Fender P-Bass Bridge Recommendations

[Jawbone]

I've been meaning to upgrade my bridge on my MIM P since it's starting to get kind of sloppy. Looking at the MIA and MIM Fender P's on their web site I see they use quite a variety of different bridges. What is the preferred recommended aftermarket bridge: high mass, low mass, vintage, BadassI/II?

[SurferJoe46]

Stock.

[faulknersj]

What kind of music do you play? What kind of tone are you going for? What is lacking in your basses tone that you attribute to the bridge? Answers to these questions will be very helpful.

[SurferJoe46]

I play a lot of everything:

Vocal Jazz, Surf, Motown, Roadhouse Rock, and I find nothing is lacking or I wouldn't own the basses I do in the first place.

I buy a bass for what it sounds like and don't put a new bridge on any of them since I think a change of bridge is a fallacy to improving the tone of a bass anyway.

What I need is the different voicings that I can get from fingers, thumb, plucking position or even using a felt pick or not.

I tend to not want the brassy-shattering glass sounds as I don't slap, but I tend to be more old school and want the groove on the bottom to myself and use the bass in support of the kick and the kick in support of me.

If I thought that a change of bridge would make me a better player - it might be a consideration - but we all appreciate the fact that WE are the greatest part of the sounds from our gear.

[anonymous122511]

Originally Posted by Jawbone

I've been meaning to upgrade my bridge on my MIM P since it's starting to get kind of sloppy. Looking at the MIA and MIM Fender P's on their web site I see they use quite a variety of different bridges. What is the preferred recommended aftermarket bridge: high mass, low mass, vintage, BadassI/II?

I like the vintage fender bridges. They're inexpensive, string spacing is adjustable and they sound like a stock Fender.

[bassgod76]

I've worked with several different bridges on my builds. It also depends on your budget. I've tried the MIA Fender bridge, MIM Fender bridge, Fender Vintage bridge, Hipshot A style, and BAII.

The only one I really didn't dig is the Badass II. The bridge is really high, so getting a lower action is more difficult to set up. It's almost like the bridge is meant to be slightly inlaid instead of being fastened on top of the body. Also, I had to file out grooves for the string saddles. Maybe this has changed since 2008???

I liked the superior craftsmanship, weight, and look of the Hipshot. However, it's pricey.

I have to say that the vintage Fender is the best bang for the buck. It has great adjustibility, and it's relatively inexpensive. The only setback is that you can't do a string-thru setup with this bridge. Just my .02

So, I agree with jeff arddun.

[Burlington]

Badass2 is an awesome bridge. I liked mine on my jazz.

[Burlington]

Originally Posted by SurferJoe46

I play a lot of everything:

Vocal Jazz, Surf, Motown, Roadhouse Rock, and I find nothing is lacking or I wouldn't own the basses I do in the first place.

I buy a bass for what it sounds like and don't put a new bridge on any of them since I think a change of bridge is a fallacy to improving the tone of a bass anyway.

What I need is the different voicings that I can get from fingers, thumb, plucking position or even using a felt pick or not.

I tend to not want the brassy-shattering glass sounds as I don't slap, but I tend to be more old school and want the groove on the bottom to myself and use the bass in support of the kick and the kick in support of me.

If I thought that a change of bridge would make me a better player - it might be a consideration - but we all appreciate the fact that WE are the greatest part of the sounds from our gear.

I think faulknersj was asking the OP...

Anyways, the OP just said that his bridge was getting sloppy, which does happen to the MiM bridges. He never said a different bridge would make him a better player hahah, he probably just wants his intonation to stay where it's set.

[treekiller]

Originally Posted by SurferJoe46

Stock.

+1 Hard to beat the vintage Fender.....

[bassophile]

Hi,

Badass II tends to give more attack but it cuts character. P-bass sound is all in its character so I recommend you Vintage Fender bridge, or maybe Deluxe Fender bridge. In that way you can create variety of sounds by changing right hand technique which IMO is more challenging and fun. Badass II is more useful for jazz bass, which I had on mine '78.

So in general try to find good quality low profile bridge.

GOOD LUCK!

[SurferJoe46]

Originally Posted by Burlington

I think faulknersj was asking the OP...

Anyways, the OP just said that his bridge was getting sloppy, which does happen to the MiM bridges. He never said a different bridge would make him a better player hahah, he probably just wants his intonation to stay where it's set.

I see that now in the new day - last night I was pretty tired.

It would help if the actual quote was included when people would respond, but you're right.

[JTE]

The stock Fender vintage-style bridge with the threaded saddles is my favorite bridge. I used to manage a guitar store and I took a lot of peoples' money to "improve" basses with different bridges, but they generally were only changes. All we have to go in is that the factory bridge is "sloppy" which means nothing.

ANY time you're looking to upgrade, the first thing is to be very specific about what the exact deficiency you're trying to fix is. "Sloppy" could be cosmetics, could be that it won't stay intonated, that the saddles fall, or who knows what. If you tell us precisely what is wrong, then we can lead you to a reasonable solution. Otherwise, if the thread lives long enough you'll get recommendations for just about every kind of bridge there is, which won't help you a bit.

My experience is that the MIM basses don't have bad bridges at all. Maybe the tolerances on the threads for the saddle height adjustments aren't as close as they could be, and if the rattle loose you can fix it with the temporary version of Lok-Tite®.

John
John