What is this on my bass and can I remove it?
 

I'm referring to the piece of metal going from the bridge to the bridge pickup. This is a '92 Fender Jazz Bazz, Japanese made. Someone told me it's to earth the pickups but is that really what it is?

Can't see the pic, but what you describe is a ground for the bridge. If you remove, you have to ground the bridge by soldering a wire from a pot to the bridge.

And why remove? Those things are killer looking.

Not familiar with the model, but it might be a shortcut to the bridge ground instead of drilling a hole to the cavity.

If you want to get rid of it you'll have to drill a hole under the bridge that leads to the cavity under the pickguard.

Ah I see so it is there as a ground for the bridge.

I don't really want to remove it and by the sound of it it's a hassle just for an aesthetic change. I was just curious as to what it's for. I've never seen this sort of thing on a bass before.

Yes, it's an early 60's style ground for the bridge. Later Fender soldered a piece of wire between the pots and the jack output. Both work equally fine. It's brass, IIRC.

Here's a 1964 Jazz for comparison:

there you go.

they originally came that way because all of that was hidden under the big metal cover, and nobody would ever remove those, right?

That's a gorgeous J bass in the pic above. Lotta history there.

Unfortunately, not mine. Got it from my good friend Google. Mine has some history on it as well, but doesn't have the brass strip so it doesn't count in this thread ;)

Black Sharpies work wonders.

+1 .
(Great minds think alike, and ours do too)

Haha, I can't do that. Since I know it's a piece of vintage Fender, I can't cover it up.

'92 is hardly vintage, is it? ;) If you don't like it, change it. All that whining about keeping stuff original...

Yeah you're right, it's not exactly vintage, not yet.

The thing is I really don't mind having it there. I have a Fender J Bass, it works great and life is good. No complaining from me :)

Exactly! Those MIJ basses are amazing :)

Stupid question: what happens if the bridge/strings aren't grounded? I've held tuner speakers (the kind that emit a tone) up to my pickups before and the sound came through the amp loud and clear, and those aren't grounded.

Buzzzzzzzzzzz

Ah, that makes sense.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but the ground to the jack output has to be there on any bass or you'd never get a signal. As far as I know, the early bridge ground scheme was discontinued only when Fender started drilling a hole from under the bridge to the control cavity.

If the bridge isn't grounded, you'll get more hum/noise, especially where there is interference like neon signs, a poorly grounded electrical outlet, a CRT monitor, etc.

Yup, you're right, my mistake :)

Earth = Ground?