Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Alembic Basses & Guitars => Topic started by: rogertvr on January 18, 2005, 11:03:24 AM
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What happens when you have about 1mm of relief in the neck, the bridge is flat on the baseplate, you have no squeaks or rattles when playing the instrument, but you feel that the strings could be even lower? What then? Any suggestions?
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Easy, you make the bridge slots deeper.
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A little hit and miss isn't it?
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?
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How does one make the bridge slots deeper?
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A 'very' thin (round) file,one that fits into the slot precisely.
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I wouldn't mess with the slots. I had the same sort of problem with one of my Alembics. What I did was have the bottom of the brass sustain block machined down. That way the whole thing sits deeper in the body.
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I was wondering about this too... I want to convert my Europa to fretless but I need to get the strings lower than they are now.
IS THIS A SAFE PROCEDURE, DOCTOR???
I don't want to hurt my beautiful bass...
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Please ensure you do not take too much off, a replacement bridge is not cheap.
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I would agree with dela, You can aways contract for parts, and if your mechanical operations are good, changing your sustain block is the way to go.
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A skilled repair person can certainly file the slots down. I would not recommend saddle filing on your Alembic as a first-time project unless you have metal experience.
Another option is to order a set of replacement saddles. You can remove and save the originals, install the unslotted ones, and have your repair person work on those. That way, it's completely reversable.
Dela's suggestion of sanding down the back of the block seems more appropriate for a do-it-yourself modification.
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Doesn't 1 mm (0.040) of relief seem high? I'd try to get it to 0.375 to 0.5mm (0.015 to 0.020) and see if the bridge was too still too low.
dave
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Take a close look: is the bottom of the bridge itself really sitting on the block, or is it the small nut on the height adjusting screw?
I'm not sure all are like this, but if I needed to go lower I could simply countersink the holes in the block - maybe not with a real countersink, but a drill large enough to let that nut 'sink in' a bit. Pretty simple, you don't lose much mass, won't hurt anything else.
Though I agree with dave/fredguy that 1 mm relief seems pretty excessive, and would try working on that first.
-Bob
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Just out of curiosity: where did the 1 mm relief bit come from?
And does that refer to neck relief, as in how much space there is between the strings and the 12th fret?
Fredguy, if you're talking bass then .040 corresponds to a medium light G string. I think that's about the relief that I have. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable playing having it lower.
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Adriaan, yes, the 1mm relief is the space between the bottom of the strings and the 12th fret, when the string is fretted simultaneously at the 1st and 24th fret. I didn't think 1mm was particularly large, quite the opposite in fact - I thought it was quite small.
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Roger, I was thinking about the string going from nut to bridge, which in your case would leave a gap that is significantly wider than 1 mm. And you're not even having problems fretting the strings?
I'll try and take some measurements when I get home.
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Unfortunately I don't have the proper tools to take these measurements. As far as I could tell, the relief with the string pressed onto the 1st and 24th frets is significantly less than 1 mm (as in: I can't see how an end of a G string could fit between fret and string). In this experiment, the string does produce a tone when plucked, but there is some fret rattle - more on the treble side than on the bass side.
Regular string height at the 12th is roughly between 2 and 3 mm, with the G string raised the most. There is no fret rattle.
The bridge is definitely not sitting on the top surface: there's about a 2 mm gap between the top surface and the underside of the bridge on the treble side, and about 4 mm on the bass side.
In all, perhaps you need to tighten the truss rods a bit to reduce the relief, then you should be able to raise the bridge off the surface.
HIH
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What I've now done, based on the advice all you kind folks have given me, is to tighten the truss rods to remove most of the relief. The bridge is now still flat on the baseplate, but I really don't think that the strings could go any lower and the instrument still be playable. So I've got it to where I wanted it.
Thanks for everyone's help and input to this, much appreciated!
Cheers,
Rog
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Whew! Glad to hear you solved it without filing anything.
Peace,
Darrell
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Like a lawsuit?
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Roger's English like me. We don't 'do' lawsuits ;-)
graeme
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Better get Roger's Thesaurus Rex inlay out then.
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Graeme's quite correct - instead, we do 'sue the b*stard'!
Rog
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Then who burnt the custard? Ah, it's Jamie Oliver! The Golden Essex Boy Wonder Of The Blow Torch!