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My workmate has asked me to make him sustain blocks for some guitars he is building, he specified they must be brass.
Secured a big block of brass or phosphor bronze for the job, but know absolutely nothing about guitars.
Can any body give me a clue , in laymans terms, what they do, how to make the best job of it, any ways to tweak them, etc. This bloke has been shit on mightily this year and I want to bring at least a little brightness to his day.
Thanks.
They are for a floating bridge(for use with a whammy bar), most common type on a strat type guitar. The strings go into them. Some people think they make the strings ring out longer/give better tone, hence yer guy calling it a sustain block(I'd call it a tremolo block), I've never tried any different ones so no real opinion on that.
This kinda thing.
Or it could simply be big blocks of metal in the body where a fixed bridge and tailpiece go. I’ve seen that back in the 70s.
Google images "brass sustain block" for the most probable possibilities. I find it surprising anyone would go to the trouble of making them when there's almost certainly something he could use for £20-£50. They represent many hours of work.
What would you say to someone who asked you to make some stems for their MTBs? I'd say "order some from bike-components".
Ask your man to define what he's asking for.
I knew I wasn't imagining it. Alembic were probably the highest profile builder to promote their use.
http://alembic.com/club/messages/449/18857.html?1120101708
I find it surprising anyone would go to the trouble of making them when there’s almost certainly something he could use for £20-£50. They represent many hours of work.
Agree. There are loads of options available. I just got a cheap heavy one years ago as worrying about the exact material for a subject that is already in the snake oil category was not really a concern.
worrying about the exact material for a subject that is already in the snake oil category was not really a concern.
So density is key here, I'm taking from this? I had a quick look at guitar forums but they were going into the realms of marble and titanium blocks and going off on tangents so binned that as a resource.
To be fair, they look pretty straightforward to make, which is why I was asking if there is some sort of secret , dark art to it or if it really is just a block of something heavy with some tapped holes in it.
This gets made on break times and slack periods in work, and this fella doesnt have £50 to spend on brass blocks when I have a big chunk of it stashed safely with his name on, hence why he is making his own guitars. Thanks for all the replies so far though, those videos were especially helpful.
really is just a block of something heavy with some tapped holes in it.
That is exactly all it is
You’ll need to know what bridge he’s using. Have a search on eBay for a Wilkinson trem block. They often have detailed dimensions on the advert...
USA vs mexi bridges have different dimensions.
Yep, there's basically 2 things you need to know. The first is the exact dimensions you can make it- that's not just the interfaces to the existing parts, hole spacings etc but also how much cavity you have to work with, some guitars are spacious, others not so that'll dictate whether you can go larger than oem. (it's also the reason marketing people go on about material- it means you can make more universal, interchangable components and still have the same "benefit" whereas making it larger even though it's the smart thing to do, is a bit harder.
The other, is that if you took the current block, machined a logo onto it, and brass plated it, he'd probably think it sounds 1000% better than the current one. And more so, the more you charge
(I put IIRC 4 different blocks in a heavy metal strat for a sustain-obsessed customer once and in the blind tests he might as well have been rolling a dice. You could feel a little difference in some situations but you couldn't hear it and you damn sure couldn't measure it. Of course the real answer was, don't have a floyd rose in a basswood body if you want sustain. But he went away happy, with the most expensive one fitted)