Squier Standard Jazz Bass Bridge Replacement?

[jazzmonkey]

Hello all,

I just bought this bass for a project and now I'm having some issues.

First of all, when I got the pickups, I was told when ordering them that some Squiers were made with smaller pickup cavity routs, and wouldn't you know it, I was lucky enough to get one. Anyway with some modding, I was able to get my pickups in there. This leads me to my real problem now.

I didn't notice it until I had the new pickups in the bass that the strings don't align properly with the pole pieces. This REALLY BUGS ME! Lo and behold, I look on Musician's Friend and almost all of the squier basses, Js and Ps, VM stuff even, have this same issue. What a sham!

I would like to know if a bridge will fix this problem, and if a gotoh 201, or a badass II will even match up. The stock bridge does have the 5 hole pattern, but that doesn't mean it will match up properly.

If I have to get the body filled and redrilled just to get a decent bridge on here and fix the strings, it just won't be worth it to me since I only paid 100 for this thing and it needs a neck too. It may be more cost effective to just throw the stock electronics back in there and sell it off and find a better J for the project.

So what do you think?

Thanks for reading,
jm

 

[rockinrayduke]

I would just get a "vintage" bridge with the grooved saddles or a Badass III which also has grooved saddles. I feel your pain, misaligned pole pieces bug the hell out of me too.

 

[Beefbass]

+1 on the vintage bridge.

 

[jazzmonkey]

Thanks you 2. So I'm gathering that a vintage style bridge will line up with the existing holes and fix my string alignment?

 

[gidbass]

I just replaced the saddles on my 2 squiers with these. My squiers just have the typical bridge plate, nothing fancy about them.

http://www.allparts.com/Bass-Saddles-p/bp-2125-010.htm

This allowed me to fix my string spacing issues by lining up the strings with the bridge jazz pickup.

Good Luck!

 

[jazzmonkey]

Hey gidbass, thanks for the response.

I've seen these, but how they perform as far as holding the string in place?

I've always thought these vintage type saddles looked like they would let the string have a mind of its own, especially for string popping, and also considering that I have a tendency to dig in a bit.

 

[gidbass]

i think that if you are aggressive enough they could move, but you would have to really, really dig in ( i can't image someone playing that hard, but you never know). I think if you angle the E and G saddles in towards the center a bit (if that makes sense), i doubt you will move them.

I use to play hard with high action, but now i have very low action and I am trying to learn to play with with a medium to light touch. I am just starting to learn slapping/popping.

For what it is worth, mine seem very solid and i can't even easily move them with my fingers when i actually push on the saddle itself.

I guess if your existing saddles move based on your playing, these one probably will too.

Good luck.