JS 2 bass bridge saddle, scale length, strings?

[Jstwo61]

No inserts under there. The two back mounting screws are big and beefy and go directly into the wood. I've never heard of them pulling out. Granted, they really shouldn't be adjusted, so if somebody has a habit of disassembling their bass regularly, I could see them pulling out eventually. Even then though, I would venture to say that the majority of the pull on the bridge is not up, but rather forward, toward the headstock. In that regard, if anything, the string pull should help the screws keep a good hold and not pull out, right?
The front two bolt (whether phillips or allen) are the intended points of adjustment. Those have a flat, rectangular plate of metal underneath, that gives the height adjusters a good hard surface to push up off of. This plate is fastened by two small wood screws and underneath is the ground wire.

Thanks for sharing this, very useful

 

[fronobulax]

There is a prior discussion about what is under the big, don't adjust them, mounting screws away from the neck. The conclusion I recall is that most people saw evidence of a grommet, maybe felt, maybe rubber.

This pic was taken for that discussion although it didn't add anything. At least about 13 years later I can see no evidence of grommets, let alone any clues to their composition. But once you sort out the reflections the plate under the "screws" that are supposed to be adjusted, is visible.

 

[Jstwo61]

There is a prior discussion about what is under the big, don't adjust them, mounting screws away from the neck. The conclusion I recall is that most people saw evidence of a grommet, maybe felt, maybe rubber.

This pic was taken for that discussion although it didn't add anything. At least about 13 years later I can see no evidence of grommets, let alone any clues to their composition. But once you sort out the reflections the plate under the "screws" that are supposed to be adjusted, is visible.

Hi Frono, from what you and Mellowgerman have posted I have decided to leave the bridge in place now and not remove it and explore further (maybe another day). Thanks to the above the bridge plate is now horizontal and I managed to get a guy to 3D print me a saddle earlier. It's not perfect and will require a little filing in places and it's not rosewood but it gets the bass usable in the short term while I continue adjusting and fine tuning. Thanks again

 

[fronobulax]

I managed to get a guy to 3D print me a saddle earlier.

@GAD - a sideline for when you are not making puzzles. You could probably call it a vintage style part since the earliest (circa 65) saddles for this bridge design were plastic.

 

[hieronymous]

Hi Frono, from what you and Mellowgerman have posted I have decided to leave the bridge in place now and not remove it and explore further (maybe another day). Thanks to the above the bridge plate is now horizontal and I managed to get a guy to 3D print me a saddle earlier. It's not perfect and will require a little filing in places and it's not rosewood but it gets the bass usable in the short term while I continue adjusting and fine tuning. Thanks again

I've been wanting to congratulate you on the new bass. So glad to see your bridge saddles lined up correctly in this most recent pic! I've got what I think is a 1971 M-85 II (fretless) - maybe one of the first ones with the new-at-the-time solid body and Guild humbuckers. Mine has the Phillips head screws like someone else posted. But what was up with the G-string saddles? Mine appears to be a replacement as well!

 

[Guildedagain]

Great to see all the bridge pics. It's interesting how flat topped some saddles are. Mine are all have a more triangulated top, was really lucky to find a matching saddle.

Here are new pics. I really like this Hagstrom bridge.

On your missing screws, figure out what the thread is and go from there. There may be a reference to it somewhere. Metric?

Also, as previously mentioned, Guild sells a whole new bridge (does not retrofit) but you get all new matching saddles and the sliders/screws for only $50. I think the part is linked earlier on.

Rubber washers keep the plate snugged down?

This bridge is a work of art. Guilds are subtle like that. Understated, but beauty and functionality are inextricably linked.

 

[Jstwo61]

I've been wanting to congratulate you on the new bass. So glad to see your bridge saddles lined up correctly in this most recent pic! I've got what I think is a 1971 M-85 II (fretless) - maybe one of the first ones with the new-at-the-time solid body and Guild humbuckers. Mine has the Phillips head screws like someone else posted. But what was up with the G-string saddles? Mine appears to be a replacement as well!

Thank you that's very kind, I'm really pleased to have been sent the link to this Guild collective of fellow bass players using similar instruments. Guild certainly were mixing it up with their models and the hardware. I've just looked up a M-85 II, wow never seen that model before, great looking bass, more Les Paul compared to the Jetstar SG vibe. Lots of similarities in the hardware too.
I owned until recently another JSII that had a Guild pickup I had never seen before, I'll put up an image. It also had two switches for adjusting the tone, all the best

 

[Jstwo61]

Great to see all the bridge pics. It's interesting how flat topped some saddles are. Mine are all have a more triangulated top, was really lucky to find a matching saddle.

Here are new pics. I really like this Hagstrom bridge.

On your missing screws, figure out what the thread is and go from there. There may be a reference to it somewhere. Metric?

Also, as previously mentioned, Guild sells a whole new bridge (does not retrofit) but you get all new matching saddles and the sliders/screws for only $50. I think the part is linked earlier on.

Rubber washers keep the plate snugged down?

This bridge is a work of art. Guild are subtle like that. Understated, but beauty and functionality are inextricably linked.

Great photos, I totally agree about the bridge being a work of art and beautiful, really well put together and thought through.
I'm also just getting to appreciate how these old ladies don't just play out the box, you have to engage with them, develop a kind of symbiotic relationship with them.

 

[Guildedagain]

What is that monster p'up, amazing how it fit orig route and ring pattern.

Pretty headstock. TRC wrong way round they'll tell you.

Well done mod.

Nice wear on body. I would have liked Natural better than Cherry, but Cherry's keep finding me.

 

[Jstwo61]

What is that monster p'up, amazing how it fit orig route and ring pattern.

Pretty headstock. TRC wrong way round they'll tell you.

Well done mod.

Nice wear on body. I would have liked Natural better than Cherry, but Cherry's keep finding me.

That bass was a bit of a mystery and it definitely had some history. It was a 72' model that ended up as the house bass at a UK residential recording studio/Manor house in the 70's. When I bought it there was another jack socket for the bridge pickup only where the three way switch was. The Guild pickup had WD272 etched on the reverse. The bridge pickup had no makers mark anywhere. The luthier who cleaned the bass up for me said companies like Guild and Hagstrom were still experimenting with new pickup designs back then but nothing can be confirmed. It is uncanny how perfectly the pickup fitted the original rout and surround.

Surprisingly it was not as powerful as the standard neck pickup but the tone was very mids rich

The irony here being, the most complete part of the bass was the bridge assembly so I never gave it another thought before or after it came back from the luthier. If I still had this bass it would have been a perfect side by side reference of course

 

[fronobulax]

On your missing screws

I thought we had established that there were no missing screws in the above, and similar bridges. The height adjustments that were made by a flat head screwdriver in the '71 are now made with a hex headed thingie that turns. There is no evidence I can see that the screwheads on mine are actually some kind of adapter that lets you turn a hex socket with a blade screw driver.

While I'm out on a limb, the above bridge seems like a better design, in the sense that when writing instructions concerning bridge adjustment, it is harder to confuse the height adjustments with the anchors.

 

[fronobulax]

Is that a weird camera angle or are the saddles overlapping in some way? I accidently tried that once but I couldn't make the intonation as good as it had been. I also found I liked, or was used to the way they spread the strings.

Seems to me when peteybass was making saddles he offered notched and unnotched versions so people who wanted decent intonation with narrow string to string spacing could still have the saddles touching rather than overlapping. Of course people who did that had to mark their saddles since they weren't interchangeable anymore.

 

[fronobulax]

Never seen that bridge PU before, in or our of a Guild. I don't think it is a naked Bisonic or humbucker and the dimensions don't otherwise recall anything else I can recall Guild using.

 

[fronobulax]

Well done mod.

Thank you. We try.

Oh, wait. Nevermind.

 

[Jstwo61]

Never seen that bridge PU before, in or our of a Guild. I don't think it is a naked Bisonic or humbucker and the dimensions don't otherwise recall anything else I can recall Guild using.

Frono, It would be so good if someone did recognise it's origins, that might help complete part of the basses journey and history

 

[Guildedagain]

Lol

None of my saddles overlap, intonation is good with D'addario Chromes.

If you look around at aftermarket p'ups of the period, you'd probably figure out who the maker was.

Looks maybe like a Bartolini?

 

[hieronymous]

Looks like a Dimarzio Model One to me - those were made to be direct replacements for the Gibson "mudbucker" as found on the EB-0/EB-2/EB-3. It looks bigger than the Guild humbucker but with the right mounting ring...

https://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/standard-bass/model-one

 

[mellowgerman]

It is most certainly a Dimarzio Model One. A fantastic neck pickup. Never cared much for them in any other position, but I guess that makes sense, as they were intended to be an upgrade for Gibson mudbuckers. Though some manufacturers still used them in other positions (SD Curlee and CF Martin come to mind first). The tone is much more defined though still powerful and fat. They can also be wired up with a switch to go single coil, which gets a great sound too. I had one of them in a Fender Mustang bass around 10 years back, with a single-magnet Hammon Dark Star in the middle position. To my surprise, with the Dimarzio in single coil mode, it actually worked in a hum-cancelling capacity together with the Dark Star. What a killer tone it was!

 

[Jstwo61]

Thank you guys, mystery solved, that's brilliant and as you mentioned they had wired one of the switches to flip it into single coil mode. When combined with the neck pickup it really complimented the tonal pallet (not thin at all). Given it was wired up with two individual outputs, they may also of been running a stereo style feed through the board for recording.

 

[mellowgerman]

Sort of a veer here, but this is probably the best recording I have of my Mustang bass (with Bisonic and Dimarzio Model One combo). It's an instrumental track that my buddy Devon and I wrote and recorded for a college project. You can really hear that nice throaty chuggy sound. Flatwound strings of course.