Can different bridges cause different 'feels'?

Swap bridges on the basses and see if the "feel" follows the bridge.

 

Is your hand contacting the bridge at all? Is it possible that the string spacing is slightly different between the two bridges?

 

Different geometry is my guess. The softer feeling one has less angle as the strings come over the saddles.

 

Gut feeling/guess. I could be wrong, but I just reasoned that if the string was bent at say, a 90 deg angle (gross over-simplification for my BS explanation), it would be hard bend or pluck close to the bend.

 

How big of a difference are you feeling? I would say our are absolutely correct in the idea that what happens behind the nut/bridge is inconsequential. If I had to hazard an explanation, I would say its probably caused by minute differences in the strings. Even though they are the same strings, its possible there were slightly different conditions during manufacturing.

Then again, with my brick hands, I can't even feel difference between different brands of strings, other than like rounds vs flats.

 

Is the BA slotted properly?

 

I have BA IIs on two of my basses (both pre-slotted). They came stock on the basses (a geddy lee jazz and a highway one P). I will say that i like the way the BA feels under my hand if i'm palm muting. I haven't noticed a diff in how the strings feel in terms of "softness" etc...
I also have another P that had a bent bridge. I changed it out to a Gotoh 201B cuz the bent bridge saddle screws were digging into my hand a bit. the 201B aleviated this.

I like the BAs inasmuch as they feel good under my hand. I have not noticed any differences in sound or performance. I would not go out of my way to add one aftermarket- nor will i go out of my way to remove them as some would suggest doing. So I guess I am fairly neutral on the topic where most TBers i've noticed are fairly entrenched on one side of the BA fence or the other (like vs. dislike).

I guess to sum up - there is a decent argument to be made that if you feel that it improves your playing, then go for it. But there is an equally strong argument to be made that it's a fairly expensive add-on with perhaps marginal results.

 

The Badass that came with my P bass felt tighter, as if more tension was fighting my efforts to play. I know the string tension wasn't greater, but the perception of increased tautness was there. Disconcerting.
Swapped for a threaded saddle bent plate bridge, problem solved.

I also have two matching Ibanez 5 string basses, one with a stock bent-plate type, and one with a Kahler 7450 (7440?). Big difference in playing feel. The Kahler has a more precise, locked-down feel without the sensation of added tension, whereas the stock bridge feels loose and sloppy. Big reason I changed the other one in the first place, iirc.

 

But they aren't the same. Different cuts of wood. There's where your difference lies.

 

Both my highway 1 j's came with BA bridges and i've got a little MIM j with a babicz and a hound dog parts J made up of random Fender and Flender parts, sporting an L plate. I've also got an old US jazz plus that came with (I think) a Schaller QC machined bridge rather than the usual L plate.

Not being an expert, the way I've always though of the difference in feel between these basses when I play is the babicz feels more "planted" than the Jazz plus, which feels more "planted" than the highways 1's and they feel more "planted" than the hound dog with the L plate.

After reading the above I think a feeling of more string tension would be a more accurate description of the difference in feel between the bridges.

In any case, I much prefer the feel of more tension as I tend to get a death grip and rip going when I play up tempo stuff so I'm faster with less boo boos when using the babicz, shaller, or BA equipped than when using the L plate.

Could it be all in my head? Possible, there is a ton of odd crap percolating up there, but where the rubber meets the road, if I'm going to be racing to the end of the night, the MIM J or J plus is what goes with me.

 

Yep, break angle will affect the feel.

So will non-speaking length (mainly on guitars) with a trapeze style tailpiece. The extra string between the TP and bridge will also have an effect.

 

Care to explain how exactly this is possible? Two identical strings in the same scale length will have the same amount of tension if tuned to the same pitch in the same scale length. So how would anything between the tuners and nut, or between the saddles and tail piece have any effect on the speaking length of the string?

 

In theory, if you have sufficient afterlength, even though it can't affect the at-pitch tension it could affect the flexibility. The string could 'creep' back and forth over the bridge saddles while note bending etc.....seems plausible. The DB folks certainly believe it. Break angle? Not sure I buy that one.

 

No effect on open strings.

The more non-speaking length you have, the more potential slack (I made that up) there is to overcome. It's much more noticeabe when bending than when just fretting.

Take a Strat and put two high E strings on it, one for the high and one for the low. Tune them both to high E, and make sure the saddles are set up the same. The string in the low E position will feel a little tighter and be harder to bend. It's because once you start bending a string the non-speaking parts of the string come into play (this excludes locking nuts). The high E in the high E slot has more string between the nut and peg; that's more string to "give" when you bend, so you have to bend more to get the same change in pitch. Now take the high E out of the retainer and see what happens.

With a trapeze you have a lot of non-speaking string beyond the bridge. If you take a LP and a ES-125 with the same gauge strings AND the same break angle, the 125 will feel springier because of the extra non-speaking length of the strings. You'll have to bend the same note further on the 125 than the LP.

That might be a reason why a lot of jazz and hollow body players use heavier strings.

 

If you have access to a guitar with a LP style TOM and stop tailpiece, it's easy to try. All you have to do is raise and lower the TP and tune up. The higher the TP, the springier the feel, because of a softer break angle. The lower the TP, the stiffer the feel. And everything else is the same on the guitar.