Gibson SG Faded Bass? Bridge Upgrade?

Creed_Clicks

Out of the country, so bass is out of reach! But had been looking at the bass before I left. Worth a bridge upgrade here to a hipshot or other brand?
I have a Samick semi hollow with the same bridge and the intonation is all over the place on it..

Funkfingers

Babicz and Hipshot make direct replacements. I cannot recall their respective finish colour options or prices.

ICBM

The intonation problems are caused by the distance from the string anchor points to the saddles being too short, so the lock twists on the strings - even though covered by the outer wraps - rest on the saddles.

A solution to that is to drill through the body and fit ferrules, as on the RD basses. You could avoid the need for the front ferrules if you make the holes directly under the back of the bridge so the strings come out vertically.

andy1839

This is the Babicz one, and was standard on Thunderbirds for a couple of years. 

https://m.thomann.de/gb/babicz_fch_3_point_4_string_bass_bk.htm

I'll be ordering one next month.

Creed_Clicks

@ICBM I’d prefer not to make any modifications if possible. I suppose one of the previous recommendations might do, but an expensive one .... 

ICBM

I’m not even convinced the Babicz bridge moves the anchor points far enough back to avoid the problem. The Hipshot does seem to.

You could maybe improvise if you can find some metal tube spacers which fit over the strings, to hold the ball ends away from the bridge.

Creed_Clicks

@ICBM or just sell it  

JezWynd

I had the Babicz on a 2014 SG Bass and it was a definite upgrade on the original, esp when it comes to making fine adjustments. My pref though is for the Hipshot, it's a smaller, less obtrusive design and works well on basses with a carved top.

Re intonation and string silks sitting on the saddles, The easiest fix I found was to run the strings through some small washers that sit behind the bridge - this places the silks etc behind the saddles. There are a couple of more cosmetic versions of this fix, using a milled aluminium bar with holes for the strings. to run through.

JezWynd

Creed_Clicks said:

@ICBM or just sell it  

I got one to replace an EB0 I had years before but it wasn't the same instrument despite looking similar. They're okay basses but there are better ones out there.

Creed_Clicks

JezWynd said:

Creed_Clicks said:

@ICBM or just sell it  

I got one to replace an EB0 I had years before but it wasn't the same instrument despite looking similar. They're okay basses but there are better ones out there.

As it was going to be a "second" bass, I was thinking of selling it, and just get the Epi EB0 if I want that sound, or a ballpark EB0 sound, and not put any money into it, but as I got the Gibson at a decent enough price, I'm tempted to just keep it and play it.

Kristo

When I had an SG bass I bought a mod bar to get the string windings off the saddles. Helped massively.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GIBSON-EPIPHONE-BASS-BRIDGE-3-POINT-MOD-BAR-/303416724035

Creed_Clicks

Kristo said:

When I had an SG bass I bought a mod bar to get the string windings off the saddles. Helped massively.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GIBSON-EPIPHONE-BASS-BRIDGE-3-POINT-MOD-BAR-/303416724035

Might be worth a look, and a hell of a lot cheaper. Edit. Ordered one off the bay.

dogload

I've got the Hipshot one that is a direct replacement for a Gibson 3-point TP on my Jack Casady bass. To say it's an improvement is a massive understatement.

Creed_Clicks

@dogload I'll try the mod bar, and if I decide to keep the bass, I'll look at a hipshot down the line.

guitargeek62

Creed_Clicks said:

Kristo said:

When I had an SG bass I bought a mod bar to get the string windings off the saddles. Helped massively.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GIBSON-EPIPHONE-BASS-BRIDGE-3-POINT-MOD-BAR-/303416724035

Might be worth a look, and a hell of a lot cheaper. Edit. Ordered one off the bay.

While that's a neat little product, @ICBM's suggestion of using spacers is cheaper still and likely just as effective. Just pop over to your local DIY store/B&Q and grab some brass tubing, a hacksaw, and some sandpaper and you can make them in about 20 minutes

Creed_Clicks

@guitargeek62 too late

guitargeek62

Ha, no worries - the mod bar looks neat anyway!

Creed_Clicks

I’m now wondering if it might be worth upgrading the neck pickup ! If it ain’t broke ...

Funkfingers

Creed_Clicks said:

I’m now wondering if it might be worth upgrading the neck pickup !

P.A.S. Pickup acquisition syndrome. 

TBH, there are not many replacement Mudbucker or Sidewinder pickups on the market. (For EB string spacing, the DiMarzio Model One springs to mind.) My favourite is the old Yamaha 33k monster that used to appear in mid price Attitude Bass models.

A better solution might be to keep the pickups stock and adopt two-channel output wiring. Treat the small pickup as a normal, wiry, top end sound. Run the big pickup through a fuzz processor with a fuzz/clean mix control. 

If that sounds like too much bother, consider rewiring the controls to master volume, balance, master tone …

… then, whack it through the fuzz! 

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

… then, whack it through the fuzz!

Always this. My favourite bass fuzz is anything based on the Shin-Ei FY-6.

Then it doesn’t matter what bass it is .

The pickups are actually fine in these - you’d be better off replacing the electrics as Funkfingers said - a fairly radical way would be to fit a 4-way rotary switch (maybe through the pickguard if you don’t want to lose the separate volume controls) to give an out-of-phase setting (the bridge pickup should have 4-conductor cable) like some of the EB-3s did if I remember right... either that or series.

JezWynd

Iirc, didn’t Gibson release an EB-3 with an onboard fuzz unit?