Help! Intonation screws almost too short

[RaginRog]

So I was setting the intonation on my 30th Anniversary Stingray tonight and found that for some reason I was having problems. I was having issues with the A string in particular, and eventually had to switch the screws for my A & G string saddles so I'd have enough room to loosen the saddle to move it closer to the neck. I have a set of flatwound strings on it, and YES, I have set the intonation on several basses through the years, so I do know what I'm doing. I've remedied the problem for now, and have it set perfect. Has anyone else ever encountered this same problem?

Thanks Guys!

 

[spencer]

Hmm... Can you post a picture of your bridge? Normally the a shouldn't be loner than the d and d should be shorter than g.

Any chance you have excessive relief in your neck? What gauge strings are you using.

 

[RaginRog]

Hmm... Can you post a picture of your bridge? Normally the a shouldn't be loner than the d and d should be shorter than g.

Any chance you have excessive relief in your neck? What gauge strings are you using.

Thet are standard med. guage flats with a .105 E string. I'll have to take a picture of the bass. I actually don't have much relief in the neck, as I keep the action fairly low. I'll upload picks tomorrow.

Thanks

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

How old are the strings?

 

[five7]

Are you sure your tuner is working correctly?

 

[Basspro]

If you can't intonate the bass with 3/4" saddle travel then something else is wrong.
As Gav said, change your strings first. Then I suggest you set your saddles staggered about 1/2 way and do a neck adjustment, and then reintonate your bass.

 

[oli@bass]

my bet: faulty A string

 

[RaginRog]

my bet: faulty A string

A faulty A string....come on...

 

[RaginRog]

Are you sure your tuner is working correctly?

I tried 2 tuners.....a tascam and korg tuner....I'm going to start it from scratch again.

 

[RaginRog]

How old are the strings?

They've been on there about a week, but don't have much playing time on them. I made a truss adjustment after I posted this, and plan on moving the saddle back to a mid point to see if I can get this right.

 

[RaginRog]

If you can't intonate the bass with 3/4" saddle travel then something else is wrong.
As Gav said, change your strings first. Then I suggest you set your saddles staggered about 1/2 way and do a neck adjustment, and then reintonate your bass.

Thanks Bass Pro....the strings are new. I made an truss adjustment after I made this post, so I'm getting ready to go down and try this again.

 

[Basspro]

It should come together, your on the right track.move the saddles see where the string
height is at,maybe set the saddle height adjusting screws, adjust the neck and intonate and all should be fine.

 

[spencer]

Yes your saddles could also be too high

 

[RaginRog]

Okay- I'm good!

I don't know if perhaps the strings weren't settled or not, or maybe the relief was a little much, but I got the intonation damned near perfect this afternoon.


I've included the before and after photos....the before was from last night. Before going to sleep, I made a quick 1/3 turn- truss adjustment. You can see a huge difference in where the saddles are from one day to the next.

Thanks to all who made some suggestions and got me going back to square one!

-Rog
BEFORE

AFTER

 

[five7]

Glad to hear!

 

[Basspro]

Very cool.Now shes ret-to-go.