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Ray Ross Bridges

I understand man - I’m just replying because I’ve been the one who’s had a real life experience with one. Not trying to belittle your experience in any way - glad you’ve played for a long time too, you can understand where I’m coming from - of course I’m not saying that technique can not change frequencies. I am saying that in my case this wasn’t the cause of difference and I’m 100% sure about it. That’s all.

Gotcha. Fair enough. :thumbsup:
 
Well I have a project bass I think I will try one out on .


As per the other video posted, I could hear a little more high overtones with the Ray Ross bridge. The difference though is minor and would generally disappear in a band mix. Certainly not enough difference to make me spend so much money on a replacement bridge but I wouldn't avoid a bass that already had this bridge on it.
 
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If your bridge is broken, or doesn’t allow for adjustment to better suit the pickups or your playing style, then a new bridge is a good purchase. If those things aren’t issues, then spending money on a bridge to improve your sound is kinda silly, IMO. You might be looking for hardware to do what your lack of skill isn’t accomplishing.
 
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If your bridge is broken, or doesn’t allow for adjustment to better suit the pickups or your playing style, then a new bridge is a good purchase. If those things aren’t issues, then spending money on a bridge to improve your sound is kinda silly, IMO. You might be looking for hardware to do what your lack of skill isn’t accomplishing.

With that logic everyone would play $50 bass and should sound amazing, if their skill set is amazing...

Instruments, amps and hardware should allow you to express yourself closest to what you’ve got in your mind and if that means a different bass, bridge, strings, nut, cable or whatever really makes you sound better and feel more comfortable with the results, then you should do it.
 
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With that logic everyone would play $50 bass and should sound amazing, if their skill set is amazing...

Instruments, amps and hardware should allow you to express yourself closest to what you’ve got in your mind and if that means a different bass, bridge, strings, nut, cable or whatever really makes you sound better and feel more comfortable with the results, then you should do it.
I don’t disagree that amazingly skilled bass players can make a $50 bass sound amazing. Some of those people spend more money on basses and parts than other people. That’s capitalism. That’s not really an argument against my point. And I won’t argue against a new part making someone more comfortable. I still don’t think a bridge will make a bass sound better if the original isn’t broken. But it’s not my money and people can do and think what they want.
 
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I don’t disagree that amazingly skilled bass players can make a $50 bass sound amazing. Some of those people spend more money on basses and parts than other people. That’s capitalism. That’s not really an argument against my point. And I won’t argue against a new part making someone more comfortable. I still don’t think a bridge will make a bass sound better if the original isn’t broken. But it’s not my money and people can do and think what they want.

Yeah man even the best race driver would have better results in a crap car than 99% of the other people but put him in a race car and he’d fly.

However allow me to disagree on “thinking” without “trying” philosophy approach. I’ve tried and mine sound better to me. Nothing was broken, but you can’t deny a path of improvement of the hardware we use just because the old one isn’t broken ;)
 
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Yeah man even the best race driver would have better results in a crap car than 99% of the other people but put him in a race car and he’d fly.

However allow me to disagree on “thinking” without “trying” philosophy approach. I’ve tried and mine sound better to me. Nothing was broken, but you can’t deny a path of improvement of the hardware we use just because the old one isn’t broken ;)
You’re drawling conclusions and making implications based on things I haven’t said and I’m really not interested in correcting you.
 
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You’re drawling conclusions and making implications based on things I haven’t said and I’m really not interested in correcting you.


I don’t see what’s there to correct.
Your words: “I don’t think a bridge will make a bass sound better if the original isn’t broken” - that in my opinion is a wrong statement, just because you think something can’t improve the sound, without having tried, doesn’t mean that my argument against it is wrong. Take a generic bass made with cheap hardware - you can improve its sound by replacing most of its hardware, and that is a well known fact.

Please correct me if I’ve somehow misinterpreted your statement - I’m not arguing for the sake of the argument, I just think you can improve or change bass sound with different hardware.
 
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Take a generic bass made with cheap hardware - you can improve its sound by replacing most of its hardware, and that is a well known fact.
Not in my experience. I've had generic/cheap basses that I have played for for months and then changed the bridges, tuners, and in one case a neck plate, (because I felt it wasn't up to the job), and didn't experience much in the way of any improvement in sound. It wasn't until I changed the pickups and electronics that I experienced any significant improvement in sound. YMMV.
 
To be fair that’s a paraphrase of what @Gorn said, and not an entirely accurate paraphrase at that.


Umm... I feel a bit dumb. Can you please help me understand?

83720120-495A-4399-A7CA-9ABD4182EE3F.jpeg


That’s a screenshot of his post.
Thanks
 
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Not in my experience. I've had generic/cheap basses that I have played for for months and then changed the bridges, tuners, and in one case a neck plate, (because I felt it wasn't up to the job), and didn't experience much in the way of any improvement in sound. It wasn't until I changed the pickups and electronics that I experienced any significant improvement in sound. YMMV.

if you’ve tried and it did nothing for you, I’m happy to accept your view on it.

I’ve tried changing many things throughout the years and some worked out great, others didn’t make any difference at all, or made one that wasn’t in the direction I wanted to go in.

However my point here is that finding the perfect sound for YOU comes from trying things and finding out which ones work for YOU and improve your sound, and along the path you find others that don’t... that’s normal. However saying that it’s pointless to upgrade/change unless something is broken (as I understood it) is incorrect in my opinion. How are you ever supposed to discover which strings suit your style better, which nut rings sweeter to your ears, and so on and on..?
 
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Umm... I feel a bit dumb. Can you please help me understand?

View attachment 4098677

That’s a screenshot of his post.
Thanks
You're right, my mistake. I thought you were paraphrasing from this post:

If your bridge is broken, or doesn’t allow for adjustment to better suit the pickups or your playing style, then a new bridge is a good purchase. If those things aren’t issues, then spending money on a bridge to improve your sound is kinda silly, IMO.
 
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Umm... I feel a bit dumb. Can you please help me understand?

View attachment 4098677

That’s a screenshot of his post.
Thanks
I stand by what I said. I don’t think a bridge will make a bass sound better if the original works. Now if the process of installing the new bridge means a thorough set up and maybe new strings and maybe some fret or nut work that’s part of the process, maybe the bass will sound better. But that’s not because of the new bridge.
 
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