Bass in yo' face!

[badform]

So... I recently picked this thing up.



I've always wanted an acoustic bass guitar to noodle on and be heard (as opposed to plugging in my Jazz Bass). It came with a few issues... There's a loose wire between the preamp and the piezo. I can deal with that. It's the intonation that's driving me a bit batty.

The bridge is starting to pull the front of the body up a bit, so the action was a bit high. I was able to shim the neck and tweak the truss rod, as well as lower the bridge saddle a bit in order to get really nice, even action and a just the right amount of neck relief (not quite flat... just right).

The problem is, only the E string intonates correctly. The other three strings are just a bit sharp at the 12th fret. The A string is a tad sharp on the 3rd fret. Since it doesn't have adjustable saddles, what the heck to do I do? The only thing I can think of is maybe have a custom nut cut (something like an earvana nut).

Any ideas?

[therizzla]

Dude, that's the bass Gene used on the KISS MTV Unplugged!!!

[badform]

Hey, whadda ya know... I think I knew that, actually.

Maybe he couldn't intonate his either.

[gremlin03]

Also the same bass Simon Gallup used when the Cure performed on MTV Unplugged

[KeithJ]

I have seen a guitar that had a badly misplaced bridge on it, and to compensate, the luthier routed the saddle slot really wide and put a huge piece of bone in there to fill the slot. That was then filed down on either side to create a compensated saddle. It was an interesting way to fix the problem for sure. How far is the intonation off on the other strings, and are they falling flat or sharp?

[badform]

All the strings (except for the E) are a bit sharp.

[KeithJ]

OK, so you just need to effectively move the saddle back a little bit. You could try replacing the bridge all together, or cutting up the one that is in there now. I have done something similar to this: http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/To" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... nator.html using small hex keys to find out exactly where the intonation should be. Mark the bridge with a pencil when you find the sweet spot and that will tell you where to cut.

ALSO: Keep an eye on that bellying of the bridge pulling the top up. If it pulled up a little and stopped that's OK, but if it starts looking really distended then you probably have other issues to deal with.

[Mickster]

^ You could try lower guage strings if the bridge is pulling teh body out of shape. As a side effect, these might also help with the intonation as it sounds like the bridge may have been designed to work with a guage other than what's on there at the moment.

[badform]

Thanks for the suggestions. New strings are a sure thing. The belly/bridge seem stable, so I'll try lighter strings (it was designed to be plugged in, afterall).

[jackxiv]

Hows the action? I have an Ibanez Acoustic Electric and the action can get a little clunky up the neck, have had to do a lot of work to fix it!

[badform]

Hows the action? I have an Ibanez Acoustic Electric and the action can get a little clunky up the neck, have had to do a lot of work to fix it!

I got the action to be really good, after massaging the saddle height, shimming the neck, and adjusting the truss rod. With the bolt on neck, it's a lot easier to get this playing well.

[jackxiv]

Hows the action? I have an Ibanez Acoustic Electric and the action can get a little clunky up the neck, have had to do a lot of work to fix it!

I got the action to be really good, after massaging the saddle height, shimming the neck, and adjusting the truss rod. With the bolt on neck, it's a lot easier to get this playing well.

Sweet. Yeah, mine is a set neck, so it was a little more trouble. You know, in my opinion, I think set necks have more cons than pros. I mean you get the sustain with a set neck, but I think it almost not worth it. Go team Bolty!