string/bridge alignment

[lettsguitars]

it's hard to understand, but most of the big name basses i see look like they've bee put together buy someone who has never seen a straight edge. anyone out there looking at buying fenders, gibsons, rickenbackers, or indeed anything built by factory workers, take a moment to look at the bass properly. are the strings centred at the nut and at the end of the fretboard? if not, the bridge needs moving and i would keep looking until you find a good one (good luck). it is so prevalent and i dont think most people notice. i'll tell you something, if i, or indeed any other proud maker put a bass together like that, it would not leave the shop.
is this what you pay 3 grand for a handmade bass for? just so you get a bridge in the right place, it's so simple, a monkey could do it. if mistakes like that are being made across the board, what else is going on? and i'm not talking about the lower end stuff either. this happens on high end highly priced so called 'professional' instruments. a bit of a rant, but i get angry when i see people ooohh and aaaah over a £750 bass that has such rudimentary ills.
so, if anyone feels like checking their bass and responding that could be interesting to see just who the main culprits are, perhaps we can find a common factor, country of origin etc. maybe even pinpoint the factory that is doing it and kill them all. if you've just bought a bass and it has this problem, maybe you could get your money back and together we can change the world.

Edited February 22, 2011 by lettsguitars

[bassmangazg]

A very high number of 70's Fender basses had misaligned bridges, with G strings almost going over the fret ends!
The sixties basses could be adjusted as they had threaded saddles though, and the strings could be tweeked from side to side! unlike the fixed notch on the 70's & 80's ones, newer USA Fenders have 3 notches on the saddle!

Edited February 22, 2011 by bassmangazg

[lettsguitars]

[quote name='bassmangazg' post='1137764' date='Feb 22 2011, 09:32 PM']A very high number of 70's Fender basses had misaligned bridges, with G strings almosy going over the fret ends!
The sixties basses could be adjusted as they had threaded saddles though, and the strings could be tweeked from side to side! unlike the fixed notch on the 70's & 80's ones, newer USA Fenders have 3 notches on the saddle![/quote]
3 notches for adjustable spacing. not to fix a bad.

[bassmangazg]

Yes, I know but it usually the only way they could line up the strings! bad craftsmenship.

[lettsguitars]

[quote name='bassmangazg' post='1137777' date='Feb 22 2011, 09:38 PM']Yes, I know but it usually the only way they could line up the strings! bad craftsmenship.[/quote]
it ends now!

[leschirons]

Didn't a lot of the 5 string Rays have a problem with the G string always slipping off the edge of the fingerboard?

[lettsguitars]

it's easy to slip off any board good or bad with heay vibrato. but it's not always the g. just as often it's the other side. and not just the board slippage factor. unaligned strings means unaligned pickups and an unmatched radius.

[wesfinn]

leo only owned pens....he didn't need a ruler

[Jerry_B]

But then again, does the bass sound suffer from the bridge being slightly misaligned? Is there a point where if starts messing things up? I ask as I imagine the magnetic field of the pickups is spread around to a certain extent. My Squier P/J has a misaligned bridge, but otherwise sounds fine.

[MythSte]

[quote name='Jerry_B' post='1137822' date='Feb 22 2011, 10:12 PM']But then again, does the bass sound suffer from the bridge being slightly misaligned? Is there a point where if starts messing things up? I ask as I imagine the magnetic field of the pickups is spread around to a certain extent. My Squier P/J has a misaligned bridge, but otherwise sounds fine.[/quote]

+1.

Obviously, I expect something to be made properly but if the bass is fine in every other respect, is there anything else it could impact on Letts?

[Jerry_B]

Yep - I was wondering whether it's a problem of aesthetics more than anything else. An expensive bass should have better build quality and therefore one assumes it has better QC looking over it before it leaves the factory. But other than that I dunno if it actually messes up the sound of the bass too much, if at all, unless it's really out of whack...

[Vibrating G String]

[quote name='lettsguitars' post='1137736' date='Feb 22 2011, 01:13 PM']perhaps we can find a common factor[/quote]
Fender, though not exclusively. Though I don't think it's the bridge placed wrong as much as the neck shifting. Cutting a neck pocket loose enough that you can get any neck in the pile to fit no matter how thick the finish and then gloping on the finish is what I think causes it.

[MythSte]

[quote name='Jerry_B' post='1137862' date='Feb 22 2011, 10:38 PM']Yep - I was wondering whether it's a problem of aesthetics more than anything else. An expensive bass should have better build quality and therefore one assumes it has better QC looking over it before it leaves the factory. But other than that I dunno if it actually messes up the sound of the bass too much, if at all, unless it's really out of whack...[/quote]

I suppose it might mess up the string tension a bit, what with the pressure not being dispersed vertically downwards causing it to move sideways slightly, I suppose that would knock the intonation a bit as well. Im clutching at straws a bit there though!

[lettsguitars]

[quote name='MythSte' post='1137833' date='Feb 22 2011, 10:21 PM']+1.

Obviously, I expect something to be made properly but if the bass is fine in every other respect, is there anything else it could impact on Letts?[/quote]
radius falls away from the string, impossible to get a perfect setup. the magnetic field of a pickup is indeed spread beyond the strings but is going to be unequal on either side. and to me it goes without saying that of all the things you want to be right on a stringed instrument the fingerboard and strings are the most important. not the finish or anything else. the board and the strings should be married. not one going one way and one the other way.

[lettsguitars]

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1137935' date='Feb 22 2011, 11:35 PM']Fender, though not exclusively. Though I don't think it's the bridge placed wrong as much as the neck shifting. Cutting a neck pocket loose enough that you can get any neck in the pile to fit no matter how thick the finish and then gloping on the finish is what I think causes it.[/quote]
you are probably right. in which case, put the bloody neck on straight. someone is going to spend hard earned cash on this, let's get it right.

[Vibrating G String]

It's hard to say for sure but I usually find neck shift to the right so the G string falls off. Haven't really seen it the other way in a Fender style bass. I fixed a couple of bad neck shifters by cleaning out the drippy finish from the sides of the neck pocket and more importantly getting a good clean flat bottom of the neck pocket. Usually the bottom of the neck pocket is ignored while folks look at how big the side gap is which doesn't really matter. There's only one contact surface where the neck is pressed against the body and it often has paint in it in some lumpy way allowing the joint to rock on just the tops of the paint ripples. Once the neck is attached correctly I find most bridges are in the right place.

[tom1946]

I can't remember which thread it was now but someone put a pic up of their new bass and everyone oohed and aahed at it.
It was a gorgeous bass but I pointed out that the strings ran off on the neck. The bridge on that was mis-aligned.

[Musicman20]

Seen it lots of times and sent them back. I dont understand it!

[3below]

[quote]A very high number of 70's Fender basses had misaligned bridges, with G strings almost going over the fret ends![/quote]

It may be easily fixed - had the same problem with my 77 precision from new. Wrote to Fender UK and got a setup guide. Slacken strings, slacken neck bolts, tap headstock to get correct string alignement on E & G . Retighten neck bolts, tune and way to go. Sorted mine out prefectly. It is surprising how much lateral movement is available in the neck pocket.

[mart]

Well here's one culprit: a 2008 Rockbass. I don't think the bridge, pickups or neck were in exactly the right place, but the most noticeable is the misalignment between the bridge and the pickups. I've been told that the RBs now have much better QC.

[Lfalex v1.1]

One of my pre-purchase tests is to hold the bass up in good light, and sight a line from the bridge to the nut. What you should see is something that resembles looking down a railway track (only with more "rails", and the frets being the sleepers).
This can help identify any mis-alignments, as well as highlighting issues with warped/wonky necks, frets popping up and so on.
If you're buying second-hand, get the vendor to take a photo..

I can't recall many that I've encountered that were wilfully wonky, but I doubt I'd have taken them off of their stand in the first place if I'd seen that they were bad. And then promptly discounted and forgotten them
It's not too much to ask to have a well-assembled instrument. It's part of what constitutes "fit for purpose".

[Ancient Mariner]

[quote name='3below' post='1138203' date='Feb 23 2011, 09:34 AM']It may be easily fixed - had the same problem with my 77 precision from new. Wrote to Fender UK and got a setup guide. Slacken strings, slacken neck bolts, tap headstock to get correct string alignement on E & G . Retighten neck bolts, tune and way to go. Sorted mine out prefectly. It is surprising how much lateral movement is available in the neck pocket.[/quote]

This is the way to deal with it unless your bass has a set/through neck. It requires very little movement at the headstock (and a correspondingly tiny amount of movement in the pocket) to make the strings lie too close to the edge of the neck. In any case, with bolt-neck instruments you should always ensure that the neck is firmly seated at the end of the pocket by gently backing off the neck screws a little at a time until it settles all the way down, then re-align and re-tighten. I'm sure that most of the stories of poor sustain and resonance in bolt-neck instruments come from a failure to seat the neck properly.

[Happy Jack]

I was in a well-known vintage dealership in Denmark Street a year ago looking at a 1971 Mustang. The G-string was way too close to the edge of the fretboard, which I pointed out to the owner.

He took the bass from me, said "Yes, Fender QC was a well-known issue at the time" and jerked the neck sideways quite hard ... then handed it back to me with the strings now properly aligned.

[JTUK]

I've seen it more often that I'd like and I wouldn't buy it.

[lettsguitars]

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1138077' date='Feb 23 2011, 05:06 AM']It's hard to say for sure but I usually find neck shift to the right so the G string falls off. Haven't really seen it the other way in a Fender style bass. I fixed a couple of bad neck shifters by cleaning out the drippy finish from the sides of the neck pocket and more importantly getting a good clean flat bottom of the neck pocket. Usually the bottom of the neck pocket is ignored while folks look at how big the side gap is which doesn't really matter. There's only one contact surface where the neck is pressed against the body and it often has paint in it in some lumpy way allowing the joint to rock on just the tops of the paint ripples. Once the neck is attached correctly I find most bridges are in the right place.[/quote]
+1 and then theres the cardboard shim crew.