Hipshot Vintage or A style bridge for MIM Jazz

[billm67]

I am putting together a players bass. I bought a new MIM jazz bass and I have upgraded the pickups with Duncan Vintage Jazz pickups and I have added an Audere preamp. I still want to shield the cavities and change the bridge. I am considering the Hipshot Vintage bridge because I like the vintage style. But another part of me would like the put a Hipshot A style brass bridge. They have the modern high tech look and they just look like a well made bridge. Part of me thinks that the A style bridge looks too modern for a Jazz bass....but they're still cool. What and I missing???

[ishouldbeking]

i'd be willing to bet the bridge upgrade isn't necessarily worth the scratch it'd cost you to buy... unless your stock bridge is broken. you might get a bit more sustain than a regular fender bridge, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your taste, but of all the bridges I've played on, I've never found one to make a huge difference in tone or playability unless there was something wrong to begin with. Badass's, hipshot, Gotoh, or stock Fender, they all essentially do the same thing. Unless you wanted to adjust the string spacing or something, like what a Schaller will let you do.

That said, if i had to upgrade to something I'd probably get a Gotoh 201 cuz they're solid, simple, and not too expensive. I swapped one in for an SX bridge which had some nasty ringing overtones, and I like it quite a bit. Any thick bridge like that often requires you to shim the neck if you want to keep low action though, so keep that in mind if you do go that route.

[walterw]

i vote for these

you can get just the saddles from allparts for like $20, and they'll go right on your bridgeplate.

they let you spread the strings out correctly so they line up over the pickups (unlike the gotoh 201, which is a little too narrow for a jazz bass), and doing so causes the 4 saddles to be pushed together, eliminating rattle and drift as well as improving the tone.