Bridge Height...

[biddypatrick]

Hello... Can someone tell me if the two height adjusters on the bridge have to be the same or can I have the E and A a little lower to the D and G? Cheers!

[eerbrev]

they can be differing heights, but you won't get much benefit out of it in terms of string height. after a while the strings start to go sideways instead of up or down.

I have also been told, whether truthfully or not, that it's not very good for the top of you bass as it displaces the pressure to one side or the other, which can cause warping, cracks, etc.

so, in short, yes, it's possible to do, but there's no really good reason to do so. if you want a different radius on your bridge, you're going to need to get it re-cut.

[tstone]

It's best for the two adjusters to be equal. Visualize a bridge with one leg adjusted longer than the other. Now visualize sitting that bridge on the bass's top plate. Now imagine a downward force on the bridge in the neighborhood of 120 lbs. All this is illustrated in the sketch below. Of course it is grossly exaggerated, but the principle is the same.

I think you can see that the feet no longer fit snugly to the bass top, that the edges of the feet are going to tend to dig into the top, and that there's going to be a lot of stress on the top, the wood of the bridge, and the adjuster screws.

Now, there's some slop in the adjuster screw threads, and the bridge and the top are all somewhat flexible, so a little misalignment can be tolerated. But I would say that if the adjuster heights are more than about a millimeter, or one full turn of the wheels different, it would be better to reshape the top arch of the bridge. Others may have looser or tighter standards, but that's my personal opinion.

[biddypatrick]

Thanks guys.. considering I have an old instrument that has cracks and is already warping and has endless repairs, I'm gonna listen. Thanks for your help..

[swingingoodtime]

Check out these threads; there's been a fair bit of discussion around individual & overall adjuster heights:

strange question
Bridge/adjusters
Bridge Adjusters Question

As mentioned in the first thread, it can depend on the type of adjusters you have (as far as I know, there are two different types); one appears to lend itself better to differences in E vs G leg heights, although I'm personally not convinced that, regardless of type, the heights have to be within such a close tolerance (1mm) as mentioned above; but you'd certainly want to be aware of lateral, rather than vertical, movement of the strings as the difference grows.