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New floating bridge for G&L L-2500?

K

Kriegs

Feb 14, 2018
2,312
17,073
#1
Having recently decided to switch from roundwound to tapewound strings on my L-2500, last Saturday I picked up a set and sat down to make the switch. While replacing the low B string, I found that the string didn't fit its corresponding through-body ferrule because it was too thick. Well, I said, my other G&L's aren't through-body and they have the exact same bridge and mounting, so I'll just string the low B through the bridge. I did so and performed a full setup and intonation. I loved the sound of these strings on this bass! Sunday afternoon, I practiced with it for an hour or so and didn't pick it up again until Monday evening as I was heading over to practice with a friend. I turned my tuner on and hit the low B string and it was completely slack.
"What the?...."
I tried the E string. Same thing. I laughed, guessing that my wife played a joke on me and loosened all the strings so I started to tighten the B string tuner but there was no change in the tension of the string.
"WHAT THE?!"
Then I saw it, the magical G&L bridge elves came and left me a present, a brand new floating bridge!
:hyper: :hyper: :hyper:
upload_2019-1-10_8-50-36.png


upload_2019-1-10_8-50-51.png


upload_2019-1-10_8-51-12.png


I was very lucky that there was no real damage. I carefully removed the bridge, added a bit of glue to each hole and resecured the bridge to the body with slightly longer screws so that the were able to bite into fresh wood. I let the glue dry overnight and then restrung the tapewounds with the low B through the bridge and the other 4 strings through the body this time :thumbsup:

Yes, I knew better :laugh: I just made the classic mistake of multitasking one thing too many and when my mind shifted to stringing the low B through the bridge it never shifted gears back to stringing the others through the body :confused:
 
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#3
Surely there are more than 2 screws holding down that bridge. My 1980 L1K had the 2 on the outside top of the bridge as well as 4 more inside the bridge just behind the saddles. Am I missing something here?
 
#7
Dluxe said:
Surely there are more than 2 screws holding down that bridge. My 1980 L1K had the 2 on the outside top of the bridge as well as 4 more inside the bridge just behind the saddles. Am I missing something here?
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On the 2500 there are only the 2 screws. It's meant to be strung through the body because of the tension of the extra string. :thumbsup:
 
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#11
Find out how I got kicked off the G&L Forum. This bridge problem has been known for a VERY long time. Threads have been all over the bass groups for years about the "through body" mod where you eliminate the through body stringing by putting bolts down through the through-body holes to hold the bridge down. But of course that just makes the bass less nice and takes away a nice feature you might want. G&L has been unmoved and even though the fix is nothing more than additional screws in the back rim of the bridge to hold it down, G&L seems to have been too lazy or cheap or arrogant to do anything about this defect. Yes, the fix would require a rework of the bridge since you cannot just drill more screw holes through that chromed rim and have it look decent. You have to start with a new bridge model with the additional screw holes in it, but had G&L redesigned it once the problem came up all bridges would be new and fine now. Personally all My G&L L2400 have the through-body stringing option and I want to keep them that way. So my L2500 bridge mod is to install threaded inserts glued in the old screw holes and hold the bridge down with socket head cap screws. This mod has worked for me for years and I doubt that strings can develop enough force to pull them out or snap the screws. Of course the CORRECT fix is two more screw holes in the rear rim of the bridge to hold it down and for real stability put threaded inserts under all FOUR holes. My view is this bridge design while wonderful in many regards is defective in this aspect and G&L needs to do a recall replacing all these defective bridges. As an aside let me say that I have not used the through-body option on any of my three L2500 for many years, but that does not mean that I want to give it up.

Invalid Link Removed
(Yeah, a 100 pack is kind of overkill but still cheap)
 
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#12
I had that happen on a Tribute 2500 some long time ago now. 8 years or so?
Opened the case one day, and it was jacked up just like that.
I didn't buy it new, but I did talk to G&L cust svc and they did fix it. I don't recall what the fix was now, but it went back to the factory and they did whatever they did. I kept it for a while and then sold it, noting that it had that problem and it was repaired at the factory.
Maybe G&L said "it was a soft bass wood body that caused that, and ash bodies don't do that, and we use better wood now; but maybe I mis-remember that bit.
 
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#13
I remember old threads about this, and I also remember Tributes and basswood getting the blame. I keep a couple strings on my L2500 through the body to try to avoid this.

I suspect this is a problem because Leo designed this bridge for 4 strings through the body. Two screws and the sunken anchor would be okay for that. I don’t think the original bridge design was modified enough to handle a fifth string and have all five top loaded.

Correction: It looks like somebody decide it was a good idea to remove 5 of the 7 mounting screws to add a string-through option. Smart.
 
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#15
bassbenj said:
Find out how I got kicked off the G&L Forum. This bridge problem has been known for a VERY long time. Threads have been all over the bass groups for years about the "through body" mod where you eliminate the through body stringing by putting bolts down through the through-body holes to hold the bridge down. But of course that just makes the bass less nice and takes away a nice feature you might want. G&L has been unmoved and even though the fix is nothing more than additional screws in the back rim of the bridge to hold it down, G&L seems to have been too lazy or cheap or arrogant to do anything about this defect. Yes, the fix would require a rework of the bridge since you cannot just drill more screw holes through that chromed rim and have it look decent. You have to start with a new bridge model with the additional screw holes in it, but had G&L redesigned it once the problem came up all bridges would be new and fine now. Personally all My G&L L2400 have the through-body stringing option and I want to keep them that way. So my L2500 bridge mod is to install threaded inserts glued in the old screw holes and hold the bridge down with socket head cap screws. This mod has worked for me for years and I doubt that strings can develop enough force to pull them out or snap the screws. Of course the CORRECT fix is two more screw holes in the rear rim of the bridge to hold it down and for real stability put threaded inserts under all FOUR holes. My view is this bridge design while wonderful in many regards is defective in this aspect and G&L needs to do a recall replacing all these defective bridges. As an aside let me say that I have not used the through-body option on any of my three L2500 for many years, but that does not mean that I want to give it up.

Invalid Link Removed
(Yeah, a 100 pack is kind of overkill but still cheap)
Click to expand...

How did you get kicked off the G&L forum?

Understood that this can be considered a defect but to be fair, they stopped making their 5 string basses with through body a few years ago so I would say that’s acknowledgment of the issue. Perhaps they were slow to implement the change so this will keep popping up for years to come. Pun intended :D

As far as recalling all L2500s made from the late 90s through 2014 or whatever year? Seems excessive if the fix is to simply string through the body.

Nice bass @Kriegs! Glad you got her fixed up. Btw I got my Ruby L2K and its pretty killer :bassist:
 
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#16
wvbass said:
It looks like somebody decide it was a good idea to remove 5 of the 7 mounting screws to add a string-through option. Smart.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what you mean by this last part. Are you inferring that I removed the screws?

Other than changing the strings, I haven't altered this bass at all. This is a USA bass that came with a string through body direct from the G&L factory and it was built on 6 November 2015.
 
#17
Chef said:
fwiw; I have 3 G&L 5 strings right now; a 2017 Kiloton, a 2017 1505, and a 2014 (I think) 1005.
None have a string thru option. Those 5 holes are all bridge mount screws.
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I wonder what their default is because my 2002 L-1505 also came with a string through body.

I wasn't the original buyer/ owner of the L-1505 so I can't speak to the origins of the string through body/ bridge on that one. But I do know that my 2015 L-2500 wasn't specifically ordered one way or the other. It came from the factory set up with the strings through the body :thumbsup:

Rather than wallow in speculation, I just fired off this message to G&L support to get their answer :)

"Good Morning!

Could you please tell me whether a string through body/ bridge is standard on U.S. made G&L 5 string basses or is it a special order/ request item?
I've seen both string through bodies/ bridges and other that have bridge mounting screws rather than string through ferrules.

Thanks in advance for your answer!"
 
#18
metron said:
How did you get kicked off the G&L forum?
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I was looking at the G&L Club here and I don't see that either. I think maybe he means another site?

metron said:
Nice bass @Kriegs! Glad you got her fixed up.
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Thank you sir!

metron said:
Btw I got my Ruby L2K and its pretty killer :bassist:
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Suh-weet! Did I miss the pictures of it? :wideyed:

Edit: Duh... I'm an idiot, I found the pic in our conversation from back in December. I'll repeat what I said then... STUNNING!!!! drool
 
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