Built in bridge muting on 4003

helterskelter · Post by **helterskelter** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:43 am

Hi guys, been trying to get the little foam pad to raise up to no avail, any tips? havnt found too much info on this, tried turning the 2 height adjustment screws which dont seem to do anything much at all

thx1955 · Post by **thx1955** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 11:15 am

Hi Alan,
There's a good chance that the screws that lift and lower the mute pad have been lowered too far. This causes the bar that the pad is attached to to become detached from the adjustment screws.

The only real way to fix this is to dismantle the bridge, remove the tailpiece, and then re-thread the mute bar.

If you do undertake this it's worthwhile fitting a small plastic washer to the base of the adjustment thread to prevent a similar thing happening in the future.

helterskelter · Post by **helterskelter** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 11:18 am

Thanks Jim, I'll have a look its due for a re- string so ill check it out while doing that

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 5:08 pm

the mute pad has a sticky back ... this sticky back often gets stuck to something and won't move ... I usually remove the screws and just put a mute rubber pad in there to fill the hole ...

but if you want to make it work take the whole assembly apart and unstick the pad ... it is probably stuck to wood or metal ... I've owned a lot of 4001/4003 basses and most of them the mute did not function very well ... only my old '68 worked 100% ... but even then it was cumbersome to put in place ... and it changes intonation and usually doesn't mute evenly ...

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 5:10 pm

Jeff, I take it you don't like the mute? (Ducking)...

ken_swearingen · Post by **ken_swearingen** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 5:54 pm

Steve,thats a mute point!

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 6:08 pm

It's immutable!

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 7:14 pm

Or, in this case, unmovable!

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 4:11 am

but you did notice I left out mentioning how much sheer joy I get from removing the mute from a ric bass ...

also it is common for the mute screws to fall out and get lost on the floor of a grungy bar ...

helterskelter · Post by **helterskelter** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 4:58 am

Finally got it sorted out, was sticking on the A D G strings side, so have eased it up by raising and lowering a few times so it seems to have loosened it up and is now working great, also put some new strings on... thanks for the help