Anybody having any advice for setting up my Jazz bass?

[Larry Mal]

Hey all, I'm setting up my Jazz bass for the first time... I'm not very experienced setting up bass guitars, although I'm solid with six strings (to a point).

But, I'm doing the intonation, and the note are flat at the twelfth fret against the open note, so I need to put the saddle forward a bit. But the problem is, there's no tension on the spring to drive the saddle forward... I'm literally pulling the screw out of the bridge and accomplishing nothing. I can retract the screw and tighten the spring no problem, but there's no tension to make the saddle go forward.

Outside of buying longer springs I don't see what I can likely do here. But I'm probably just not seeing something obvious.

Any thoughts?

[GLEN18INCHSPICA]

You could try taking the spring off & stretching it out gently by hand, might give you the little bit of extension you need.

[aprod]

You could just push on the screw to move the whole saddle and if there is too much resistance loosen the string a little.

[GLEN18INCHSPICA]

Yes definitely loosen the string & push the screw forward, the springs really just hold the saddles in place when the bass is not strung up.

[Larry Mal]

Yeah. It's odd. Otherwise, I'm really liking this bass.

[arginator]

Originally Posted by aprod

You could just push on the screw to move the whole saddle and if there is too much resistance loosen the string a little.

+1. I have to push the screw gently with the screwdriver as I'm turning it. But it works.

If you haven't seen them yet, Lakland has some great bass setup videos on YouTube.

[Larry Mal]

I'll look at those... I was a little skeptical of this bridge to start with, I'm really not in love with it now. How odd.

[Larry Mal]

Anyone have any suggestions for an bridge upgrade? How does the Hipshot work out? I assume it would be the "A" style?

[maturanesa]

you got to lose the screw back, and then push the screw with the saddle forward...

[Larry Mal]

Ah, I got you. That's the simple thing that would have only made sense for me to have thought of.

[unclebass]

If you loosen the string, the spring will push the saddle. Best thing to do is to unscrew the saddle farther than you know you need it, then any adjustments will require that you tighten the screw, eliminating your problem. All fender bridges are like this.