3 Point bridge question

[cheyenne]

I'm with you,,, I cut the nut cut as low as it will go to allow open strings to sound clearly when hit hard, with fingers, on open notes, without buzzing. THIS, in my opinion is the way overlooked tweak that has the biggest impact on the overall playability and feel of the neck.

[Nocturnal]

I didn't install a Supertone to gain more sustain, just seems easier for my brain to work with for adjustments. Plus the saddles don't fall off when I change strings so I appreciate that. I have no hate for the 3-point and have them on 3 of my basses but I like the solid feel of the Supertone despite it's large footprint. Honestly the black one pretty much blends right in on my ebony Bird, but the chrome one looks right at home on my RD.

I stole the following info from Talkbass and it is supposed to be a detailed explanation about adjusting the 3-point. I am not the author and claim no credit for this write-up so if there is a reason that I shouldn't post this then please delete it. If there are mistakes someone can offer a better solution/suggestion on that part.

3 POINT BRIDGE ADJUSTMENTS

1. Screw down the bridge evenly over all three screws till you have an action around the 15th and higher frets that is comfortable for you without any or too much buzz (some players don't mind a little buzz or even like it, that is a matter of taste). Keep the front stud a little higher for best string to saddle pressure. Retune the bass, don't worry about buzzing in the lower registers at this point.

2. Now you've got your bass retuned with a lower action at the high frets. Your lower frets will now either buzz (see 2a for the subsequent steps) or the action will still be too high even in the low registers (see 2b for the subsequent steps).

2a: Low Register buzzes: You need to loosen the truss rod. Take off the truss rod cover and insert an allen wrench in the allen nut (the cheaper Epis generally have allen nuts). Don't detune the bass for that, rather lift the A and the D string to the side to the slots of the G and E string to have room for turning the allen wrench. With the bass' butt resting on your toes (clean those sneakers!) and the strings/fretboard facing away from you, you - while standing up and looking down - will now turn the allen wrench <--- counterclockwise <---. Epi truss rods move easily (if noisily), turn it and immediately look to find out how the action of the bass has altered and buzzing has become less or disappeared. Don't be scared of overdoing it - it is impossible to break a truss rod by loosening it as you are releasing tension. That said, one or two "one third turns" counterclockwise should do it. sometimes you will need a few more of those to actually adjust the bass if the neck is too straight or even curved away from the fretboard.

2 b: Low Register has too much action: Same as 2a, except that you have too tighten the truss rod now which is done by turning the allen wrench ---> clockwise --->. You will also have to be more careful as you can break a trussrod by overtightening it. But Epi truss rods are hardy and can certainly survive one full turn or even more as your bass is probably a virgin as regards truss rod adjustment.

3. After a combination of either steps 1 and 2a or steps 1 and 2 b you should have a relatively or even totally buzz free bass with good to reasonable action. If there is still some persistent buzzing at some places then raise the bridge a little. Raising the front stud will raise all strings, raising the lower hind stud more the D and G string, raising the upper hind stud more E and A. No radical set ups please! (Like one stud real low and the other two very high.)

4. (optional) Is all buzzing just on one string (while the other strings are buzz-free) and you have to raise the bridge considerably to make it go away even though you could stay much lower if it were just for the other strings? Try this then: I assume that on your Epi too the saddles for the four individual strings do not all have the same height, but that there are two higher and two lower ones. If the persistently buzzing string is on a lower saddle, then exchange that saddle against a higher saddle.

[cheyenne]

Wow! Thanks for the information. very much appreciated.

[chromium]

Adding to the above, one other nugget that might help in some situations is re-ordering the saddles.

I owned an Epi Elitist Thunderbird for a while.  Beautiful bass, but when it arrived I noticed the radius of the fretboard was fairly flat and the the corresponding radius of the strings (imposed by the saddles) had a huge arch and didn't match up very well.  The E & G saddles were short, and the A & D were very tall.  I had to set the action such that the E wouldn't buzz, and that resulted in the A & D being hiked up way off the board... if that makes sense.

Rather than grind down or notch the high saddles deeper, I just took note of their positions (for re-ballparking the intonation later) and reordered them- lifting the entire saddle and screw out and moving their positions as follows:

   A -> E
   D -> A
   E -> D
   G - left in place

That made for a flatter radius at the bridge (to better match that of the board), and I was able to get a really nice setup going after that.  If I recall correctly, the bass side stud had to be cranked down a bit, and the treble side up.... resulting in a slightly tilted stature of the bridge.  I still kept the center screw cranked up a bit for good downward string pressure.  The only bummer is that the D saddle notch ends up being kinda huge for the string... but that didn't cause me any problems.

Not sure whether the newer Epis are like this, but just thought it worth a mention.  I didn't have to do this on my Gibsons...