squibs Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 I bought a brand new Hofner verythin bass a few weeks ago. Overall i love it (maybe i should do a proper review) but i'm not inpressed with the bridge. Its only adjustable up and down, and in fact its currently all the way down but the action is still too high its annoying but I can cope with that i guess. The real problem is that its not adjustable in terms of the intonation. The sadles are fixed so the only way of adjusting it is to move the whole bridge backwards or forwards. Does anyone know of a floating bass bridge that is adjustable? James Manchester Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 (edited) [quote name='squibs' timestamp='1392853362' post='2373653']...The sadles are fixed so the only way of adjusting it is to move the whole bridge backwards or forwards...[/quote] Good evening, James... I think I'm right in saying that the intonation can be adjusted, albeit in a rather unusual manner. Does the bridge look like this..? [attachment=155703:Hofn_Bass_Brid.jpg] ...If so, you'll find that those metal 'slivers' are moveable, and can be taken out and put into another slot (they are, in fact, fret wire...). I would suggest putting all 4 slivers in the second slot from the neck, then adjusting the bridge for closest intonation by moving back or forward and using an angle, low 'E' further back. Once the best compromise has been reached with that, you can finely adjust by moving forward or back a sliver. Harder to describe than to do..! As for the bridge height: if there's really no adjustment left, it's OK to separate the bridge halves and sand down either the bottom of the upper half, or the feet of the lower half (respecting the curve of the belly, of course...). These are fine basses, but don't have modern features such as leds in the neck or 14-band pre-amps. It's part of the 'mojo' of these instruments; very many classic records were recorded with them, so they must have something going for them... Hope this helps; subject to correction, completion and/or contradiction from others... Edited February 19, 2014 by Dad3353 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonBassAlpha Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Spot on answer Daddy-O. When my friend changed to black tapewound strings on his old Verithin, the bridge had to be moved to a ridiculous looking angle to get it intonated. It looked wrong to be right! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Yup - that's how you do it. There's a reason those Hofners were known for their poor intonation. In all fairness, given the thuddy shortscale and the limitations of early-60's bass amplification, it wasn't actually much of a problem at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squibs Posted February 22, 2014 Author Share Posted February 22, 2014 Cheers for the reply, its pretty much as i expected. I had assumed that sanding the bridge was the only way to adjust the action, i guess the upper half will be the most forgiving. I didn't realise that the saddles/wires could be lifted and changed, but i'm afriad that would be too much of a shift in either direction. What i have noticed now is that my E string is touching the edge of the upper half, dampening it slightly, so I'll have to take that edge down. Overall i hear what you're saying. Even though its a Chinese re-issue, it still feels, looks and sounds great. So i'll not get too wound up about a little intonation. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iiipopes Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Have you seen Sir Macca lately? His Hofner bridge is also really rotated for proper intonation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.