Starfire NS - Bridge issues

Hello, new member here!

Just bought an NS Starfire bass a few weeks back and have restrung it with Pyramid flats. The issue I am having now is that the E string is popping out of the saddle even under moderate playing. The only thing I can see to do is to cut the channel in this saddle lower. Thing is, unlike others I've seen (I think) the E and G saddles themselves are significantly shorter than the other two so that all four match the fingerboard radius. Due to this there isn't a lot of wood left to cut a deeper channel.

The question is basically, do I need to buy another saddle and start again or being unfamiliar with this bridge am I completely missing the point and theres a much simpler solution... I am also having trouble intonating the bridge, has anyone tried reshaping the top of the saddles to move the top point forward or back?

Great sounding bass though!!!

Thanks in advance for your help

Martin

Welcome.

I've never had a string pop out of the saddle on any of the three similar bridges I have, so I'm not sure what the solution is. That said, I've always thought that the saddles were interchangeable so when you say they are different sizes I wonder if something is different or defective. I'll look at my NS later today.

As for intonation, a side effect of the design is that things can be hard to intonate. The basic technique is to slide the saddle towards or away from the neck rather than modify the saddle. if the saddle is at one extreme of the travel range and still needs to move, raising or lowering the entire bridge is probably the next step.

Clear as mud, I know, but there are usually people who will come along and translate so eventually my point gets made.

As Frono noted, strings popping out are unusual. I also happen to be using Pyramids right now on my JS-II and luckily haven't had that issue. So I'm not sure what to suggest.

As to your other issue, You can file out or drill out the neck end of the channel the bridge slides in on the tailpiece to allow the saddle to move just a bit closer towards the neck. But not a whole lot.

I'm having a slight intonation issue with my NS SF also.
According to the shop it came w DiAddRio 105-45s and the intonation was perfect.
I put on some Labella DT flats 104-43 and my Low E & A saddles are as forward as they can go and still a hair flat.
I may have to raise the bridge a bit idk.

Here's a picture I took last year from the prototype, just to give an idea how it looked there:



Ralf

I looked at the saddles on my NS and using the Mark I eyeball it does seems as if the E and G string saddles are just a bit shorter. The saddles are identical on my JS and '67. But since I speculated that different sized saddles on the NS were a failed QC issue, I not believe that is not the case.

That said, I pretty much can't hit the strings hard enough on any of the three basses with that bridge and get the string to pop out of the saddle so I don't know what is going on with the popping.

One outside possibility is to see where the saddle slots are relative to the nut. There is nothing but string tension keeping the strings from sliding from bass to treble and I have knocked the bridge in such a way that the E string was parallel to the edge of the fretboard and all the other strings were angled (compared to normal where all four strings are angled and the angles are not as big. Again 1000 words because I don't have the tools to draw a good picture). But that might explain popping and intonation.