Fender Bass Saddle Screws

OK.. maybe a bit of a dumb question. I had an acquaintance bring his 2012 US Fender Jazz bass around this afternoon for a setup. Someone has been fiddling with it and it was pretty horrible to play. An issue I found is that a couple of the grub screws for string height adjustment in the bridge were badly flogged out. I'm guessing from someone using metic tools on what I think is an imperial guitar. We managed to get that sorted good enough for now, but we'd really like to change them all for fresh ones.

Most of the local places only seem to stock metric. And on some of the US sites I can't seem to search by model, but rather need to know the part serial number.

Does anyone happen to know which ones I should be ordering? OR how I identify which part number I am looking for?

Quick pic on the slab...

https://i.imgur.com/CZ4RYXWl.jpg

We did manage to make a huge improvement, but there is still work to do. I've asked him to take it and play it for a week or so and let all the changes settle in. The bow in the neck was enormous and I just wanted to creep up on that adjustment.

Hi Sonic, presume grub screws have an allen key head? Specialist nut & bolt trade stores might be able to help as you would be surprised how many other things (automotive/audio too) that use similar allen key head threaded bits. Toowoomba is a big enough regional town to have one or two stores that may have what you need.

Alternatively you could canibalise another US built bridge if one was handy or just simply order new saddles.

Cheers, waz

Try Realparts. They have imperial and metric sizes in stock.

https://www.realparts.com.au/screws-...ess-steel.html

Thanks Guys,

@ Waz: yeah the plan is to order new ones, might end up having to get the whole saddle. We did try to nick one from the two other bridges I have here but they both appear to be metric, or at least a much finer thread than what is in the fender.

@ Simon: yes, I've been looking through that site and there are imperial sizes for 6 strings, but I can't see the bass guitar variant (Unless they are the same?) - your link is to a six sting grub screw. I don't have the guitar here now to check against the specs. I stupidly assumed they would be easy to find for this particular guitar.

D'oh. Misread it. They have slot headed grub screws, not hex key types. Or hex type in black.

All good man, its a bit baffling when you don't have them in front of you.

However! I think these may be the right ones, not sure how I missed them yesterday. Its definitely a US built guitar so this seems right.

https://www.realparts.com.au/screws-...ht-screws.html

Some silver ones in Europe. https://www.thomann.de/gb/fender_std...ddle_screw.htm

From the Allparts site, the imperial ones look to be 6-32 screws. You probably need to take one of them off the bass and measure its length to get ones the right size rather than too small or too long if you get generic ones.

The metric screws are M3s.

Yeah I'm pretty sure the 6/32 is the right one. We did pull a saddle apart, and while I didn't take any measurements (Stupidly) that seems about right. I'm going to suck it and see. The one that's flogged can be adjusted with a small screw driver. But the guitar owner wants everything 'just-so' which is fair enough with such an expensive instrument.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain

Thanks Guys,

@ Waz: yeah the plan is to order new ones, might end up having to get the whole saddle. We did try to nick one from the two other bridges I have here but they both appear to be metric, or at least a much finer thread than what is in the fender.

@ Simon: yes, I've been looking through that site and there are imperial sizes for 6 strings, but I can't see the bass guitar variant (Unless they are the same?) - your link is to a six sting grub screw. I don't have the guitar here now to check against the specs. I stupidly assumed they would be easy to find for this particular guitar.

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Very expensive and a full set ends up dearer than a whole new bridge.

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6/32 is 4.76 mm so an alternative could be tapping them for 5mm

Depends on how picky you want to be for originality

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wazkelly

Very expensive and a full set ends up dearer than a whole new bridge.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

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For the screws or the saddles? Screws are $4.50 for a set of 8. Saddles (Although not quite the same) are $25 for a set of 4. I am fairly sure we have the right ones now, but if not i will go to a local nut and bolt place and see what I can find to suit.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dave.king1

6/32 is 4.76 mm so an alternative could be tapping them for 5mm

Depends on how picky you want to be for originality

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Yeah, he is pretty keen on keeping it original.. which is funny because he's put an after market pick-guard on it :/ But yeah, that's certainly an option if we can't sort it. He's been paying $90 a go to have it re-strung so not really across how much can be done yourself......

Thanks for the input everyone - I will let you know how we go.

Actually while we are on the subject, do they make locking tuners for Bass guitars? I had a bit of a look around but couldn't see anything...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain

Actually while we are on the subject, do they make locking tuners for Bass guitars? I had a bit of a look around but couldn't see anything...

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Never seen locking tuners as the slotted ones where you poke the right angled bent bit down the hole a d start winding up some tension.

Should have looked at real parts site as it sounded like per unit pricing and now makes more sense.

Cheers, Waz

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Locking tuners on bass don't really make much sense unless you've fitted a bass trem. Even then, the principle used on guitar strings won't work well on much thicker bass strings. Locking tuners work by having a hollow shaft with a pin in the middle that is screwed (either from the top or the bottom of the tuner depending on the design) so that it presses into the string as it pokes through the cross-hole in the tuner, and deforms the string into a U-shape within the tuner, with a lot of pressure acting on the string where it's caught between the pin and the internal sides of the tuner cross-hole.

With much thicker bass strings, especially the E and A strings, I don't think you'd get enough deformation of the string by the metal pin for the string to be held firmly enough not to slip.

So if you do fit a bass trem, provided the trem has fine tuners, then a locking nut is the best solution.

All good Waz. I thought I was reading it wrong!

@ Simon: Yeah right, that makes sense. I just love how easy they make things on the other guitars, so I thought there may be a version to suit.

I've just heard back from the guy who owns the guitar. He's played it all afternoon and is extremely happy with the improvement already. There are still a couple of buzzes, but I've just ordered the right radius block for it and I think a very gentle level will finish it off....and of course new grub screws in the bridge :rolleyes:.