Any opinions on the Ray Ross saddle-less bridge?

[rmcfee]

I saw a video on this bridge and it seemed to sound great but it's a bit deceptive on my cheap laptop.
Anyone out there own one? Thanks.

 

[Gorn]

It's Ray Ross. There are a couple very long threads on the topic that you can find here.

 

[96tbird]

I think it's fantastic idea and well done, and decidedly industrial. Could hurt if yah get to banging on yer bass.

 

[rmcfee]

I re-watched a video on this bridge and it was noticeably "better" (whatever your definition of better is.)

 

[Gilmourisgod]

A subject of much debate, angst, and recrimination on TB, and therefore entertaining but not too informative. Extraordinary Claims (provided by the Inventor) require Extraordinary Proof (Not provided by the Owner). Looks like a nice bridge, there are lots of nice bridges now, with varying degrees of spiff as far as ease of adjustment, speed of string changes, etc., but I have yet to see convincing proof in a true blind test that anyone can tell the difference sonically between a cheap Fender bent plate and virtually any other bridge, mounted on the same bass, with the same strings, through the same electronics. It looks cool, maybe that's reason enough to buy it, but don't go looking for some miraculous tone improvement from any bridge "upgrade", its one piece of a complex puzzle, and the end result is pretty unpredictable. The fact that the inventor got into some pretty heated and borderline nasty debates on TB did not help advance his claims of superiority for the product. In a few months or years, some other Inventor will come along with similar claims for their new bridge design, and we can argue about that one too.

 

[dwizum]

I came in to one of the longer threads very late and tried to stay out of the debate and drama. One of the bridge's fans shipped me a unit and I tried it out on a bass that had previously had an aluminum hipshot bridge on it. I swapped the two of them back and forth a few times and wrote down my thoughts. That's the extent of my experience. I'll summarize my thoughts here since it might be painful to try to dig through the long threads.

I did like the Ray Ross bridge, overall. It's well made and I don't think it suffers from the theoretical issues that some people speculated it would. It works fine and I had no complaints at all. It sets up fine, it intonates fine, it had no issues. It certainly looks very different, and that could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you like. Personally I like the looks.

In terms of tone - that's a loaded question. It sounded fine to me, not much different than the bridge I'd swapped it with. I would not personally spend money on a bridge (any bridge, not just this bridge) if my goal was to change the tone of an instrument - there are other ways to do that which are much more powerful and obvious in terms of their impact. The maker of the bridge also claims that it can solve problems (dead spots, stuff like that). The bass I put it on had no such issues so I can't comment on if it makes a difference or not for those issues.

 

[JRA]

I have yet to see convincing proof in a true blind test that anyone can tell the difference sonically between a cheap Fender bent plate and virtually any other bridge, mounted on the same bass, with the same strings, through the same electronics

it seemed to sound great

i think that bridge is "deluxe" --- a real looker! i thought it was cool when i saw it in the other thread(s). but: i wouldn't buy something like that for sound/tone = a dubious claim/hype, IME -or- they all sound great, and for $10 you can have the greatest, too!

buying a bridge for its features does make a lot of sense to me, however, so i pick 'em based on what i want to do with them, e.g, space the strings, drop-in vs. possible hole repair, forward/backward and up/down adjustabilities, string loading, weight! , cosmetics/looks, other, etc.

 

[Gorn]

I think someone in the other thread arranged to test the thing, but he limited what you were or weren't allowed to ask about it. The whole subject is smeared with so much chicanery.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I remember when Geddy Lee put a Badass I on his Ric. I presume he did it to make intonation easier, but the product hype at the time was "Increased Sustain!!", so of course I dutifully went out and got a Badass II... and then chickened out putting it on my Ric. It's still on my Warmoth Fretless Frankenjazz, and it's a fine bridge, but not noticeably more sustain-y or tuneful than any other bridge I've owned. I went down the same rabbit hole with brass nuts, and realized the fact they look nice, like bass jewelry, is reason enough to do them without expecting some miraculous tone improvement. We seem to be in a renaissance of bass equipment now, with some superb gear available for relatively cheap. It's a tough crowd, and highly competitive, I don't envy anybody coming up with a new widget these days. A little hyperbole is expected with any advertising campaign, but when you make claims like "Eliminates Dead Spots!", people are going to ask for convincing proof.

 

[Cave Puppy]

This is the thread of many about Ray Ross bridges to which I decided to reply: I don't like them. I ordered two and am returning two. Reasons: 1. The strings seem to chorus, that is, they sound "chorusy" or wavy, especially the G string. Perhaps that is how they should sound but I don't like it. The strings go through a hole in the bridge pin and if they're touching the sides of the hole the string vibrates against the side of the hole and buzzes like crazy. 2. I had intonation and action issues with the Ray Ross bridges. Issues I don't have with "regular" bridges. 3. String height and intonation adjustments can't be made under string tension. The cheap tool they send with the bridge to do that broke on first try. I had to resort to not using that tool and loosening then tightening the string back to pitch after each adjustment. 4. You have to use the cheap mounting screws as the mounting holes in the RR bridge only fit smaller sized screw heads. 5. If you loosen the strings the bridge pins become floppy and loose and action and intonation would need to be checked again. Thanks, but no thanks.

 

[Lemur Bassman]

I saw a video on this bridge and it seemed to sound great but it's a bit deceptive on my cheap laptop.
Anyone out there own one? Thanks.

Well, it looks like you can't raise the string up and down? Maybe I couldn't tell from the picture and video, but it looks like it only back and forth.

 

[Jared-5]

Well, it looks like you can't raise the string up and down? Maybe I couldn't tell from the picture and video, but it looks like it only back and forth.

If you look at the ring around the post, it has holes in it so it can be turned to raise/lower the post that holds the string.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Never seen one in the wild. My (…and shared) biggest bone-of-contention is the design introduced what would normally be components of the afterlength into the vibrating string path. I don't recall this query ever being fully answered but, then again, the product is flying beneath the radar if still available…kinda like "My Pillow".

Riis