High mass bridges - do they suck

[R2-Pazuzu]

...tone? I recently played a Jazz Bass with an old steel plate bridge and noticed something. I heard something I haven't heard in a long time and that is the actual sound of the wood, the instrument was coming through noticeably. I've played basses with high mass clunks of metal and don't get me wrong, the sustain is great, but other than that, the tone is kind of sterile to my ears.

 

Anyone else agree with my assertions?

[WRGKMC]

I agree.

 

My Hofner Club Bass has TOM style wooden bridge. There is some metal there, the studs and the fret wire used as saddles, but its minimal. The amount of wood tone is amazing plus its a hollow body which adds even more to the tone. Its the reason I bought it because its as close to upright bass tone as you're going to get from an electric.

 

My first instrument was playing Violin. Classical stringed instruments have a wooden nut and bridge. The way the instrument vibrates/resonates is 100% wood tone and you can feel it in your hands as well as hear it.

 

Like anything you can have good or bad wood tone. If the wood resonance works with the strings then it adds to the tone. If the wood resonance is dissonant/out of phase with string pitches it fights against the string tone.

 

The string tone becomes more metallic as nut and bridge mass is increased. Its not necessarily a bad thing its simply different.

 

I'm not sure the sustain is actually increased as much as the initial string attack is being compressed by the added mass. The attack differences are easily seen when you record the plucked notes. When I compare my Hofner to other basses the initial string attack has a big initial transient containing a large amount of mids and highs which die out and fade quickly but the actual sustain of the lowest string frequencies continue for a long time after. The sustain is simply a much lower volume then the initial transient.

 

When I use an electronic compressor on the bass it makes the entire note more linear but the changes in tone form bright to dark remains the same.

 

Having more bridge mass seems to compress that string attack and makes the note duration more linear, probably because there's less body resonance returning through the bridge to the strings. Higher frequencies return easily enough but not the large transient resonances because mass resists that inertia much body resonance but to the strings. Tone gets back through the bridge but its mostly higher frequencies.

 

Increased mass creates increases inertia and the bridge acts like a shock absorber resisting changes in movement by its weight. A minimal bridge moves with the body more so the body vibration adds to the string movement.