TONE REPORT - Titanium Big Block

[quiksilver]

Thanks for a great thread. You convinced me to get a brass block, which I installed last night. Now I'm just letting the strings settle before locking down and cranking up.

[javert]

You've got some nasty clipping in the last link. Sounds good otherwise. And I too liked the brass one the best.

[micha]

oh, they finally lowered the prices on the titanium ones.
200 bucks is still a whole lot of money for a piece of metal, but 460 was pretty much riciculous...

I'd love to try out a brass one one day for sure. could be worth a try...

[Endrik]

what's the weight difference between the brass and titanium one?

[JohnSykes]

Cool info, thanks for this.

[micha]

the titanium-blocks should have about half the weight compared to the brass ones.

bell-brass (which is the material the blocks consist of) is about 20% tin and should be arround 8-9 g/cm³. titanium, if it's pure titanium used in these blocks, weighs around 4,5 g/cm³.

[jhale667]

Science!

Interestingly, holding each in one's hands, while the brass does seem slightly heavier, wouldn't say it felt twice as heavy, y'know?

I tend to prefer the Ti ones in the guitars I do more soloing on, they tend to impart this liquid quality to the notes more so than the Brass, but it excels almost equally in the chunk department. But the "liquid" vibe on top of the already pretty liquid lead tone of my Mesa Mark III? OooH baby!
I think the Brass ones can't be beat for FAT, aggressive rhythm playing. Really tightens up the low end. Which speaks even further to nhspike's point about sounding like pickup magnet swaps: The Koa Strat with the Ti block has a Duncan TB-11 Custom Custom...A2, and notoriously "loose" on the bottom end...nothing in what I'm recording sounds "loose" far as I can tell. The Ash Charvel mutt has a ceramic Custom and a Brass block and sounds like being hit in the head with a side of BEEF.
Do admittedly have the occasional clipping problem in my MP3 bounces, sorry but thankfully I won't be mixing the final versions, not to worry...hhahaha

[micha]

Interestingly, holding each in one's hands, while the brass does seem slightly heavier, wouldn't say it felt twice as heavy, y'know?

well, that's just what I found about bell-brass and titanium.
now possibilities are; your feeling for weight is wrong, my sources of information are wrong or the blocks are made of titanium for the smallest part only.

even if they did another mixture of tin and copper I doubt it would mean any difference, since both weigh way more than titanium (tin about 7,3 g/cm³ and copper about 8,9 g/cm³).

so, trusting your feeling, I can only guess the titanium is mixed with something heavier. :think:

don't forget to weigh both of them next time you swap them...

[Endrik]

I wonder if using different types of alloys can have a noticeable effect?
For example cymbals made from different brass alloys have different sound yet they all are pretty bright with strong harmonics due the brass... but they usually aren't very musical. I wonder how bronze would work as a trem block. Usually all the expensive jazz cymbals are made from bronze, it makes the sound darker but also incredibly rich, wide and complex.

[dg]

Someone needs to try out one of these tungsten blocks next:

http://www.prorockgear.com/sustainblock-1.aspx

[Endrik]

or you can just make a huge light bulb out of it

[MetalMedal II]

No, tungsten is out of style....depleted uranium is where it's at!

[Trussrod]

Someone needs to try out one of these tungsten blocks next:

http://www.prorockgear.com/sustainblock-1.aspx

Must be a new product. Prorock didn't have these a few months ago...

I've seen these blocks made out of copper and also stainless steel on other sites.

[Dred]

Are OFR blocks compatible with Gotoh trems?

[micha]

well at least they support my theory of the weight-relation between brass and titanium.
"Tungsten is over 4 times denser than titanium and more than twice as dense as brass"

now I wonder where titanium comes from anyway, since everyone seems to be chasing mass for a first priority (except of the luthier mentioned by shredmonster who suggests the opposite).
now titanium is not really that heavy at all...

though I've read a lot of great reviews on any kind of material used for sustain-blocks and I'm highly curious to try out (most likely) a brass one myself, I start to consider the possibility pretty much every material is used for these blocks that has a nice/rare/exotic/expensive sounding name and sells the product in first place. :think: