# Tremolo block - Brass vs Titanium and why?



## lewis (Nov 10, 2016)

Need a new one for my parts'o caster for metal/brootz.

Cant decide between sustain and richer, warmer body of tone of the Brass, vs the sustain, attack and clarity of the Titanium?

what would you guys choose?

(modern metal/Chimaira sound is the aim)


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## takotakumi (Nov 10, 2016)

Titanium will be considerably more expensive than its brass counterpart.
Either way you would be improving the sustain.

I don't think that the block itself will provide a dramatic effect in regards towards attack, that mostly comes from bolt-on vs neck/set-thru construction.


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## lewis (Nov 10, 2016)

takotakumi said:


> Titanium will be considerably more expensive than its brass counterpart.
> Either way you would be improving the sustain.
> 
> I don't think that the block itself will provide a dramatic effect in regards towards attack, that mostly comes from bolt-on vs neck/set-thru construction.



ah thats good to know. I hadnt got as far as researching prices yet. Thanks for the heads up.

the guitar is a alder strat with bolt on maple neck and rosewood fretboard


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## takotakumi (Nov 10, 2016)

As far as pricing goes, it tends to go like this:

Titanium>Copper>Brass

Titanium is most of the time 2x or very close to 3 times the price of brass.

People also like tungsten blocks but I have zero knowledge about those...
Stainless Steel is another option, but I think this is more expensive too (less than titanium though). I have a SS block on my Aristides which does wonders but thats not a strat style bridge...

You should be good with brass


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## cesar (Nov 11, 2016)

takotakumi said:


> As far as pricing goes, it tends to go like this:
> 
> Titanium>Copper>Brass
> 
> ...



Tungsten is simply the best material till now to transmit energy on musical instruments.

If you have the chance ,compare tungsten strings of a cello and a normal one,it's really impressive how much powerful and richer the sound is.

Not really about what you guys where talking but i thought iwould be nice to share hehe


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## takotakumi (Nov 11, 2016)

cesar said:


> Tungsten is simply the best material till now to transmit energy on musical instruments.
> 
> If you have the chance ,compare tungsten strings of a cello and a normal one,it's really impressive how much powerful and richer the sound is.
> 
> Not really about what you guys where talking but i thought iwould be nice to share hehe



I found this truly interesting  thanks for sharing


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## MetalHead40 (Nov 11, 2016)

I was looking into this a while back but bailed on it, but it seemed tungsten was one that I was strongly considering. I think my stock block is aluminum. Tungsten is dense and heavy as hell which made me think it might add sustain?


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## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Nov 11, 2016)

I've seen and played a handful of these, and the material that I tend to go back to is always the brass one.

To put that into perspective, one of my best sounding trems, locking or non locking, was a Mighty Mite 6 hole vintage style trem that I had on a very old Ibanez Blazer back in the mid 80's. It was a non-locking, but just had so much sustain, and more importantly, balance. It was just so musical sounding. Every place up and down the neck just sounded like the whole guitar was a sweet spot. Fast forward some years, and I acquired in the early 90's a PRS CE-3 bolt on. This is the era that the PRS trems were still being made by Mann Made USA and the sustain block along with the base plate were machined from one solid billet of brass. They were one unit, not a base plate bolted to the sustain block. It was a good size block, and the saddles were also brass, then everything was nickel plated. Another stellar sounding bridge, far better sounding than the newer ones that are 2 pieces.

Brass to me, just sounds more balanced and musical. The titanium ones do too, but who can afford them. The steel ones can sound a bit harshly bright, and I don't seem to hear anything especially noticeable in the tungsten ones.

Brass for me.


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## Jeffbro (Nov 11, 2016)

completely subjective, don't waste your money on anything other than brass


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## rami80 (Nov 11, 2016)

I might get a lot of flack for this, but I bit the bullet and got a stone block. I was really blown away. The sustain was much better when playing clean but didn't feel much different with dirt. The attack was really more pronounced, which was really good as I didn't get that much attack on my 707s. Another cool thing was that the guitar body vibrates a lot more.


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## Stuck_in_a_dream (Nov 11, 2016)

rami80 said:


> I might get a lot of flack for this, but I bit the bullet and got a stone block. I was really blown away. The sustain was much better when playing clean but didn't feel much different with dirt. The attack was really more pronounced, which was really good as I didn't get that much attack on my 707s. Another cool thing was that the guitar body vibrates a lot more.



Hmmm... Didn't even know that stone Floyd blocks was a thing! After googling: 













I have a brass block + brass spring claw and to me the effect from stock to brass was an eye opener. Not just sustain, but overall tone is considerably better.


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## lewis (Nov 11, 2016)

Some fantastic info in here so far guys. Keep it up. Im leaning towards brass myself but yeah hadnt even seen stone either. Interesting.


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## PBGas (Nov 12, 2016)

I recently dropped a 42mm Brass block into my new Fender CS. It made a remarkable difference both playing with and without the amp. Very happy with how it turned out.


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## MarionCobretti (Nov 12, 2016)

I have guitars with both big and small block titanium, brass, bell brass. In very similar custom builds where i can A-B easy. 
I have observed altough the difference is tiny it could be: brass sustain, titanium lightweight easier control. If materials are A grade it really
Doesnt matter that much with those 3 cant go wrong. My hantug made big block 37 mm bell
Brass


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## jrui (Nov 13, 2016)

you'lll feel familiar with brass parts , that's classic choice for music. 

titanium , man , that's my holy grail , like a super transparent clean boost to your guitar,
huge improvement to the vibration , with crystal & no harsh top end and a huge improved bottom end that steel will never give you, its deeper , stronger and not at all too much&muddy&mushy.
holy grail , my holy grail . 
if you want me to say something negative about titanium , only one thing I could say is , you won't feel familiar with this thing , that won't give you something you've heard before from many albums.


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