A few days ago, I decided to clean the saddles of my '86 4003 Shadow that I've owned for only a month. The previous owner was obviously a heavy sweater who hadn't cleaned them once.
White toothpaste like metal polish material bought from a motorbike shop was used for the job....To my astonishment, the saddles revealed their surfaces that seemed to be nickel/chrome plated and could be polished to be as shiny as the bridgepiece!
(Those are black hex screws with totally identical RIC dimensions. Make intonation adjustments easier for me.)
The undersides are the usual ruffy surfaces, though:
These are the saddles I've been dreaming to get for my '98 4003 FG whose saddles are the current rough surfaced ones. (I'd thought RIC saddles since the mid '70s have all been like the current ones until then.)
Dimension wise, the '86 and the '98 saddles are identical. Most interesting is that the thread hole's center is 5/32" from the triangle bottom whereas the new ones that you can get from RIC or any dealer have the 6/32" or 7/32" distance, meaning you can't buy new/current saddles to replace those on 4001/4003 basses made before 2000(?). The new ones won't sit tight.
So my question is:
During what years did 4001/4003 basses come with shiny saddles?
