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badass vs babicz bridges

#21
My brainiac instrument engineer tells me that a heavy bridge can damp the sound, IF the body is highly resonant. Depends on the wood. If you have a good sounding body, the heavy bridge will not let it through. Heavy bridges are becoming more common as the wood goes down in quality from vintage years.

For the experiment -- the only way for it to be valid is to swap the bridges again to the opposite instruments and test again to rule out wood variance.
 
#24
tehbassist said:
You realize we're saying the same thing right?

I said the reason the babicz sustained was because it must be transferring energy between the strings and the body better and thus tapping into the mass of the body.

You're saying the same thing, just that this transfer and interaction with the mass of the body is due to the fact that the babicz has locked down hardware, and that makes a lot of sense to me as well.
Click to expand...

Problem is that the more energy that is transfered to the body of the instrument, the less enegery there is left in the string to keep it vibrating. The reason high mass bridges sustain better is because they actually transfer less energy to the body, leaving more of the energy in the string.

The good old Fender P Bass with its "flimsy" bridge gets a lot of the character of its sound from the lightweight bridge that does transfer a lot of the string energy to the body. And consequently has less sustain.
 
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#28
Must. Have. Babicz.

Ive been using a BA II for years on my P, and I love that bridge. I went from that to the stock style Fender bridge just to see if I could notice a change. Well, I did, and I went back to the BA II in no time. Now rather or not it was longer sustain on either, I couldnt tell. Maybe a little more on the BA II. But there was most def something else going on with my sound with the BA as opposed to the Fender, it was that sound/vibration translation to the body, that was DEF felt. I have never tried a Babicz but always wanted one as I thought it would do the things you all are claiming. Now, I really want one,.
 
#29
Does the physical size of the bridge footprint, contact area between body and bridge, come into play here?

Reason I'm asking is if memory serves the babicz has a larger contact area than either the BA or stock L plate.
 
#32
What do you all think regarding finish? Does the thickness of the finish make any difference in body vibration? I imagine it would... a bass with a light oil finish must vibrate more than a cheap thing with a thick plastic finish on it, where you don't even know what wood the body is made out of.
I ask because I have a fretless that is very much in the latter category (it's a Stagg, some BS knockoff company but it feels and sounds great) and I need to replace the cheap hardware on it. I don't know how much a Babicz would help vs. a Badass, though now to me it seems almost impossible for me to find a Badass.
:)
 
#33
Ok I just checked the website now. I can't find the model that my bass is but the fretted version apparently has a maple neck and alder body, so I imagine mine must be the same.
Unfortunately I know nothing about wood so I don't know how hard or soft alder is.
 
#35
It comes down to the contact point of the saddle. A lot of saddles are using set screws for height adjustment with a somewhat pointed end. Unless the saddle is sitting flush on the bridge bass, all your sustain is going through the two small set screws whereas the Babicz has full contact using the cam system. This is why you feel a stronger vibration through the body of the bass.

On Fender basses I have seen people remove the tuner, drill a hole (not all the way through) and epoxy a titanium rod then replace the tuner. Doing this on tuner 2 & 3 will cure the notorious Fender dead spot.
 
#37
CrashClint said:
It comes down to the contact point of the saddle. A lot of saddles are using set screws for height adjustment with a somewhat pointed end. Unless the saddle is sitting flush on the bridge bass, all your sustain is going through the two small set screws whereas the Babicz has full contact using the cam system. This is why you feel a stronger vibration through the body of the bass.

On Fender basses I have seen people remove the tuner, drill a hole (not all the way through) and epoxy a titanium rod then replace the tuner. Doing this on tuner 2 & 3 will cure the notorious Fender dead spot.
Click to expand...

Actually, that was JohnK_10 that did that, and it was tungsten, not titanium. Adding weight to a headstock can change the resonance of the neck, and can reduce the severity of a dead spot, or move it to another fret that is less critical, very rarely can you completely remove a deadspot.
 
#38
Hopkins said:
Actually, that was JohnK_10 that did that, and it was tungsten, not titanium. Adding weight to a headstock can change the resonance of the neck, and can reduce the severity of a dead spot, or move it to another fret that is less critical, very rarely can you completely remove a deadspot.
Click to expand...

Your right it was tungsten. The dead spot was very present before the procedure and afterward I couldn't hear the dead spot so in my opinion it was cured whether or not scientifically it was fixed that could be up for debate.
 
#40
IME, it's nothing to do with the weight or mass, or the locking options. It's all about how well it's seated in the saddle & what kind of break angle it has at the nut & saddle. The BadAss doesn't give the kinds of break angles the Babicz does. That, IMO, is why the Babicz is such a good bridge. It gets break angles right.
 
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