Wal Bass Club.

[LowEndHum]

View attachment 5407615
Finally got my Wal Mk 2 on Wednesday. Hands down the best instrument I’ve ever played. Crazy after all the years of trying to emulate a Wal’s tone through other basses. I just plug this in and it’s there lol.

I absolutely love the figuring of that top! It's wonderful. Congrats and welcome to the zebrawood club

 

[mikeswals]

The bridge saddles though are way too tall,

Do you guys have any suggestions?

I would put a shim in the neck pocket. I typically find a piece of construction paper makes all the differnce.

 

[mikezimmerman]

Yep, at least one of my Wals came with a wood shim that appeared to have been installed at the shop...

I would put a shim in the neck pocket. I typically find a piece of construction paper makes all the differnce.

 

[zombywoof5050]

Hi all, I just acquired a beautiful '84 mk1 and I'm setting it up.

The bridge saddles though are way too tall, so even when they're max lowered the action is quite high, especially on the A string. The neck is almost straight, with just a tiny bit of relief.

I found some pictures of a bridge in an old post on this thread and the saddles look definitely shorter than mine.

The easiest fix would be to replace the saddles (the bottom part) with shorter ones.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

IMO, something doesn't look quite right on your bridge.

On mine, the blocks under the saddles sit right down flush on the plate underneath. The saddle height screws hold the saddles up over the blocks, so you turn them clockwise to lower them down into the blocks (unlike other bridges where you lower the saddle by turning the screws counter-clockwise).

In your pics, it looks like the blocks are not resting flush on the bottom plate. Your saddles are all the way down onto the blocks, but the blocks look raised up above the plate underneath. If it were mine, I'd do some disassembly of the bridge to find out why the saddle blocks are not sitting flush on the plate underneath.

 

[21DaHoagie12]

Latest pic from Paul, this time with the blue on. Won't be long now!

View attachment 5407406

Well heck fire! That is absolutely gorgeous!

 

[syntap]

Well heck fire! That is absolutely gorgeous!

Thanks... I keep looking at it (probably what everyone does when they get their own pics) and can't wait to play it. Or maybe I'll put it on the wall and look at it when I get it It was a YOLO order, checked quite a few boxes on the specs.

 

[ytrb6]

I would put a shim in the neck pocket. I typically find a piece of construction paper makes all the differnce.

I'm not a big fan of taking the neck off, but maybe it's nothing.
That wouldn't solve everything though, as one of the saddles is significantly taller than the others, meaning I'm not sure the shim would be enough to lower the A string.

I found the attached image in an older post. You can see how all the saddles (the bottom "fixed" part) are all lower than the bridge itself, while on mine the A string one especially is significantly taller.

 

[ytrb6]

IMO, something doesn't look quite right on your bridge.

On mine, the blocks under the saddles sit right down flush on the plate underneath. The saddle height screws hold the saddles up over the blocks, so you turn them clockwise to lower them down into the blocks (unlike other bridges where you lower the saddle by turning the screws counter-clockwise).

In your pics, it looks like the blocks are not resting flush on the bottom plate. Your saddles are all the way down onto the blocks, but the blocks look raised up above the plate underneath. If it were mine, I'd do some disassembly of the bridge to find out why the saddle blocks are not sitting flush on the plate underneath.

Right, that's exactly what's happening. The blocks of E A D are all resting flush on the bottom plate though, except the G string one. That one isn't but it's also the only string I'm able to lower enough.
It just seems that the blocks are too tall. If that's the issue, I wouldn't mind sanding them to remove the excess material from the top of the block.

 

[ModuMan]

Have you taken the assembly apart and cleaned everything? Might be sitting up on some gunk.

Sanding the blocks down seems like a good solution otherwise, you'd still have plenty of room for the screws to do their job.

 

[syntap]

This discussion had me wonder how those saddles come out, I found this post by @mikeswals (thanks @mikeswals !) talking a little about bridge disassembly. I couldn't find any videos on YouTube showing it.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/wal-bass-club.367800/page-392#post-21084111

If you scroll up through a few messages from there, there's great advice on a rattle issue, and a nice pic from @kulit17 of a bridge off the bass with a saddle sitting next to it, a demo of where a piece of felt was placed.

 

[ytrb6]

Have you taken the assembly apart and cleaned everything? Might be sitting up on some gunk.

Sanding the blocks down seems like a good solution otherwise, you'd still have plenty of room for the screws to do their job.

Great point, I'll do that and see what's going on, although it just really seems that one of the blocks is too tall. It probably has always been played with high action so has been a non issue.

This discussion had me wonder how those saddles come out, I found this post by @mikeswals (thanks @mikeswals !) talking a little about bridge disassembly. I couldn't find any videos on YouTube showing it.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/wal-bass-club.367800/page-392#post-21084111

If you scroll up through a few messages from there, there's great advice on a rattle issue, and a nice pic from @kulit17 of a bridge off the bass with a saddle sitting next to it, a demo of where a piece of felt was placed.

Thank you very much, the pictures are helpful and also there I can see that the blocks are shorter than mine. I'll take the bridge out and see.

 

[kulit17]

Here is a pic of my '84 mk1 bridge. Looks pretty similar to yours. The block heights vary from string to string....looks like A is the tallest. E is slightly shorter and then D then G is the shortest. The neck had a factory shim on it as well.

 

[syntap]

Just for reference, here's my 2002 Mk2-5 bridge:




Maybe @ytrb6 's saddles aren't the original saddles and one was replaced with another that was too big? Kind of unexpected that it would leave the shed that way, who knows.

 

[kulit17]

IMO, something doesn't look quite right on your bridge.

On mine, the blocks under the saddles sit right down flush on the plate underneath. The saddle height screws hold the saddles up over the blocks, so you turn them clockwise to lower them down into the blocks (unlike other bridges where you lower the saddle by turning the screws counter-clockwise).

In your pics, it looks like the blocks are not resting flush on the bottom plate. Your saddles are all the way down onto the blocks, but the blocks look raised up above the plate underneath. If it were mine, I'd do some disassembly of the bridge to find out why the saddle blocks are not sitting flush on the plate underneath.

going by the picture you sent, all the saddles are bottomed out. my suspicion is that there is no shim and maybe a previous owner might have lost or removed the shim for whatever reason. putting a shim will definitely give you more room to play with as far as setting up the action on all your strings.

this is the one on my '84

here's a post of some of the necks i owned or once owned....

he's one that for sale on reverb:

View attachment 2502662


as you can see the the shim is factory installed. as i vaguely recall, i may have a couple like this too, but i see nothing wrong with needing a shim if the setup requires it.

 

[GHOST AT]

Latest pic from Paul, this time with the blue on. Won't be long now!

View attachment 5407406

Congratulations syntap your MK1 is gorgeous great choice on the gold hardware! Only regret about ordering my Wal is that I didn’t order a fretless neck with it.

 

[ytrb6]

Here is a pic of my '84 mk1 bridge. Looks pretty similar to yours. The block heights vary from string to string....looks like A is the tallest. E is slightly shorter and then D then G is the shortest. The neck had a factory shim on it as well.

Yeah look similar indeed. You're raising the saddles even more so it's not a problem. If I put a high action, it's all good.

going by the picture you sent, all the saddles are bottomed out. my suspicion is that there is no shim and maybe a previous owner might have lost or removed the shim for whatever reason. putting a shim will definitely give you more room to play with as far as setting up the action on all your strings.

this is the one on my '84

here's a post of some of the necks i owned or once owned....

It could be, next step is to remove the neck and see if there's a shim or not.

In the meantime, I removed the bridge and put it back. The block of the A string now sits more flush to the bridge, but still it's way too tall compared to the other strings.

I'm not sure if a shim could fix such a big difference.

 

[syntap]

It could be, next step is to remove the neck and see if there's a shim or not.

In the meantime, I removed the bridge and put it back. The block of the A string now sits more flush to the bridge, but still it's way too tall compared to the other strings.

I'm not sure if a shim could fix such a big difference.

edit: I get what kulit17 is saying now about the benefit of the shim. Lower the entire action and then raise the other saddles to compensate for the one with the higher block, doy.

 

[kulit17]

I'm not sure if a shim could fix such a big difference.

all of your saddles are bottomed out. Making sure a shim is there will give you more play to work with. Compare your height saddles with mine and they aren't bottomed out like yours. The black one pictured is a 96 custom body Wal (smaller than a mk3) that I had Wal do a full service on. Both have low action.

You can also order new ones from Paul if it bothers you. I've bought just saddles from him in the past before. I'm sure he'll sell the blocks too.

 

[kulit17]

Congratulations syntap your MK1 is gorgeous great choice on the gold hardware! Only regret about ordering my Wal is that I didn’t order a fretless neck with it.

ha.... I ordered a fretless neck for my Mk3.....however, after some thought, i didn't like the thought of a spare neck just sitting in a case. so I emailed Paul about pairing the neck to a new body lol. will be sending out this fretless neck to Paul soon.

 

[ytrb6]

all of your saddles are bottomed out. Making sure a shim is there will give you more play to work with. Compare your height saddles with mine and they aren't bottomed out like yours. The black one pictured is a 96 custom body Wal (smaller than a mk3) that I had Wal do a full service on. Both have low action.

You can also order new ones from Paul if it bothers you. I've bought just saddles from him in the past before. I'm sure he'll sell the blocks too.


View attachment 5408612

View attachment 5408613

Got it thank you. It looks like the shim raises the neck a lot more than I thought. Any recommendation on a specific shim and thickness?