Hofner Ignition Violin Bass

[famous beagle]

Just got one of these, and I absolutely love the playability and tone. It's quite beautiful as well.

The only thing that seemed odd was the bridge. This is my first instrument with a floating bridge, so I'm wondering if this is common at all. In order to get the bass intonated well, I had to really skew the bridge's angle (see photo). Now it plays great, and the intonation is really nice all over, but it just looks kind of funny.

Anyone else have similar issues with this bass or other instruments with a floating bridge?

 

[DM60]

I have a hollow body with a floating bridge and it has height adjusters. I think the body is curving lower giving you better action. I would if it has height adjusters, you could lower one side of the bridge and straighten it out to get the same height as you are getting with it slanted.

 

[Lt. Bob]

looks like those saddles are movable so you wouldn't have to skew the bridge nearly as much (if at all ) if you move the saddles.

 

[muttley600]

The bridge may look slanted but the points of contact look about right. If it bothers you that much you can get a new bridge or partial bridge fitted but I wouldn't bother. It's not unusual to see a floating bridge at quite an angle especially if the strings are heavy and old. Also you have a fairly short scale on those which doesn't help.

 

[muttley600]

looks like those saddles are movable so you wouldn't have to skew the bridge nearly as much (if at all ) if you move the saddles.

On some of the old hofner bridges you could move the saddle into different slots. Can't make out if that is the case here but it only gives about an 1/8" either way..

 

[Lt. Bob]

On some of the old hofner bridges you could move the saddle into different slots. Can't make out if that is the case here but it only gives about an 1/8" either way..

looking at that pic , if the bass saddle was moved to the front slot and the same with moving the treble saddle to the rear slot it'd be enough to straighten out that bridge quite a bit.

 

[muttley600]

looking at that pic , if the bass saddle was moved to the front slot and the same with moving the treble saddle to the rear slot it'd be enough to straighten out that bridge quite a bit.

Possibly but I cant see if that is an adjustable one. The ones I'm thinking of had definite white saddles that one seems not to? I haven't seen one in quite a while.. I suspect action and setup are in need of attention too which would certainly help.

 

[famous beagle]

Thanks for the input y'all. The action feels really good to me. It's not terribly low, but it's not that high. But this bass is so easy to play that it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

The individual saddles can be moved forward or backward to different slots, but the bridge is tapered in such a way that it kind of negates any attempt to do so. See the attached images.

I don't know if you can make it out in the photos, but the top of the bridge is not flat. The bass side slants down toward the neck, and the treble side slants down toward the tailpiece. So if you move the E string saddle forward to the first slot, say, it would be too low for the string to even make contact with it. Likewise, if you move the G string saddle to the rear slot (which I tried first), the string will still make contact at the front of the bridge, because it's higher than the rear of the bridge.

So it's kind of like ... the saddles are intended to stay in the slots they are. I'm not sure why it's designed this way. If the top of the bridge were flat, then it would make sense to have the different slots. But with it tapered this way, it doesn't really even make sense to have the slots because you pretty much have to keep the saddles where they are anyway. (You may be able to move them one slot over and still make contact, but anything more than that and the string is going to be contacting the bridge and not the saddle.)

Anyway, as long as it's not terribly uncommon to see skewed floating bridges like this, it doesn't really bother me. Like I said, the intonation is good now, and I love the way the bass plays (and sounds).

The only thing I wish it had were a thumb rest because I would ideally like to pluck right between the pickups. Other than that, though (and the odd bridge thing), I couldn't be happier with the bass.

 

[Lt. Bob]

yeah ..... clearly you're not gonna move the saddles. That's kinda dumb ..... why would they do that?

Anyways ...... if the intonations is on then there's nothing wrong with having the bridge slanted other than looks.