Got a Squier PJ Bass

Didn't think I was going to get away with buying a $200 bass and not having to do some work.

Anyhow, let the hacking begin. First off the tail piece set screws are too long. I've put some allen heads in some in that had the same thread, but I had to cut some of them short with cutting pliers and being I was too lazy to grind down the end of the screws after cutting them with pliers (brute force cut) 1 of the screws stripped out the saddle (d'oh) so I've got a bolt on the underside of the saddle holding it in place. I have a dremel too, which I should have used to cut the screws. Too lazy to break that out as well, heh.

My question. Who makes a decent bridge for this bass? Are there any that don't use set screws for adjustment height, or some other mechanism? Or perhaps there's a company that makes a bridge that was actually tested and the screws cut already at proper length as to not dig into your hand?

I'm not really a bass player, so I'm not on the up and up as far as gear and parts.. Just bought this to do some recording as the acoustic bass I have is not cutting it for the bass tone into the DAW.

Also, one of the tuners came prebent. They feel as fragile as a pretzel, so I'm looking for some decent tuners. What would you recommend.

Thanks.

 

Cool, thanks, that bridge looks cool. I don't mind spending some money on this thing. It will be a cool project. A lot of the songs my band plays are in low tunings. Low E (one octave below E), B tunings, D tunings. If I play bass with my fingers, the bass gets lost in the mix, even when using bass reducing plugins. So, to compensate and get more bite and twang out of the bass, I use a pick. I set the action at 3mm but the set screws were still high and kind of sharp. I realize some folks file them. I put allen screws in as you can see, but I don't have much in the way of adjustment. The action is set good right now and the problem is pretty much solved, but I would like to get a better bridge and tuners as I think this bass (although a cheapo) is worth upgrading the tuners and the bridge.

As of now, the tuners are so whack, I feel like they are going to break when I turn them. The gears are terrible. Probably some oil or grease would help, but the buttons seem flimsy as all heck as well. All in all, it's a good bass for the price. I'm not complaining. But they should perhaps use some smaller set screws to reduce the aggravation of users. But I realize most people use fingers and don't play with a pick.