Hipshot A Style or B Style? not decided

[maturanesa]

i´ll build a bass with a Musicman pickup and not decided yet to install a Hipshot A or Hipshot B.
I never tryed hipshots before, but my speculations are:

Style B seems to be more similar to a MM bridge, and the brass version could deliver good sustain and a woody tone at the same time. The vintage look saddles makes me thin the sustain maybe not so great.

Style A is a bit heavier and tough i think. Maybe more sustain. Im afriad of getting that hyper bright tone related to very high mass bridges. Its more adjustable, but ill use 19mm, dont care too much about that.
The wood will be mahogany or some medium/heavy wood, so maybe an Style A in brass would be too much.

[maturanesa]

anyone?

[allexcosta]

Neither... Vintage style...

[narud]

i think the brass B bridge might be the best sounding bridge out off all of the hipshot stuff.

[DougD]

Originally Posted by maturanesa

i´ll build a bass with a Musicman pickup and not decided yet to install a Hipshot A or Hipshot B.
I never tryed hipshots before, but my speculations are:

Style B seems to be more similar to a MM bridge, and the brass version could deliver good sustain and a woody tone at the same time. The vintage look saddles makes me thin the sustain maybe not so great.

Style A is a bit heavier and tough i think. Maybe more sustain. Im afriad of getting that hyper bright tone related to very high mass bridges. Its more adjustable, but ill use 19mm, dont care too much about that.
The wood will be mahogany or some medium/heavy wood, so maybe an Style A in brass would be too much.

The bridge has nothing to do with the sound of your bass. A heavier bridge may add more sustain, but it won't change the tone. The differences between the A and B style is adjustability and looks. That's pretty much it.

[BigOldHarry]

I've had both - I much prefer the A. The b is fine, but it's not as adjustable and is basically cheaper.

[Syco_bass]

Originally Posted by allexcosta

Neither... Vintage style...

+1

[lowfreqgeek]

Originally Posted by DougD

The bridge has nothing to do with the sound of your bass. A heavier bridge may add more sustain, but it won't change the tone. The differences between the A and B style is adjustability and looks. That's pretty much it.

That's not my experience after extensive testing with multiple instruments. I had 2 Warmoth Geckos, one with a Brass A-style, and one with an Aluminum B-style. When I swapped bridges, all else being equal, the brass consistently added more mid-range clarity and the aluminum gave a more hollow-mids tone. I also swapped necks and then swapped bridges again and found the same results between the bridges, regardless of the neck/body/pickups/strings combinations.

I was completely surprised at how much difference it made, but it worked to my advantage because one of the basses was overly middy in a not-good way. The other bass was lacking clarity, but had plenty of highs and lows. When I made the final swap, the one that was previously too mid-heavy sounded just about perfect, while the one that had been lacking clarity gained a lot of mids and lost some of the overly bright top.

The only thing I didn't do was try an aluminum A-style or a brass B-style. However, the statement that "a heavier bridge... won't change the sound" is untrue in my personal experience.

[Hellbastard]

A-style. I love it.

[narud]

Originally Posted by lowfreqgeek

That's not my experience after extensive testing with multiple instruments. I had 2 Warmoth Geckos, one with a Brass A-style, and one with an Aluminum B-style. When I swapped bridges, all else being equal, the brass consistently added more mid-range clarity and the aluminum gave a more hollow-mids tone. I also swapped necks and then swapped bridges again and found the same results between the bridges, regardless of the neck/body/pickups/strings combinations.

I was completely surprised at how much difference it made, but it worked to my advantage because one of the basses was overly middy in a not-good way. The other bass was lacking clarity, but had plenty of highs and lows. When I made the final swap, the one that was previously too mid-heavy sounded just about perfect, while the one that had been lacking clarity gained a lot of mids and lost some of the overly bright top.

The only thing I didn't do was try an aluminum A-style or a brass B-style. However, the statement that "a heavier bridge... won't change the sound" is untrue in my personal experience.

ive had aluminum and brass a and b bridges. the two a bridges sounded more similar than the different bridges made of the same material....ime

[DougD]

Originally Posted by lowfreqgeek

That's not my experience after extensive testing with multiple instruments. I had 2 Warmoth Geckos, one with a Brass A-style, and one with an Aluminum B-style. When I swapped bridges, all else being equal, the brass consistently added more mid-range clarity and the aluminum gave a more hollow-mids tone. I also swapped necks and then swapped bridges again and found the same results between the bridges, regardless of the neck/body/pickups/strings combinations.

I was completely surprised at how much difference it made, but it worked to my advantage because one of the basses was overly middy in a not-good way. The other bass was lacking clarity, but had plenty of highs and lows. When I made the final swap, the one that was previously too mid-heavy sounded just about perfect, while the one that had been lacking clarity gained a lot of mids and lost some of the overly bright top.

The only thing I didn't do was try an aluminum A-style or a brass B-style. However, the statement that "a heavier bridge... won't change the sound" is untrue in my personal experience.

Interesting, But I've never found that a bridge could change the tonal character of a bass. But that's just my experience, and info that i have gathered from listening to people talk about it. But, YMMV

[lowfreqgeek]

Originally Posted by DougD

Interesting, But I've never found that a bridge could change the tonal character of a bass. But that's just my experience, and info that i have gathered from listening to people talk about it. But, YMMV

Well, MMDV.

I didn't expect much change, so I was completely surprised when it was so drastic in that particular case. Everything "wrong" with both basses was fixed by the swap, so I left it!

I'm sure it was just that combination of wood and strings and pickups and bridges and probably not exactly repeatable.

[maturanesa]

Originally Posted by BigOldHarry

I've had both - I much prefer the A. The b is fine, but it's not as adjustable and is basically cheaper.

do you notice any difference in the sound?