I totally agree with regards to functionality. The problem is that the top is polished chrome but the underside is not only not polished, but is rough and basically unfinished.
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Trying to fix a worthless Bass
- Thread starter Markshan
- Start date
May I recommend placing a bit of painter's tape on each end of the bridge while you restring?
The nut is obviously too high. Not just visually, but when I intonate the 12th fret to the open the first fret is very sharp on all of the strings.
So I've got a good bit of sanding to do but I need to do it patiently and keep rechecking lest I fulfill Dan Ertlwine statement that nobody ever uses their first nut.
It looks like I did a pretty good job on the slots though. I think I just need to pull the nut and sand across the bottom and not fool around too much with the individual slots yet.
So I've got a good bit of sanding to do but I need to do it patiently and keep rechecking lest I fulfill Dan Ertlwine statement that nobody ever uses their first nut.
It looks like I did a pretty good job on the slots though. I think I just need to pull the nut and sand across the bottom and not fool around too much with the individual slots yet.
As an aside, am I a weirdo because I like the scent of bone being sanded?
Getting a lot closer. I think I can still do a little more sanding at the nut.
From this look at the 12th fret I can definitely do some work on the bridge. It is bottomed out but the fret pieces in the bridge have not been dressed at all. I think if I take the triangle file and put some little slots in them that will help both with the height and the intonation staying stable.
Then if that doesn't get me where I want to be I can just do some more sanding on the actual bridge. It's rosewood and it sands pretty easily.
I won't know for sure until everything else is set up, but early indications are that I got extremely lucky filing the neck pocket because it seems like the neck pitch is just about right. I'm pretty psyched about that, even if I know that it's only beginners luck.
From this look at the 12th fret I can definitely do some work on the bridge. It is bottomed out but the fret pieces in the bridge have not been dressed at all. I think if I take the triangle file and put some little slots in them that will help both with the height and the intonation staying stable.
Then if that doesn't get me where I want to be I can just do some more sanding on the actual bridge. It's rosewood and it sands pretty easily.
I won't know for sure until everything else is set up, but early indications are that I got extremely lucky filing the neck pocket because it seems like the neck pitch is just about right. I'm pretty psyched about that, even if I know that it's only beginners luck.
Is the nut tilted toward the fretboard, or is that a trick of the camera? If it is tilted, would that make notes sharp?
I think I'm done. At the very least I'm done for a couple of weeks. I could take a little more off both the nut and the bridge but I don't really feel the need to. It is very comfortable to play, there is no buzz at any fret, and it is perfectly intonated (well, as perfectly as anything ever is anyway). I hated the flat wounds that came on the used Aria I recently bought, but everyone was right, the La Bella's just work on this instrument. I don't want to break my arm patting myself on the back but I bet this plays as well as any Ignition. Not bad for a 50-year-old wall hanger.
I'm very proud of myself. The only thing I would really change as I would have shaved the neck a little thinner front to back from the first to the 7th fret. But if I did that maybe it wouldn't be stable anymore so that might be for the best too.
Have some glamour shots. Take a note of the bridge pickup. You'll see it does not sit straight in the ring or against the strings. With only two adjustment screws I'm thinking I probably have to pull that pickup back out and bend the tabs so that will sit straight, but if anyone knows an easier way to correct that please let me know.
I'm going to let it sit in its bag for a few days and then play it again, trying hard to resist the urge to fine tune anymore.
I'm very proud of myself. The only thing I would really change as I would have shaved the neck a little thinner front to back from the first to the 7th fret. But if I did that maybe it wouldn't be stable anymore so that might be for the best too.
Have some glamour shots. Take a note of the bridge pickup. You'll see it does not sit straight in the ring or against the strings. With only two adjustment screws I'm thinking I probably have to pull that pickup back out and bend the tabs so that will sit straight, but if anyone knows an easier way to correct that please let me know.
I'm going to let it sit in its bag for a few days and then play it again, trying hard to resist the urge to fine tune anymore.
Good call. That's the way it shipped but what you are saying makes real sense. I'll change that when I loosen the strings to glue the nut.
I have no idea what I am talking about, but what if you used some shims and raised the neck up from the body a tiny bit. I don't mean to angle the neck, just straight up a tiny bit like a bank card thickness.
I would have thought that it would drop the strings closer to the frets, it's easier to remove the shims if it doesn't work then trying to build up the bridge if you mess that up.
But like I said, I am clueless as far as this stuff is concerned, I have only ever built one mini Les Paul for myself.
Love the work you have done, its been a great learning experience for you and me as well.
Cheers
Mick
While I think that would work, I'm all about tightening things up rather than adding more things as these instruments don't have a ton of sustain anyway, so I suspect less bridge would be slightly beneficial at carrying the vibration through the body where a shim may do the opposite.
In theory anyway. In practice it likely doesn't matter either way.
Thanks for the kind words.
Sanding the bridge is the proper way to do it if you have enough wood, but with an arch top instrument you need to make sure you get the angle right on the “feet” so you get good contact with the angled top.
That's what I was trying to do but I don't know how successful I was. If you look at the picture I attached it actually looks like the entire bridge is floating about a 32nd of an inch off the wood. I can't say for sure but I think that happened when I had to angle the bridge a little to get it to intonate. Perhaps when I go through and fine-tune it again I can try to sand it at that angle a little bit rather than just parallel the way I had been doing.
A quick-and-dirty way is to tape sandpaper to the body and work the bridge back and forth a bit to get the right fit. Some double bass folks use a rig to keep the bridge at the right angle when doing this.
StewMac sells a (pricey) version, but you might be able to fabricate one fairly easily.
If you can find some you can use carbon paper for that. I’m sure you’ll be fine if you just tape some sandpaper to the top and work the bridge base around until it fits well.
This advice made perfect sense to me. I also kind of liked it because it would turn the trapeze into a ball and socket joint like a hip. I figured that would take a thread full circle when it started with x-rays. Only one problem, somebody forgot to tell the people who manufactured the tail piece.
I found carbon paper at Michaels. Evidently it is still used for glass crafts. So I set it up where the bridge should go and went to work at improving my contact between the bridge and the top of the bass.
You can see that on the first contact there were only two small points that we're making enough contact to transfer carbon onto the bottom of the bridge.
So I kept working at it for a while to try to increase the contact surface.
Once I got it to the point where more of it was carbon than not I just did one more sanding to take off the carbon and reassembled.
