Precision Bass Bridge Cover

Foam rubber between the strings and cover. Do a search here on TB - it has been discussed many, many times.

 

foam and I have seen some felt under quite a few P-Bass ashtrays.

 

What Fender used I don't know, but I would assume it was likely the same stuff that they used under the pickups. Myself, I use foam rubber weatherstripping stuck to the underside of the bridge cover, much like Fender did it, at about 3/8"-1/2" thick. l like it because it's not too stiff and doesn't totally deaden the strings, it mutes them just enough to suit me.

 

Mine came attached to the cover and rest on top of the strings. Without a cover you can slip it underneath the strings. Whatever trips your trigger. I use old polyfoam that is used to wrap around water pipes or HVAC ducts. Weatherstripping works too. Nothing fancy so don't go spend 10.00 for a 4" piece of foam you can buy at Lowes or HD

 

What I did was, I took a piece of double-sided tape and laid it across the strings following the angle of the saddles, just short of being right up against the saddles, placed apiece of stripping on top of the double sided tape with the sticky side of the foam piece pointing up and carefully lining up the mounting holes of the cover with the holes already on the bass, lowered the cover down until the foam contacted and stuck to the underside of the cover.
Shorter answer, I angled the foam to match the overall angle of the saddles, so each string had the same amount of foam muting it, so the muting would be equal across all of the strings.
(sorry for the rather long-winded answer)
EDIT: I just wanted to mention, I had a '78 P-bass with the original bridge cover, and, although the foam had long since been removed, there was enough "residue" of the foam left that I could tell it had been aligned along the same angle as the bridge saddles, so that's why I did it that same way.
The way you describe sounds like the exact opposite.

 

I still have the original foam from my 1963 P which my parents bought in 1967. Perhaps you missed this - it was BETWEEN the cover and the strings. NOT under the strings.

The original P-bass foam rubber was about as dense as heavy weatherstripping foam, was a square strip about 3/4" thick, and had adhesive on one side. The adhesive stuck to the bridge cover and held the foam rubber in position to contact the strings. It was not angled, it was straight across.

It was not UNDER the strings. However, if you don't have a cover, that would be an appropriate option.. If you do have a cover and want the setup to replicate the original, put it between the strings and the cover.

Note that the foam was permanently installed, so over the course of a few months, the strings left permanent depressions in the foam which somewhat mitigated the amount of pressure it exerted on the strings. Therefore, if you're going to insert and remove it, a lighter, less dense foam would come close to exerting similar pressure. Cut it in a 3/4" square strip and slide it between the strings and cover.

I doubt you will get any better information. I did remove the foam rubber because I decided I liked the sound a bit better without it, but you're not going to find many people who still have the original foam rubber from a 1963 P and who can describe it. The 1962 would have been no different.

 

Yes.
It's pretty stiff foam when new, and on the original cover I have, Fender had trimmed the foam at an angle, so it was full width over the E/A strings, then the width became thinner where it contacted the D/G strings. Kind of a wedge shape. I imagine that was to give a more even muting effect across all strings.

Two ways I've done it:
(lighter foam on left cover, heavy Fender foam in two sizes/thicknesses on right cover)

 

^
Click the link, and there you go. That's the stuff.

 

Here's Leo's original patented mute assembly:::



...but I use things like this:::



This is neoprene weather strip foam, one-sided with glue. Lowe's or Home Depot - in rolls that you can also use for your house and doors.

 

This should be the definitive answer on the foam/cover placement, and I think it should be helpful for the new reissues both 57 and 62 p-bass's.

This bridge cover is off my Fullerton 1984 57 RI p-bass. The bass is pretty much in mint condition and when I acquired it, the covers came with it. The foam is a 3/8" square fairly dense rubber. You can see that the left side (E string) is just slightly higher. Taken from the front (side) of the cover it sits back 21/32". The right side (G string) sits back 18/32". Unknown if it was intended to be straight across or offset by design.

If you draw a centerline from the heel of the neck to the leading edge/centerline of the bridge cover in place the distance is 9 1/16". For the pickup cover the distance is 3 23/32 from the heel of the neck to the leading edge/centerline. The holes for the pickup and bridge covers were pre-drilled on the body, so the placement should be fairly accurate for the new RI bases. If you were to install these covers you will need to take care to center them on the body.

 

Here's a pic of the full bass by the way.

 

foam rubber weatherstripping 3/8" thick...leo fender was a very "crusty" guy and used hardware supplies for most of his parts etc. Like threaded rod for bridge saddles, chevy auto colors for finish paint, and those old "clay" dots were actually cut from old asbestos tiles off his factory floor when he refinished it.

 

Yes foam rubber. What you see now is not rubber - various other materials, typically polyester or polyether, but not rubber. The problem with foam rubber is that it breaks down after a while (long while). The problem with polyester is that it has only moderate recovery from compression. Polyether has better compression recovery.

 

Note that in the patent drawings the witness point is set.