|  | 
06-24-2010, 08:49 AM
|  | Registered User
Alloy Musical Products | | Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Northern NJ | | | Badass II saddle grooves off center
Sign in to disble this ad
I purchased a Badass II bridge off of eBay and the seller neglected to mention that the saddle grooves are way off center. Is there any way to correct this? |
06-24-2010, 08:51 AM
|  | Quatre-cordes | | Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: New Orleans, LA /El Paso TX | | | does it still work with your pickups though? only solution I see would be to hunt down replacement saddles online, I remember seeing those before... |
06-24-2010, 08:53 AM
| | Registered User
Alloy Musical Products | | Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Northern NJ | | | Well, the pickups will definitely pick up the sound, it just irks me. I think I may fabricate my own saddles.
Last edited by Lublin : 06-24-2010 at 08:55 AM.
|
06-24-2010, 09:04 AM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Rhode Island | | | Slot new grooves? |
06-24-2010, 09:09 AM
| | Registered User
Alloy Musical Products | | Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Northern NJ | | Quote:
Originally Posted by sailri  Slot new grooves? | The new grooves will spill over the the old, off-center ones. |
06-24-2010, 09:19 AM
| | Registered User
Endorsing Artist: Ashdown Amps and Sandberg Basses. | | Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: South Africa | | Check out www.bestbassgear.com they sell individual saddles if I remember correctly.
__________________
"I ate fiberglass insulation. It wasn't cotton-candy like that guy said. My tummy itches" - Brick Tamland
|
06-24-2010, 10:04 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2008 Location: triad, nc | |
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by blipndub Who cares what sticker he puts on his pos bass. He could put an STP sticker on it and some nascar fan would get all bent out of shape. | |
06-24-2010, 10:13 AM
| | Registered User
Endorsing Artist: J.C. Basses | | Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Phoenix, Arizona 85029 | | | Why does the BAII require you to slot your own saddles? I've never understood this.
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by McThumpenstein I don't think the wife would buy the "I need to take off this knob and put a whole new bass under it" story. | |
06-24-2010, 10:35 AM
| | Registered User
Alloy Musical Products | | Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Northern NJ | | After a little thinking I decided to throw them on my milling machine and just reface the the area where the string contacts the saddle. I couldn't reface the entire surface because the amount I removed would have cut into the counterbore for the adjusting screw. It didn't completely clean up the old slot on the E string but it cleaned enough for me to allow my own new slot. I'll mount it up tonight, align the strings to my liking, and file some new slots in.
Here's how it looks right now:  |
06-24-2010, 11:51 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2008 Location: triad, nc | | | dude, nice job.... i wish i could do that to an "original" BA i have--- to f'ed up saddle slots are too deep. i bought it that way, but it ended up being a freebie after i complained to the ebay seller and paypal. really nice paperweight though!
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by blipndub Who cares what sticker he puts on his pos bass. He could put an STP sticker on it and some nascar fan would get all bent out of shape. | |
06-24-2010, 11:58 AM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Purple Mountain Majesties | | | Good job Lublin, it's great that you have the tools and skills to make those corrections.
And welcome to the world of the Badass replacement bridge. Yours is a common concern with this bridge. Unslotted, the strings can shift, and the bridge may be too thick to dial in lower action. And getting it slotted correctly and accurately can be a trick that not everyone is very good at.
In my experience, this bridge is so thick, that you can actually put a fairly deep groove in it when slotting. I had a tech do it for me with a set of rat tail files, he went nearly as deep as a string thickness, and I still had to keep the saddles adjusted pretty low to get my action dialed in.
In the end, I decided the BA bridge is not all it's cracked up to be for my needs. I don't even notice all that much difference in tone. YMMV.
Good luck with it!
__________________
"That's right Mr. Martini, there is an Easter Bunny!"
WANTED: Vintage Hagstrom Concord in RED |
06-24-2010, 12:44 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: League City, Tx | | Quote:
Originally Posted by FunkMetalBass Why does the BAII require you to slot your own saddles? I've never understood this. | Well they actually recommend you have them set up by a luthier. The reason they aren't set is so you can precisely align the strings to the pups of the bass you install it on. Remember, the original BA's weren't normally intended for the Fender profile as a default, most where used on Gibsons which are certainly not near the 19mm "standard".
__________________
Lefty Union Member #26 G&L Club Member #2, Rickenbacker Club #4 Acoustic Club #2 Jag Club Member #2 T-40 club #15 Medium Bass Club #58 Korg Pandora club #2
|
06-24-2010, 12:54 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: League City, Tx | | Quote:
Originally Posted by toobalicious dude, nice job.... i wish i could do that to an "original" BA i have--- to f'ed up saddle slots are too deep. i bought it that way, but it ended up being a freebie after i complained to the ebay seller and paypal. really nice paperweight though! | You can't raise the saddles enough to use them? 
__________________
Lefty Union Member #26 G&L Club Member #2, Rickenbacker Club #4 Acoustic Club #2 Jag Club Member #2 T-40 club #15 Medium Bass Club #58 Korg Pandora club #2
|
06-24-2010, 01:39 PM
| | Quatre-cordes | | Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: New Orleans, LA /El Paso TX | | | wait you have a milling machine, what are you doing buying a BAD II, you should make your own out of billet aluminum |
06-24-2010, 02:21 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2008 Location: triad, nc | | Quote:
Originally Posted by lug You can't raise the saddles enough to use them? | well.... the problem is that the slots are grossly misaligned. dude specifically advertised that this was "cut for a MIA jazz bass". and maybe he did cut it for that--- he just f'ed up. not nearly enough material to have it machined away because of the locations of the screws and the deep, f'ed up slots.
yes, i repeatedly used the "f'ed up" phrase, as frankly, there isnt a better way to describe a home-fried botch job, of which my bridge certainly was.
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by blipndub Who cares what sticker he puts on his pos bass. He could put an STP sticker on it and some nascar fan would get all bent out of shape. | |
06-26-2010, 06:40 AM
| | Registered User
Alloy Musical Products | | Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Northern NJ | | Quote:
Originally Posted by joeyl wait you have a milling machine, what are you doing buying a BAD II, you should make your own out of billet aluminum | I've already begun sketching it up in AutoCAD 
I may have a good idea which may offer up to bass community. |
06-26-2010, 09:34 PM
| | Quatre-cordes | | Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: New Orleans, LA /El Paso TX | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Lublin I've already begun sketching it up in AutoCAD
I may have a good idea which may offer up to bass community. |  | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
Posting Rules
| You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts
HTML code is On | | | |
