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G. Gould Club!

#401
This question is for pnutz and others very familiar with setup on these, or the man himself. I finally did my first string change and was making some minor setup adjustments. Neck relief seems good but I was hoping to lower the action a little on the G and D. It looks like I'm bottomed out on the saddle. What do I do? File down the saddle? If so how is that done? I'm at about 3/32 across the board at the 12th but was hopeful to get the G closer to 2/32. Please advise
 
#402
The G string saddle was too high on my 1998 as well. The bottom of it had to be shaved just a touch to get the string low enough for my playing, which is super low. However, I do not do these myself. I have a luthier here that does all my basses for me.
 
#412
His words to me "to keep adjustments practical" Mainly I think it's for if you are using taper cores. But like I said you may be able to get it set to your desired string height with taper cores without the shim. I also noticed an improvement in resonance of the bass after removing it.
 
#413
yodasfro said:
His words to me "to keep adjustments practical" Mainly I think it's for if you are using taper cores. But like I said you may be able to get it set to your desired string height with taper cores without the shim. I also noticed an improvement in resonance of the bass after removing it.
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Very interesting. Yeah I'm only out 1/32 I'm guessing I can still get the 3/32 on the B i want
 
#417
a lot of action in these boards!

If I wanted the string action to be a little lower, and felt the bridge wouldn't go lower, I'd shim the neck a smidgen. I don't mean to be cavalier, but these are professional tools, and sometimes you may need a custom setting. As far as the taper cores go, I know not everyone likes them, but I have had too many experiences where the intonation is better on the bigger strings, when you fret higher up on the neck. Now, some may say bass players have no business playing those strings high up, and I understand that point of view. I'm agnostic about strings and pickups, and honor whatever choices you make for your own personal sound.
 
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#418
Tdub77 said:
This question is for pnutz and others very familiar with setup on these, or the man himself. I finally did my first string change and was making some minor setup adjustments. Neck relief seems good but I was hoping to lower the action a little on the G and D. It looks like I'm bottomed out on the saddle. What do I do? File down the saddle? If so how is that done? I'm at about 3/32 across the board at the 12th but was hopeful to get the G closer to 2/32. Please advise
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what kind of bridge? the only bridge i know that used any kind of plate underneath the bridge was schaller. i had a modulus m-92 that had this scenario. just removed the plate and all's well.

i've only known geoff to use abm bridges. no plates there.

i ran into your situation on another modulus. instead of shaving the bridge or saddle, they counter-sunk the bridge a few millimeters into the body. another option to consider.
 
#419
Most of the 4 strings I have seen pics of have allparts abm copy style bridges and only a few of the 5 strings I have seen pics of with actual ABM bridges have had the spacers under the bridge. Take a look at the cornermusic website including their archive section. They have a nice feature where you can hover the image and zoom to see what I am talking about.
 
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#420
yodasfro said:
Most of the 4 strings I have seen pics of have allparts abm copy style bridges and only a few of the 5 strings I have seen pics of with actual ABM bridges have had the spacers under the bridge. Take a look at the cornermusic website including their archive section. They have a nice feature where you can hover the image and zoom to see what I am talking about.
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huh... never seen that before. maybe only on four-banger bridges? or a recent option on geoff's newer basses?

my gould's are a bit older and none have had a bridge shim underneath.

here's the only bridge i've seen with a shim option:

IMG_0469.jpg

came off of an early modulus. nice option to have if you need to shim a bolt-on neck to increase its angle downward.
 

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