Bass Bridges - standard vs. individual rails

[rx jr.]

I'm trying to choose a bridge for my new bass build.

What do you think about these?



I really want to build a bass with these, but I'm afraid how it have effect on my tone. how are they compared to standard bridges?

Specifically I'm deciding between those and this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

any opinions? how do those rail style bridges rack up against larger bridges?

thanks

[darkstorm]

I like std to traben style bridges better. Two main reasons. First: Installation is trickier. If not doing very precise eavery time your gonna have some with wonky string spaceing. Second I dont think they can do as good a job of transfering sound into the body. Cause your useing at best 1/4 as much of the bridge assembly to do that. Whereas std and traben style bridges use 100% of the bridge assembly. The bridge plate and base in the G string area is contributing to string transfer for sound generated from the E string for example. That doesnt happen with monorail bridges.

Ive heard the claim that monorail bridges give a tad more focus to each strings individual notes. I think that'd be only noticeable and useful for 3 or more string at once chord playing. With guitars and basses Ive tried that have individual bridges for each string I notice what seems to be less body resonance then on similiar basses with std style bridge. And a little bit weaker sound overall. Which I think goes back to the bridge and its comparitively very low mass design for each string compared to reg style high mass bridge.

Mono rails look nice, but their inability to be upgraded to std bridge (All Ive seen have body routeing for each) and my preferance for the whole bridge asembly contributing to each strings sound transfer makes them a no go for me.

[rx jr.]

Originally Posted by darkstorm

I like std to traben style bridges better. Two main reasons. First: Installation is trickier. If not doing very precise eavery time your gonna have some with wonky string spaceing. Second I dont think they can do as good a job of transfering sound into the body. Cause your useing at best 1/4 as much of the bridge assembly to do that. Whereas std and traben style bridges use 100% of the bridge assembly. The bridge plate and base in the G string area is contributing to string transfer for sound generated from the E string for example. That doesnt happen with monorail bridges.

Ive heard the claim that monorail bridges give a tad more focus to each strings individual notes. I think that'd be only noticeable and useful for 3 or more string at once chord playing. With guitars and basses Ive tried that have individual bridges for each string I notice what seems to be less body resonance then on similiar basses with std style bridge. And a little bit weaker sound overall. Which I think goes back to the bridge and its comparitively very low mass design for each string compared to reg style high mass bridge.

Mono rails look nice, but their inability to be upgraded to std bridge (All Ive seen have body routeing for each) and my preferance for the whole bridge asembly contributing to each strings sound transfer makes them a no go for me.

ooooh I didn't take the fretboard radius into consideration. I'm gonna have to make routes to compensate for the radius, huh?

thanks for the input!

[Diogenes]

I like the idea of being able to set string spacing to whatever I want when using monorails... something that is preset with standard bridges.

As for tone, people have argued for decades that a high mass bridge will improve tone. They seem to forget the weakest link... the bridge saddle screws is where most of the string's force and contact area is with the body and these screws are tiny so a huge and/or heavy bridge base plate would have negligible effect on tone IMHO.

Your best bet is to to try various examples of both on as equal footing as possible. That is to say a Jazz with high mass bridge vs a Jazz of comparable construction with monorails... a 'Ray with high mass bridge vs a 'Ray of comparable construction with monorails etc.. Only then will you get anywhere close to fair comparisons. But in all honesty I can't tell the difference nor have I ever met anyone else who can although they've claimed otherwise.

[mongo2]

Originally Posted by rx jr.

ooooh I didn't take the fretboard radius into consideration. I'm gonna have to make routes to compensate for the radius, huh?

No.

Since the saddles are individually adjustable for height, that wouldn't be necessary.

[Kragma]

I was under the impression that the point of monorail bridges was to prevent (or at least reduce) the sympathetic vibrations you get on adjacent strings that make sound enough for the pickups to sense even when muted.

I'm not sure it makes much difference either way, though monorail bridges do look neat. That said, a traditional bridge would be much easier to install correctly.

[jworrellbass]

I use the individual bridges on my builds, I really love them. You have figure how to groung them. I build neck-though's, so what I do is drill out the holes for the saddles before I put the body wings on and run a gound wire that the screws will hit when it's all done. Or you can use a brass or stainless steel nut and just ground one saddle.