Double Bass Position of notes on strings

[Eric Hochberg]

Did anyone mention your bridges possibly being askew?

 

[ErikvanD]

I looked at the bridge this morning (and the way it's positioned on the bass) from different angles and could not find anything wrong with it... I will be home tomorrow and I'll do a lot of extra checks and report back...

 

[Jake deVilliers]

I looked at the bridge this morning (and the way it's positioned on the bass) from different angles and could not find anything wrong with it... I will be home tomorrow and I'll do a lot of extra checks and report back...

When my clients have the kind of inconsistent noting that you're describing, its usually because the strings are not coming off the nut not at the front, all together in a line, but some are stopped further back in the nut.

At the nut, pull the strings sideways across the board and observe where the string bends from - I bet some have a little extra string length up there!

I see it on fretted instruments, too, and it makes them unplayable...

 

[ErikvanD]

@Jake: I tried pulling the strings and saw no evidence of wrong contact points. I then inserted a steel wire, just thicker than the distance from the E to the FB, below the strings and directly under the nut. That way all strings had exactly the same contact point. Even with that I saw no difference after tuning up again

After that I decided to re measure and check everything again. This time I measured the vibrating string distance and adjusted my bridge a tiny bit so that this was really equal on all strings. I put some masking tape on the FB at the height of the F# on the D string and made sure it was perfectly perpendicular to the FB. I then tried all notes again only to notice the problem had almost gone! The notes on the E, A and D were straight on one line, the G was a tiny bit off but not more than 1 mm or so. Easy to compensate. I tried several other positions and the result was the same...

So, I guess I owe you all my apologies for making a fuzz about nothing really… I must have been sleeping all along… Sorry for that! I guess I was looking at the FB from an angle or something.

But I am very glad all the same that there is nothing wrong with my bass after all!!