Installing a badass II and new pickguard

[kjr]

I’m going to upgrade my Fender Deluxe P-Bass with a Badass II bridge and a different pickguard. I haven’t done any modifications to any bass before but I feel confident fiddling around with them. Do you think I could do both of these modifications by myself? And what should I take into consideration when putting them on? Thanks in advance

[Nino Valenti]

You're going to need to file the slots on the BAII. Stew Mac sells nut files that you can use to file the saddles.

Different pickguards might have the screw holes in different spots, if the holes are slightly off, I recomend you fill the hole with a dowel (or toothpicks & glue) & re drill. If there is no hole, just drill a new hole. Do not just drive the screw in with out a hole becasue you might do damage to the body.

[bassist4ever]

the BAII is a simple straight forward install..... unstring your bass, unscrew bridge, remove. . reverse procedure for installing BAII... some people don't file the slots in the bridge saddles, may work fine for some, but you could end up with funky string spacing and the like. I talked to the lady who runs/ran the leo quan thing. she said it is recommended that you do cut the slots in there.

[kjr]

Sorry, but what do you mean by filing the slots in the bridge? Like where the string lays or what?

[bassist4ever]

exactly. the strings need to have a spot to sit so they don't move around while your playing. you could probably take it to a local shop and they could file the slots for you for realatively cheap id think. no more than about 30 bucks i'd think

[Jazzin']

why doesnt it come with pre-filed slots?
and why does it say this?
"The design of the Bass II eliminates the problems of harmonic tuning, interference of bass string silk wrappings, contacting the bridge saddle, and undesirable side movement of the strings and bridge saddles."

[bassist4ever]

the reason it doesnt come with pre filed slots, is because people differ in their opinion of string spacing, this way you can customize your bass furtehr by having a wide strign spacing or narrow. and each saddle rides in its own track. so it wont move.

for more info go to www.leoquan.com
and email one of them and ask. i've talked to the daughter of leo. she was very helpful when i was in search of one.

[kjr]

I put on my black pearl pick guard and now I have static in the pickups. It had a gold anodize pick guard on it before, which I believed acted as shielding for the pickups. What do I do to fix this problem? I love the way it looks but the static is really upsetting me. Thanks

[bryan bailey]

Originally Posted by Jazzin'

and undesirable side movement of the strings and bridge saddles."

Yeah, this is kind of bs, as the strings on my geddy slip off there string slots from time to time, if I'm playing hard.

[bassist4ever]

static as in, hum? if thats the case you may need sheild the back side of the PG with some of the sheilding foil you can buy at stewmac or the like

[kjr]

Yeah it hums and when I turn only the precision pickups on, there is no output from the pickups. But when I put the gold anodize one back on, it worked fine. But it seems to not affect the jazz (bridge) pickup at all. So do you think I just need to add a shield?

[Nino Valenti]

Originally Posted by bryan bailey

Yeah, this is kind of bs, as the strings on my geddy slip off there string slots from time to time, if I'm playing hard.

That's becasue the techs at Fender didn't slot the saddles deep enough. If you try to move the actual saddle back & forth, it won't move.

[Lyle Caldwell]

Originally Posted by kjr

Yeah it hums and when I turn only the precision pickups on, there is no output from the pickups. But when I put the gold anodize one back on, it worked fine. But it seems to not affect the jazz (bridge) pickup at all. So do you think I just need to add a shield?

The gold pickguard was probably grounding the volume pot to the rest of the circuit. With the replacement pickguard (with no foil) unless there's a wire from pot to pot to jack, the volume pot won't have a ground, hence no sound.

Pure speculation without seeing a photo of your bass, but it's very likely.

[kjr]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I just used my gold pickguard as a shield and placed my new pickguard over it. This is ok for the bass, right? It sounds the way it did before and looks so much better.

[bassist4ever]

if the screws fit, wear it

[Rick Martin]

It seems that the Geddy Lee basses I've seen with the BAll bridge do not have any saddle slots cut for the strings. The strings just rode right over that sharp edge.