Badass II - time to shim the neck?

[wingnutkj]

I've got a Warmoth/Moses Jazz bass with a Badass II bridge on it. Right now, the neck angle is such that the saddle height adjusters seem to be almost at their limit, and the saddles are about 1mm above the grooves in the base of the bridge. The bridge pickup is also about as high as it can go.

Despite this, the bass plays fine; the action is great and the pickups are at the right height. It ain't broke, in other words. So should I fix it? A little voice is saying "if you shimmed the neck a bit, you could lower the saddles and bridge pickup a bit, and that'd be good, because, um..."

Is there any benefit to having the bridge saddles actually in the grooves? I can't imagine any benefit unless they were actually resting fully on the base plate, in which case there might be better transference of vibration from the string to the body. But then the break angle over the saddle would be less, and that'd probably affect it.

The pickup might benefit from being mounted lower in the body, because I sometimes anchor on it, and I can feel it moving under my thumb.

Any thoughts?

[bassist4ever]

if you want to make the pickup more solid, find some high density foam and shim up the pickup. i mean if it aint broke, dont fix it. if you like the string height and relief in the neck why bother with it? adding the shim will change your whole setup.

[lonote]

I wouldn't do anything until you have to. Given the stability of the graphite neck, you may never have to do anything unless you change string guages.

[bluesgeek]

I think you answered your question yourself

If you like how it plays and feels, don't touch it! I've been there and regretted it ever since

[wingnutkj]

Heh -yeah - I was recording with it last night, and it was sounding great, so I'm going to keep it as it is just now.