Fitting a Badass 2

[obbm]

The bridge is on but it needs to come down to get a nice low action. Problem is the bridge saddles are already at the bottom of their adjustment. How do you get it right?

[Painless]

[quote name='obbm' post='7343' date='May 26 2007, 04:50 PM']The bridge is on but it needs to come down to get a nice low action. Problem is the bridge saddles are already at the bottom of their adjustment. How do you get it right?[/quote]

It's sounds to me like you might need to check a few other things that effect the action, such as the truss rod adjustment. I would only attempt this if you are sure of what you are doing though. If the truss is good then the next stop would be the nut, but once again you need to be sure of what you're doing before attemtping this.

There are some good tutorials at:

[url="http://www.tunemybass.com/bass_setup/"]http://www.tunemybass.com/bass_setup/[/url]

[Buzz]

Obbm, file the saddles if they're not already done.

and you could shim the neck to lower the action.


OR route the body a tad so the badass sits in a recess (probably not the best idea as it's non reverseable).



Edit: Also, I suppose you could grind the bottom of the saddles down (remove the allen key thingymajigs before would be a good idea), but I'm not sure how that would effect intonation adjustment using the screw.

Edited May 26, 2007 by Buzz

[BigRedX]

Two options. Either cut deeper groves in the bridge for the strings or you'll need to shim the neck.

[ped]

I put some grooves in mine, I found that with lower tension strings the G string would move left to right a tad without them anyway.

[obbm]

How deep? I've already filed a string depth in the A bridge and it's almost right but reading the blurb one of the strong points is the construction of the bridge. File too far into it and you move away from the design criteria.

I suspect that I really need to shim the neck and that I've f**cked the bridge.

[ped]

I went fairly deep on each saddle - you can, after all, always raise the saddle to compensate. I went at least an A string deep into each one.

[obbm]

[quote name='ped' post='7368' date='May 26 2007, 10:38 PM']I went fairly deep on each saddle - you can, after all, always raise the saddle to compensate. I went at least an A string deep into each one.[/quote]

That'll probably do it Chris. I shall continue with the file tomorrow.

[ped]

Good luck sir - and careful not to leave any rough edges!!

[Lfalex v1.1]

Run some Emery or Wet & Dry (folded) through the grooves. That'll clean out any nasty burrs.
Have you a magnifying glass (no, really!) Have a close-up look.
Failing that, "floss" yer grooves with an old string appropriate to the gauge that'll be sitting there

As everyone else says;

File the saddles - I only went half the string's diameter deep and rounded out the bottom of the groove with a tiny rat's tail file to give optimum string-to-saddle contact.

Shim the neck. Depending on the thickness needed, I've heard of all sorts being used!

From a piece of plastic document sleeve, via cereal packet cardboard, right up to slice/s of wood veneer.

[bassbloke]

This is one of the complaints I have with Badass bridges - the bridge base plate is so much thicker than on a standard Fender bridge that it raises the string height significantly.

[Beedster]

[quote name='obbm' post='7343' date='May 26 2007, 09:50 PM']The bridge is on but it needs to come down to get a nice low action. Problem is the bridge saddles are already at the bottom of their adjustment. How do you get it right?[/quote]

I had this problem and shimming the neck is the only solution. Once you start filing you start to compromise the integrity of the bridge
Chris

[acidbass]

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='7491' date='May 27 2007, 09:23 AM']Shim the neck. Depending on the thickness needed, I've heard of all sorts being used!

From a piece of plastic document sleeve, via cereal packet cardboard, right up to slice/s of wood veneer.[/quote]

I have a little bit of sandpaper in my Precision bass neck pocket, works a treat! You can vary the thickness of it by buying lighter grains etc too if necessary.

[BOD2]

I had the same problem on a Squier P-Bass. But when I removed the neck to shim it I found that it had already been shimmed in the opposite direction that I wanted. So al I had to do was to remove the original shim, refit the neck and everything was ok.

"Shimming" sounds drastic but there's really nothing to it, and plenty of advice readily available (as shown above).

All you are doing is tilting the neck slightly within the neck pocket. The "shim" should be made the full width of the neck pocket but only about 2cms in length. If the shim is placed at the bridge end of the neck pocket this will raise the strings slighty at the bridge. If the shim is placed at the neck end of the pocket it will lower the strings slightly.

Sandpaper, thin plastic, business cards, wood veneer can all be used as a shim. It seems to make no difference whatsoever to the sound of the bass.

[Muppet]

The plastic document sleeve was my idea and works really well. You can cut it very cleanly and it doesn't compress.

[quote]If the shim is placed at the bridge end of the neck pocket this will raise the strings slighty at the bridge. If the shim is placed at the neck end of the pocket it will lower the strings slightly.[/quote]

Just to add - a shim in the bridge end will mean you will have to raise the bridge to achieve the same string height as you currently have (thus giving more scope for lowering if required).

[obbm]

All sorted. Shim from old store card and judicious filing seems to have done the trick.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Beedster]

[quote name='obbm' post='8221' date='May 28 2007, 06:35 PM']All sorted. Shim from old store card and judicious filing seems to have done the trick.

Thanks for all the suggestions.[/quote]

Not every day a pair of penguins solve your bridge problems is it

[Muppet]

Penguins rule!

[obbm]

but the Penguin never won over Batman.

[Paul Cooke]

[quote name='bassbloke' post='7817' date='May 27 2007, 09:07 PM']This is one of the complaints I have with Badass bridges - the bridge base plate is so much thicker than on a standard Fender bridge that it raises the string height significantly.[/quote]

don't new Badass bridges come with the correct thickness shim for this very reason?

anyway, shimming isn't really hard...

[url="http://www.thebigdark.com/blog/archives/2007/05/installing_a_ba.php"]http://www.thebigdark.com/blog/archives/20...alling_a_ba.php[/url]