Hi Geoff
It is a long term project - when I say I have the bits most of them are still just pieces of wood
. I'm building from scratch as I couldn't find necks and bodies ready made. So far I have the body cut to shape but not yet routed, neck cut out and truss rod fitted but not yet shaped.
From my researches it seems the original US Bass VI had a full 1" wide bridge channel but that later Japanese instruments used the narrower Jaguar bridge causing intonation problems. I read somewhere (but I can't recall where) that one answer was to relocate the bridge thimbles further back (ie closer to the trem) but of course that would mean re-drilling your guitar which I certainly wouldn't want to do. You might want to have a look at the Bass VI bulletin board here (apologies if you've seen these already) -
http://bassvi.org . There's a thread specifically about intonation here -
http://bassvi.org/viewtopic.php?t=310&h ... intonation - which suggests the Mastery bridge may not be the answer
.
Also this website --
http://www.huort-ch.com/ -- is that of a French luthier who manufacturers specific Bass VI bridges (look under "other services ... hardware parts") though I think they are made only to order and even then not very often.
For my project I intend using a standard Jag bridge located by a bit of trial and error to get the intonation right but if that fails I may look at the possibility of making a channel from stainless or mild steel and having it plated. I need to do the same with the control and switch plates.
Roger