tonal differences with Gretsch bridges

[bionic]

I have just removed my bar bridge on the rosewood saddle for a tunomatic anchored into a block of hard wood inside the body cavity. Had to do this as epoxy was used by a previous owners neck reset so this was neccesary for playable action. The guitar's tuning issues are now gone (I always suspected the bar bridge was hugging strings) and although I have been unable to plug it in so far I think I may have increased the sustain by the bridge anchored in directly to the face of the body or maybe the tuneomatic just has less surface with the string as opposed to the bar. What tonal advantages are there to have tunomatic on a rosewood platform as opposed to directly on the face of the guitar and do you think I will miss the bar bridge?

[Blauserk]

Check out Gretschpages. "Proteus" did an extensive comparison playing the same piece of music over and over with the various bridges. It's not only eye-opening, but also great music--several of the recordings are in my top-25-played songs on my iPod.

[MBreinin]

I always found that the bar bridge gave the best sustain and tone WHEN THE BRIDGE WAS FLOATING. With that said, my '53 Jet had a very early Melita setup with the studs sunken directly into the top, and it probably was the best bridge setup on a Gretsch. By far, the worst was the Space Control. I hated that bridge.

Mike