDINARY guitars as well, I hope they can bring in the main dough on that one, and have the headless as a niche thing going on as a side order. Of sorts.
Was it the Mueller guy who passed away or what?
Like ABM, ETS also makes a variety of hardware. Unfortunately, ETS doesn’t seem very geared to dealing with customers directly. I’ve heard from several folks and experienced for myself their lack of follow up on questions.
Although the quality appears to be there, this makes me increasingly consider alternative approaches like we’ve seen in prior articles – for example, Scott French’s design. Oh and keep an eye out. Next Monday, I’ll be featuring a real beauty of an instrument that relates to this.
Hey have you tried Status basses website?
They sell parts and headless tuners, both individual and sets. But they look shockingly like ABM. They may have stock items, they trade well over the internet and gives proper replies to inquiries. They sell for guitars as well.
I have now an unused ABM bass bridge, but not for sale yet. The difference between the new “Licensed Steiny” one and ABM was that ABM was a breeze to turn, when tuning up. This one, requires a firmer grip, and gives away noises. I tried to open it up and use graphite-grease to slightly lubricate all moving parts, but, it still had that sound and was sluggish. Of course no lubricant leaked out on the strings or tuner knobs, it’s inside. That tells for the quality of ABM.
However, I made the discovery that I’ll have to shim that Moses neck a bit, now, with the new bridge on because it’s lower. But I am slightly worried anyway. Those Moses necks seems to flex quite a bit, and one can’t get past that string tension with the truss rod.
Oh, sorry for digressing. Here’s Status link:
Status Graphite
they seem to make only headstock guitars though. Their basses are headless so their headless parts and tuners seems to be for basses only. Sorry.