Multislotted Saddles on BAII Bridge

selowitch · #1 11-12-2009, 05:54 PM

I bought some Leo Quan saddles with multiple grooves/slots and put them on a BAII baseplate (the incumbent saddles were filed not very well so I decided to replace them) on my recent MIM Jazz Bass.

Now my question is, how do I decide in which of the four slots in each saddle I should place the strings? Should I place the strings in the same slot in each one? Should the spacing of the strings be even? What's the correct and proper use of this feature?

**line6man** · #2 11-12-2009, 05:58 PM

You put the strings in whichever slots will allow the string spacing you want.

Shouldn't that be obvious?

electracoyote · #3 11-12-2009, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by selowitch

I bought some Leo Quan saddles with multiple grooves/slots and put them on a BAII baseplate (the incumbent saddles were filed not very well so I decided to replace them) on my recent MIM Jazz Bass.

Now my question is, how do I decide in which of the four slots in each saddle I should place the strings? Should I place the strings in the same slot in each one? Should the spacing of the strings be even? What's the correct and proper use of this feature?

They give you multiple slots so you can get a good string spread and spacing. "Good" is entirely up to you.

selowitch · #4 11-12-2009, 06:16 PM

So are you saying that it basically doesn't matter? To me, it seems like the space between the strings ought to be uniform (or, at least, would be uniform if all four strings were of the same width [they're not, but if you strung the bass up with four "E" strings, that's how it would be]. It also seems that having different string spacings between the "G" and "D" string than between "D" and "A" would produce weird results. Am I overthinking this?

Is the placement of the strings relative to the pickup magnets a valid consideration in choosing the slots to use?

I guess if I put the stock bridge behind the BA bridge for a moment, I would see where the saddle slots on the old bridge were, and could just pick the BA slots based on that.

Lesfunk · #5 11-12-2009, 06:20 PM

I don't measure the spacing but I do make sure the strings are centered over or (if you have a Fender) in between pickup pole pieces and spaced appropriately over the fingerboard
I can get it done by eyeballing it.

**line6man** · #6 11-12-2009, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by selowitch

So are you saying that it basically doesn't matter? To me, it seems like the space between the strings ought to be uniform (or, at least, would be uniform if all four strings were of the same width [they're not, but if you strung the bass up with four "E" strings, that's how it would be]. It also seems that having different string spacings between the "G" and "D" string than between "D" and "A" would produce weird results. Am I overthinking this?

Is the placement of the strings relative to the pickup magnets a valid consideration in choosing the slots to use?

I guess if I put the stock bridge behind the BA bridge for a moment, I would see where the saddle slots on the old bridge were, and could just pick the BA slots based on that.

As long as you are within the boundary of the pole pieces, it won't matter.

Space them however you want. It's all relative to how much space you want between the strings.
Standard spacing is 19mm IIRC.

selowitch · #7 11-12-2009, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by line6man

As long as you are within the boundary of the pole pieces, it won't matter.

OK. What is the "boundary" of the pole pieces and how do I know if I'm within it? Sorry if that's a dense question.

fenderphil · #8 11-12-2009, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by selowitch

OK. What is the "boundary" of the pole pieces and how do I know if I'm within it? Sorry if that's a dense question.

strings line up with the pole pieces. or between them, actually

it might not be uniform on the saddle count, but it will line up everywhere else

selowitch · #9 11-12-2009, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fenderphil

strings line up with the pole pieces. or between them, actually

it might not be uniform on the saddle count, but it will line up everywhere else

Oh, okay. So I should choose whichever slot leaves the string closest to the middle spot between each pair of pickup magnets. That's what I was doing, but I thought that might have been wrong or that the pickups might be slightly misaligned.

Often the simple answer is the correct one, I see.

Lesfunk · #10 11-12-2009, 06:34 PM

Happy days!

**line6man** · #11 11-12-2009, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by selowitch

Oh, okay. So I should choose whichever slot leaves the string closest to the middle spot between each pair of pickup magnets. That's what I was doing, but I thought that might have been wrong or that the pickups might be slightly misaligned.

Often the simple answer is the correct one, I see.

No, the alignment to the pole pieces does not matter.
What I meant by boundary was don't wander outside of the magnetic field of the pole pieces. As long as you stay over the pickup, the spacing doesn't matter.

You want the strings consistantly spaced apart, at the distance of your preference.
The standard spacing IIRC is 19mm. Set the strings to be 19mm apart.

walterw · #12 11-15-2009, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by selowitch

Oh, okay. So I should choose whichever slot leaves the string closest to the middle spot between each pair of pickup magnets. That's what I was doing, but I thought that might have been wrong or that the pickups might be slightly misaligned.

Often the simple answer is the correct one, I see.

Quote:

Originally Posted by line6man

No, the alignment to the pole pieces does not matter.
What I meant by boundary was don't wander outside of the magnetic field of the pole pieces. As long as you stay over the pickup, the spacing doesn't matter.

You want the strings consistantly spaced apart, at the distance of your preference.
The standard spacing IIRC is 19mm. Set the strings to be 19mm apart.

actually, it does matter, just not greatly. the whole point of leo's pickup design for the P and the J was to have each string riding between the magnet pairs. this slightly compressed the initial voltage spike on the attack (since the string isn't right over a magnet) but allowed for strong output, since the string still vibrated back and forth over the two poles.

this design saved the fragile bass speakers of the day from blowing, which was apparently a problem with the first P bass, with its magnets right under each string.

as for spacing, 19mm is just too narrow for jazz bass pickups to line up like they should (my complaint about otherwise nice bridges like the gotoh 201).

selowitch · #13 11-15-2009, 05:25 PM

So do we have a clear answer to the question posted in the OP, or are we back to Square One?

walterw · #14 11-15-2009, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by selowitch

So do we have a clear answer to the question posted in the OP, or are we back to Square One?

yep; set the strings to be between each pair of magnets, get on with your day.

selowitch · #15 11-15-2009, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walterw

yep; set the strings to be between each pair of magnets, get on with your day.

OK, thanks. Close thread. End of line. Fold up the lemonade stand.

narud · #16 11-15-2009, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by line6man

No, the alignment to the pole pieces does not matter.
What I meant by boundary was don't wander outside of the magnetic field of the pole pieces. As long as you stay over the pickup, the spacing doesn't matter.

You want the strings consistantly spaced apart, at the distance of your preference.
The standard spacing IIRC is 19mm. Set the strings to be 19mm apart.

i bought a hipshot a and put it on a fender. brought the spacing in to around 18mm and didnt suffer any loss in output or tone. i did the same thing with a fodera except went down to 17.5. where i did have problems was a 17mm set of pickups on a bass with 19mm spacing. poor b string response.