Best material for bridge-plate and trem-block?

[Phil]

Hello there,

The topic of bridge-plates and trem-blocks really piqued my interest lately.

For various reasons, one being that I'm in the market for a bridge-plate and trem-block replacement, and also this thread; which is refreshing in that it is against the common and widely accepted grain of thought that the denser and heavier the better.

So what is your opinion?
There are many materials out there, from zinc, brass, aluminium, steel, cold-milled steel ala Callaham, titanium.
Which material for the bridge-plate and trem-block rocks your boat and why?

Is it the tone? And so what about the tone?
Is it the sustain? The resonance? What about them?

Looking forward to your valued thoughts and opinions!

 

[eclipze]

wow.... nice ....
i had to know bout this thing... so i can try it ....

 

[ShredCow]

Phil, I've done the floyd rose block change to a thicker block of brass. More specifically, a Gotoh Floyd.

Gotoh Floyds come with a brass block to begin with. (One more reason why it rocketh over the OFR)

Thing I noticed with a larger brass block (I recall it being 120 grams heavier?) - more mid-range, more oomph/punch, more sustain, less warble (I use .09s) and an overall perceived improvement.

That was with lower output pickups.

Then later on, itchy backside and stuff, I swapped to hotter pickups - now all that extra mid-range and thumpy-ness suddenly became TOO MUCH.

I have an extra stock Gotoh floyd rose for back-up/replacement purposes and I did the whole swap back just to check it out thing. With the hotter pickups, the stock Gotoh made things sound more balanced/even.

So too much of one thing can sucketh.

 

[eclipze]

so the vibration comes from 1 to 2 to 3 .. and from 3 to 4 ..and 3 to 5