BaCH shortscale semi acoustic

[Basvarken]

A few weeks ago the very first shortscale semi acoustic bass came in from my Czech friends.
It had no bridge (and so also without strings)

Initially I had planned to install a bridge that I had found on Ebay: a two point wrap-around bridge



But when that arrived a few days ago, it appeared to be much too small for this bass. 15 mm string spacing and ridiculously tiny holes to pull the strings through. Perfect for a mandolin, but useless for this bass

So off to Plan B. The trusted three point bridge  .
I have no problems with those bridges, and it sort of fits with the whole design of the bass anyway.
I had one lying in a drawer, so I went ahead with a ruler and a drilling machine.
So far so good.

But like I already knew; the angle of the body and neck was rather big. I had to raise the bridge very high on the strings posts to make for a normal action. I didn't figure it would be a good idea to have the studs raised that high, so I decided to use taller saddles. I have an old Pearl Bass that has tall saddles. So I tried these. But they wouldn't fit the three point bridge that I had installed. There are obviously differences between the three point bridges that are out there...

So - for the time being - I decided to make my own saddles, just to get the bass up and running.
I had some ebony at home. It is as hard as stone, so I thought that might be a good idea.
In the proces of cutting out the saddles, two snapped before they were done. But after some work I had four decent saddles.

I am going to use nylon for the rest of the series. I is much easier to work with and I happen to like the sound of nylon saddles. Plus it fits the EB2 nicely.

The bass is very comfortable to play. The mahogany neck feels very familiar. The sound of the humbucker is rather different than the sound of the humbucker on the longscale BaCH semi acoustic that I have. The humbucker in this blonde shortie is more focussed and clear. Not muddy.
I have no idea what it is exactly. It has a BaCH logo on the chrome cover. But BaCH does not make their own pickups...
I'll ask them where they found this

Anyway, here's the bridge with ebony saddles:








And here's the SAB-1S NA (Semi Acoustic Bass -1 humbucker, short scale - natural) in it's full glory:

[Iome]

WOW Rob, that bass is a beauty, and you made some very nice saddles, very professional. Samples?
When will these basses be available?

[Basvarken]

I'm ready to take orders.
I have five three point bridges coming my way as we speak. So I can make a little start.
And I'm working on getting the nylon to make the saddles. Hope to get the material in the course of the week.

I'm really excited that this project is finally coming to life.
I initiated it five years ago, just after I had started the BaCHbird project.
But BaCH kept putting it aside because of several problems they ran into (all bridge related)
And they still haven't solved that. So I took over because I got fed up with the long wait.

[Highlander]

Very nice...

Not on your site yet... price...?

[Basvarken]

Can't put it on my site yet. If anyone should buy it off the site now, I'd have to be able to ship it straight away. At the moment I'm not ready to do that yet.
But I guess in two weeks I will...

The price of the SAB-1S-NA will be 385 Euro.

[Dave W]

It's lovely even with the three-point.

[shadowcastaz]

 :mrgreen:Me Loves it!

[Nocturnal]

Looks nice!!

[ack1961]

Beautiful...as are most BaCH basses - I swear I'm going to get one someday.

I have a question regarding the 2-point bridge pictured: Why do the saddles have different orientation? (please don't insert orientation joke here)
Just wondering....

Thanks.

[Basvarken]

That's something I asked myself too when I opened the package. I can imagine they took a look at guitar bridges such as the tune-o-matic where often the lower three are reversed.

The only valid reason I can imagine to do this is the gain two or three more millimeters for intonation purposes. The tune-o-matic isn't very wide, nor is this wraparound bridge. Sometimes you need the extra three milimeters to the right side.

I would have loved to use this bridge. I even tried to make new saddles for this one too, and make the notches off center. But the bridge itself isn't wide enough. The saddles would hang over the sides of the bridge.

I can imagine it might work for a Hofner bass with narrow string spacing. You'd still have to drill the holes where the strings are pulled through.

[FrankieTbird]

Looks really good.  Will there be a dual-pickup model?

The Tune-a-matic bass bridge with the separate tailpiece may work well with that neck angle.  They sit the strings up pretty high.  Maybe you can try one on one of the next few basses.

[Basvarken]

Looks really good.  Will there be a dual-pickup model?

Yes, BaCH has them with a second pickup too. A mini humbucker.
In Antique Red and White.
Both in long scale and in short scale.

The Tune-a-matic bass bridge with the separate tailpiece may work well with that neck angle.  They sit the strings up pretty high.  Maybe you can try one on one of the next few basses.

A customer of mine in the Netherlands bought one without bridge and he is going to install the (modern) tune-o-matic bridge with seperate tailpiece.

[Lightyear]

Sweet bass!

Could you not have Bach set the necks with a couple of degrees less pitch?  Has to be a hell of a lot easier than making saddles for every bass you sell.

[Dave W]

Rob, any idea what kind of material Gibson used? We usually say nylon but did they ever specify exactly what it was?

I wonder if UHMW might be a good solution. Very good abrasion resistance, self-lubricating, easy to work, relatively low cost and pretty easy to get in small quantities, at least over here.

[4stringer77]

The Tune-a-matic bass bridge with the separate tailpiece may work well with that neck angle.

You can use a Tune-O-matic bridge but you can't tune-a-fish