untune Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Hi all Just bought a new bridge to fix a string spacing problem. It went on fine and appears to have sorted it out to some degree, the outer strings could probably be a mm closer in ideally but it's far better than it was. Anyways, this bridge was the only one with 54mm string spacing that would also cover the holes from the old high mass Fender style bridge that was on previously (that had 60mm spacing and was too much). The problem is the new one is a Hipshot styled one that uses block saddles. [url="http://www.axesrus.com/Hardware/BassBridges/BB007/BB0074StringFront.jpg"]http://www.axesrus.com/Hardware/BassBridges/BB007/BB0074StringFront.jpg[/url] So this one has a chunky baseplate and chunky saddles that can't be lowered - and they sit much higher than the old ones. The distance between the bottom of the baseplate/top of the body to the top of the saddle is about 19mm and there's also no curvature to the strings. I measured the same on another bass with a Gotoh 203 and that distance is about 13mm. There seems to be a good 7mm gap between fretboard and strings at the 12th fret. That needs to drop drastically - but what are the options? I was thinking either try grinding 5mm off the bottom of each saddle, not sure if that would work. Could try a dremel to deepen the string grooves... or I could try a neck shim, although I don't think a little bit of card will make 5mm disappear (then again I've never tried it, I don't know how drastic the change is). Any ideas? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 A tiny nip up on the t/r should lower that action for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mentalextra Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 [quote name='untune' timestamp='1329572066' post='1544387'] Hi all Just bought a new bridge to fix a string spacing problem. It went on fine and appears to have sorted it out to some degree, the outer strings could probably be a mm closer in ideally but it's far better than it was. Anyways, this bridge was the only one with 54mm string spacing that would also cover the holes from the old high mass Fender style bridge that was on previously (that had 60mm spacing and was too much). The problem is the new one is a Hipshot styled one that uses block saddles. [url="http://www.axesrus.com/Hardware/BassBridges/BB007/BB0074StringFront.jpg"]http://www.axesrus.c...StringFront.jpg[/url] So this one has a chunky baseplate and chunky saddles that can't be lowered - and they sit much higher than the old ones. The distance between the bottom of the baseplate/top of the body to the top of the saddle is about 19mm and there's also no curvature to the strings. I measured the same on another bass with a Gotoh 203 and that distance is about 13mm. There seems to be a good 7mm gap between fretboard and strings at the 12th fret. That needs to drop drastically - but what are the options? I was thinking either try grinding 5mm off the bottom of each saddle, not sure if that would work. Could try a dremel to deepen the string grooves... or I could try a neck shim, although I don't think a little bit of card will make 5mm disappear (then again I've never tried it, I don't know how drastic the change is). Any ideas? Cheers [/quote] I had a similar problem with a "thicker" replacement bridge. I couldnt lower the strings enough to get a reasonable action. Tried shimming the neck, but really what was needed was some woodworking. I felt that I didnt want to modify my guitar to that extent and got a different bridge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
untune Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 (edited) I cower at the mention of the truss rod but I might give it a go. However the bridge is still clearly much too high. From the looks of it, it should be recessed into the body a bit but I'm not sure I want to do that kindof surgery and would rather adjust the bridge or at least keep things reversible! My problem is that this *is* the replacement bridge... nothing else will work really. It took me a while to track something down that would be big enough to cover the existing holes made by the daft Korean high mass offering and still look tidy. This bass I believe is cursed - the strings/pickups never lined up, I can't sell it, the G snapped on a fresh set of strings, then last night when I was putting them back on the nut broke. I just can't win, whatever I try, and it's driving me mad, it has cost me more than I might ever get back for it, I just want to play it Edited February 18, 2012 by untune Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjones Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Interestingly the old vintage style spriral saddle Fender bridges solve the problem of dodgy string spacing by having multiple grooves like a thread on a bolt (the rumour is that Leo actually used cut down bolts as a cheap alternative to getting them custom made). I used to have a 62 reissue Jazz and I was so impressed by this low tech solution that I've bought one off the internet and fitted it to my other Jazz. No more spring spacing problems for me. So if your bass will take a Fender bridge this could be the answer to your problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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