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Club Alleva Coppolo (Part V)

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#61
jonno1707 said:
How does the badass bridge compare in tone and feel to the Hipshot?
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The string tension with the Badass is tighter than with the Hipshot.
I found better overall sustain with the Badass, but prefer the feel & tone that you get with the Hipshot.
The LG5's all had Badass bridges for the first year of production.
With my LG5, I used the Badass for about the first year and a half, then switched to the Hipshot for about the same amount of time, and now have been using the Vintage Bent Plate for about a year.
I find the vintage style bridge to give a more organic & more open sound ... much more old school. It's less aggressive sounding than the other 2 and has less sustain, but IMO it helps to give the bass a more "old sounding" jazz bass vibe.
I have the Hipshot on my Limited 5 and am a big fan of the punch & feel it gives to a more modern vibe.
 
#65
jonno1707 said:
Bridges come in many different shapes and sizes and one bridge design may be thinner in the bass than another and require a higher saddle setting to achieve similar action... This greater string break angle over the saddle can most definitely create more string tension...
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Not so. For a given string at a fixed length (i.e., 34" scale or whatever), if you put that string under greater tension, the pitch will increase.

While a greater break angle over a saddle will create more downward pressure on the saddle, it will not result in higher tension on the string itself. The only way to get higher tension on a given string is to make the scale of the instrument longer, so that you make up for the longer length (which results in a lower pitch) by tuning it slightly tighter... making the tension increase.

I'm pretty sure this is correct.
 
#68
Andrew Jones said:
IMHO wording like Stiffer or the feel of more tension would prevent the enviable physics conversation.

And I agree that things like after length and break angle affect the feel.


AJ
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I do agree there AJ... a rock hard neck does seem to impart a 'stiffer' feel, all other things being equal. Never really felt the 'break angle' thing when I switched back and forth between through body and through bridge on my Lakland, Celinder, MM, etc. However, those bridges were all designed very well, and the break angle 'through the bridge' was sufficient for very tight coupling to the saddle. I guess if you have a really poorly designed bridge, increasing the break angle might make a difference.
 
#71
KJung said:
I do agree there AJ... a rock hard neck does seem to impart a 'stiffer' feel, all other things being equal. Never really felt the 'break angle' thing when I switched back and forth between through body and through bridge on my Lakland, Celinder, MM, etc. However, those bridges were all designed very well, and the break angle 'through the bridge' was sufficient for very tight coupling to the saddle. I guess if you have a really poorly designed bridge, increasing the break angle might make a difference.
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I couldn't agree more quality of material and design is of the utmost importance and will absolutely effect overall feel....
 
#72
Andrew Jones said:
Where I felt the biggest differences with these Ideas was messing around with the set up on my 40 1/4 inch scale 5/8's double bass.Trying to get a stiffer feel to the same gauge strings and more pressure on the top plate,which I feel I very much succeeded. IMHO The concepts apply to electric though it's a more subtle result.
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I'd someday like to understand the impact of neck stiffness also. For example, I have 45-125 Hi Beams on my 35" Celinder and my 34" Sadowsky and Alleva's. The B strings on both the Sadowsky and Alleva feel MUCH tighter than on the longer scale Celinder (which is counter-intuitive). However, the necks of the Alleva and Sadowsky are ROCK hard. You can yank that neck back at the holding the headstock and body, and they virtually won't move at all. The Celinder has a bit of 'play' in it.

I have no desire for a thicker (i.e., higher tension) B string on the Alleva or my Sadowsky basses. They, for whatever reason, feel much tighter than many other basses I've owned, even those with a longer scale length.
 
#73
jonno1707 said:
Physics shmysics it all boils down to what you feel and it has always been my experience that higher action and greater string break gave the strings a more rigid and higher tension felling under my fingers...
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I can also see that higher action will of course result in having to push the string down more, which will make the instrument feel a bit 'stiffer' (and I guess play hell with intonation if it's extreme). So, +1 there. I'm not going to budge on string break though... I've never felt or heard a difference. However, again, I've never owned an instrument with an overly shallow string break at the bridge, so I would agree that in extremes (a poorly designed bridge), a shallow break would not be the best thing for sustain, etc.
 
#74
I have spent years modifying and adjusting old Fenders and part of this process is always getting the correct amount of shims under the heel to get the proper neck angle for a good setup...
If there aren't enough shims under the heel the neck will be to low in the cavity which in turn will force you to lower the saddles as low as possible sometimes almost eliminated string break and the opposite as too many shims will create the need for sky high saddles and a very stiff and tense feeling string...This has always been my experience...
 
#75
jonno1707 said:
I have spent years modifying and adjusting old Fenders and part of this process is always getting the correct amount of shims under the heel to get the proper neck angle for a good setup...
If there aren't enough shims under the heel the neck will be to low in the cavity which in turn will force you to lower the saddles as low as possible sometimes almost eliminated string break and the opposite as too many shims will create the need for sky high saddles and a very stiff and tense feeling string...This has always been my experience...
Click to expand...

Another good example of why I love the old Fender tone, but not old Fenders:D
 
#77
jonno1707 said:
You would be surprised even the most expensive bolt on basses sometimes need shims added or removed for optimal performance and set up...
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It's interesting that Roger Sadowsky (in that recent Dimarzio interview that someone posted up) spends the most time talking about how the neck pocket is key to his instrument, and each neck pocket is hand fitting/carved to each neck. I assume Jimmy does a similar 'fitting'. Good stuff!!!!!
 
#78
Ok, I'm in....:cool:

IMG_1311.gif
 
#79
Good times, I am just having allot of fun playing my new bass today. Spent some time making adjustments and I am totally in love. It doesn't make my JO4 any less special btw!

I put the bass down to check my email and thought "man I'm a pretty lucky guy"

Enjoy the rest of the day guys!
 
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