This is important because the dome top screws would interfere with the adjustability of the E string saddle. The screws that come with the new bridge are flat top, as opposed to the dome top screws that were in the stocker. Take a careful look at the supplied mounting screws (top) as compared to the ones just removed (bottom). As you can see in my photo, the mounting holes line up perfectly. You’ll want to remove some of the saddle hardware for access to the mounting screw holes. With that taken care of, the next step is to remove the stock bridge and lay the new one in it’s place to have a look for fit. We’re not looking to remove a lot of material here, we just want to smooth the slot out enough so the string isn’t resting on a knife edge.Īs you carefully sand with a sawing motion, rocking your “file” from front to back, you should see the sharp edge start to smooth out. A piece of wire hanger with sticky 400 grit sand paper folded over it turned out to be just the right diameter to match the radius at the bottom of these saddle slots.

A gauged nut file would have done the trick nicely, but I decided to come up with a method you can use if you don’t happen to have an expensive set of nut files in your tool box. If you find this with your bridge, you’ll want to round these edges off just slightly. I did take one precautionary measure before getting started: the saddle edges were sharp enough that I was concerned about string breakage. In this case, the swap is as straight forward as it gets. Time to remedy that, along with some other issues this bridge presents. Have you ever had a saddle that starts moving from side to side when you really start to dig in? I have. If you’re feeling a little adventurous and don’t mind straying from the traditional look of this design, you can get even more mass, better contact from saddle to plate and saddles that stay where you put them. There are a lot of aftermarket options out there based on this design that are made with better metal, have more mass and will improve sustain and tone transfer. If you have any experience with these stock bridges – especially the ones that come on basses in the lower price range – then you know there’s a lot of room for improvement here.

How to slot badass bridge