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This is too true. I love the Babicz bridges for regular tuning but it was useless when I tune to C standard and try to intonate that C string. Took out the spring and Intonation was still off enough to make me put the bridge in the parts bin. Just went back to Hipshot. I must say it was a very nice bridge and if I played in a typical EADG tuning it might be ok. I just wish Babicz would make the bridge longer like the Leo Quans. You can intonate those for any tuning.
I joined this site just to agree with you because some of these remarks are made by people who have zero to no or between nothing and none knowledge of how guitar pick ups work ! Lol not to be harsh but ALL of the tone of your signal chain tone that begins in the guitar comes from the pickups . 100% . End of debate . Sorry folks , if you wanna argue this read up on physics and electronics first before you say anything lol
Except for the very real affect the body has on the way the string vibrates. As string vibration passes back and forth between the string and the body, some frequencies are absorbed by the body which means they are lost to the string as well - so the body is affecting the frequencies that remain in the string. Different woods will absorb frequencies differently. Any change in the frequency response of the string will be detected by the pickup, changing the tone of the resultant sound. Thus "tonewood".
Well...Nah... I just spent the last 3 hours fixing it myself. Works like a champ, now. There were a myriad of little problems, that I just worked through one at a time, very methodically:
- The base plate, where the saddle assemblies slide back and forth, had patches of some kind of sticky - very sticky - goo on it. There were patches of it on the saddle assemblies, too; as well as various other parts - like the saddle travel screws. That stuff was a real mother chicken to get off, too. I finally had to resort to brake cleaner and a stiff brush, to get it off of everything...
- On two of the saddle bodies, tap overrun in the saddle height adjustment holes created burrs that made the drums hard to turn. Fortunately, I'm a very good hand with a needle file...
- Every drum had some kind of burr on it - in widely different places. Needle file, again...
- Threaded holes for about half of the screws had either debris; goop; or both, in them. Brake cleaner, pipe cleaners, and running the screws in and out, took care of that...
- The holes in the base plate for the D and G string saddle adjustment screws were binding on the screw. More work with the needle files...
Once I got everything clean and free of goop, debris, and burrs, I sprayed the bejeezus out of it with Break Free; wiped it down; and re-assembled it. Put it back on the Blackbird; strung it up; re-tuned and intonated it; it's now working like it should have, in the first place. So, do I like the Babicz bridge - now? Well... it's better than some of the bridges on some of my basses; the equal to one or two others; and, sadly, not as good as some others. On a Thunderbird? I really prefer the old 3 pointer, to tell the truth...
