Low Action Trick ?

[henry5]

The modern bridge doesn't fit in the old tailpiece; it's too wide front to back. The old bridge was narrower. On my Feb 72 someone routed out the tailpiece to allow a slightly later bridge unit to be fitted; it was only when I got my old 21 fretter and my subsequent Aug '72 that I even realised it had been done.

I had to replace the saddles on my Aug 72 to get it to intonate as the original saddles simply wouldn't go far enough back - someone made me aluminium replacements but unfortunately no longer has the equipment to make more. I say unfortunately because I could do with some.

I've toyed with routing out the tailpiece to fit a later bridge as per my Feb 72, but am undecided. Mark Walker's washer trick (putting washers under the bridge unit) helped me a great deal as it stops the bridge from tipping due to the saddles being too far back (a common problem), but unfortunately I'd already slotted my saddles prior to trying this, which means the slots aren't really angled correctly now. I wish someone (Ric?) would make replacement saddles or a replacement bridge unit, or preferably a direct aluminium replacement for the whole shebang; it is, for me at least, one of the main bugbears with my preferred pre-73 basses as I like my action super-low if possible (around 2/32 E" and less for the G).