Silent Coated Springs…fodder?

  • Thread starter Thread starter nevusofota
  • Start date Start date
thegame said:
I don’t know what else to tell you. Just spend the whopping $25 and find out yourself.
Click to expand...
Oh I’ve tried them. Definitely didn’t notice an improvement and may have even found them to take something away (for the worse), but that could’ve just been all in my head. Maybe the dreaded “ping” in certain guitars wouldn’t occur in the first place if a SMALLER block was used. Who knows. Point of the post is that players spend a lot of money on this aftermarket stuff in an effort to get that .1% advantage in tone and sustain but don’t even question installing a sound dampening spring to connect those parts.
 
Damping the springs from vibrating doesn’t deaden the guitar tone. If anything those springs work against it.

When I’m playing a note and the springs start vibrating at that pitch…I’m already playing a different note and don’t want those springs always lagging behind and affecting future notes.

In general you want the guitar strings vibrating and nothing else…because if something else is also vibrating then it stole that energy from the strings.
 
SpiderWars said:
Damping the springs from vibrating doesn’t deaden the guitar tone. If anything those springs work against it.

When I’m playing a note and the springs start vibrating at that pitch…I’m already playing a different note and don’t want those springs always lagging behind and affecting future notes.

In general you want the guitar strings vibrating and nothing else…because if something else is also vibrating then it stole that energy from the strings.
Click to expand...
It’s the same with the strings ringing before the nut too.
 
SpiderWars said:
Damping the springs from vibrating doesn’t deaden the guitar tone. If anything those springs work against it.
Click to expand...
Per physics, this doesn’t jive.
SpiderWars said:
When I’m playing a note and the springs start vibrating at that pitch…I’m already playing a different note and don’t want those springs always lagging behind and affecting future notes.
Click to expand...
I believe you’re saying there is phase cancellation? If so than reverb pedals would be awful.
SpiderWars said:
In general you want the guitar strings vibrating and nothing else…because if something else is also vibrating then it stole that energy from the strings.
Click to expand...
Then you just took the wind out of every tone wood debate. You WANT sound waves to travel with the least resistance through every part of the guitar.
 
I just put a set on my Kramer stagemaster and honestly, didn't notice a real difference. I would just save your money and try some foam or other tricks to see if it makes a difference before buying a set.
 
nevusofota said:
Per physics, this doesn’t jive.
Click to expand...
Please elaborate on the physics of it.

And I’m not saying I can provide a great Physics explanation myself, I took my last Physics class around 1990. But you claimed ‘per Physics’ so I’d love to hear it.

My simple attempt is that we want all of the energy in that vibrating string to remain between the saddles and the nut. We want those waves to reflect off of the saddles and nut. We don’t want those waves to ‘travel/slip’ past the saddles and nut and give us all that sympathetic ringing that some guitars have. We would be losing string energy within the vibrating length. When I cut a nut I always strum open strings really hard and then instantly mute them and listen in a silent room. If I hear any ringing that is bad, I’m losing string energy within the vibrating length. The nut and saddles when optimally set up actually mute the string behind the leading edge toward the rear edge so those waves don’t slip past, they reflect.

What I wrote above just addresses the extra string length beyond the saddles/nut. The Trem springs are another level or two past that depending on the design (for example Floyds don’t have any string length beyond the saddles and are clamped at the nut).
 
nevusofota said:
In the never ending quest for sustain and “tone”, players using vibrato bridges look at every part of the guitar, most notably the bridge, to upgrade. Big sustain blocks, brass or titanium string retaining blocks, bigger brass spring claws, brass claw screws, titanium saddles, etc, etc. And what do many of these players top all this off with? Coated springs that deaden the propagation of vibrations and work directly against the benefits of all the other upgrades.
I understand that in some studio somewhere there is a high gain staccato track that’s tarnished by the reverberation of the trem springs. But I’ve been playing Floyd’s through high gain high volume amps for decades and can say without hesitation that spring noise has never been an issue….at least not enough to warrant the need to go against the number one rule of stringed instruments…to use materials that most efficiently transmit vibrations. Maybe if I ever did find myself in this type of recording quandary I would then just temporarily stick a rag in the trem route.
Not trying to be a dick but it’s one aspect of the guitar upgrade market that I’ve never understood or bought into.
Discuss…..or not
Click to expand...
Agree. Never understood or encountered this. Marketers know we'll buy anything
 
nevusofota said:
Sustain has to be compromised at some level.
Click to expand...

Not enough to matter

Just naturally holding the guitar against your body as you play would logically have a far greater effect on the resonance of the guitar yet no one is out there permanently mounting their guitars to stands to circumvent this
 
Devin said:
Not enough to matter

Just naturally holding the guitar against your body as you play would logically have a far greater effect on the resonance of the guitar yet no one is out there permanently mounting their guitars to stands to circumvent this
Click to expand...
You can hold it against my body
 
Smash said:
You can hold it against my body
Click to expand...


i-will-superbad.gif
 
We probably all have some crazy hypothesis about guitar and gear. Like…I think being fat has an advantage to vibrato. I haven’t had the stones to ask Simo tho.
 
SpiderWars said:
We probably all have some crazy hypothesis about guitar and gear. Like…I think being fat has an advantage to vibrato. I haven’t had the stones to ask Simo tho.
Click to expand...

I mean, weirdly, you might have a point if correlation is causation on RT

Judging by the lack of lead guitar clips, im guessing a lot of these skinny guys haven't practiced their hal leonard

Darren and I have something spicy coming, too
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top