Completely removing the spring on the low B saddle?

[Garret Graves]

There is a procedure for setting the witness point. First you move the saddle back of the expected final location and set the witness point. That way any further adjustments you make will be moving the saddle toward the headstock, placing any kink in the string back of the saddle where it will not interfere with the string vibration.

Setting the witness point creates a well-defined vibrating length to the string. Without it, because of the stiffness of the string the vibrating end point is ahead of the saddle. The stiffer the string the more that vibration end point will be ahead of the saddle, thus causing the need to move the saddle further back. Set the witness point and the effective vibrating length of the string gets longer so the saddle doesn't have to be so far back.

Learned a lot with this post! Thank you

 

[TLBass]

Wow, my Corvette has at least a 3/4” of adjustment left on all of the string and the intonation is spot on.

I wonder why. Is it 34"? Perhaps you use a different set of strings that intonate more easily, or otherwise the intonation will indeed became fine after the thing sets in.

The B string is NOT sitting on the saddle. Raise the saddle. The B string seems sitting on a part in front of the saddle.

Nope. They would've have to design the saddle too short for that to happen.

Yes you can definitely dump the spring but I don’t think that’s going to give you as much as you need. You’d actually be better off moving the bridge into the correct position so you can intonate the base correctly.

As someone already mentioned, that would require a serious modification to the wood.

 

[ctmullins]

That’s a good photo. It’s definitely clearing the saddle carrier.

Did you set the witness point yet?

 

[jim nolte]

I had an old G&L L1000 that had that problem on the E string,always sharp,took the saddle spring off to get it to max out against the rear of the bridge,the good news was the saddle didn't move under the string pressure,the bad news it was still sharp,eventually sold it,only bass I ever had that did that.

 

[TLBass]

That’s a good photo. It’s definitely clearing the saddle carrier.

Did you set the witness point yet?

Nope, but I'll do it later today.

I had an old G&L L1000 that had that problem on the E string,always sharp,took the saddle spring off to get it to max out against the rear of the bridge,the good news was the saddle didn't move under the string pressure,the bad news it was still sharp,eventually sold it,only bass I ever had that did that.

I wonder why would one guitar of the same scale do that and another won't. Was it properly set up? Also I'm actually not sure where does the scale length number refer to. Is it at the furthest possible saddle position? Perhaps at where the tailpiece is even if the saddles are always a certain amount in front of the tailpiece?

 

[ctmullins]

Nope, but I'll do it later today.


I wonder why would one guitar of the same scale do that and another won't. Was it properly set up? Also I'm actually not sure where does the scale length number refer to. Is it at the furthest possible saddle position? Perhaps at where the tailpiece is even if the saddles are always a certain amount in front of the tailpiece?

Scale length is double the distance from the edge of the nut to the center of the twelfth fret. If strings were perfect, that’s where the saddles would be located. Because they’re not perfect (stiffness at either end slightly impedes vibration), we have to pull the saddles back for intonation.

Did you set the witness point yet?

 

[TLBass]

Scale length is double the distance from the edge of the nut to the center of the twelfth fret. If strings were perfect, that’s where the saddles would be located. Because they’re not perfect (stiffness at either end slightly impedes vibration), we have to pull the saddles back for intonation.

Did you set the witness point yet?

That sounds a bit like the chicken and the egg scenario. I think they first decided what the wanted scale length would be and then fretted accordingly (the first stringed instruments probably were fretless). But yeah, I understand the strings can't effectively vibrate through all its length and thus the apparent scale needs to be a bit longer than dictated by simple mathematics to correct for that.

And nope, not yet.

 

[jim nolte]

Nope, but I'll do it later today.


I wonder why would one guitar of the same scale do that and another won't. Was it properly set up? Also I'm actually not sure where does the scale length number refer to. Is it at the furthest possible saddle position? Perhaps at where the tailpiece is even if the saddles are always a certain amount in front of the tailpiece?

I assume the bridge position was just slightly off,a little too forward by just a fraction but I didn't like the bass enough to really try anything more than try taking the saddle spring off,the rest of the strings intonated perfectly.

 

[74hc]

Can I get a witness?
Can I get a witness?
Can I get a witness? Yeah...
Can I get a witness? Ohhh...
Can I get a witness? Yeah...
Can I get a witness? Yes.
I'm talkin', talkin' 'bout my bass. Yeah.
She's some kind of wonderful.

 

[TLBass]

Did you set the witness point yet?

OK, so after the strings sat for another couple of days and I did some press-downs on the B string, it's still either about 10 cent sharp at the 12th or about intonated. The tuner I'm using (which is a VST, I'm connecting the bass to my PC using an RME BabyFace Pro) still wobbles a bit with the B; if it's not an issue with the tuner itself then it might tell the string still doesn't vibrate completely accurately.