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Hipshot KickAss bridge

#43
Ken Smith has been making one "fender mount" forever
 

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#46
I just installed one of the KA's on a P bass build. 99 MIM P body with a 2014 MIM P neck Deluxe Special Jazz width neck. To me it seems like I have to raise the saddles too high out of the grooves. With the saddles all the way down the strings slam the fretboard and make the bass unplayable. Then when I raise the saddles it looks like I'm almost running out of room on the screws just to get the string height to stock Fender specs. Plus even with the saddles way up I still have to use the two tall inserts on the A & D strings to get enough height. Something isn't right I think.

Any thoughts or ideas? Here's a couple pics.

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#48
AndyMan said:
You can swap out the saddles for ones that aren't cut as deep, they come as extras with the bridge, or you can get them from Hiphsot.
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Thanks for the reply.

I've already swapped out the saddle inserts on the A & D string for the "tall" inserts included with the bridge. If you take another look at the picture, you can see how high I still had to raise those saddles to get string clearance. Very strange. I'm going to try the bridge on my two other P's here just to see if it's this particular body/neck combo, or if it's just a design quirk.
 
#50
AndyMan said:
I've had these bridges on several fender basses and never had the issue you're describing. Might be the bass you put the bridge on, i.e., neck pocket and neck must sit taller for some reason. Is it a parts bass?
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Yes it's a parts bass. Body is a 99 MIM and the neck is a 2013 MIM. I'm going to take some measurements and see what they show. The neck was a clean fit into the body and everything lined right up. I've built up quite a few basses and never had an issue like this but there's a first time for everything.
 
#51
60bass said:
Yes it's a parts bass. Body is a 99 MIM and the neck is a 2013 MIM. I'm going to take some measurements and see what they show. The neck was a clean fit into the body and everything lined right up. I've built up quite a few basses and never had an issue like this but there's a first time for everything.
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That sounds like a good next step. I would be surprised if you did not have the same result with a different bridge on that bass too.
 
#53
azfatboy said:
That sounds like a good next step. I would be surprised if you did not have the same result with a different bridge on that bass too.
Click to expand...

Well very strange this bridge issue is. I measured the depth of the neck pocket in the body 1998 MIM and it's 5/8" right at spec. Measured the neck heel depth 2013 MIM at 1"total. Bottom to top of fretboard and according to Warmoth that should also be spec.

So I tried every combination of insert heights in different saddles like HS reccommends on the Hipshot KA and I still have to raise the saddles way up out of the channels of the base plate to get the action high enough to make the bass playable. I find this very strange because even with the tall inserts installed in the saddles for the A&D, I still need to raise the saddle wya up to get enough height. (see pics in my earlier post). Maybe that's the way it's designed, but if so it's strange they would design it that way.

Since I have an old BA II here from another bass I put that bridge on the bass and the result was in line with other BA II's I've mounted. The saddles even all the way down were still just a bit too high and would have required a thin neck shim to work well with the BA II to enable me to raise the saddles a bit to get some adjust-ability. A very typical thing with the BA II bridges. At least IME with them. Before mounting the BA II and after removing the KA, I set them side by sode and the base plates are almost identical so that rules out baseplate height.

So with two different bridges, I get two different results. But based on my experience with the BA II the situation I ran into is a common one. Just because I still had it, I decided to try the OEM Fender bent plate bridge that was on the body when I got it. So I installed that bridge, re-strung the bass, and within 10 minutes had it dialed in with adjustment to spare. Funny it's fine with the cheap bent plate bridge but not with the KA. I'm at a loss on this one.
 
#54
RedJag said:
Might need a neck shim
Click to expand...

Since the strings are already way too low with the saddles down, shimming the neck in the back of the pocket won't work. If I do that on the front of the neck pocket. That should change the neck angle enough to lower the body end of the neck and gain some more adjustment range out of the bridge saddles. Might try that and see how it works.

Funny thing is I played the bass today for an hour or so and found out I really like the way it's playing and sounding with the stock bent plate bridge. Might just leave that on there. Undecided right now. LOL
 
#56
looks nice. The lighting almost makes that bridge look like a "black chrome". Which, come to think of it, I would *really* like to see as an option! I have another bass that I would likely swap over to a KickAss if they offered it in black chrome...
 

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