Bridge saddle height

[@war]

Hi all

I just got a Cort A6. I took it out the box, and the neck relief and intonation were perfect. I like a super-low action, so I took the saddles on the bridge down as far as they'd go without buzz. My problem is that at their lowest, the B and C string saddles aren't low enough to sit a touch lower than the E and G strings (to match the radius of the neck).

I've heard that its possible to file the under-side of the saddles down to get them to sit lower. Is this a good course of action, or is there maybe something I'm missing in terms of the general setup?

If I were to file the saddles down, what type of file would be best?

Keep groovin'!

[J.D.B.]

Never heard of filing the saddles. Sounds like a good way to introduce noise, though. Generally, when one can't lower the saddles enough, the neck gets shimmed to tip it backward. that will allow the saddles more range downward, usually no bottoming out before the strings are too low to the fretboard. If you want to remove metal from the saddles, I suggest sanding over filing.

Josh

[@war]

Thanks! I shimmed my old bass' neck as it was a bolt on, but obviously as this is a neck-through, i can't do that. Any suggestions re truss rod? I'm pretty sure its all good. Strings move a bit less than the standard credit card measure when depressed etc. Any help is appreciated as i live in a place with no-one really knowledgeable in this area.

[JustDavid]

Maybe try less neck relief. As the strings get closer from the neck 'lowering' this will permit more height from the saddles. Hopefully enough.

I recently went to about 0.27 mm on a cheap fretless & it's nice! Go for 0.25 to 0.38 mm.

[dmusic148]

+1 on the neck relief. You may be able to really flatten it out to get the desired result and still have it playable. On the other hand, my brand-new MIA Fender has the bottoms of the barrels flattened for just this reason.