BA II installation for longhorn Jazz Bass

[georgestrings]

Originally Posted by ljazz

I responded to a PM from the OP on this. The longhorn/boner jazz original bridge is a horrible design..... it has like 21 or 22mm spacing..... much to wide for the neck. You'll be pulling the e and g strings off the fret board all of the time.

I didn't know that - in that case, I can see the wisdom in changing out the bridge, although I'd go Hipshot before BAII or Gotoh...


- georgestrings

[101er]

Originally Posted by ljazz

I responded to a PM from the OP on this. The longhorn/boner jazz original bridge is a horrible design..... it has like 21 or 22mm spacing..... much to wide for the neck. You'll be pulling the e and g strings off the fret board all of the time. Why Fender did this, I'll never know..... because the build quality on these were superb. Best body/neck gap ever in a production fender..... and the fretwork was at least as good as the '08 AmStds. It made the jazz plus from the same year look like garbage (actually it was garbage, so that really isn't saying much). Everyone I knew who played these back then changed the bridge out right away. Heck, even the store recommended it to those folks buying it. Just to put it in perspective..... check out the photos posted by the OP..... the center hole and outer two holes of the bent plate line up perfectly with the three holes on the original...... see how much bridge is left on each side of the outer holes?!?!?! What a hunk of junk design that POS was.


I threw a BAII on mine after trying to live with the std bridge for a few months. Three of the BAII holes line up perfectly with the three holes you'll already have in the body. Screw those in first.... use the screw from the original bridge. Get two more screws just like those, and screw those right in to the remaining bridge holes. I don't remember even drilling first.

Anyway, the BAII is a boat anchor. I recently installed a plain old vintage style bent plate (5 screws) and I hear absolutely ZERO difference. NONE.... NADDA..... ZILCH. I bet going to the bent plate took about a half pound off the total weight of my bass.

Really a great jazz bass, and worth changing the bridge.... just save your money and get the vintage style. And if you ever do sell it, just throw the original bridge back on it..... the other two holes will be covered up by the bridge. Heck, anyone who knows anything about these basses will consider a vintage style bent plate installation as an upgrade (especially if you throw in the original with the sale).

I've said it in private, and I wanna say it here: great thanks for a very useful info.