Beatle bass intonation question

[rumblethump]

I know these basses are notorious for bad intonation. Their bridge is somewhat limited. I have intonated my bass and the G string is perfect, it takes shoving the E string side forward, right up against the bridge pickup to get very close, but it still is a tad flat. I'm thinking I should shave the corner edge of the bride to allow me to move the E side ever so slightly forward to get perfect intonation? Is there a better bridge?

[mwesth]

Why don't you just move the small metal-thingies (dont know their real name, they are small pieces of fretwire on the top of the bridge) forward to another slot?
Strange, that you have to move your bridge so close to the pup - here is a pic of the bridge on my Epi Viola..

[JLS]

Those little pieces of fretwire are saddles; move the one under the E string closer.

These shortscale basses can be very picky about strings, too.

[rumblethump]

Thanks to both of you. I pryed up the e string saddle/fretwire with my thumbnail. Moved it one slot forward and it solved the problem. Now the bridge base is back to almost parallel. Glad I didn't have butcher the bridge.

[mwesth]

Good to hear (-:

[GL797]

I've never seen one of those bridges placed there. All bridges should be placed at the exact same length from the nut to the 12 fret. After you have that measurement, use that same measurement distance from the 12th fret towards the pickups and place the bridge there. Then small adjustments is all that should be needed.

[Mrdak]

Originally Posted by GL797

I've never seen one of those bridges placed there. All bridges should be placed at the exact same length from the nut to the 12 fret. After you have that measurement, use that same measurement distance from the 12th fret towards the pickups and place the bridge there. Then small adjustments is all that should be needed.

+1 ..... that bridge needs to go back where it belongs. If it's a 30" scale, then place it 15" from the 12th fret. Then work with the saddles again.