Back to the old bridge

[aceonbass]

It's already been established that the "footprint" of this Hipshot is close enough that it does infringe on RIC's trademark. John Hall told the owner of Hipshot this and he agreed to stop making them and only sell remaining stock. Since then, he's shown it at NAMM twice and continued selling it, for which I'm told there will be consequences. Any good designer could have come up with something that would have covered the existing route and been quite functional, but Hipshot knew how particular RIC owners are about the look as well as the function of their basses, so he copied the footprint. Look at Hipshots Supertone bridges for the Gibson and Epiphones. Completely different look, yet superior function. The stock tailpiece/bridge assembly can be modified to function just as well as the Hipshot and for less money. I've done several for myself as well as other forum members.

[Mr. Meaty]

I'd love to see some pics of your stock bridge mod . Did you solve the annoying tail lift problem as well Dane ?What about seperate height adjustments ? Sometimes (again) because of the forward pitch of some necks , You have to cut stock rick saddles to deep to be of function anymore .Intonation then suffers because of this. Also bad overtones and nutty rattely vibrations can occur as well .I was just trying to help here . I didnt realise just how touchy this suject was. Again my appologise for any offense to you all.

[Mr. Meaty]

As promised . I tryed to get a few more shots of the saddles mods i did on the hipshot. Im not as good with a camera as Jeff is , so i appologise for the glare . But at least you all can get the basic idea. Also, at any time you can still slide the saddles back in and use them as stock if you want to move it to another ricky. Reversable mod.Here goes.

[jingle_jangle]

[Mr. Meaty]

[daveman]

OK, I will chime in here with some better photos and what I think is an explanation of Mr. Meaty's work.

Photo 1: the Hipshot bridge. (Note, I have replaced the E and G "saddle barrels" with round brass stock, with gauged slots. The A and D strings are the stock "barrels". I'm still experimenting with this mod.)

See Photo 2 for a side-by-side of the stock "barrel" with a piece of brass stock.

Photo 3: the saddle barrel has been removed so you can see how it fits into the saddle. The set screw adjusts the lateral position of the barrel and locks the barrel into place.

Photo 4: looking at 2 saddles, one (D) with and one (G) without the barrel. The G string (barrel removed) is resting on the front edge of the saddle. Note the difference in string height.

I assume Mr. Meaty simply filed slots into the front edge of the saddle, to get lower action.

[daveman]

PS: one more photo so you can see the shape of the saddle without the barrel.

[aceonbass]

I'd love to see some pics of your stock bridge mod . Did you solve the annoying tail lift problem as well Dane ?What about separate height adjustments ? Sometimes (again) because of the forward pitch of some necks , You have to cut stock rick saddles too deep to be of function anymore .Intonation then suffers because of this. Also bad overtones and nutty rattely vibrations can occur as well .I was just trying to help here . I didn't realize just how touchy this subject was. Again my apologize for any offense to you all.

No offense taken. I solve the tail lift problem the old fashioned way. I add two additional screws to the rear of the tailpiece the way RIC did up until about '88. Separate height adjustments aren't necessary since the top of the bridge is on the same radius curve as the fingerboard. Shallow neck angles are tricky to deal with, but I've figured out a fix that works quite well. If any of my customers want to post pics here of tailpiece/bridge assemblies that I've modified, then that's fine with me, but I'm no longer giving up my expertise for free. I find it amusing that even the Hipshot needs modifying. I'm not surprised though given the fact that their saddles are off the shelf parts that have center lines that are actually too far apart.

[rickaddict]

I find it amusing that even the Hipshot needs modifying. I'm not surprised though given the fact that their saddles are off the shelf parts that have center lines that are actually too far apart.

Yeah...I was gonna say something last week on this, but decided not to as I might offend. I thought the whole point of the HS was that you drop it in, and instantly all problems with the RIC bridge/tailpiece are solved. If you have to spend half a day modifying the HS to get it to work, then why not spend the same amount of time with the stock unit to get it to work?

[cassius987]

Just FYI: the current Hipshot bridge stock is not trademark infringing any longer.

The bridges go through a tumbler which changes their footprint enough that it has many small variances with the stock tailpiece. When installing a newer Hipshot bridge you will notice the difference. It's not highly visible from 20 feet away, but up close you can see the "bikini line" from the old bridge and the Hipshot is usually a bit narrower with the "tumbled" units.

[teeder]

I'm glad I have the old one then, because it helps hide the defective paint on my V63.

[cassius987]

I confirmed the tumbler process with Bill from Hipshot. It was done to remove trademark infringing likenesses.

[gearhed289]

I find it amusing that even the Hipshot needs modifying. I'm not surprised though given the fact that their saddles are off the shelf parts that have center lines that are actually too far apart.

Yeah...I was gonna say something last week on this, but decided not to as I might offend. I thought the whole point of the HS was that you drop it in, and instantly all problems with the RIC bridge/tailpiece are solved. If you have to spend half a day modifying the HS to get it to work, then why not spend the same amount of time with the stock unit to get it to work?

I don't get it? The HS saddles are adjustable side to side. You just loosen an allen head screw, slide it into position, and lock it back down. I've had two of these bridges now and haven't had to modify anything. YMMV?

[teeder]

I don't get it? The HS saddles are adjustable side to side. You just loosen an allen head screw, slide it into position, and lock it back down. I've had two of these bridges now and haven't had to modify anything. YMMV?

+1!

[daveman]

The Hipshot saddles are laterally adjustable. "Modifying" the HS means tweaking it like any other adjustable bridge. (The fact that I've been experimenting with slotting brass saddle barrels simply means that I have too much time on my hands.)

Not that I love everything about the HS. I don't like the "saddle wiggle". There isn't a sharp enough break angle (the strings are anchored way back from the saddles).

But I've left the HS on one of my Ric basses (3001) because it’s “six of one, half dozen of the other” in terms of all the relevant issues. I like being able to palm mute and I like the ease of adjustment with the HS. On that bass, the bridge was not centered (as Dane mentioned was his experience with some 3000-series basses). I thought it’d be easier to fix that by shifting the saddles, rather than resetting the bridge. The HS seemed by far the easier way to accomplish that. I still like my solution; if I change my mind I can go back to the stock arrangement.

Personally, I balk at doing radical surgery (grinding bits off, etc.) on a “vintage” part. But that’s just me, and maybe I’ll try that eventually.