This was probably the most thorough professional saddle comparison video I’ve seen, I prefer brass on my guitars and just by ear I preferred A especially the fingerpicking
On first listen I thought the *very first thing* I heard (Bridge A clean arpeggios) was noticeably warmer sounding compared to bridge B. And that colored my judgement for every other test (confirmation bias is real and nobody can escape it). BUT, your comment on *how you played* making a bigger difference prompted me to go back and listen again, trying to take performance into account. In the end, I agree with your conclusion and if my students ask me if they should change bridge or saddles, my answer will be "no" and I'll send them here to watch this video. Great work, and many thanks!
Nice! So many things to consider… But like I did specifically mention at the end that first arpeggio, between A And B… I did feel there was a clear difference Not just in performance but in the tone. And my characterization was the same as yours
Well, I will say this: if you’re changing to a drastically different design of saddle or bridge it will change the tone. Such as bent or solid saddles, three or six (or one, but now we’re getting crazy), ToM or hardtail… It’s gonna change. Will it be better or worse? 🤷♀️ I swapped my bent metal saddles for cheap solid brass (for the look largely) on my Squier Classic Vibe tele deluxe. Huge change. The high strings in particular ring out louder and less thin. Less sharp attack. But that’s a change from chintzy bent mystery metal with no string grooves to solid metal with string grooves. These new ones are so tight together side-to-side that they’re practically a single unit (has disadvantages). Wildly different items will sound wildly different. Who’da thunk it? I changed out the neck for aluminium last year. It sounds different. I prefer it. I’m certain that some people would despise the change. Steel bent saddles with string slots to brass bent saddles with string slots? Probably gonna sound slightly different, but will it be noticeable? Probably not. Give me ten minutes with a guitar and it’s gonna sound pretty similar to the last one I was playing, because my hands will work with my ears to get as close to my ideal as possible with what I have. LP through a rockerverb or an ASAT classic into a Blues Driver and a Classic 30, the biggest differences are gonna be presence, lowest lows and attack.
Thank you for this video. It's helped me decide which bridge to go with. To my ears, from brightest to darkest they were : B: Aluminum/Phosphor Bronze, A: All Brass, C: All Steel, D: Mystery Metal (Modified Mustang).
As a retired machinist, who has worked with/cut all of these metals, here's a potentially helpful comment. Phosphor bronze = brightest (used for bearings = hard), Steel a close second in brightness, & Brass warmest. I use brass on my B&E strings "if" the guitar is bright in the bridge. Then bright saddles on the next 4 GDAE strings. All of these metal vary considerably in hardness. So trust your ears. The names of these metals is only the ballpark that they belong to. Lastly, if it's made in China, none of it is to specification. The oilfield companies in Alberta accept ZERO Chinese steel, and neither should you.
Personally I am a fan of brass. But wow that phosphorus bronze rings like a bell. Wish they made a telecaster bridge out of phosphorus bronze. Or the block saddles. I'm sold
I've come to the conclusion that the best approach to get great tone on virtually any guitar, is the Zappa method, shut up and play.Thats where the real Holly grail of tone is at.
Johan Segeborn has a video comparing the original ABR1 1959 les paul bridge to the newer Nashville style bridge and the tone was very noticeably different. I thought there was no way it would matter but omg . Definitely wasn’t expecting that.
i think it's so subtle that any variation in your attack will swamp the signal, at least over youtube. in theory it should definitely make a difference. i would have expected a slightly bigger difference though
Im a mastery guy all the way. I have them on 2 jazzmasters and have no tuning issues at all. They are actually the most tuning stable of all my guitars and they dont have locking tuners. Also, both of mine are a floating/rocking bridge that moves with the trem system. Which one did you get? Im not sure why yours didnt move unless it wasnt set up right. Di you have a shim in the heel joint if the guitar increasing the neck angle? Thats an important aspect to getting a jazzmaster set up perfectly. I agree on the warmoth bridge, its a total waste of money.
Greta Video, really. To me, the brass bridge is warmer, and less clear, the other 3 sound alike, the steel bridge has more clarity. And this make me think: I have a Tele Mexico with steel bridge, the luthier tells me that I should upgrade to brass, but I'm very much afraid that I would loose clarity, which this video somehow confirms. I think I'll keep the steel bridge on my tele. Thank you very much!
Bridge C - excellent real life experiment and especially while trying to reduce confounding variables and recognising issues which might be introducing variable results - I loved the review style - subscribed !
Stopped listening after the Rumble on bridge C. IMO C is the winner here. B was a bit too bright for my liking, perhaps even the highs were too overpowering at moments. C was the one that was bright, with well defined lows and was overall balanced enough. Just my 2 cents
The phosphor bronze sounds has the most "Fender" twang to it! Yes it lacks bass but wow the clarity is amazing 😍. Nothing some EQ on the amp can't fix.
B was my favorite. A and C share the second place (C had a bit more going on in the treble, but also too much bass for me, hence it comes out even compared to A). D sounded a bit too muffled at times. But as you said, there are also some variations from playing.
Gary! Great video! I thought bridge C was the best all around. It had brightness on the highs and lows, and a solid mid - range. D had a strong low end presence that overshadowed the low and mid ranges. Saddles A and B sounded a bit more compressed; to my ear they had almost a hollow body sound. Great to see you discussing this because it focuses ones listening abilities, and gets us thinking about the nuances of playing. Best! Sp
On first listen and without hearing your commentary, I preferred the following in order: 3, 1, 2, 4 After listening to your follow up discussion, I realized I liked the tones from the heavier, more dense metals like steel and brass. This was very interesting. Thanks!
Cool! Thanks for sharing. I'm also leaning toward keeping the steel on this guitar, but I may experiment with putting the phosphor bronze saddles on the steel base which was suggested by Haris at Hallon! :D
For me, the advantage to brass is less the sound and more the feel. It seems to make my guitar a little more resonant, and gives the strings a little more stiffness almost, which is good since I pick very hard, and steel saddles always cause my harder strummed notes to go sharp
Milled brass or aluminium is the best, although steel is also a viable option with Fender-style bridges. It's not about tone as much as it is about weight (and looks, if the part isn't plated)
Thank you for this video. It is a serious subject about tone. I had a serious listening of your video with just the mobile phone speaker. I found exactly what was ABCD meaning there is are important impacts. A- it was directly the standard Fender tone and clarity, it was clearly the real Fender of my Brass tone and it was lovely. B was a bit more powerful l and distorted with a warmer tone, it has more character loosing but precision , it was just only the bronze which could do that. C was missing detail, higher in frequencies, and a bit loss of warmth, it was dirty it was clearly basic steel. D was darker than all others, as warm as Bronze B with an equivalent level to A Brass. I suposd it was mysterious metal. I would go personnally to A or B, I love Fender classic Brass appearance so I would go for Brass myself but B is a very good option too. Thank you for this video
Thank you very much for the demos. I've been looking at the Halon bridges and I was very curious how the different metals sounded. I couldn't have asked for more from a bridge demo. This definitely helps make a more imformed decision. I have a Halon "patanted" trem on order now. Halon products look high quality and well designed. Question: What are your thoughts on neck shims and the various sizes available? I have a Squire CV 70's JM I'm considering adding a neck shim too.
Interesting test. On thing, though, if the string grooves on the saddles are cut differently, it will alter the sound, as it will make the strings vibrate differently and produce different harmonics.
Amazing how much bridge and saddles can alter the fundamental tone.. brass and stainless steel sound full spectrum. Stainless brighter but not brittle, brass a touch more scooped in mids, haven't tried aluminum but probably neutral and warm.. bronze similar to brass.. can't remember who has more tin in content.. I did the exact same thing material wise with pucks I made and the initial attack is different with all the metals as far as picks go.. good video and thanks..
A sounds less clear B sounds much brighter and clearer C sound in between the first two D sounds to me like the difference you hear when you switch from a spruce acoustic guitar to a mahogany guitar. Its like a mix of warm hummy, slightly muddy low end, but still has some clear highs cutting through.
Silver, copper and aluminum are the best conductors of electricity. Don't think it would be very far fetched to assume they are best at conducting sound frequencies as well. Of course, pure copper or aluminum would be too soft. It would have to be an alloy of some kind. Brass (60% copper 40% tin), bronze (96% copper, 4%tin, probably why the phosphor bronze saddles have an aluminum base, for structural integrity) or some kind of aluminum alloy. Believe silver would be the best conductor of sound since it is the best conductor of electricity. Would be quiet a expensive bridge though? Some sort of silver alloy. imagine that 😮
Any of the 3,except the warmoth bridge. It's subjective to the individual guitar and player ,after playing for more than 50 years and swapping parts. Thanks Cheers
Very interesting! I thought there was clear consistent differences. 1 was rounder, 2 chimed, 3 was rich and full, 4 was quite like 2 but with less sweetness. I suspect I would not hear the difference between 2 and 4 tbh. If we did eq low mid high, 1 was --_, 2 was -_-, 3 was ---, 4 was -_-. I imagine 3 more useful. You were very lucky to be able to try this!
Well, I agree this is really a tough one and without doing an analysis, one will not know for sure and even then there is still variance. I personally thought that both A and D were a little bit more "chimey", but relatively similar. On the other hand B and C seemed more mid focused, with warmer tones but without really loosing in the highs. Maybe a tad more overtones there too. But the differences are really minute and sometimes not recognizable at all. But who knows what got lost in the recording in the end... 😅
My second time listening to this in a while. This time with some good headphones 🎧. Something about brass and bronze. At first listen it obviously sounds warmer. But after closer listening it is actually the higher frequencies that are more defined with brass and bronze. Especially brass. They seem to be fuller more rounder in the high frequencies. Where as with steel it seems like the low frequencies are more dominant. And the higher frequencies gets overshadowed. Kind of twist because the steel seems thingy and brass seems deeper. When in reality it's the brass and bronze that are accentuating the higher frequencies. Personally I use modern brass bridges and saddles on my Telecasters. Or any of my other guitars if I have a choice. Otherwise chrome plated metal will do.
Sometimes people use a picking machine and look at it on the computer to isolate the material from differences in playing technique. I couldn't tell any difference that I couldn't think was small differences in playing.
While there are minor/subtle differences between the bridges in your comparison, the only clear tonic differences I could identify were from the initial sample set of strums, where C was brighter and more clear. Likely my choice for that particular guitar. B did in some segments appear to sustain a bit more and perhaps better suited for a Les Paul style guitar. For rigs running amp sims/effects or active pickups, none of these would make a difference other than some "feel good" for the owner. Also worth noting here (basically for all tone/amp/effect demos) is that RUclips audio is compressed/lossy for all videos it receives. There may be more audible differences apparent on lossless samples uploaded to Soundcloud or Soundclick.
B seemed to scoop the mids (or maybe boost the lower strings) at least to my ear. Very cool exercise. New to the channel looking forward to getting to watch your content.
Thanks for this comparison. Admittedly, I'm new to your channel. Did you ever come to a stronger opinion about these materials that you can share? I've always found that I prefer the bell-like overtones of brass, but I was surprised that I had that as the third option in my blind rankings with the phosphor first and the steel second. So I'm wondering if that's accurate despite being in contrast to my previous experience or if the subtleties of brass that I enjoy in-person just don't translate through RUclips compression and lower quality audio.
A and D sounded the most even. Almost "mellow". B sounded the brightest. I liked A and D the most. It's no surprise that the most popular bridge metals used in production guitars over the years would sound "best".
opening strums: b has a low-mid bump, c has mid-scoop, d has high-end rolloff. a is flatter. (just listening through terrible laptop speakers) listening with etymotic er3 se iems, string separation: d < b < a < c; a wins overall for me! one of those chord changes in the finger style sections remind me of 'kiss me more' (doja cat) :D
I think the difference going from brass to phosphorus bronze on the neck pickup could be due to how hard you were picking the strings? Cos I noticed the output was a tad louder with the bronze. I think the brass isn't less clear, it just has its own unique mojo when played clean, something which you also felt. Its surprising because I hate how harsh brass sounds when used for guitar nuts - harsh, metallic and cold. But used in saddles, I'm like .. wow. I wonder why!
C and D both had a nasaly component I didn't like B is brighter not nasal A is good not bright not nasal Have to do tests w/dirt pedals) id B isn't too thin, that's what I'd go for. If it is thin, then A Did not like C or D near as much
there isn't enough difference in the bridge to worry about....the biggest thing I noticed is youe nut may be off on the top string...in the first fret it sounded sharp on every bridge
It’s not - I have it rotated to go left/right, not up and down because when it was Up and down I’d always hit it while strumming… So if you look closely it is shifted towards the right, toward the bridge.
I felt the difference and is not quite important Brdige A was the brightest of them all, you can hear the treble notes a little bit more. C and D were like very dark and bassy sound, to my taste. B was meh... You can totally hear this at the arpeggios with both bridge and neck pickup. Now now... when it came to distor, i could not actually see a difference between one and another, all of them sound the same. Would I stop my self more than 5 minutes to think about the next material for my bridge? to be honest... I'll care more for the asthetic of the bridge itself here comes the BUT: I've seen many many comps and I've seen a veeeery subtle change when it comes to bridges... they tend to have a little bit more sustain when they have more mass on the bridge, but is like 4 or 5 seconds more of sustain, is not like a huge deal, considering there are actually pickups like sustaniac, that can actually give you this huge sustain thing. Electrical guitars wont suffer as much as acoustic guitars when it comes to sound, most of the magic is on the pups, the amp and even the size of the speakers, rather than the guitar components itself.
One thing is clear: Bridges turn out to be FAR more significant than which hardwood you choose. And definitely more important than which lacquer you choose, which is complete BS. No, between this, stainless steel frets, a dense nout, and a tone claw, you are taking about maximum sustain and maximum output, maximum transfer of vibration. B was brightest, D was the worst. I would need to hear my play style and electronics on B, because it was very bright even in your video, but I think it might not sound so good if the guitar was hit with the attack I tend to use, as well as the less warm tone due to a more typical pot resistance value.
You forgot the high gain scooped death metal tones man. Thats like closing the store and blocking off the parking lot for a hockey game... but no free drinks!
Honestly, I can't really tel the difference. I'm sure that there would be a significant difference if you looked a the sound wave on a computer, but not in a million years are you going to notice the difference in a mix.
To add to that give a let's say Gibson 59 Les Paul into the hands of a beginner intermediate player, then hand it over to I don't Know Joe Bonamassa and tell me where The Moho tone is at with the exact same guitar. Case closed.
![Twenty One Pilots - The Line (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XCz7WUotXs8/mqdefault.jpg)
This was probably the most thorough professional saddle comparison video I’ve seen, I prefer brass on my guitars and just by ear I preferred A especially the fingerpicking
I got spot on on all:
A had a deep low resonance that made me think of brass, B was honky (aluminum), C clarious with extened bass and highs (steel).
On first listen I thought the *very first thing* I heard (Bridge A clean arpeggios) was noticeably warmer sounding compared to bridge B. And that colored my judgement for every other test (confirmation bias is real and nobody can escape it). BUT, your comment on *how you played* making a bigger difference prompted me to go back and listen again, trying to take performance into account. In the end, I agree with your conclusion and if my students ask me if they should change bridge or saddles, my answer will be "no" and I'll send them here to watch this video. Great work, and many thanks!
Nice! So many things to consider… But like I did specifically mention at the end that first arpeggio, between A And B… I did feel there was a clear difference Not just in performance but in the tone. And my characterization was the same as yours
i d say that you should first check this one too...ruclips.net/video/9GOSVu-NeAQ/видео.html
Well, I will say this: if you’re changing to a drastically different design of saddle or bridge it will change the tone. Such as bent or solid saddles, three or six (or one, but now we’re getting crazy), ToM or hardtail… It’s gonna change.
Will it be better or worse? 🤷♀️
I swapped my bent metal saddles for cheap solid brass (for the look largely) on my Squier Classic Vibe tele deluxe. Huge change. The high strings in particular ring out louder and less thin. Less sharp attack.
But that’s a change from chintzy bent mystery metal with no string grooves to solid metal with string grooves. These new ones are so tight together side-to-side that they’re practically a single unit (has disadvantages).
Wildly different items will sound wildly different. Who’da thunk it?
I changed out the neck for aluminium last year. It sounds different. I prefer it. I’m certain that some people would despise the change.
Steel bent saddles with string slots to brass bent saddles with string slots? Probably gonna sound slightly different, but will it be noticeable? Probably not.
Give me ten minutes with a guitar and it’s gonna sound pretty similar to the last one I was playing, because my hands will work with my ears to get as close to my ideal as possible with what I have.
LP through a rockerverb or an ASAT classic into a Blues Driver and a Classic 30, the biggest differences are gonna be presence, lowest lows and attack.
Thank you for this video. It's helped me decide which bridge to go with. To my ears, from brightest to darkest they were : B: Aluminum/Phosphor Bronze, A: All Brass, C: All Steel, D: Mystery Metal (Modified Mustang).
That is such a cool guitar. You just costed me a good bit of money by showing me that. Damn it!!
For me И and mostly С were preferred type of tone. "С" has nice 3d complex tone.
Bridge C to my ear. Good job.
As a retired machinist, who has worked with/cut all of these metals, here's a potentially helpful comment. Phosphor bronze = brightest (used for bearings = hard), Steel a close second in brightness, & Brass warmest. I use brass on my B&E strings "if" the guitar is bright in the bridge. Then bright saddles on the next 4 GDAE strings. All of these metal vary considerably in hardness. So trust your ears. The names of these metals is only the ballpark that they belong to. Lastly, if it's made in China, none of it is to specification. The oilfield companies in Alberta accept ZERO Chinese steel, and neither should you.
Harder saddles will also be less likely to be cut into by strings. I use Brass saddles on the thinner plain strings too.
Personally I am a fan of brass. But wow that phosphorus bronze rings like a bell. Wish they made a telecaster bridge out of phosphorus bronze. Or the block saddles. I'm sold
Is the hardness of metal really the variable when it comes to transferal of sound frequency?
Here's the time stamps! Let me know which bridge you liked the best, and why!
CHAPTERS:
Lesson Intro & About the Bridges and Testing Method: 0:00
Bridge A Clean Arpeggios Neck Pickup: 6:27
Bridge B Clean Arpeggios Neck Pickup: 6:54
Bridge C Clean Arpeggios Neck Pickup: 7:20
Bridge D Clean Arpeggios Neck Pickup: 7:46
Bridge A Clean Pentatonic Scale Neck Pickup: 8:12
Bridge B Clean Pentatonic Scale Neck Pickup: 8:22
Bridge C Clean Pentatonic Scale Neck Pickup: 8:33
Bridge D Clean Pentatonic Scale Neck Pickup: 8:43
Bridge A Clean Strumming Neck Pickup: 8:53
Bridge B Clean Strumming Neck Pickup: 9:20
Bridge C Clean Strumming Neck Pickup: 9:46
Bridge D Clean Strumming Neck Pickup: 10:13
Bridge A Clean Fingerstyle Neck Pickup: 10:38
Bridge B Clean Fingerstyle Neck Pickup: 11:15
Bridge C Clean Fingerstyle Neck Pickup: 11:52
Bridge D Clean Fingerstyle Neck Pickup: 12:29
Bridge A Overdrive Chords & Riff Bridge Pickup: 13:06
Bridge B Overdrive Chords & Riff Bridge Pickup: 13:34
Bridge C Overdrive Chords & Riff Bridge Pickup: 14:01
Bridge D Overdrive Chords & Riff Bridge Pickup: 14:30
BIG REVEAL, Review of Examples, Summary and Thoughts: 14:58
Sorry, which is the C bridge material?
21:04 this is where that kitchen scale would come in handy ❤
Great video. I definitely hear some more pronounced overtones when the chords ring out with B and C.
I've come to the conclusion that the best approach to get great tone on virtually any guitar, is the Zappa method, shut up and play.Thats where the real Holly grail of tone is at.
that's where the vast majority of it is for sure! :D
Outstanding comparison!
Johan Segeborn has a video comparing the original ABR1 1959 les paul bridge to the newer Nashville style bridge and the tone was very noticeably different. I thought there was no way it would matter but omg . Definitely wasn’t expecting that.
i think it's so subtle that any variation in your attack will swamp the signal, at least over youtube. in theory it should definitely make a difference. i would have expected a slightly bigger difference though
Im a mastery guy all the way. I have them on 2 jazzmasters and have no tuning issues at all. They are actually the most tuning stable of all my guitars and they dont have locking tuners. Also, both of mine are a floating/rocking bridge that moves with the trem system. Which one did you get? Im not sure why yours didnt move unless it wasnt set up right. Di you have a shim in the heel joint if the guitar increasing the neck angle? Thats an important aspect to getting a jazzmaster set up perfectly.
I agree on the warmoth bridge, its a total waste of money.
Greta Video, really. To me, the brass bridge is warmer, and less clear, the other 3 sound alike, the steel bridge has more clarity. And this make me think: I have a Tele Mexico with steel bridge, the luthier tells me that I should upgrade to brass, but I'm very much afraid that I would loose clarity, which this video somehow confirms. I think I'll keep the steel bridge on my tele. Thank you very much!
Best channel I have found, thank you. I enjoy this type of analysis so very much.
Bridge C - excellent real life experiment and especially while trying to reduce confounding variables and recognising issues which might be introducing variable results - I loved the review style - subscribed !
Haris is a cool guy! He used to make my precision luthier tools (back when GMI existed)! I need to buy a new bridge for my Vintera Jag. Victor...
Stopped listening after the Rumble on bridge C. IMO C is the winner here. B was a bit too bright for my liking, perhaps even the highs were too overpowering at moments. C was the one that was bright, with well defined lows and was overall balanced enough.
Just my 2 cents
The phosphor bronze sounds has the most "Fender" twang to it! Yes it lacks bass but wow the clarity is amazing 😍. Nothing some EQ on the amp can't fix.
B was my favorite. A and C share the second place (C had a bit more going on in the treble, but also too much bass for me, hence it comes out even compared to A). D sounded a bit too muffled at times. But as you said, there are also some variations from playing.
Gary! Great video! I thought bridge C was the best all around. It had brightness on the highs and lows, and a solid mid - range. D had a strong low end presence that overshadowed the low and mid ranges. Saddles A and B sounded a bit more compressed; to my ear they had almost a hollow body sound. Great to see you discussing this because it focuses ones listening abilities, and gets us thinking about the nuances of playing. Best! Sp
thanks Steven! Interestingly, everyone so far who has commented has preferred bridge C.
Link Wray for the win! 😉
Absolutely!
Surprisingly educational. The 7 arpeggios were really interesting. Loved the warm overtones generated by b, c, d, with a preference for d.
On first listen and without hearing your commentary, I preferred the following in order: 3, 1, 2, 4
After listening to your follow up discussion, I realized I liked the tones from the heavier, more dense metals like steel and brass. This was very interesting. Thanks!
Cool! Thanks for sharing. I'm also leaning toward keeping the steel on this guitar, but I may experiment with putting the phosphor bronze saddles on the steel base which was suggested by Haris at Hallon! :D
For me, the advantage to brass is less the sound and more the feel. It seems to make my guitar a little more resonant, and gives the strings a little more stiffness almost, which is good since I pick very hard, and steel saddles always cause my harder strummed notes to go sharp
Nonsense
@@musikus7092 You can call it nonsense all you want but this has happened on every guitar I've put brass on, so it's not nonsense to me
Milled brass or aluminium is the best, although steel is also a viable option with Fender-style bridges. It's not about tone as much as it is about weight (and looks, if the part isn't plated)
Thank you for this video.
It is a serious subject about tone.
I had a serious listening of your video with just the mobile phone speaker.
I found exactly what was ABCD meaning there is are important impacts.
A- it was directly the standard Fender tone and clarity, it was clearly the real Fender of my Brass tone and it was lovely.
B was a bit more powerful l and distorted with a warmer tone, it has more character loosing but precision , it was just only the bronze which could do that.
C was missing detail, higher in frequencies, and a bit loss of warmth, it was dirty it was clearly basic steel.
D was darker than all others, as warm as Bronze B with an equivalent level to A Brass. I suposd it was mysterious metal.
I would go personnally to A or B, I love Fender classic Brass appearance so I would go for Brass myself but B is a very good option too.
Thank you for this video
Thank you very much for the demos. I've been looking at the Halon bridges and I was very curious how the different metals sounded. I couldn't have asked for more from a bridge demo. This definitely helps make a more imformed decision. I have a Halon "patanted" trem on order now. Halon products look high quality and well designed.
Question: What are your thoughts on neck shims and the various sizes available? I have a Squire CV 70's JM I'm considering adding a neck shim too.
I like C. It's bright and deep.
Excerlent; thank you for this - I was sure brass would sound the best but.....
In order, I liked B, C, D, A. My guesses would be Al/Bronze, Steel, Brass, Cheap metal.
I thought that the B was the best to my ears. A and C where close to B but B was the best
Interesting test. On thing, though, if the string grooves on the saddles are cut differently, it will alter the sound, as it will make the strings vibrate differently and produce different harmonics.
Amazing how much bridge and saddles can alter the fundamental tone.. brass and stainless steel sound full spectrum. Stainless brighter but not brittle, brass a touch more scooped in mids, haven't tried aluminum but probably neutral and warm.. bronze similar to brass.. can't remember who has more tin in content.. I did the exact same thing material wise with pucks I made and the initial attack is different with all the metals as far as picks go.. good video and thanks..
A sounds less clear
B sounds much brighter and clearer
C sound in between the first two
D sounds to me like the difference you hear when you switch from a spruce acoustic guitar to a mahogany guitar. Its like a mix of warm hummy, slightly muddy low end, but still has some clear highs cutting through.
Copper saddles and guitar strings are interesting to hear and watch
Silver, copper and aluminum are the best conductors of electricity. Don't think it would be very far fetched to assume they are best at conducting sound frequencies as well. Of course, pure copper or aluminum would be too soft. It would have to be an alloy of some kind. Brass (60% copper 40% tin), bronze (96% copper, 4%tin, probably why the phosphor bronze saddles have an aluminum base, for structural integrity) or some kind of aluminum alloy. Believe silver would be the best conductor of sound since it is the best conductor of electricity. Would be quiet a expensive bridge though? Some sort of silver alloy. imagine that 😮
Any of the 3,except the warmoth bridge. It's subjective to the individual guitar and player ,after playing for more than 50 years and swapping parts. Thanks Cheers
Very interesting! I thought there was clear consistent differences. 1 was rounder, 2 chimed, 3 was rich and full, 4 was quite like 2 but with less sweetness. I suspect I would not hear the difference between 2 and 4 tbh. If we did eq low mid high, 1 was --_, 2 was -_-, 3 was ---, 4 was -_-. I imagine 3 more useful. You were very lucky to be able to try this!
Well, I agree this is really a tough one and without doing an analysis, one will not know for sure and even then there is still variance.
I personally thought that both A and D were a little bit more "chimey", but relatively similar. On the other hand B and C seemed more mid focused, with warmer
tones but without really loosing in the highs. Maybe a tad more overtones there too. But the differences are really minute and sometimes not recognizable at all.
But who knows what got lost in the recording in the end... 😅
My second time listening to this in a while. This time with some good headphones 🎧. Something about brass and bronze. At first listen it obviously sounds warmer. But after closer listening it is actually the higher frequencies that are more defined with brass and bronze. Especially brass. They seem to be fuller more rounder in the high frequencies. Where as with steel it seems like the low frequencies are more dominant. And the higher frequencies gets overshadowed. Kind of twist because the steel seems thingy and brass seems deeper. When in reality it's the brass and bronze that are accentuating the higher frequencies. Personally I use modern brass bridges and saddles on my Telecasters. Or any of my other guitars if I have a choice. Otherwise chrome plated metal will do.
I hear more frequency balance in A .
D sound a little bit more weak end dull
Good comparison. interesting !
4:15 omg this doggo is so cute
Sometimes people use a picking machine and look at it on the computer to isolate the material from differences in playing technique. I couldn't tell any difference that I couldn't think was small differences in playing.
While there are minor/subtle differences between the bridges in your comparison, the only clear tonic differences I could identify were from the initial sample set of strums, where C was brighter and more clear. Likely my choice for that particular guitar. B did in some segments appear to sustain a bit more and perhaps better suited for a Les Paul style guitar. For rigs running amp sims/effects or active pickups, none of these would make a difference other than some "feel good" for the owner. Also worth noting here (basically for all tone/amp/effect demos) is that RUclips audio is compressed/lossy for all videos it receives. There may be more audible differences apparent on lossless samples uploaded to Soundcloud or Soundclick.
B seemed to scoop the mids (or maybe boost the lower strings) at least to my ear. Very cool exercise. New to the channel looking forward to getting to watch your content.
Thanks for this comparison. Admittedly, I'm new to your channel. Did you ever come to a stronger opinion about these materials that you can share?
I've always found that I prefer the bell-like overtones of brass, but I was surprised that I had that as the third option in my blind rankings with the phosphor first and the steel second. So I'm wondering if that's accurate despite being in contrast to my previous experience or if the subtleties of brass that I enjoy in-person just don't translate through RUclips compression and lower quality audio.
B was different in solo finger style. The melody sounded very musical. But it might been the playing too.
C did it for me
My pick was C hands down followed by B
Great video! But now I am confused, I don’t know which one I want in my Fender CS 65 RI Jaguar. Which one did you keep? Also: rocking or non rocking?
A and D sounded the most even. Almost "mellow". B sounded the brightest. I liked A and D the most. It's no surprise that the most popular bridge metals used in production guitars over the years would sound "best".
B was the best. What material?
For me right off the bat The Phosphor Bronze
I would go with A, especially on overdriven tones. B and C also sounded great. To me D sounded clearly the worst on all samples!
Not yet available in their web site?
If you message them they can make it available for you - but they are not yet making them at scale to put on the website from my understanding.
opening strums: b has a low-mid bump, c has mid-scoop, d has high-end rolloff. a is flatter. (just listening through terrible laptop speakers)
listening with etymotic er3 se iems, string separation: d < b < a < c; a wins overall for me!
one of those chord changes in the finger style sections remind me of 'kiss me more' (doja cat) :D
Steel! And some people say it's a tone killer.
Steel and brass both rock
I think the difference going from brass to phosphorus bronze on the neck pickup could be due to how hard you were picking the strings? Cos I noticed the output was a tad louder with the bronze. I think the brass isn't less clear, it just has its own unique mojo when played clean, something which you also felt. Its surprising because I hate how harsh brass sounds when used for guitar nuts - harsh, metallic and cold. But used in saddles, I'm like .. wow. I wonder why!
1=B
2=A
3=C
4=D
The DOGGO had to see what's happenin' 😂😂😂
C and D both had a nasaly component I didn't like
B is brighter not nasal
A is good not bright not nasal
Have to do tests w/dirt pedals) id B isn't too thin, that's what I'd go for. If it is thin, then A
Did not like C or D near as much
there isn't enough difference in the bridge to worry about....the biggest thing I noticed is youe nut may be off on the top string...in the first fret it sounded sharp on every bridge
WHY IS THE PICKUP SWITCH IN THE MIDDLE POSITION WHEN YOU'RE SHOWCASING THE BRIDGE PICKUP?
It’s not - I have it rotated to go left/right, not up and down because when it was Up and down I’d always hit it while strumming… So if you look closely it is shifted towards the right, toward the bridge.
The brass one
B
brass was best. the order of preference was abcd.
I felt the difference and is not quite important
Brdige A was the brightest of them all, you can hear the treble notes a little bit more.
C and D were like very dark and bassy sound, to my taste.
B was meh...
You can totally hear this at the arpeggios with both bridge and neck pickup.
Now now... when it came to distor, i could not actually see a difference between one and another, all of them sound the same.
Would I stop my self more than 5 minutes to think about the next material for my bridge? to be honest... I'll care more for the asthetic of the bridge itself
here comes the BUT: I've seen many many comps and I've seen a veeeery subtle change when it comes to bridges... they tend to have a little bit more sustain when they have more mass on the bridge, but is like 4 or 5 seconds more of sustain, is not like a huge deal, considering there are actually pickups like sustaniac, that can actually give you this huge sustain thing.
Electrical guitars wont suffer as much as acoustic guitars when it comes to sound, most of the magic is on the pups, the amp and even the size of the speakers, rather than the guitar components itself.
A and D have similarities I think anyways . Probably wrong but A brass D steel?? C mystery metal.? LoL I probably got it all wrong 😁
Original mistery win
One thing is clear:
Bridges turn out to be FAR more significant than which hardwood you choose. And definitely more important than which lacquer you choose, which is complete BS. No, between this, stainless steel frets, a dense nout, and a tone claw, you are taking about maximum sustain and maximum output, maximum transfer of vibration.
B was brightest, D was the worst. I would need to hear my play style and electronics on B, because it was very bright even in your video, but I think it might not sound so good if the guitar was hit with the attack I tend to use, as well as the less warm tone due to a more typical pot resistance value.
For me B sounds best…
You forgot the high gain scooped death metal tones man. Thats like closing the store and blocking off the parking lot for a hockey game... but no free drinks!
A1 B2 D3 C4
Honestly, I can't really tel the difference. I'm sure that there would be a significant difference if you looked a the sound wave on a computer, but not in a million years are you going to notice the difference in a mix.
Brass and steel,.. a day late and dollar short lol
Lol bass I got right at least..
no difference - any tone difference is purely visual. 🙂
To add to that give a let's say Gibson 59 Les Paul into the hands of a beginner intermediate player, then hand it over to I don't Know Joe Bonamassa and tell me where The Moho tone is at with the exact same guitar. Case closed.
I am late to this video, but I can tell you strummed slightly harder with the phosphor bronze than you did with the brass.