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What does a high mass bridge do?

#41
If you need to add weight at the bridge end and you’re ok with tools and some light metal fabrication add a brass block under the bridge. Bruce Johnson has some posts about it here in the LC as well as a couple of other builders who have done the same.

Basically, route out under the bridge and slightly smaller than the bridge to whatever depth you can get a brass block, you want the block to fit the route snugly. Epoxy the bock in place with good, marine epoxy, West Systems or Total Boat. Mark out the bridge mounting holes and drill and tap the brass for screws, probably 8-32 or the metric equivalent but check the size of your existing screws then mount the bridge with machine screws. Alternatively you could drill and tap the block before you glue it in but I’d feel better confirming the position of the bridge on the body first.
 
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#42
Hipshot makes two versions of it's Rickenbacker bridge, solid brass or aluminum. If there is any tone difference, I can't hear it, but the brass version is signifcantly heavier, which can throw an otherwise well balanced Ric slightly into body-heavy. That's a consideration with any High Mass bridge. If balance is an issue, you'll always get more bang/buck by adding or subtractiing weight out at the headstock, it's at the end of a long lever.
 
#43
S.F.Sorrow said:
It's also worth mentioning that with some high mass bridges you may need to shim the neck to be able to set up the bass properly (if the bass was originally designed for a "standard" bridge). While this is very easy to do with a bolt-on neck (preferably using a full pocket "wedge" shim) it is definitely something to be aware of with a set neck or a through body neck.
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I came in to comment this. I had this situation on a Fender semi-build. It was easy enough to rectify, but be aware that it may make it impossible to set your action correctly without a shim.
 
#45

What does a high mass bridge do?​


Psychologically, a high mass bridge can make us think that our bass sounds better.

Even though there is little if any difference in sound (to a bent plate).

Although some high mass bridges can make our basses look more attractive.

IMHO
 
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#46
The only thing I will say about high mass bridges.
I had a spector Rebop 5, very lightweight alder body. I was swapping between the stock lightweight aluminum bridge and a solid brass bridge which weighed probably 3-4x as much. The lighter bridge sounded better with the flat strings I had on it, less muddy, while the heavier bridge sounded deeper. Can't explain it but I was ABing the two and the difference is absolutely there.
Now getting a high mass bridge for XYZ tOaN reasons is just snake oil, but I will give stock to the idea that there is an appreciable difference one way or another.
 
#47
High mass bridges were originally sold on the idea of more sustain. OK, let's explore that.

A string starts with a certain amount if vibrational energy. If you want sustain, you want the energy to stay in the string - when someone tells you that a certain bridge couples the vibration into the body well (as if that's a good thing)....., they have no idea what they are talking about. For good sustain, you want both ends (there are 2) of the string to be attached to a rigid, massive termination. If you couple energy into anything effectively, it means the energy is leaving the string quickly, and you have...no sustain. The best example of energy being coupled into something really well is a dead spot - in that case, the neck steals energy very efficiently, and that's far from a good thing. I digress....sorry.

OK, so what do we have? On one end of the string, there is a big chunk of metal, which is bolted to a big, thick piece of wood (the body). On the other end, the string is held against a tiny strip of metal, which is anchored in a relatively thin piece of wood (the neck). The fret end of the string is where most of the losses come from - that end is not as solid as the bridge end in any solid bodied instrument. So, if you want more sustain, you should work on that end - there are more gains to be made from improving the end where most of the losses are. A thicker, stiffer, denser neck is what you really want if you want more sustain - those of us who have owned Kramer metal necked basses can attest that the sustain is ungodly.

A high mass bridge? Yes, technically it does something, but it's a marginal improvement at best. A high mass bridge is "fixing" the end of the string that.... doesn't really need fixing.

A high mass bridge does add weight, and luckily it's not at the end of the neck, but still, it's dead weight. If your bass has neck dive issues, tough, you want to work on lighting the neck (ultralite tuners are the first step), not make the body heavier.
 
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#48
I've just tried the bass with a weight clipped to the strap. Hey presto - balance! So neck dive happens when the weight on the front of your strap is more than the weight on the back of your strap by more than friction can hold back. Any balancing weight added needs to pull on the back of the strap and not the front, which is what I saw when moving the clamp around the body.

As for the mass of the bridge, it would seem to add inertia to the fixed end of the string. This would reduce the movement the body in response to the vibration of the string. It is analogous to adding mass to a wall to stop sound transmission through it. But if little energy from the string moves the body anyway, there's not much that adding mass could reduce.
 
#50
TheReceder said:
I put a high mass Fender bridge on my Affinity frankenbass.... that way if I ever get my dream car (an AMC Gremlin with a chevy 350), it would fit in.

I look at it as Bass jewelry that makes people go.... "Hmmm why"?
View attachment 7269961
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If you ever get that Gremlin, the 350 needs to be from the early,... '70s, stock. There's absolutely no reason to get caught dead in a Gremlin.
 
#51
smart51 said:
What does a high mass bridge actually do?
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Not much. Before Bass Player Magazine split off from Guitar Player magazine they did a shoot-out of the bridges of the day, including bolt-stock vintage Fender bridges, then-current production Fender bridges, the then-new brass bridges and other high-mass designs, all mounted on the same test mule. The general consensus was that given good wood, pickups, and strings, the bridge that had the best comparative tone and best sustain was the Fender vintage bolt-stock bridge. I have several basses, all with different bridges. They all have good wood and good electronics. Whether it be a bolt-stock bridge, a Hipshot steel plate with brass chrome-plated saddles, cheap Chinese replacement bridges, or Wilkinson, they all have great tone and sustain.
 
#57
96tbird said:
A Chevy 350? Bro, it’s 2025, we put LS 5.7s in hot rods now.
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Nah... I'm old school. 350, Holley 750 double pumper, rocker rollers, headers, Cherry bomb glass packs and a 3/4 cam. Everything I can work on and not have to worry about plugging in a computer.

Of course now I drive a minivan so I can haul gear..... Hmm... a minivan with a 426 hemi... that might be even better than the gremlin... with a 401.
 
#58
Bridges.

On the bass guitar, everything matters and none of it matters. Both are true. The main thing is that you play your parts well on the gig.

My wife tells me that each of my instruments sounds like a bass. She should know, having listened to them for the past 48 years. I can hear differences between them when playing; otherwise I wouldn’t have as many of them. Like one.

I suppose my point is to adapt your instrument so that you are comfortable playing it.

I believe Alembic started the whole tone block / high mass bridge thing. The idea suited their design philosophy of eliminating the wood in the body from influencing the tone. If you’ve played a few Alembics with the brass tone blocks, you get the idea.

Fender basses have a different vibe, which somewhat emphasizes the resonant characteristics of the body. So, putting some kind of “de-coupling” bridge on a Fender is a bit counter to the character of the instrument; but, each to their own. And, as I stated, the audience won’t notice.

I’ve recently been working with different HipShot bridges on several of my FSO basses. My personal decision was that they played best with either the original Fender bent plate steel bridge or the HipShot Aluminum B style, both of which are at lower end of the weight scale. The HipShot A bridges are beautifully designed bridges; but, they didn’t vibe as well in the Fender-ish sense. Also, in the weight department, the aluminum bridges are 4 - 5 oz lighter, which takes a load off the shoulder.

Regarding the OP topic of neck dive, the most effective solution I’ve found is that preferred by Roger @Sadowsky , and already posted, to use a suede backed strap. The torque is still there; but, the bass correctly sits in place, and the lighter weight is overall less fatiguing.

Good luck sorting things out.
 
#59
TheReceder said:
Nah... I'm old school. 350, Holley 750 double pumper, rocker rollers, headers, Cherry bomb glass packs and a 3/4 cam. Everything I can work on and not have to worry about plugging in a computer.

Of course now I drive a minivan so I can haul gear..... Hmm... a minivan with a 426 hemi... that might be even better than the gremlin... with a 401.
Click to expand...
And a distributor with points, a single ignition coil and an on/off switch.
 
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