Here's my Fender P bass bridge that has recently had a professional set up. Uses medium flatwounds. Intonation is spot on
Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
Here's my Fender P bass bridge that has recently had a professional set up. Uses medium flatwounds. Intonation is spot on
Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
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#Planning 5 String Bass
I've got Roundwounds on my Squire P-Bass, can't remember what brand the strings were though, the action at the 17th fret is something like 3.5mm or so, I might consider tweaking the truss-rod a bit to get the action a bit lower so that it makes it easier for me to play it, I'm also going to upgrade the pickups to a set of Neodymiums cause the current ones, which are some Stewmac Golden Age pickups, are a bit wimpy.
Are your pickups set as high as they can be without affecting the strings?
Actually, no, the pickups are both set so that the tops of them are about 4mm above the surface of the Scratchplate, I'm pretty sure that Fender quote a spec for P-Bass pickup heights, my feeling is that my Squire P-Bass could do with a bit hotter set of pickups, maybe the magnetic pole-pieces of the current ones are a bit weak, the reason why I reckon the pickups are a bit wimpy is that when I plug the Bass straight into input 1 of my Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 Audio Interface, I have to crank the channel gain a bit, that's with the Bass going straight in with no other pedals or buffers, etc, connected, maybe it just needs a preamp, my understanding is that the Stewmac Golden Age P-Bass pickups are wound to vintage specs, as far as I know, there are no issues with the wiring (I actually did the wiring myself, using a wiring-diagram from my Guitar Player Repair Handbook), it's a simple enough pickup-wiring system that I'm confident I didn't make any errors, and the bridge is earthed to circuit-ground (I checked it with a multimeter set to low-ohms and I'm getting a reading of about .1 Ohm, so it's definitely grounded, well the strings are anyway).Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Here are my bass bridges, a Lakland Skyline Bob Glaub (P-bass) and a (rather dusty) Peavey Cirrus BXP.
The Lakland's got Rotosound Swing bass strings on (45-105), the Peavey has D'Addario EXL 170s (45-100).
I bought the Lakland from Neil Murray (Whitesnake, Gary Moore etc.). He'd been using it for 500 performances of the Queen-based stage show 'We Will Rock You' (he'd been the bass player in it for many years but it had recently come to an end). Came with massive strings and really high action, but a set of lighter strings and a truss-rod tweak cured that. Really nice bass.
Thanks guys for dropping by and adding those photos and words of advice an encouragement.
Gotoh bridge has been ordered from Real Parts and should arrive tomorrow. It looks identical to the one on Doc's Squire P Bass.
At the moment the setup has the correct staggered saddle positioning where low E is screwed way back. Just taken a bit by surprise how far forward the G string saddle had to be shifted as the height adjustment grub screws are now sitting awkwardly on top of the base plate mounting screw on that side.
Hey Ponch, have you checked that setup with an electronic tuner yourself as it looks ideal for a lefty with the G wound back the furtherest and the fatter lower ones more forwards? It could be spot on, just looks weird in the shots.
I was going to have to do some work on this axe over the weekend as the Entwistles are taller than stock units and sitting a bit too high which will require me to dig out a bit in the PUP cavities. Playing notes around 14th fret has the string touching front edge of Neck PUP so definitely sitting too high. Should also mention the pole piece adjustment screws are crap as some of them dropped down inside the PUP whilst turning the screw downwards??? Screwing them in opposite direction to raise them did nothing as they are now free wheeling down inside the bobbins? When things are apart I will have a closer look to see if they are now that way for ever? Doesn't seem to be affecting the tone or sound so not sure what they were doing other than acting as decoration perhaps?
# 1 - EX-5 https://goo.gl/fQJMqh
# 2 - EX-1 https://goo.gl/KSY9W9
# 3 - Non PBG Tele https://goo.gl/W14G5g
# 4 - Non PBG J Bass https://goo.gl/FbBaFy
# 5 - TL-1AR GOTM Aug 2017 https://goo.gl/sUh14s
# 6 - MMB-4 Runner-up GOTM Oct 2018https://goo.gl/gvrPkp
# 7 - ES-1 Runner-up GOTM Aug 2018https://goo.gl/T9BEY8
They look cool, I'm not sure what model bridge I have on my Squire P-Bass, but it's manufactured by Gotoh, it seems to be a pretty good bridge, and I have never had any issues with it ever since I bought it, which is probably a good few years ago, I think I like the Squire P-Bass a lot more than my red Yamaha ERB-300 Bass, which has some dings in the body, there's also a crack in the body wood near one of the pickup volume controls on it, I might do some work on it at a later stage to fix it up a bit, and put some 105-45 gauge strings on it, the original ones were a bit too heavy for my tastes, and they required the truss-rod to be cranked pretty tight, the ERB-300 needs some work done on the nut cause the 1st fret action is a bit too low so the strings buzz against it a bit, might even change out the tuners for some new ones cause the originals are a bit rusty and grotty, could even give the frets a polish with my Dremel tool too while I'm at it, which reminds me, I need to buy some grinding bits for my Dremel tool, might check to see if my local big green shed has some in stock.
Well, I'd try raising them so that they are closer to the strings before you think about swapping them over. Just about all of the Focusrite interfaces have a poorly designed instrument input with very little headroom (most people with humbuckers can't record directly using them without digital clipping), so if your pickups aren't hot enough on their own without some gain, then it sounds like there's room for improvement. I've fitted some BareKnuckle vintage spec P-bass pups to a friend's JV Squire P-bass, and they weren't lacking punch. It's either that or you simply aren't playing the strings hard enough! I'm a guitar player so I do tend to play bass very lightly but a lot of the bass players I know really pull at the strings.
If you've got a really big bass rig, then you can play lightly and let the amp do the work. But most bass players started off with small rigs and had to work hard to be heard above the guitarist and drummer.
You may need to add some more foam to the back of the pickups to get enough height. If so, look out for sheets of adhesive backed neoprene foam rubber on eBay. You can get a whole sheet for the price of a pre-cut piece designed for pickups. i bought a whole range of different height sheets and haven't regretted it. It comes in very useful.
My experience with the Gotoh bridge has been a really good one so far, it's a good, solid bridge and has given me virtually no issues since I first bought it, so i reckon you'll like it a lot mate, I have the saddles for the low E-String and the G-String sitting on the base of the bridge, and the action is still about 3.4mm at the 17th fret, I think Fender specify 3mm at the 17th fret for a factory set-up P-Bass, although you might prefer a higher action.
It may be that the pickup is too high and the magnetic pull is affecting the tuning (fretting on the 12th fret will bring the string nearer the pickup, so any magnetic pull will have more effect on the string than when open). This is quite common on Strats. You may find that by lowering the pickup height, you solve the intonation issue.
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