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The brass block and noiseless spring gimmicks

5K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  Heep 
#1 ·
Lots of people on youtube and online claim these big brass block make your guitar have more sustain, if this was the case, then how come all the guitar gods like Vai, Satriani, Malmsteem and many others do not use them lol

Maybe it changes the tone or even makes it worse. How come Steve who is always obsessed with tone, doesn't use any of these brass things.

Noiseless springs are pure snake oil, maybe they make a bit quieter than regular springs, but is still not as quiet as putting some tissue or foam in there
 
#2 ·
You complain on every thread, or make antagonistic claims, always with a negative connotation.

I swapped out the original trem and block on my JEM Jr with a Gotoh 1996t. The Gotoh has a brass block. It's not about it being brass it's about mass. Even an untrained ear could hear the difference in sustain. The fact you think it doesn't and the formulation of your statement highlights the fact you don't know, because you've not tried these things yourself.

As for the guitarists you mention, they all play high end, quality instruments. Some have brass blocks, some don't, but again, high end...quality which means the blocks in their trems are better still than brass (most likely) - again it's about mass. Not the metal used. High end trems made by gotoh for Ibanez fyi, using alloys etc...they know what they're doing

Instead of complaining, making suppositions and baseless claims, perhaps try it yourself. I did. It wasn't the primary reason for me swapping out the trem, but the difference in sustain was glaringly obvious.
 
#3 ·
Yeah I found I liked my JemDBK with a brass block more, I put one on my 7 string but the extra mass makes the guitar quite heavy so I may swap back. The noiseless springs I find are hit or miss, I found in some cases they can cause issues with bridge grounding but sanding away some finish fixes that. They aren't completely silent but I prefer it to stuffing my backplate with tissue or trying to stuff foam into all my springs.
 
#4 ·
Lots of people on youtube and online claim these big brass block make your guitar have more sustain, if this was the case, then how come all the guitar gods like Vai, Satriani, Malmsteem and many others do not use them lol

Maybe it changes the tone or even makes it worse. How come Steve who is always obsessed with tone, doesn't use any of these brass things.

Noiseless springs are pure snake oil, maybe they make a bit quieter than regular springs, but is still not as quiet as putting some tissue or foam in there
You complain on every thread, or make antagonistic claims, always with a negative connotation.

I swapped out the original trem and block on my JEM Jr with a Gotoh 1996t. The Gotoh has a brass block. It's not about it being brass it's about mass. Even an untrained ear could hear the difference in sustain. The fact you think it doesn't and the formulation of your statement highlights the fact you don't know, because you've not tried these things yourself.

As for the guitarists you mention, they all play high end, quality instruments. Some have brass blocks, some don't, but again, high end...quality which means the blocks in their trems are better still than brass (most likely) - again it's about mass. Not the metal used. High end trems made by gotoh for Ibanez fyi, using alloys etc...they know what they're doing

Instead of complaining, making suppositions and baseless claims, perhaps try it yourself. I did. It wasn't the primary reason for me swapping out the trem, but the difference in sustain was glaringly obvious.
Well I have the same bridge as Steve Vai guitars so, your argument doesn't apply in my case. If steve doesn't thinks it doesnt add any value
 
#5 ·
In general we know from many reviews it either makes no difference to making a slight positive impact. It's never like swapping out pickups.

Brass is pretty popular, and affordable in blocks for trems and even the people who notice no difference tonally never say they're unhappy and remove them.

It looks nice and many of us remove the cover and it's nice to see a nice brass block like I had on my Ibanez.

Everyone who went with titanium saddles or blocks swear by the tone improvement but titanium doesn't come cheap.

I don't know exactly the physics behind titanium having the best tone for bridge parts, and at this point I don't question its superiority over brass, steel, tungsten, or common zinc.
 
#6 ·
Going for the best (or maybe only the most expensive) often means titanium. So it's certainly not worse than any metal, ok, but is any change in tremolo block heard in a band or multitrack recording?

I still haven't decided in real terms with other instruments, though I detect a slight sustain increase in solo on clean guitar.

 
#7 ·
Here's comparative price differences:

Some people brag that the titanium block makes a difference in the weight of the guitar but that seems unlikely that you could feel a few ounces in a six or seven pound guitar.

However I have a 14-15 pound older dog with a tendency to gain weight whom I have to carry a lot. I am older, too so when he does go up by a few ounces, I feel the difference and God forbid if he goes from 14.3 pounds to 14.9 pounds, it's night and day carrying him after a few hours. Man, Paris Hilton was strong!! Lol

https://www.fu-tone.com/product-category/big-blocks/big-blocks-ibanez/
 
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