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Would a brass nut and brass bridge make any difference in my Strat's sound?
I know it's not magic, but I was curious, based on what I have read on various guitar forums.
Thanks
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05-10-2018 10:24 PM
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Yes. Brass is brighter. More Sustain. Louder.
Originally Posted by Doug B
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And dead easy to do. Originally Posted by Doublea A
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Originally Posted by Doublea A
Don't need more brightness. I can turn up the amp for louder. More sustain might be nice. BTW-I'm using Zexcoil vintage noisless pickups.
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What about a brass nut?
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What improvement in sound are you looking to achieve? Originally Posted by Doug B
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Nothing specific, I was just curious what the benefits would be. Originally Posted by Doublea A
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Brass Monkey? Is that like a Tea Monkey?
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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I have a brass bridge on my Warmoth Tele. It's hard to assess what it brings because I've never had anything else on there. I can say that the guitar is not in any way overly bright, although with the right tone settings it can get pretty twangy. But with normal settings it's got a nice full tone. Some of that may be down to the woods. I went with mahogany specifically to darken the tone.
I'd say try it out. If you don't like it, you can always put the old bridge back on. That's the great thing about Fenders. Plug and play!
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Three things at work here: mass, hardness, and maybe (just maybe but most likely not) resonance within the saddle and nut.
Brass will most often be more massive than your current saddles and nut.
Brass is not that hard, but it “work hardens” so becomes fairly hard right at the string contact points.
The nut affects only open strings, and barely even that. The net mass difference on the tiny Fender nuts has no practical effect on the neck mass or overall resonance. This did not stop hysterical love of brass nuts 4 decades ago.
If you had stamped sheet-steel saddles on an old Strat, the change to large bar-stock brass saddles was very very noticeable. NOT brighter, but a notably smoother attack, and slightly more sustain. Less of the pinky sound Strats can have when played too hard.
But that is the extreme - from the stamped sheet steel saddles (with the height adjustment screws tapped through the bend in the saddle) to the largest bar stock brass saddles. In between there are many other saddles available.
Arguably, there really was some resonance noticeable only on the atonal transient sounds (aka , the attack) in those original steel saddles.
So in my opinion, you would notice nothing from a brass nut unless you deeply want to. And from brass saddles it would depend on the exact configuaration of your existing saddles, and of the proposed new saddles. Is there a very large mass difference?
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Much better. You drink a 40 down to where the bottle straightens out, then fill it up with orange juice. It's like a mimosa, but you can drink it on the bus. Originally Posted by Doug B
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The Telecasters with brass saddles/nut that I have heard just sounded fat with more sustain...not brighter.
Steel saddles equal brightness.
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My '66 Custom Telecaster came with saddles made of threaded steel rod. I switched to slanted brass barrels and am very pleased with the fatter tone and better string spacing. On my T-Type, I bought a new bridge plate to put BBS on it for the tone. Originally Posted by Greentone
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dare i say...a bell like tone!!...there's a reason why bells are made of brass, not bone or plastic or stainless steel
there was a great longtime bay area builder doug roomian, who always used brass nut and saddles on his tele creations...gave em some added presence...and they wear beautifully
cheers
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In my opinion we are talking about significantly different things on the Tele vs. a Strat.
The Tele saddles bear directly onto the plate and body, while the Strat sends you through the pivoting hinge to the body, and of course has the vibrato block hanging under the bridge.
A much different situation.
I can not imagine having anything but brass barrels on my Tele. But on a Strat, even the most massive brass saddles I have seen will not give you the fat smoothness (hard to believe I am associating that with a Telecaster, but it is there) of reasonably heavy strings on a 3 brass barrels on a Telecaster bridge.
If one were chasing smoother attack and maybe some sustain on a Strat, I feel that a brass block is also pretty necessary. But that is a different subject entirely, and arguably kills the tone we associate with a Stratocaster.
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Oh man, Nea’
I missed the opportunity in 1980. I could have made brass nuts with a crack in them between the B and G string and called them “The Liberty Nut”!
Damn, a life wasted,....
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how about this for your strat..the old fathead..haha
cheers
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Brass nut definitely increases sustain on open strings. My stable includes a 1978 Ibanez MC400NT with a "half and half", nut, one half being brass. I use open strings as drones on some songs and the extra sustain is appreciable.
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I saw on the strat talk essingthat someone was using steel bridges on the E and A strings and brass on the DGBE strings.
Im guessing that they were trying for a more balanced response from string to string?
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only on open strings Originally Posted by Doublea A
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this idea that sound comes from only the fretted note on down toward the bridge is ridiculous...the string vibrates in both directions....from one end of the string to the other..it's pythagorean!!
zappa used to stick a piezo on his headstock for just that reason
when it comes to guitar/sound, everything matters..just depends how far you choose to take it..
but don't naysay, those that do
cheers
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a brassnut, is waste of time as it any additional volume/sustain only applies to open strings. and no effect on fretted at all.
and not easy to cut/adjust/mower without screwing up expensive fretfiles
was a 80's marketing ploy my GB10 has why?????
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Agreed. George wanted a zero fret. That's why. And he uses a lot of open strings in his solo guitar playing so perhaps he wanted the zing? Originally Posted by Durban
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I don't think so. Brass in the Bridge will affect all notes. Originally Posted by jzucker
Are you talking about a brass nut ?
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