Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 I've been setting up my old daisy rock stardust elite bass. Its has a gibson-style set neck & a hi-mass fender style bridge with barrel-shaped saddles. The relief is set correctly and to bring the action down I've had to swap out the bridge saddles for ones with a smaller diameter. The action is still a tiny bit higher than I'd like - particularly on the E & G, and the saddles are all almost touching the baseplate. Also the grub screws are protruding out the top of the saddles between 3 & 5mm which could be a hazard if I catch my hand on them. If this was a bolt-on I'd whip the neck off, chuck in a slither of card and it'll be job-done, but as it is a glued in neck that isn't an option. I do have a spare badass II, so I could try repacing the current bridge with that, but I expect I'd need to file the existing slots a fair bit deeper, which might ruin the saddles. Or I could try to get some shorter grub screws of the correct type and file the bottom of the saddles flat so they go lower. Or maybe file the bottom of the saddles and put a bridge cover on - eg one the cheap ebay copies of the ones Gibson had on their 60s basses. What might work best? Any better ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 Simply route 5mm under the bridge and insert it. Easy to do by yourself or can be done in 10 minutes by someone knowing how to use a router. It's the best solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 I’d file the saddles down. Go deeper than you have to then raise them up to taste. When I say file them down I mean use a round file and file the grooves down rather than the bottom of the barrel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 And then, you'll break strings every day because of some bad filing (burrs) and it will take you way more than 10 minutes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 4 minutes ago, Hellzero said: And then, you'll break strings every day because of some bad filing (burrs) and it will take you way more than 10 minutes... Naah I’ve done it loads of times without a single problem. It’s very difficult to make it a rough finish if you do it with a proper file. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted February 27, 2018 Author Share Posted February 27, 2018 Cheers Ped. I never though of filing the groove deeper in the BBoT-style barrel saddles, but it sounds like a great idea. I'm using a spare set of saddles on the bass at the moment which will be easy enough to replace if I do make a mess of it so I'll try that. I don't have access to a router and sinking the bridge into the body isn't a reversable mod so I'm not keen to try that, but thanks for the suggestion HZ. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinny Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 As to the grub screws, I usually throw some metric Strat ones in as they're a lot shorter. Usually only 2 or 3 squids a set on the feebay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted March 1, 2018 Share Posted March 1, 2018 Do you really need relief in the neck? It's one way to bring it down. Failing that the best is to file either the grove or the bottom of the saddles. If you can get some brass saddles it will look better after filing down, if you file down the chrome it could end looking very botched. If filing chrome saddles is the way i would remove the bottom of the saddle, not the grove, to hide the hack job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 Do you have a local engineering firm? if so I would get them to shave a couple of mm off the bridge plate very easy job with the right gear and should only cost a couple of quid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 35 minutes ago, Thunderbird said: Do you have a local engineering firm? if so I would get them to shave a couple of mm off the bridge plate very easy job with the right gear and should only cost a couple of quid The bridge plate shouldn't be shaved as you loose thickness in the base and it can became prone to bending with the force of the strings (like the cheap bridges in behringer basses). Trimming down saddle height is the safest route IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 This is true but I thought that the op was using a higher mass bridge with the thick bass plate these are fine to remove material from gotoh even do this as a service but yes on a BBOT Bridge bad idea and you're right sorting the saddles is the best way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary mac Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 2 hours ago, Ghost_Bass said: The bridge plate shouldn't be shaved as you loose thickness in the base and it can became prone to bending with the force of the strings (like the cheap bridges in behringer basses). Trimming down saddle height is the safest route IMO. I can't see how it would bend, if the screws holding it to the body are doing their job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 1 hour ago, gary mac said: I can't see how it would bend, if the screws holding it to the body are doing their job. It's true, i've seen it happen with my own eyes. A friend of mine started playing bass with a cheap behringer (can't remember the model), bridge was fender-type chinese crap. When i met with him to give him some lights about bass i saw that the bridge was bent by the screws line and the back part was lifted. If he tried to bend it back it would break by the screw holes line. He wasn't even using a heavy gauge string set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 3 hours ago, gary mac said: I can't see how it would bend, if the screws holding it to the body are doing their job. I have never seen one bend only way I think it could is if the bridge is made of monkey metal or has been skimmed far to much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonBassAlpha Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 If the saddle screws are metric (quite likely ) I have a bunch of short stainless grub screws I could send you , m3 metric . They won't get rusty and be impossible to turn. Just pm me your address. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted March 6, 2018 Author Share Posted March 6, 2018 3 minutes ago, MoonBassAlpha said: I have a bunch of short stainless grub screws I could send you Thanks for the generous offer, but I think I've managed to find a good solution. I've now swapped out the bridge for my spare badass II. it was already grooved and I haven't needed to deepen the grooves. I managed to lose one of the (imperial size) grub screws so I now have some on order, but I've found that I can get the action slightly lower than I achieved on the original bridge by removing the grub screws from the G & E saddles, so I probably won't need the ones that are on their way. The D & A saddles are raised a smidge and as the badass uses 3/16'' long grub screws they only protrude by about half a mm. As an added bonus, I think the badass looks rather good on this bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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