What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

[Chistopher]

TWO brass blocks for your Strat!

This appears to be an easy to install drop-in sustain block for your tuneomatic equipped. Does anyone else think this idea is ridiculous, especially for $50 a pop?

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

You can buy a piece of 1/8” think brass and attach it to your trem block. You can even epoxy them together. That will increase the mass of the bridge for a few dollars.


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[GuitarDoc]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

Your link doesn't work.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

TWO brass blocks for your Strat!

This appears to be an easy to install drop-in sustain block for your tuneomatic equipped. Does anyone else think this idea is ridiculous, especially for $50 a pop?

This is for a Strat trem or a tuneomatic???

Either your link needs to work or your post needs to be at least somewhat clear.

 

[RockinProf]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

The link works for me, might be a browser issue.

This seems novel. But placing the intonation screws through a block behind the bridge plate and being in full contact with those screws and the plate there is the opportunity for the string vibration to exploit this rear bridge block. I’m not convinced this would make a profound tonal difference. At the same time, I was skeptical about upgrading a trem block. When I replaced a sintered Am Standard block with a Callaham my Strat became a new guitar with so much more life. The jury is out on this one... kind of like upgrading a trem claw.

What would occur here, audible or not would have to have metal to metal contact and pressure, so an adhesive wouldn’t give would absorb vibration/tonal transfer and leave the added block inert.

 

[mistermikev]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

TWO brass blocks for your Strat!

This appears to be an easy to install drop-in sustain block for your tuneomatic equipped. Does anyone else think this idea is ridiculous, especially for $50 a pop?

yeah but for $50 you also get the look of a giant brass block on your strat... looks 3tarted to me.

wait... does eric johnson use this? I forgot to ask before I formulated my opinion. (this is all tongue in cheek btw)

 

[RockinProf]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

I always find the pause to think if Eric Johnson, David Gilmour, Billy Gibbons... use a piece of gear to validate quality to be amusing. Not that I don’t admire the amazing tones these guys get, but unless you’re a clone (including to the second neural architecture) no amount of similar gear will get you to sound just like a masterful player. E.g. D. Gilmour was on Saturday Night Live in the 90’s playing a Steinberger with a Transtrem through a Soldano if I recall correctly. It sounded just like him in his black Strat though his big rig. The same was true of Ritchie Blackmore at a gig he showed up for and played though Steve Morse’s rig... it was indistinguishable for his old Strats into Marshall Majors.

While E. Johnson might be able to hear the acoustic properties of a styrofoam coffee cup in the house beside where he’s recording... that doesn’t matter unless you’re him in how that affects your tone.

Finding gear you sound kicka$$ though is always better than trying to buy someone’s else’s sound without working for it.

Rant off.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

The link works for me, might be a browser issue.

You must be right. But now it works for me.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

But placing the intonation screws through a block behind the bridge plate and being in full contact with those screws and the plate there is the opportunity for the string vibration to exploit this rear bridge block. I’m not convinced this would make a profound tonal difference.

I’d like to point out that you always read claims made about vibrations, and how coupling those vibrations to this or that is a good thing.

We worry about the contact at the bridge, and neck joints, and even glue joints.

These claims sometimes come directly from the manufacturers of these various parts.

But that’s a big myth. And it’s pretty much the opposite of what you want.

First we have to define the vibrations of the strings as energy. And energy will always be lost to things like friction. That’s the second law of thermodynamics.

The very reason why a heavy, solid body guitar has more sustain than a banjo is precisely because there’s too much mass in the body to allow it to rob energy from the strings. So that energy stays in the strings, and they keep vibrating.

A banjo, on the other hand, has all of the energy from the strings going into the easily vibrated drum head. That energy is converted to a loud acoustic sound, and then the string stops vibrating.

When Leo Fender invented the fulcrum tremolo system, he knew that he didn’t want the energy from the strings to be just dumped into the springs. So the trem block adds mass, and acts as an inertia block. The strings can’t vibrate that heavy block, so instead they keep vibrating.

So all these heavier blocks do is add mass. The more mass you have, the more energy that will stay in the strings. So the more sustain you have. This is why a heavy Les Paul, with the thick body (more mass) has more sustain than an acoustic guitar or hollow body.

So you really don’t want the body to vibrate. The body adds nothing to the string. It’s not a magic energy producer. It’s just an energy sponge, along with the neck. The lighter and more flexible they are, the more energy they can rob from the strings.


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[metalchurch79]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

Im curious what the note decay is like on a stock unmodded Strat vs one decked out with all those sustain enhancers. I think they should have to provide that data. I mean if it was your product and it worked, wouldn't you want to prove it? Maybe they do, who knows. Seems like a cool concept and being a Floyd user I like the extra area there behind the saddles but...being a Floyd user I should just keep scrolling.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

But how does that work on a "tuneomatic" bridge?

 

[Chistopher]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

I’d like to point out that you always read claims made about vibrations, and how coupling those vibrations to this or that is a good thing.

We worry about the contact at the bridge, and neck joints, and even glue joints.

These claims sometimes come directly from the manufacturers of these various parts.

But that’s a big myth. And it’s pretty much the opposite of what you want.

First we have to define the vibrations of the strings as energy. And energy will always be lost to things like friction. That’s the second law of thermodynamics.

The very reason why a heavy, solid body guitar has more sustain than a banjo is precisely because there’s too much mass in the body to allow it to rob energy from the strings. So that energy stays in the strings, and they keep vibrating.

A banjo, on the other hand, has all of the energy from the strings going into the easily vibrated drum head. That energy is converted to a loud acoustic sound, and then the string stops vibrating.

When Leo Fender invented the fulcrum tremolo system, he knew that he didn’t want the energy from the strings to be just dumped into the springs. So the trem block adds mass, and acts as an inertia block. The strings can’t vibrate that heavy block, so instead they keep vibrating.

So all these heavier blocks do is add mass. The more mass you have, the more energy that will stay in the strings. So the more sustain you have. This is why a heavy Les Paul, with the thick body (more mass) has more sustain than an acoustic guitar or hollow body.

So you really don’t want the body to vibrate. The body adds nothing to the string. It’s not a magic energy producer. It’s just an energy sponge, along with the neck. The lighter and more flexible they are, the more energy they can rob from the strings.


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I think this post should from here on be posted in all sustain block and tone wood threads from here on. It doesn't explicitly state it, but this idea points to the fact that if tone wood did make a difference, it would be because certain woods absorb certain frequencies at different rates.

 

[RockinProf]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

The timber of Sound is obviously extremely subjective, so I’m not going to say anyone is wrong. On the other hand it’s important to consider the physics of timber and sustain.

Sustain on a musical instrument string is the duration that the string(s) and the rest of the instrument continue to vibrate and radiation creating alteration of air pressure. With that considered, we now look to properties of a musical instrument that influence the continued vibration of the string(s). While mass of a wooden structure (guitar, bass, traditional piano...) will influence sustain as the energy released in the creation of a sound will create longer and deeper sound pressure change as a function of surface area. However, we must also look at the sustain of the strings themselves. By creating a unified object that transfers vibration across its volume and mass (let’s refer to this as size), that vibration will return energy to the string(s) and therefore allowing the string to vibrate longer. This is sustain. Inhibition of vibration transfer though a pad, glue or etc. decreases to realities size of the item that returns energy to the string that keeps it moving. If anyone wants a mathematical proof, I’ll figure out how to do notation here.

With respect to tone... that’s tougher. It could be a fun double blind study for one of the psychology profs I do some work with. E.g. having the same guitar recorded with a blindfold and fully noise cancelled but with a block attached with an adhesive or metal to metal with fasteners. Then having listeners than have no knowledge of which attachment is used decide what is more favourable. That could be fun...

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

I don’t think their patent will go through. I had a BadAss bridge on my 66 Strat when I bought it that had both a heavier block and a built-in thicker mass area where the saddle length adjusts, just like their ‘new, patent pending’ device.

 

[Francois]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

The link works for me and I think this is an interesting idea.


I have brass bridge and trem block o a Strat-like guitar and I am always surprise how it reverberates... like an small embedded reverb unit (But it could be not to the metal quality only > design also ?)

I would like to add to this conversation that there is more to tone than just sustain. There is also the richness of harmonics and more...

In general don't have much trouble with lack of sustain in guitars.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

I would like to add to this conversation that there is more to tone than just sustain. There is also the richness of harmonics and more...

Which is determined by strings, scale length, and the particular pickups/electronics.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

I have brass bridge and trem block o a Strat-like guitar and I am always surprise how it reverberates... like an small embedded reverb unit (But it could be not to the metal quality only > design also ?

Could also be that it (or something) is not screwed down completely tight.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

I think this post should from here on be posted in all sustain block and tone wood threads from here on. It doesn't explicitly state it, but this idea points to the fact that if tone wood did make a difference, it would be because certain woods absorb certain frequencies at different rates.

Exactly. That’s why maple sounds brighter than basswood.


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[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

But how does that work on a "tuneomatic" bridge?

Did you ever see the 70s Ibanez guitars with the brass inertia block under the TOM bridge? They stole that idea from Rick Turner/Alembic.

But those guitars don’t have a fulcrum tremolo and springs.


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[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: What's better than one brass block for your Strat?

I have brass bridge and trem block o a Strat-like guitar and I am always surprise how it reverberates... like an small embedded reverb unit (But it could be not to the metal quality only > design also ?)

That’s the springs. And that’s how reverb tanks work. I like that reverberation on Strats, but some people stick foam rubber under the springs, or get rubber coated springs.

But that shows how much of the strings’ energy is being transferred to the springs.


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