Not Enough Intonation Screw Length!!

I bought this wonderful Gretsch Semi-Hollow style bass a week ago (Model: G5442BDC) , was clearly untouched in a long while, been in a case with old strings etc, so i went about a fresh setup with new strings and i just cant get it intonated.

The neck releif is great, it has a nice low action with no buzz, but i cant get it to inotate on the E string. It has a tune-o-matic style bridge. Ive flipped the saddle for the E, and its made a bit of difference, but its still sharp even maxed out. No more adjustment.

I found by lowering the bridge as low as possible this improved the intonation slightly more (im no expert, but feels as though this has lowered string tension slightly, so made it less sharp?). but im all out of ideas, it is a very audibly out still, especially amplified with a band.

Any ideas? or is it just a duff guitar?

 

i had'nt heard the term 'witness point' until today, but ive given them a pinch as suggested, though they were already looking pretty bang on before. Will be doing this every time i setup from now on! It is a floating bridge with the adjustable height screws on either side, achoring to a raised wooden block thats glued to the body.

Its still a little sharp - do you think having the saddle reversed will be causing an issue with the witness point aspect? should i swap it back to normal now ive set the witness point?

 

Well, to be honest i think this is genuinly a lesson in witness points. I did some googling, and stretched them all out, the tuning machine post, either side of the nut (and as this is a tune-o-matic style) either side of the saddle as reccomended on another forum. And yea, im on it with the 12th harmonic method rather than open note .

For the first time since i picked it up this bass the intonation is now Flat on the low E! I now have enough travel to reverse the saddle on the A string again, but the E is only juuuuust away from maxed out still, and flipping it moves the contact point just slightly too far towards the nut for perfect intonation. After adjusting, i noticed the stability of the note is now incredible, no short drift sharp when the notes are first struck as well for all strings.

I guess you can literally play for years without ever finding out about some things until they go wrong haha. Thanks for all your help, saved me from returning a wonderful bass!

 

yea, its not the style bridge depicted in that, looks like a gibson tune-o-matic.

 

nope. was even worse than when i made this post, almost half a semitone out