gibson EB bridge problem

Matthijs · #1 10-19-2011, 03:31 AM

Hi all,

I'm staying at a friends house who has a bass laying around just in case someone needs to play one. He's a musician and people often come to his house to jam or rehearse. It's a late 70's or early 80's gibson EB-something. I like the bass, but there's something really wrong with the allignment of the bridge. Because of this the E string falls wide from the polepieces and sounds soft and dull. I tried adjusting the bridge and pu's, but nothing helps. Is this a common problem for these Gibson basses, and is therea common soution for this? The only things I can come up involve filing down the bridge and/or the saddles, or completely removing, filling in, and redrilling of the 3 bolts the bridge is based on. I'm hoping for something less invasive. It's a beatifull characterfull and funky bass, and it holds considerable emotional value to my friends wife. Any suggestions?

Matthijs · #2 10-19-2011, 03:33 AM

NachoConde · #3 10-19-2011, 04:08 AM

Is it a problem with the alignment of the neck? Sometimes the neck can shift a little bit left or right and cause this sort of thing to happen. Or like it happened to me on my MIM jazz bass the nut wasn't centred and therefore the strings were not centred.

Art Araya · #4 10-19-2011, 04:32 AM

Replace the bridge with this one from Hipshot:

STEWMAC.COM : Hipshot Supertone Bass Bridge

Will it solve this particular problem? Can't say that but this bridge is much more adjustable that the stock one.

Matthijs · #5 10-19-2011, 05:25 AM

It's not the neck, and it's glued anyway. I can see the PU's and the neck are perfectly alligned.

As far as I can tell that Stewmack bridge has no possibility for sideways adjustment.

It seems strange to me that a A-brand bass like this has such a poorly fitted bridge.

Matthijs · #6 10-19-2011, 05:35 AM

I see the hipshot bridge has adjustable string spacing. That should work, it would affect the originality of the bass though.

godofthunder59 · #7 10-19-2011, 05:41 AM

The Hipshot mounts on the original stud spacing, no drilling or extra holes. Keep the original bridge in the case..........................just in case lol. Seriously buy the Hipshot problem solved.

Matthijs · #8 10-19-2011, 08:33 AM

I think you're right. Maybe I was also hoping for a cheaper way to solve this, as it's not my own bass. The bass is worth it though amd it would be a shame to file down the bridge. Anyway, not playing it would be a greater shame.

Steveaux · #9 10-19-2011, 10:10 AM

The E string is saddled on the whip, not on the windings.

It isn't far enough out of line to cause a "weak E".

Check the intonation. If you can't move the saddle forward of the whip, try a different brand of strings.

Matthijs · #10 10-19-2011, 10:26 AM

What is the whip?

I do not think this is because of the string resting on the windings. There's a big volume drop between e and a. And the e has almost no high content. It sure sounds like a weak e to me.

gnjpowell · #11 10-19-2011, 10:29 AM

Looks possibly like the saddle might be cocked sideways a tad... hard to tell from the photo. Could try another saddle and/or file the slot in the correct location to put the string where you wan it.

Matthijs · #12 10-19-2011, 05:23 PM

The sadle does not seem to be very straigjt in the middle. But i can not get it in another position. Filing seems the most straight forward option, it just seems such a shame.

Pilgrim · #13 10-19-2011, 05:41 PM

Don't file.

Change the strings to a set with none of the wrappings on the E saddle.

I agree, the E string is NOT far enough out of alignment to be a big problem. You may simply have a bad string.

At this point, I would not change ANYTHING except the strings.

Matthijs · #14 10-20-2011, 04:28 AM

I'm not about to file. I did some tb research and I think this bass is a eb3 from 74 or 75, thats a bit to old to be handled like that.

It's not the string, one would hear that unamplified. Also the difference is the most for the bridge pu and less for the mudbucker. The pole pieces for the bridge pu are tiny and shielded by the cover, I think that causes a very narrow flux. So I did a test by shimming the sadlle in the right direction. This made all the difference!

The shimming makes it difficult to achieve a good set up. So I guess this bass needs a new bridge.

I've set it up as good as possible and started playing "sunshine of your love". This is really a special bass, with tons of soul and much much more versatile than I imagined it to be. This thing also rocks for old school fingerfunk.

96tbird · #15 10-20-2011, 10:43 PM

The whip or overwind is the part of the string that the core wire is wrapped around the string before the final winding is put on. It is the rough bumpy area before the string smooths out. In your pic the whip is directly on the saddle and can kill the vibrations. This is a problem with these bridges. The solutions are a spacer on the ball end to extend the ball back so this dead part of the string is behind the saddle, or another set of strings.

Like this: Gibson SG Bass bridge fix video - Gibson Guitar Board

Or this TB member: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/member.php?u=177020
makes this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...#ht_647wt_1189

Steveaux · #16 10-21-2011, 06:30 PM

^^^^

I like the Mod-Bar.

warnergt · #17 10-21-2011, 06:49 PM

Is there any play where the bridge mounts on those screws?
Maybe you can get a slightly better alignment by trying to
shift the bridge over (assuming there is some play).

Regardless, it looks close to a non-problem to me.

I wish I had a Gibson EB laying around.