Which bridge type/material?

[Systolic]

I know, it's been discussed to death, but always quite vaguely or generally, but we can keep it a little more focused this time. No need to even discuss the brand of the bass it's going on.

Tonal Goal:
Growling clarity. Think Billy Gould or Justin Chancellor. Zon and Wal respectively.

Bass Facts:
Mahogany Body
Maple Burl Top
One Piece Maple Neck
Rosewood Fretboard
35" Scale
Not 100% sure on the nut. Seems like Black TUSQ to me.
Current bridge is of the slightly chunkier (but still fairly light) bent metal variety.

So....with all that in mind:
Brass bridge or Aluminum Bridge or Other? Hipshot A style, or Hipshot B style, or Other

 

[Gorn]

The tonal qualities of this bridge or that are nonsense in my opinion but the hipshot A looks cool and has a lot of good adjustability.

 

[Razman]

IIRC the bridge on my custom is brass - it's heavy. I have a mahogany body, flame maple top, a block of rosewood under the bridge (mating the bridge to the mahogany and not the soft maple top), maple/rosewood 5pc. neck with ebony fretboard, brass nut, 34" scale, steel frets on an ebony board, and SS Kalium strings. It is the epitome of aggressive sound. Oh, Bart pups and NTMB preamp.

I just did a search and I have the "A" bridge. I had a US Masters bass once with a B bridge in aluminum 'cuz it was super light. Felt cheap but worked fine. I prefer the adjustability of the A bridge. Probably no difference. It had an EMG full system with sweepable mids, sounded great, but not a good comparison.

Hmm, guess I'll vote "A" style in brass...

Raz

 

[MCS4]

I've had a few basses with Hipshot A and B bridges (Carvins). My favorite bass has a Hipshot B-style in brass, so that's probably what I would go with if I were building a bass from scratch.

 

[Systolic]

The tonal qualities of this bridge or that are nonsense in my opinion but the hipshot A looks cool and has a lot of good adjustability.

Figured I'd get some of that, I added a poll option right up your alley. It's on the bottom.

 

[Gorn]

Figured I'd get some of that, I added a poll option right up your alley. It's on the bottom.

I don't think new bridges are a waste of money. Not necessarily. But the hipshot A looks cool and adjusts nicely. Those reasons make the bridge a winner for me.

 

[2saddleslab]

Brass.

 

[NoiseNinja]

I personally don't believe that a new bridge, no matter material, unless it is rubber or plastic or something similar that obviously would be a disaster anyway, will be able to change the tone of any bass fundamentally.

Actually my guess is the difference in tone you will get out of changing the bridge at best would be minor.

But if I'd have to come up with a guess, my guess would be brass.

I personally swapped the chrome colored stock aluminum bridge on my Ibanez Mikro with a cheap black Fender style bridge clone made of brass, but I did so mainly because I busted the slots of the intonation screws of two of the saddles in the stock one, trying to adjust them beyond their capability with a wrong sized screwdriver in an attempt to get intonation right.

Obviously the stock bridge was faulty either way, since the E saddle wasn't able to go far enough back until I cut the intonation screw shorter.

But point is, I didn't buy this bridge to get a better or different tone, I bought it because the old one was faulty, that this was the cheapest one I could get (what equals just about 12$ I think) and finally because it fitted the specs of the old one almost perfectly.

I did intentionally buy it in black though to match the color of my bass, but I didn't actually realize it was made of brass until I scratched the black surface, and I haven't noticed any major differences in tone quality.

To finish the story off, though it is rather off topic, this new cheap bridge did actually, beside no major tonal quality changes, turn out to be an improvement over the stock one, as even if it was cheaper than the cost of a genuine replacement bridge, it both seems sturdier, of better overall quality and has a much wider range of adjustment both when it comes to string action and intonation.

 

[big_fundamental]

Fender Vintage '58. Steel or something.

 

[5544]

Rotating your tone knob will do a lot more than changing the bridge ever will.

 

[Thumpin6string]

I've got an ABM on my 6. I believe it is brass, but I got it for the quality and adjustability.

 

[Systolic]

Ultimately I'm changing the bridge on this bass (MTD Kingston Z6) because I'm changing all the hardware to black, so the bridge is getting changed regardless, I just figured while I'm changing it, I should change it contribute towards my tonal goals, however small that contribution may be.