Brass bridge better or worse?

[J Wilson]

I've been around these things since the 70's. I've got pretty good ears. I was around when adding a BadA++ bridge became a thing. I lived through the Brass Age, when all these aftermarket bridges sprouted heavy and heavier saddles and bass plates. And everything since, all in the name of 'more tone' or 'more sustain' or more something or other.

I can honestly say I've never heard a 'before' and 'after' as far as fitting an aftermarket bridge, never heard whatever the money was supposed to provide as an 'improvement'. I can say I've replaced a bridge or two IF what came on it was pretty cruddy/rusty, not enough saddle travel, for mechanical reasons in other words.

As @Turnaround said, if you can hear it, good for you, I never have.

 

[Longwheelbass]

Not sure about all the comments re brass saddles being significantly heavier, but I've only ever used the stock Fender brass bridges that came out late 70's, which if anything would only be insignificantly heavier than the stock nickel plated version. Those bridges definitely impart an audible difference in terms of what I'd say is clarity to the sound, not massive, but (unsurprisingly considering it's musical grade brass) more like a slightly more bell-like tone. By the time you crank your amp on stage and run it through the FOH system all that goes out the window, and I never had any punter approach me after a gig and say "Love the extra tone your brass saddles are pumping out dude". Obviously everyone's mileage may vary, but in terms of swapping out stock bridges for massive chunks of pot metal or steel or brass, save your money. Leo Quan is still laughing from the poolside balcony of his mansion in the Hollywood Hills.
To be honest, as far as P Basses go, you can get a more significant tonal difference by slapping on an anodised guard - I remember playing a 57 P in a shop years ago and the sound that came out of that anodized guard equipped bass was significantly different to it's plastic clad brothers. Again - not massive, but enough to notice.

 

[laklandplayer]

In the mid-'60's, Gibson used nylon saddles for a few years. The idea must have been to reduce string breakage without affecting tone (my '65 ES-124TDC has nylon saddles and has always sounded as good to me as my guitars with steel saddles), but people hear what they expect to hear, so Gibson went back to steel.

The whole brass hardware thing is interesting. All the rage in the late '70s to early '80s or whatever it was, because people could definitely hear the difference, and then the craze petered out. Either people ceased hearing a difference, or there wasn't actually any significant difference.

I worked in a music store back in the 70's and those plastic Gibson saddles were crap. They deteriorated quickly and would just crumble. If I remember, they were made of a hard styrene plastic material.
Gibson switched them to metal because of the dealer complaints.
Those EB series basses were expensive and to have failures like that was unacceptable.
We eventually went back to all of our customers that had plastic saddles and gave them metal ones, installed them and set their intonation at no charge out of goodwill and customer service.

 

[Yahboy]

.Unless compare to zinc himas bridge with zinc saddle, the full brass bridge with brass saddle sound less notable difference to vintage bridge .

All my Pbass has fender pure vintage 58 threaded saddle bridge. Not only providing fine string spacing adjust, meanwhile allow me set my action low enough without worry saddle bottom out.

Only my charvel pro mod PJ bass has brass himass bridge come stock. Unable set the E string action to my preference 1.65mm. But problem solved after I filled the saddle slot slightly deeper.