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John Deacon’s “Live Aid” Fender Precision (A Gear Abstinence Failure)


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  • 6 months later...
  • 11 months later...

I don’t think this is worthy of another thread, so I’ll put this here should anyone be interested….

As some of you may have seen, I briefly put this bass up for sale a short while ago. It was primarily to fund another build I have going on and certainly was nothing to do with the quality of this bass.

I took it out of its case to take some photos and then left it in the rack for a couple of days pending a possible sale. I had some interest on FB Marketplace and a guy a few miles away said he would buy it but wouldn’t have the funds for about a month. I said there was no hurry and I was happy to wait.

I’m not sure what made me do it, but I picked the bass up for a quick noodle before putting it away again and noticed whilst doing some high octaves, that the intonation was very slightly out.

When I sat down to adjust it the following day, I found that the bridge assembly was not adjustable in any way whatsoever!

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I’m not quite sure what they do to their bridges at Limelight in order get that relic/roadworn look, but they are completely useless in terms of adjustability. The only bridge saddle screw that would turn was the G string and that was after a bit of persuasion. The others were having none of it.

I decided to soak the whole thing overnight. The following day the A and the D finally came free. I tried again with the E, but it was locked solid. After another soaking, I took the bridge off and screwed it to a scrap piece of wood and clamped it. After almost stripping the cross head on the bridge saddle screw, it finally came free.

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I don’t know why, but I hadn’t given any thought to the saddle height screws. Probably out of frustration with getting the other screws out. Needless to say, the heights screws were also locked. I bought some Penetrating Oil ‘guaranteed to release any rusted parts’. Does it f**k! Not these ones anyway. I’ve tried everything - I really do think they might be superglued in place 🤷‍♂️.

End result - I ordered a complete new bridge assembly. I’ll probably still use the old bridge plate and springs, but have replaced the saddles and screws.

I’ve since been informed that Limelight are known for this issue. Sadly I wasn’t aware at the time of ordering or I would not have specified any reliced hardware.

A cautionary tale then - if you order a Limelight and fancy being able to adjust it at some point in the future then specify new hardware and not the rusty old crap they pass off as ‘reliced’.

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Oh I forgot to mention….

Given that this bass has only ever seen about 3/4 rehearsals, one gig and a few hours of playing time at home, when I took the strings off the bass, the A string gave way at the point where it was bent over to go down through the head of the tuner.

That obviously filled me with joy once again 🙄.

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1 minute ago, jezzaboy said:

Thats bad re the state of the bridge. I bought a Gotoh bridge that looks reliced but works as it should. It cost 50 quid though and is expensive for what it is.

Yes, it would be bad enough if it was a one off, but I’ve heard that a reputable luthier dreads relic Limelight’s coming in for a set up as the rusted up bridges are always a problem. That can’t be a good business model for anyone.

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relic the bits, or strip em then light grease, sewing machine oil or a smear of vaseline and reassemble...

boils my fosters when i find un greased wheel spindles and fasteners and pivots on motorbikes... similar thing

Edited by PaulThePlug
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6 minutes ago, martthebass said:

I had exactly the same on the relic Jazz I had from Limelight, totally useless, bought a standard Wilkinson bbot and fitted the saddles. Don’t know what Limelight do ( or don’t do) but Fender relics don’t seem to suffer from this.

Yes, exactly. I have a few Fender relics and there are no issues adjusting them. I should probably e-mail Mark and let him know.

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4 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Fender ones are nickel (or nickel plated brass) and tarnished. The Limelight ones appear to be steel, which rusts solid.

You’re not wrong there - absolutely solid. I’ve even tried putting the saddle in a clamp and using a pair of pliers to rotate the saddle screw. I knew it would knacker the thread on the screw, but it’s become a bit of a game now. I come back to it every couple of days and have another go 😂.

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43 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

You’re not wrong there - absolutely solid. I’ve even tried putting the saddle in a clamp and using a pair of pliers to rotate the saddle screw. I knew it would knacker the thread on the screw, but it’s become a bit of a game now. I come back to it every couple of days and have another go 😂.

Soak in lemon juice for a few days.

Or diluted molasses.

Best of all, Jenolite which will leave steel blackened.

Edited by Stub Mandrel
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