Marina Bass saddle problem!

[ghostbaron]

I'm in the proces of redoing a late 80's bass, but have hit a snag. It is a Marina B-402a Bladerunner bass (made by Chuan Yin Musical Instruments Co. Ltd. out of Taiwan which of course no longer makes that series). There was no issue putting in the jack, 3-way switch, knobs, strings and a doing a bit of rewiring...but the saddles on this guitar I have never seen. I am missing two of the four, and would like to replace them without spending $230 on a machinist. The saddles appear to be a version of a string saver block type design (fender like),...but made for a bass. The saddles are made for the string-thru boddy type in a stag fashion that have 18mm string spacing. The saddles themselves are about 16mm wide x 19mm long x 9mm deep. Has anyone seen these badboys anywhere?


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[theehman]

[ghostbaron]

[theehman]

[cheepaxes]

I'm certainly no expert but I would think they wouldn't need to be the exact dimensions as the originals to work. A little smaller wouldn't be a problem. A little wider could be filed down a little. I could be wrong but I would think they need not be exact enough to touch each other on the side. I would think that the alignment of the strings on the neck would be more a function of the straightest distance between the hole that the string passes through at the end of the tailpiece and the nut slot, than it it would depend on the saddles on either side holding an individual saddle in place. Does that makes sense?

-Scott

[ghostbaron]

Thanks theehman for the try!

I agree, cheepaxes, about not using an exact replacement, but it would be nice. So far I have only found a few items that would work well with the string-thru 18mm spacing stag holes. There is the Hipshot Triple Lock Down Individual saddles,...but I would have to fill and finish the old bridge holes since they would be showing at both sides. I also saw that the saddles that go to a 1999 Silhouette bridge might work....if I could find them. Another person just mentioned that some of the Epiphones Bass Bridges of the 80's-90's period were very close to the style I'm looking for, so I will be checking them out this weekend.

Otherwise if I did not wish to use the thru-body approach,....I could get a $16 bridge off of ioffer,....but the person that gave me the bass mentioned that it gave out a good sound by going throught the body (of course that goes back to an old debate).

I actually did buy a imported bridge that would have been perfect,...but it had a 20mm spacing and did not work (there was only the picture to go by and no info....so I gave it a try).

[ghostbaron]

OK,....I got a response from a Mr. Walter Wright that might have put me on the right track. It seems that the late 80's / early 90's Gibson Epiphones that have string through bodies seem to use the same type of bridge (which sorta makes since the guitars were made in the same country at the same time). Which I hope will make tracking down a replacement saddles a bit easier now (I hope).

[ghostbaron]

A quick close on the thread,....it seems I got lucky on eBay and managed to get a bridge that had saddles close enough to the originals (though a bit larger) that got the job done. Thanks for the assist...

Here is the Marina B-402a Bladerunner III bass below for those curious....

[cheepaxes]

Very insteresting looking bass. Thanks for getting back to us with the end of the story. :)

-Scott

[VintAxe]

It is an interesting shape, known popularly as "the fish". Wonder if that was an intentional visual reference from the "Marina" company.

Don't know if you are into case candy ghostbaron, but Currier's Music World is auctioning a catalog that pictures your bass. Marina is obviously not a well known brand so the catalog will likely sell at a price close to it's starting bid. If I owned the bass, I'd enjoy having the catalog, but I obviously have a compulsion when it comes to owning catalogs so that is probably just me.

Here's the link to the auction if you are interested:

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-1970s-MARIN ... 439cca4658

[ghostbaron]

Hey,.. Thanks for the info,....

I was away from computers and my house for the latter part of the week and weekend,....so I missed the auction (oh, well). I will keep an eye out for a possible future auction/catalog in the future!

[VintAxe]

If you want a copy of the catalog I'd just email Curriers. I think they have several copies and will either sell you one directly or put another up for auction for you. I've made many purchases from them, they are good folks.

[jdwhealton]

Here's a shot of the one I had not too long ago...it was FUN.

jd

http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo ... 6595mEXXeF