Hi all - long time lurker, first time poster. Used to play a lot ~10-12 years ago but went through several rounds of hand and arm surgeries so had to drop the hobby. I tried a few times over the years but the loss of hand flexibility and strength led to a lot of pure-buzzing 
I recently discovered the Mikro basses which were scaled in a way that allowed me to play (in a limited manner) again which has been great! I picked up two of them, a brown one with black hardware and my wife gifted me an electric blue one. The brown one plays like a dream, I threw some tapewounds and a sponge mute on there and its fantastic! The blue one though.... any fretted notes above the 5th fret and the strings sound really dull (3 different sets of strings, same thing) and theres a lot of buzzing from the bridge area. I did a full setup, I've adjusted the saddles, I've put my finger on every part of the bridge to try to track down the vibration, and nothing. Still with the dull sound (like the vibration of the string is "damped") and buzz from the bridge. I took the entire thing apart and found that the bridge is a little warped (see attached photo). The ground wire under the bridge was too long and wasn't fanned out, and it looks like the bridge screws were cranked down hard which bent the bridge. Before I spend money ordering another bridge for a new bass, could this curvature to the bridge be causing the lack of vibration transmission and ringing/buzzing in the bridge area? Any help appreciated. Of course the one I bought myself is great but the gift from my wife is a problem. If I absolutely need to I can probably set up something with Ibanez, but getting the receipt from my wife will let her know something is wrong with her gift which I would prefer to avoid. I think I might order one more of these things to do a fretless cyanoacrylate fretboard, I've had a great time with that in the past.
At this point I have:
It's not the string buzz that concerns me, but the dull bell-like ringing and that deep buzz coming from the bridge area.
I recently discovered the Mikro basses which were scaled in a way that allowed me to play (in a limited manner) again which has been great! I picked up two of them, a brown one with black hardware and my wife gifted me an electric blue one. The brown one plays like a dream, I threw some tapewounds and a sponge mute on there and its fantastic! The blue one though.... any fretted notes above the 5th fret and the strings sound really dull (3 different sets of strings, same thing) and theres a lot of buzzing from the bridge area. I did a full setup, I've adjusted the saddles, I've put my finger on every part of the bridge to try to track down the vibration, and nothing. Still with the dull sound (like the vibration of the string is "damped") and buzz from the bridge. I took the entire thing apart and found that the bridge is a little warped (see attached photo). The ground wire under the bridge was too long and wasn't fanned out, and it looks like the bridge screws were cranked down hard which bent the bridge. Before I spend money ordering another bridge for a new bass, could this curvature to the bridge be causing the lack of vibration transmission and ringing/buzzing in the bridge area? Any help appreciated. Of course the one I bought myself is great but the gift from my wife is a problem. If I absolutely need to I can probably set up something with Ibanez, but getting the receipt from my wife will let her know something is wrong with her gift which I would prefer to avoid. I think I might order one more of these things to do a fretless cyanoacrylate fretboard, I've had a great time with that in the past.At this point I have:
- Adjusted neck relief
- Adjusted string height
- Switched strings 3 times (ibanez oem, flatwounds, light gauge rotosounds)
- Made sure to force witness points at bridge and nut
- Removed the bridge and re-fanned the ground wire
- Checked the pickups (pulled the pickups, shielded the cavities, verified the sprints under the pickups aren't buzzing, taped down the pickup wires)
- Shielded the electronics cavity
- Tried putting a little piece of plastic straw between the strings and the saddles to see if the strings were buzzing in the saddle (no)
It's not the string buzz that concerns me, but the dull bell-like ringing and that deep buzz coming from the bridge area.
