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Post subject: Sustain block materials
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 1:40 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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I’ve noticed that you can buy sustain blocks from a variety of fancy materials, including tungsten and granite. What are your experiences with different materials? When we get to the fancier materials, does it really make a difference or are we getting into cork sniffing territory?

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Post subject: Re: Sustain block materials
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 2:01 pm
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I put a Callaham steel block on my American Standard two point bridge and I think it made a noticeable difference.
A little bit of difference in tone and also a little bit in sustain.
In my opinion the biggest difference was in note definition.
Perhaps that falls under the category of tone.

I think for some people it might be a case of cork sniffing.
I noticed a difference but I wouldn't call it earth shattering.
I can easily imagine some people not hearing any difference at all.

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Post subject: Re: Sustain block materials
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 2:34 pm
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Leo mandated steel.

I use steel.

Period.

End of story.

Nothing follows.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Sustain block materials
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 6:19 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
Leo mandated steel.

I use steel.

Period.

End of story.

Nothing follows.

Arjay


Once I switched my 50's Classic Series Stratocaster over to a Steel block, suddenly those ALNICO V stock pickups sounded quite good, clear and bell like tone with much improved sustain.

Leo got it right just as Arjay states!

T2

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Post subject: Re: Sustain block materials
Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2019 6:51 pm
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Different material for the block, better sustain? Sure I get that. Pretty much an accepted fact. But, what about the rest of the formula?

My acoustic without a block with or without electronics has pretty good sustain, Not the best, but not the worst either. Equal guitars ax the crow flies have shown to have different sustain.

We all know sustain can be improved or decreased after the guitar too. Going out on a limb, would it not be possible to have less sustain at the guitar and still possibly more than another with better sustain say from the other block as one example? Let’s say the sustain is plenty enough to develop even a better one with effects.

Nothing wrong with bettering your axe, but the weakest link will always be the weakest link.

Not making a definitive judgment. Just throwing it out there on the stage. What say you?

FSB

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Post subject: Re: Sustain block materials
Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 1:13 am
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This is a highly personal (and on many forums, also flammable) matter.
The important thing is, if one experiences the trem block material makes a difference, and feels that difference makes one feel/play/sound better, one should absolutely go for "the other block".

BTW, Clarence Leonidas didn't mention steel in the patent...
Quote:
The bar 25 is relatively massive, preferably formed of solid material
:wink:


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Post subject: Re: Sustain block materials
Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 1:35 am
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Oh yeah. Right. Sure. Leo just told Forrest White to fabricate the block from "whatever". Make it cheap, make it quick, he didn't give a damn. Then he shuffled off the plant floor back to his lab where he would design another arcane gizmo of ambiguously-vague specs (like everything he ever built).

Absolutely.

:roll:
Leo was an inventor of precision and consistency, not given to settling for "good enough" whenever perfection was within his grasp. Steel may not have been mentioned in the patent but steel is what was used (until the advent of mazac in the early '70s)......unless you can produce documentable proof to the contrary.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Sustain block materials
Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 2:39 am
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You called up the "Leo mandated" thang, and now I should get "documentary proof" - even beyond the quote from the original patent..? :roll: :lol:

Anyways, as I wrote on the previous message:
jmattis wrote:
This is a highly personal (and on many forums, also flammable) matter.
:wink:


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Post subject: Re: Sustain block materials
Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 9:13 am
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My position is supported by HISTORICAL FACT.

What are you standing on?

:mrgreen:
Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Sustain block materials
Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 12:31 pm
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(I really hope neither of us is being totally serious about this sidetrack...)

One just can't get more HISTORICALLY FACTUOUS than the honorable United States Patent and Trademark Office.

And here's another historical fact: C.L.F. abandoned the trem block totally in the Jazzmaster (etc.) vibrato design...

Plus, I'm sitting - we do have chairs in Europe. 8)


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Post subject: Re: Sustain block materials
Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 12:54 pm
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jmattis wrote:
(I really hope neither of us is being totally serious about this sidetrack...)


Doesn't really matter. The owners of this brand name (ALL OF THEM) have continued to devise ways of paring production costs, thus increasing the profit margin for each unit sold to the point that soon they'll be able to build each one for a nickel, charge five grand retail, then bury the net earnings somewhere in the Cayman Islands.

The best thing that could happen to FMIC would be for me and the others of my generation who remember (fondly) the quality that Fender once represented to assume room temperature. The sooner the better.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Sustain block materials
Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 1:41 pm
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I would like to thank everyone for offering their opinions. Really appreciate it, dear friends! :-)

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