Brass trem block

[VonBonfire]

Fat aluminum block remains installed (because it sounds good) and I still haven’t ordered strings to try different blocks. I reworked the fat brass block targeting 280grams and it came out great. Also working on another pile of blocks.

While deep in this hole it naturally occurred to me saddles can be changed without changing strings, so I made block saddles. Three sets - one each made from ‘Ordnance’ Brass, Copper & Aluminum. I couldn’t source such a thing as ‘bell brass’, but VB, thank you for educating me on “bell metal” (available in ingots). That’s legit af actually, but it is bronze (ie: copper/tin).

Further, after reading your description of the electroforming process used to create horns (and presumably other complex shapes) I immediately decided to make saddles from C110 oxygen free copper - it’s 99.9% pure. It machines like bubble gum and they look awful on my guitar but they sound pretty amazing with the aluminum block, plus, they will age beautifully.

I’m honestly pretty blown away after spending a good bit of time playing yesterday. In sum, the fat aluminum brings brightness & articulation without fizz and the copper brings the bells with solid lows. Compared to the bent steel saddles, my lows seem tighter, upper mids are glorious, meaty raunch is there and highs are slightly rolled-off, but still sweet w/bite. Most notable change overall is the quick attack and percussiveness I’m getting (especially appreciated using lots of distortion)..that’s new. Acoustically the guitar’s always been better than good, now it’s over the top good and also sounds amazing through my clean channel in all pickup positions. We’ll see after a few days if my initial impressions stick. It’s quite a bit different than my stock guitar overall and it’s been a trip to really hear the differences first-hand while essentially re-building the stock trem using legit machined hardware. The additional mass of copper/block vs bent steel only makes already good sustain from the aluminum block just better (fuller).

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WOW!

This is amazing stuff man, can't believe you are going to these lengths!

I did google up a source for bell brass (bronze as you said). Not sure if they have what you'd be looking for for an experiment like this but it does say they offer it in a few different forms. Good luck with all your testing and again, thanks for sharing the data with us!!!

https://www.belmontmetals.com/produ...crHiwvmo_ch2iWpNa7sYXnmZpg_ckbVME-AA6BUI9clov

 

[Scot]

Very nice job kimg

Thank you.

VB this project's been just the excuse I need to fire up some equipment that's been idle for awhile, not to mention an excuse to spend time in the shop doing what I love. Not a problem at all to share. I'd love to go into the block business..lol. Thank you for the Belmont link - that's what I came up with, too. Those ingots are cool af.

 

[VonBonfire]

Thank you.

VB this project's been just the excuse I need to fire up some equipment that's been idle for awhile, not to mention an excuse to spend time in the shop doing what I love. Not a problem at all to share. I'd love to go into the block business..lol. Thank you for the Belmont link - that's what I came up with, too. Those ingots are cool af.

Those are great excuses!!!

I'm interested to see how long those copper bridge pieces hold up. If they are real soft they might develop burrs that result in breakages. Or not. They seem beefy enough to go the distance. I've never seen anyone actually follow through with this kind of experimenting the way you already have so it seems like you are entering uncharted waters. I wish you much luck and success with this and can't wait to hear more feedback on what you are doing!

 

[VonBonfire]

Doing any more experimenting lately @Scot ?

 

[Scot]

Doing any more experimenting lately @Scot ?

Thanks for asking, VB. The past several weeks I’ve had a steel block installed onto a trem plate made from the same billet of material. The assembled trem weighs 347g & after installI I could instantly hear what differed from the preceding skinny brass block/al saddles/oem plate (ie: the wah effect).

Overall steel sounds evenly balanced across all strings w/solid note fundamentals - great sustain, harmonics, feel etc. Top end is good but not quite as sweetly biting compared to brass and not quite as 'airy' (for lack of a better term) w/aluminum. Albeit slight, the steel block seems to bring out that cocked-wah sound associated w/Dimarzio pu’s (which I’m using) so I’d guess that’s a mid frequency the steel trem accentuates?

I want to assemble another trem to put the brass block and oem trem (bent saddles) up against this one. The biggest takeaway for me thus far is that it’s important to have a good sounding guitar to begin with b/c honestly, I could live with any of the combinations I’ve tried - except for the brick of brass I used at the outset - turns out weight’s a thing..lol

Here’s a few pics of the steel trem. The plate and block are made from some nice normalized US tool steel from like the 50’s or 60’s and I cold-blued the trem plate. I didn’t case harden the plate or its knife edges but will do just that if warranted. So far there’s virtually no wear on the edges at all after a month and I’ve been torturing the trem mercilessly. It stays in tune much better than I would have predicted - quite good in fact and as you can see I used a FR push-in arm. Feels great and instantly responsive - flutters like a champ.