Hello,

As far as tone and sustain are concerned I mean.  I have already
noticed much improvement  from changing a stock MIM tele bridge to a
Gotoh, but I don't really know why.
Now I plan to build a LP out of a Warmoth kit and I read on the
Callaham site that Gibson bridges being made of zinc are not the best.
Help !
Thanks.
JP

cé@parici.com (JPTl) wrote in news:4aae9b6d.5280828@news.wanadoo.fr:

> Hello,
> 
> As far as tone and sustain are concerned I mean.  I have already
> noticed much improvement  from changing a stock MIM tele bridge to a
> Gotoh, but I don't really know why.
> Now I plan to build a LP out of a Warmoth kit and I read on the
> Callaham site that Gibson bridges being made of zinc are not the best.

They're made of plated aluminium alloy - as are some PRS bridges. AIUI the
saddles themselves are made of steel.

On Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:06:14 +0000 (UTC), soupdragon 
wrote:

>cé@parici.com (JPTl) wrote in news:4aae9b6d.5280828@news.wanadoo.fr:
>
>> Hello,
>> 
>> As far as tone and sustain are concerned I mean.  I have already
>> noticed much improvement  from changing a stock MIM tele bridge to a
>> Gotoh, but I don't really know why.
>> Now I plan to build a LP out of a Warmoth kit and I read on the
>> Callaham site that Gibson bridges being made of zinc are not the best.
>
>They're made of plated aluminium alloy - as are some PRS bridges. AIUI the
>saddles themselves are made of steel.

That's a bit like asking 'How long is a piece of string?'. Depends
what tone you're after. Both my electrics (the one's I play most at
any rate) have Wilkinson trems on them and I've no idea what the
bridges are made of (there's so many bits - the crews on the top look
like they're black Japanned)  but I used to like the old brass bridges
that people used in the '60's. Depends how much sustain you want, I
guess.

Like all bridges, it's a toss up between intonation and tone. The
brass ones I mentioned were common on things like old Hohners,
Gretch's and so-on, then Gibson came up with the Tune-O-matic (with
plastic over the steel) and they were so successful (because of the
almost infinite variability for compensation - unlike the split
bone/plastic bridges you find on acoustics) virtually everyone
(including Fender) uses a variation on the adjustable bridge these
days, so it's quite hard to find one which is just a piece of metal
with gooves in it for the strings.

Which of course lessens the opportunity for increased sustain and
harmonic response. In a perfect world, (and certainly for an LP) I'd
go for cast brass and make sure that whoever cut the string grooves in
it really knew what they were doing.

But then, the kids have been home for the weekend so I haven't got
much of a clue about anything this evening..:-)

Pete

"JPTl"  wrote in message 
news:4aae9b6d.5280828@news.wanadoo.fr...
> Hello,
>
> As far as tone and sustain are concerned I mean.  I have already
> noticed much improvement  from changing a stock MIM tele bridge to a
> Gotoh, but I don't really know why.
> Now I plan to build a LP out of a Warmoth kit and I read on the
> Callaham site that Gibson bridges being made of zinc are not the best.
> Help !
> Thanks.
> JP

Did you compare recordings made with the two bridges, or did you try 
changing back to the old one?  If not, the reason may contain an element of 
expectation fulfilment, like when some people change their valves!

Lots of small parts with complicated shapes are manufactured by die casting 
materials with advertised descriptions ranging from 'aluminium' (e.g. 
die-cast boxes) to magnesium to zinc when they are probably all variations 
on MAZAC (magnesium, aluminium, zinc alloy - dinky toys?).  My LP Custom had 
nylon bridge saddles originally; changing them to die-cast ones seemed to 
improve the sustain but I didn't change back to be sure, and now I don't 
have the old saddles - big mistake on my part.

Chris

On Sep 14, 9:37 pm, cé@parici.com (JPTl) wrote:
> Hello,
>
> As far as tone and sustain are concerned I mean.  I have already
> noticed much improvement  from changing a stock MIM tele bridge to a
> Gotoh, but I don't really know why.
> Now I plan to build a LP out of a Warmoth kit and I read on the
> Callaham site that Gibson bridges being made of zinc are not the best.
> Help !
> Thanks.
> JP

Ask José - he owns several I sold to him...  ;->

JPTl wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> As far as tone and sustain are concerned I mean.  I have already
> noticed much improvement  from changing a stock MIM tele bridge to a
> Gotoh, but I don't really know why.
> Now I plan to build a LP out of a Warmoth kit and I read on the
> Callaham site that Gibson bridges being made of zinc are not the best.
> Help !
> Thanks.
> JP

It's really a "mojo" question.

The earliest examples are made of a very light alloy, and of course, to be a 
true vintage reissue, a new bridge needs to be of the same material. But not 
all of the later versions are.

I understand that "Tonepros" bridges and tailpieces are made of this light 
alloy and that Gibson are now fitting those (pricey) accessories to certain 
artist-endorsed models of the Les paul, for example.

On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:38:38 +0100, JNugent
 wrote:

Thank you to all of you. To answer to Chris in particular, yes I did
record before and after the change but in-between I had changed so
many things ( pickups and turned from solid state amp to valve amp )
that I am not sure I can credit the bridge for the better sound !
For an LP copy TonePros seems a good choice anyway.

JP