Hello, and thanks for any help. When I received my headless bass,( 1st time owner), I took some photos of the bridge and neck saddles, so I'd know how the ball ends were supposed to sit in the saddles. My bass arrived with the ball ends of the strings resting in the bridge saddles, looking like little gold circles laying flat in the bridge claws. The strings resting in the neck saddles, looked like a combination of gold circles laying flat and on their edge. Anyway, I was checking out another companies website, and they had photos of what the ball ends should look like in the bridge saddles, laying flat was improper, and on their edge was the proper way the ball ends should sit in the claws. Opposite of how mine are. Which way is correct?? Thanks for any help.
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Proper installation of double ball bass strings
- Thread starter Blister Brain
- Start date
Thanks for the reply. It plays incredibly well, it's in tune, and the action is fine. Thanks again.
Well actually ... ferrule orientation can make a siginificant or critical difference depending on the claw design. Some claw designs require a certain orientation, most other claw designs will have an optimum orientation.
Consider which orientation provides the maximum contact surface area between ferrule and claw. This is not critical but more contact area is optimum. With a typical claw, flat ferrules have contact areas which are long edges, whereas vertical ferrules have contact areas which are points.
Also consider which orientation makes the ferrule sit more securely. Because a ferrule is wider when it is flat, it will then sit more securely in a horizontal claw and exert less mechaical stress on the claw. Claws can be made from cheap metal and can sometimes deform.
Also consider whether the ferrules will actually jam against other parts of the bridge when tuned up, this is critical. I owned 2 Hohner B2V Steinberger copies and the ferrules had to be flat to fit inside the tuner housing when tuned up (see image linked below).
So usually, with a typical claw, flat ferrules are either optimum or essential. By 'flat' i mean like this E string https://seriousgas.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/the-bridge-and-tuners--e1532039178979.jpg
But it depends on the claw design. Can you link to an image of your bridge type?
Similar considerations at the nut.
Consider which orientation provides the maximum contact surface area between ferrule and claw. This is not critical but more contact area is optimum. With a typical claw, flat ferrules have contact areas which are long edges, whereas vertical ferrules have contact areas which are points.
Also consider which orientation makes the ferrule sit more securely. Because a ferrule is wider when it is flat, it will then sit more securely in a horizontal claw and exert less mechaical stress on the claw. Claws can be made from cheap metal and can sometimes deform.
Also consider whether the ferrules will actually jam against other parts of the bridge when tuned up, this is critical. I owned 2 Hohner B2V Steinberger copies and the ferrules had to be flat to fit inside the tuner housing when tuned up (see image linked below).
So usually, with a typical claw, flat ferrules are either optimum or essential. By 'flat' i mean like this E string https://seriousgas.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/the-bridge-and-tuners--e1532039178979.jpg
But it depends on the claw design. Can you link to an image of your bridge type?
Similar considerations at the nut.
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Hello, and thanks for all the info. It's greatly appreciated. Here' some pics of the bridge and nut saddles.
As far as i can tell, not being able to inspect the claws closely, they seem like fairly standard claws, so it is very probably best to have them flat as you have them currently.
if the hole in the claw is round, that suggests a flat ferrule orientation is correct.
At the nut, hard to tell, fairly flat seems best, as they are currently. The holes that the ferrules pass through when installing are round, which suggests the intended orientation.
It looks like the ferrules naturally want to rest at a slight angle from horizontal, if they seem unstable when completely flat then allowing them to be slightly angled is fine.
All this is common sense really, once you inspect the components and think about how they contact each other.
if the hole in the claw is round, that suggests a flat ferrule orientation is correct.
At the nut, hard to tell, fairly flat seems best, as they are currently. The holes that the ferrules pass through when installing are round, which suggests the intended orientation.
It looks like the ferrules naturally want to rest at a slight angle from horizontal, if they seem unstable when completely flat then allowing them to be slightly angled is fine.
All this is common sense really, once you inspect the components and think about how they contact each other.
Thanks again for all the info. I had a feeling I was over thinking this. What threw me were the pictures on the other website. They're opposite of what my bridge saddles look like.
