marnold
November 12th, 2008, 12:33 PM
While I love my Spector Performer, I was concerned about the intonation. The 12th fret was in tune, but the 24th went almost ~20 cents sharp. It'd be good until about the 15th fret when things would start to go south (or north, depending on your point of view). I thought for sure that if I moved the saddles away from the neck any more, the 12th fret would go flat. As it turned out, I was wrong. After about 20 minutes with a tuner and allen wrench, the whole neck is in tune. For those of you who say a bass doesn't need more than 14 frets, well, you're wrong. Neener, neener, neener.
Anyway, one "interesting" feature of the Spector Performer series is that it uses a different bridge from the rest of the Spectors. When I called their 800 number, even they weren't 100% sure on it. It's a nice bridge, heftier than a standard MIM Fender, but it's adjusted differently. There is an allen screw on the front of the saddle that locks the height adjustment of the bridge into place. There are two allen screws on either side of the part of the saddle that the string touches for adjusting the height.
There is a fourth allen screw behind that on the top of the saddle. That one locks the whole saddle in place. Loosening that one up allows the saddle to move freely so that the intonation can be adjusted. Unfortunately you have to loosen the strings to get at that screw. I found it helpful to make a small pencil mark where the saddle originally was. I found to my chagrin that it is easy to move the saddle when you just are trying to tighten the allen screw back down.
Thankfully unless you are jumping around with string gauges, intonation is a "set it and forget it" kind of thing.
Anyway, one "interesting" feature of the Spector Performer series is that it uses a different bridge from the rest of the Spectors. When I called their 800 number, even they weren't 100% sure on it. It's a nice bridge, heftier than a standard MIM Fender, but it's adjusted differently. There is an allen screw on the front of the saddle that locks the height adjustment of the bridge into place. There are two allen screws on either side of the part of the saddle that the string touches for adjusting the height.
There is a fourth allen screw behind that on the top of the saddle. That one locks the whole saddle in place. Loosening that one up allows the saddle to move freely so that the intonation can be adjusted. Unfortunately you have to loosen the strings to get at that screw. I found it helpful to make a small pencil mark where the saddle originally was. I found to my chagrin that it is easy to move the saddle when you just are trying to tighten the allen screw back down.
Thankfully unless you are jumping around with string gauges, intonation is a "set it and forget it" kind of thing.