Bass Myth Busted - Bridge adjustment, intonation

There is a myth that the bridge saddles on a bass can be pulled back with the intention of making the strings taught without sacrificing intonation . This demonstration should debunk that notion.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• carol
• basscam
• basslabd
• big
• band
• jazz
• MTD
• kaye
• bass
• intonation
• bridge
• setting

[alinealows]

nice vid bro um i have a question my budy told me he used a copper nut on his bass and told me that that will help you get a diffrent or odd tone is this true would you say thanks mike

[basslabd]

@alinealows By the term "Copper Nut", I assume you mean as in the nut that the strings go across at the headstock end of the neck as opposed to the nut on the truss rod. In both instances brass is the material that has been used as that kind of nut material and is always the material on the TR nut. Copper is too soft...

[plangentmusic]

Saddle distance adjusts intonation. Who disputes THAT?

[basslabd]

@plangentmusic RE: "Who desputes THAT?" A certain female bass player who has made other questionable statements in the past. To date I have debunked a few of them...

[moronslave]

are you plugged-in directly without effects? I love the sustain of your bass.. I have a new MIA Fender Highway One Jazz.. I hope it can have a good tone too. Do I need to adjust it's bridge or the factory setting is a good start?

[basslabd]

@moronslave I was plugged into the amp directly. The factory setting is USUALLY a good start. If you have never adjusted the bridge I would take it to a professional for setup. It is not rocket science but there is some skill behind setting up a bass properly

[Peteworth]

this guy rules!

[WadeGriffith]

George Clinton?

[vibratingstring]

@vibratingstring But you bring up the stiffness aspect--what causes inharmonicity in vibrating strings (sharpening of the higher partials) as an other factor to be accounted for as you go up the neck. That is a great insight!

[vibratingstring]

@vibratingstring

stretch induced by pushing down on the string. wound strings have a lower core stress than the higher strings. Therefore for a given deflection, the stress increases a larger proportion, and hence the pitch rises. This is mitigated by the windings--in other words a plain G (on a 6-string) needs more compensation than a wound G. (con't below)

[vibratingstring]

I never heard that myth before, but your monograph gives great insights. Assuming that your bass has a "perfect" neck, a correct amount of neck relief, and your frets are dead-on perfectly spaced to the 12th root of 2, (logarithmic), then what you essentially prove is that the log spacing is not good enough--that fret spacings themselves need to be compensated.

My simplistic original understanding of the need for compensation at the bridge was based merely on the stretch induced (con't below)

[HAYDS510]

i wanna get to a point where i know this much..damn

[DjSnickels]

Took me an hour to find proper advice. You got it spot on. Absofuckinglotely !!!

[BigDaddyLiberty]

Actually, its the diameter of the string you're compensating for. The fatter the string the farther back off the "zero" point of intonation you need to be. The thinner, the farther forward. Youre essentially creating the environment on the bridge each string needs to play in tune with one another, not itself alone. Theres a math formula for it but I forget it. Anyone that thinks pulling the saddles all the way back has no affect on tuning has a misunderstanding of how a fretted instrument works.

[alinealows]

@basslabd cool thanks yes i have also herd of using brass