KTS Titanium Bridge on my Jazz, ehh wow?!

I just checked out the bridge and it looks pretty cool. I'm a bike mechanic, and a lot of sweet parts for bicycles are made from titanium. Were you able to swap the bridges without any extra holes?

 

Not to rain on your parade, but if you are getting more fundamental and more volume in general this way, the most likely explanation is that you are unconsciously pressing the bass tighter to your ear. And/or plucking the string harder.

 

Titanium is about half the density (57%) of steel but it has similar strength. The only reason the bridge would sound different is because it's lighter.

 

You are totaly wrong here, sorry. Titanium absorbs vibrations extremely good, and that is one of the reasons it is used in aeroplane constructions. But mostly because it is very light and yet strong, as "ogrossman" wrote.

Oh no, wrong again. Titanium is less hard than steel, but has about as high strength as steel. Think of it as "the rubber of metals".

On a swedish bass forum there was a guy that said the same things as you do about his new titanium bridge. It was so awesome, and so on. But then he did an A/B comparsion and put up sound files for us to listen. And yes, as expected the titanium bridge did sound less good than the original. The top clarity was dampened out.

You are being fooled by your expectations [edit: that is what I believe, don't know]. Titanium is not some kind of miracle.

Edit: Hey, you are norwegian, you can read his thread! http://pratabas.se/viewtopic.php?t=2644
And the lot of you can listen to the clips in the first post and guess what is what.

 

Lets just say that I wan't people to know that titanium is theoretically NOT suitable for bridges. But if you are happy, you are happy!

...and remember that what you think you hear isn't always what you actually hear. ;-)

Well, lets hope that others think once again about ordering after having listened.

And your test is comparable? How can you compare without recording? There is no way that you could remember exactly how it sounded before compared to after.

 

I think you should give him the benefit of the doubt. He was probably trying to give constructive criticism.

It's not too late to record the bass now and then swap back to the old bridge and record it that way, right? Then you can tell for sure if you prefer the new bridge.

 

I'm sorry about that. You trust your ears, of course! But I really believe the KTS parts is just pure bogus. And I don't want people to waste their money, so I told my opinion on it, that's all. I'm sure you will have some company of others that share your experiences very soon.

Good night, I won't bother you more. Promise! Just remember that your ears don't tell the truth all the time.

 

I must say, I am intrigued by all this.
After listening to the clips, I too find that clip 2 sounds muddy,but maybe it just has more body to it,or it adds less to the sound of the wooden construction and given the differences in the clips, I find it hard to discern what's what.
I am not aware of any player that uses titanium bridges ( well Anthony Jackson does reputedly have a titanium bridge installed).
I would love to try it.
I also find it possible that titanium works well with some basses, and well against others....
I personally dislike what brass bridges seem to do...
I guess for azzyrazzy it does something he likes
I'd really love to check it out.

 

In bike frames titanium is praised for it's ability to absorb and dampen vibration. Aluminum and to a lesser extent steel are known for their ability to transfer vibration.

I do like the way that bridge looks though

 

Where can you get these bridges?

 

Interesting reading!
Pretty much the complete opposite to what has been said here before, isn't it?

Can anyone tell me of ONE first rate audio components company who actually do use titanium.

 

I'm not picking on you azzy just this crazy market speech. Isn't "stabilizes string vibration" what you get when you mute a string?

Also is this just the plate or are the saddles and screws titanium?

 

You weren't kidding, those are p-r-i-c-e-y!