Got a '75 Fender reissue bridge

[mazdah]

Yup. It could happen with all standard bridges (happened with few my basses, not only Fenders). I use some kind of "rubber-glue" (for repairing shoes) to hold them on their place thus more power is required to adjust them, but no pernament changes are applied.

I simply HATE what Badass bridges do with the sound. Many bass players love them, they look amazing, they add sustain but I simply can't stand a fender with Badass bridge.

[walterw]

the string-polepiece alignment makes some difference (enough for leo fender to change the design of the first P-bass this way in order to save speakers, and to patent the idea); you get a lessening of the transient, so it feels like a slight compression of the attack.

that said, it's not a huge difference, and if your pickups are further away and you don't hit very hard, it's probably no difference at all. (i like my pickups a bit closer and i bang on it, so i feel a little difference in the attack when it's lined up right.)

[mongo2]

Originally Posted by walterw

the string-polepiece alignment makes some difference (enough for leo fender to change the design of the first P-bass this way in order to save speakers, and to patent the idea); you get a lessening of the transient, so it feels like a slight compression of the attack.

That was due to the the narrow width of the discrete mag fields with the single pole per string design (very narrow poles) so string alignment was more critical. The bi-pole design widens the mag field so string alignment is no longer a factor for a properly set up bass.

[bassman_al]

So is that to say that a P-bass also has the wider magnetic field per pole?

[mongo2]

Originally Posted by bassman_al

So is that to say that a P-bass also has the wider magnetic field per pole?

Yes, a wider magnetic field per pair of poles vs. the single narrow pole per string design.

[walterw]

right, not "per pole", but "per pair".

leo's later designs (stingray, G&L) just used big, wide single poles.

the norstrand variation (swinging the pair around 45°) eliminates the gap, so the result really is like one big polepiece.

[bassman_al]

I talked to a guy who had a custom made J-bass with Bartolini passive pickups and GHS strings. Played through a power amp into an Eden 410. Very nice sound, sat nicely in the mix at the wedding reception. Those pups also use the double pole configuration? I like the Fender P pups I have now. Also liked the set of DiMarzios I had a while back and later a set of Fralins. All the same pole design? The DiMazios where very hot and had a different sound. I liked it but ultimately decided I liked the Fenders just fine.

[walterw]

barts (and EMGs) usually have solid bar magnets going all the way across, rendering spacing questions moot.

the differences you heard between those different pickups was due to stuff other than polepiece spacing, to be sure.