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Badass Bridge III, Not Recommended

#62
Modern Growl said:
because the bass wasn't originally assembled with that bridge in mind. your acting like there's something WRONG with shiming a neck. its extremely common, even among 'high end' luthers.
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Respectfully I get your point, but disagree. A neck shim improperly made or installed could affect other parameters relating to the sound and/or playability of the instrument, even if only slightly. Your mileage may vary.

It's sort of like changing the size of your tires and having to shim up the suspension on your car-excuse the analogy-but you get the idea. If it throws other aspects of the bass out of spec, then it defeats the purpose of trying to get the bass more in spec.
 
#63
PeterChampagne said:
Here I will utilize the reason I think the Internet is so useful...to protect consumers.
The Badass III is the most poorly designed replacement bridge I've come across. I would not recommend it as replacement for an American Jazz (3 screw). Here are the problems I've run across.
1. The saddles are so huge, that you are limited to medium high action unless you grind down the bottoms of the saddles.
2. The grooves are a joke. They aren't cut deep enough, so your strings WILL pop out. You can try to file them, but you will go through many files.
3. The saddles are misaligned from standard Fender pole pieces. No matter what you do, you'll get a severe "break" in the string before the saddle to get them to align right. To really get it right, you have to move the bridge (redrill, etc.), but then you will negate through body stringing.
4. Leo Q. customer service does NOT return emails.

Just try to save you the money.
Click to expand...


#1...true...deeper grooves help...also a small neck pocket shim will do the trick

#2...definitely true...again deeper grooves...but a good file will handle it (just one file req'd)

#3...I align saddles to get straight pull...pole piece alignment is just not a critical thing

#4...there are PLENTY of companies out there that aren't good at email corespondence...that doesn't make service bad...try the phone...
 
#64
tonenazi said:
Respectfully I get your point, but disagree. A neck shim improperly made or installed could affect other parameters relating to the sound and/or playability of the instrument, even if only slightly. Your mileage may vary.

It's sort of like changing the size of your tires and having to shim up the suspension on your car-excuse the analogy-but you get the idea. If it throws other aspects of the bass out of spec, then it defeats the purpose of trying to get the bass more in spec.
Click to expand...


wow man... just wow...
shimming a neck is an extremley slight/minimual change, and is completely transparent to the 'feel' of an instrument. there's pratically no change what so ever, other then the fact that you can raise your action slightly higher.
 
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#65
Hmm, I don't know. I have BadAss briges on all 4 my Jazz Basses ( except my Marcus Miller V and that' because the bridge that's on it is perfectly fine ) and I've never had a problem with any of my basses that has this bridge, I mean George F has them on his new VF5 basses and I don't think he would use the BadAss bridge on his basses if it wasn't up to snuff,however there are bad experiences.
 
#68
My MIA Deluxe Jazz was sent in for a complete setup and the BA III installed about 5 months ago. Action, tone, sustain, and playability have improved greatly over the stock Fender bridge. I usually play with a light to medium touch but, depending on the piece can attack the strings quite hard. The BA III has met and exceeded performance expectations.

I just picked up a 08 Fender Geddy Lee Friday night, and have been bleeding my fingers on this thing. The Geddy comes with the BA II, and I find that the perfomance is equally good as the BA III of my Deluxe.

Internet reviews are a great source of information when researching a product. I use this medium often when looking into a new purchase. I find that you need to take these reviews, postings with a grain of salt as some are posted with a very biased opinion. I mentally or physically will create a pros and cons list, then hunt down the item in question and try it out for myself if possible. Like movie reviews, not everyones taste is the same.
 

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#69
Well... here's my mini review:

I installed the bridge, which took around 10 mins (with restringing).

Around another 20 mins to set height and intonation.

I can easily say that on my MIA P:

1) Sustain has very noticeably increased.
2) Notes have more clarity and attack.
3) Action is perfect and no shim was necessary

I am happy with the BAIII.

05102008.jpg
 
#70
tonenazi said:
Respectfully I get your point, but disagree. A neck shim improperly made or installed could affect other parameters relating to the sound and/or playability of the instrument, even if only slightly. Your mileage may vary.

It's sort of like changing the size of your tires and having to shim up the suspension on your car-excuse the analogy-but you get the idea. If it throws other aspects of the bass out of spec, then it defeats the purpose of trying to get the bass more in spec.
Click to expand...

I disagree with your disagreement-

The best analogy is changing string gauges in relation to the size of the nut slot.
 
#71
I did a Fender versus BAII shootout over at musicplayers.com and posted sound samples of both. I got the members to guess which bridge was which. Almost exactly half got it right and half got it wrong. There were very subtle differences but frankly tone wise it isn't worth making the switch. Sustain wise there didn't appear to be any difference either. Looks wise most preferred the stock Fender.

People like to spend money on their hobbies. Period. I agree with the original poster.

Davo
 
#72
I just got a Bad Ass III today and installed it on my P bass. I stuck a business card I cut in half in the back of the neck pocket and the action had to be raised slightly using high tension flatwound strings. This bridge is awesome and can work just fine if you shim the neck. I bought this since the stock bridge only supported through body stringing and I wanted to use flatwounds strung through the bridge. This replaces the 3 screw bridge perfectly.
 
#73
Davo-London said:
I did a Fender versus BAII shootout over at musicplayers.com and posted sound samples of both. I got the members to guess which bridge was which. Almost exactly half got it right and half got it wrong. There were very subtle differences but frankly tone wise it isn't worth making the switch. Sustain wise there didn't appear to be any difference either. Looks wise most preferred the stock Fender.

People like to spend money on their hobbies. Period. I agree with the original poster.

Davo
Click to expand...

I can't speak to your test, but can share my own experience.
I have had a Badass on my 83 Jazz for almost all of it's life. I recently replaced it with the origional bridge. Didn't think I noticed much change, so I just left it on for the look. I always hated the Badass name, was kind of embarrassed that I ever got it, looking back, and was glad to be done with it.

I was playing mostly another Jazz I had purchased and didn't get back to my 83 until I decided to sell the other jazz. Now totally focused on my 83, over the next couple of weeks I started noticing certain eq settings I liked from my Millenia pre no longer worked the same in my practice space. Chaulked it up to fresh perception and such from the other Jazz I had been playing.

Finally I said "could it be that silly bridge?" Only takes 10 minutes so I put it back on...
Viola! Had to knock the bass back one notch in my practice space per the old norm, got more sustain and undeniable dynamics improvement. Much more singing expressive quality, with more bass output (hence the EQ cut for the room)

I HATED that Badass bridge, or so I thought. Was syched when I found the origional after all this time. Now my origional Fender bridge will once again live the rest of it's life in my draw of odds and ends. Please note here that the original bridge on an 83 (reissue of a 62) is about as low mass as they get.

Can't speak to your tests or to other brands of high mass bridges, but a player would have to be deaf not to hear the differences I experienced when I changed back to the Badass.
 
#74
i have had to shim a neck during setup with a stock fender bridge before.
no big deal. also the Quan website says you should file the saddles
as appropriate for your application--preferably by a professional.

i found a bass body in my garage that had an old BAII on it recently.
i immediately mounted it onto my 60's classic jazz--OMG! what
a difference on the gig. richer tone with deeper lows, more sustain.
love it.
 
#79
i have a BAII on my 83 JBass.. i'm not going back.. i'm more than happy with what i've got, and i think it's all subjective to the individual..

i'm sad to hear about Leo's health.. he's always made a quality product, and really has changed the concept of what a bass bridge should be..

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#80
For many years I've been very fond of Hipshot's A-style bridge. I still have a couple of Fenders with BAII's, and my '76 Rick 4001 sports an original style BadAss bridge. I don't have any experience with the BAIII, but IMO/IME the BAII and the original style BadAss are very nice aftermarket bridges. Sorry to hear about the OP's bad experience with a BAIII, and very sorry to hear that Leo Quan is ill.
 

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