A screen basket with replaceable profiled bars and method of making such screen basket are described herein. The screen basket includes profiled bars evenly spaced circumferentially to form a plurality of continuous slots that covers the whole basket length. The profiled bars are fixed in place by a backing structure, including support rings. In pulp and paper industry, this type of basket is mainly used for pulp screening and is commonly referred to as wedge wire basket. As opposed to conventional wedge wire baskets, in which the profiled bars are permanently joined to the rings, the present invention allows replacing the profiled bars when required and to fully re-use the main structural elements. This is achieved with an assembly that allows to insert the profiled bars, preferably consecutively sled into each aligned ring grooves in a vertical movement. The ring grooves are profiled such that there is sufficient clearance for sliding in the profiled bars. The mounting clearance is then removed radially to hold the profiled bars in place. According to an illustrative embodiment, this is achieved by squeezing an element made of compressible material, and placed between each ring pair.