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Originally Posted by Diego Perhaps Gard can give us some answers on these topics:
1. Roscoe uses aluminum custom hipshot bridges on their instruments right? What is the difference in tone between aluminum and chrome bridges? Have you guys tried both and/or noticed any differences?
2. How about piezo bridges? Have you tried these on your instruments? if so what are the results?
3. What would be the most effective way to diminish sympathetic string resonance in multistring basses? Im'm thinking mono-rails would be a good choice. What are your thoughts on this issue? What about a Roscoe mith mono-rails?
I'm just really curious as to hear your opinions and thoughts. |
Diego -
Wow, you should know better!
Chrome is a COATING, not the actual material used to make the bridge plate!
We use an aluminium bridge plate, Hipshot also make a BRASS plate (the saddles on both are brass). I find that the aluminium plates "speak" more clearly and give a tighter bass response than the brass ones do. Also, the brass plates seemed to suck some of the high end detail out of the tone.
We have done a few piezo basses, and honestly the return ("bang-for-your-buck" factor) is pretty poor in my opinion. To my ear, you just end up getting a scratchy sound that really amplifies any and every string noise you can imagine unless you take essentially all of the highs out of your signal. I have heard very few piezo equipped basses that I thought worked well for re-creating an "acoustic" tone, and those were purpose built for the job (i.e. Rob Allen, Turner Renassiance).
On the mono-rail/sympathetic resonance issue - one, so, instead of placing ONE bridge correctly, we get to place 4-7+ correctly? No thanks. Two, based on a LOT of time spent checking these things out, I personally (this is an OPINION) find that the mono-rail bridges DO NOT have any better performance than single plate bridges at eliminitaing "cross-talk" between strings - it's hogwash. The simple fact is that the ENTIRE instrument is vibrating, and will impart that vibration to the string whether the saddle is in a single unit holding all saddles or a number of individual saddles. Eliminating sympathetic string resonance can be accomplished in several ways (i.e. the Victor Wooten "scrunchy" trick, some kind of mechanical string dampener, or my personal favorite - PROPER MUTING TECHNIQUE OF THE PLAYER
), mono-rail bridges will not do the job for you, IMO & IME. The only true advantage mono-rails have is allowing you to put as many strings on as you wish without having to get a custom bridge, and allowing you to set the string spacing where you wish it to be with however many strings as you wish to use - otherwise, no advantage.
