Hofner Bass strings slide off saddles

[wilsonn]

Looking for some help to solve a problem with a Beatle bass. Mine is a late 60's vintage. It's not my main axe, just something fun to use for a song or two during the night.

The issue is that the A, and sometimes other strings, but most often the A, slides off the little saddle on top of the floating bridge. Very frustrating to be in the middle of a song and the string slips off the saddle.

So, do I file down the seat of the saddle? The bridge has four tracks that theoretically shorten/lengthen the string slightly. What is the point of these? To compensate for intonation differences from string to string?

Thanks for any ideas.

Neal

[GlennW]

Yes, those four slots are for intonation. IIRC, the saddles are short pieces of fret wire. You could file grooves in them and raise the bridge to compensate.

[JimmyM]

Had that same problem on my Turser Beatle bass. The G string was too high so I filed the saddle down, then it kept popping out. It needs to be filed to where it's less rounded and keeps the string in place. You may have to replace the fretwire in the bridge but you may not.

[GlennW]

If you try that and still have a problem you could get some tall fretwire and make some new saddles which would allow you to file deeper grooves.

Edit: Since your bass is the real thing, and worth a lot, you might want to put the original bridge aside and get a $30 replacement off ebay and just pull a tall fret out of a scrap neck if you can find one.

[wilsonn]

Thanks for the replies. I may just put it in the hands of a professional. It's an all original, 30 year old bass and I am a little afraid of screwing it up.
N