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Buzzing Bridge Saddles
Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 12:09 pm
by Gilmourisgod
Somebody must have encountered this:
The 4001/4003 floating bridge piece has a radius to match the fingerboard, but the saddles have flat bottoms riding on this curved surface, so they can "rock" back and forth a little around the axis of the intonation screws. In my case, the A string saddle rocks in the form of an annoying buzz. Anybody got a fix for this? File the bottom of the saddle into a radius, or maybe shim them with thin bits of something? I suppose a little sliver of aluminum soda can would do it, but is there a less slapdash solution?
Re: Buzzing Bridge Saddles
Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 2:42 pm
by aceonbass
If you drill the saddle screws oversize a little, the saddles may settle right down on the bridge. If not, then you can add shim material made from adhesive cavity shielding.
Re: Buzzing Bridge Saddles
Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:13 pm
by Gilmourisgod
aceonbass wrote:If you drill the saddle screws oversize a little, the saddles may settle right down on the bridge. If not, then you can add shim material made from adhesive cavity shielding.
Thanks Dane! I had actually thought of the copper shielding tape, as I have some kicking around, but figured somebody else must have had this problem and figured out a fix. Maybe I'll try that first and see if it works, I'd hate to drill the saddles out unless I really have to.
Re: Buzzing Bridge Saddles
Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 11:18 pm
by cassius987
I used to shim them with copper tape as suggested and it worked great. I never encountered this problem on a new Ric since around 2010 or 2011, sorry you're experiencing it.
Re: Buzzing Bridge Saddles
Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 8:46 am
by Gilmourisgod
I put on 4 layers of copper tape in little square patches, Worked perfectly! Buzz gone.
Re: Buzzing Bridge Saddles
Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 1:57 pm
by aceonbass
Gilmourisgod wrote: I'd hate to drill the saddles out unless I really have to.
Ahhh....I should have been more specific. You need to drill the saddle screw holes oversized in the bridge itself. This allows the saddles to sit a bit lower.
Re: Buzzing Bridge Saddles
Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 2:03 pm
by jps
aceonbass wrote:Gilmourisgod wrote: I'd hate to drill the saddles out unless I really have to.
Ahhh....I should have been more specific. You need to drill the saddle screw holes oversized in the bridge itself. This allows the saddles to sit a bit lower.
Yeah, the holes in the saddles, themselves, are threaded and you really don't want to drill those out if you want to be able to use those saddles anymore.
