For the past few months I've had the strangest problem with my bass. The saddles on the bridge sometimes move very slightly in their grooves, cause a buzzing sound to occur.
First of all, just so you all know, I'm positive this isn't fret buzz. It happens regardless of what fret I'm playing on, even the last fret.
I play an Ibanez Soundgear SR905 (5 string). They have changed the specs slightly since I bought mine, but the bridge is the same. Have a look:
http://www.ibanez.com/bass/guitar.aspx?m=SR905
Here's my best explanation of what I think is going on:
IF I push on any one of the saddles, I can see it move (by an almost unnoticeable amount) toward the saddle next to it. Then I can push it back in the other direction, and so on, ie it can "wiggle" a bit if I push on it. I think what's happening is that when I pluck the string hard enough it gets enough momentum to make the saddle "wiggle" just from the force of the string, and this causes a "buzzed" sounding note, which is really terrible when amplified and still noticeable when unplugged.
I also noticed that this only occurs when plucking "in the direction of the string below it". So the rattling is occuring in the same direction as how I can "wiggle" the saddle.
If I pop the string, even really hard, the buzz doesn't happen, because the direction that the string is vibrating in is toward the body, so the saddle doesn't move. Also, if I use my left hand to push on the saddle when I'm plucking the string, this prevents the buzzing from happening (because the saddle is held in place) no matter how hard I pluck.
So am I doomed to play softer the rest of my life or is there something I can do to fix this. I've never heard of this kind of problem in my life. How might I fix it?
