Fender pickup covers

[jhb138]

I've always wondered, do the old Fender "ashtray" pickup covers have any effect on the sound of the bass? Or were they purely for looks?

 

[DigitalMan]

No effect on sound. Originally designed to protect the pickups in the event the bass was placed face down.

 

[msb]

The original SCPB had a rubber mute glued to the cover that deadened the E string . That's why you sometimes see them reversed .

 

[stingray69]

Looks mostly - and also to hinder available hand placement options when playing the instrument.

I would think the extra weight of both metal ashtrays could actually be dampening the overall body vibration to some extent - which in turn could reduce the sustain of said instrument to some degree (however slight).

Though deep down I do truly appreciate the vintage look of them, but I could never leave them installed full time on my "main" instrument due to the limiting hand positioning.

 

[bassfiddlesteve]

All of the Fender bass bridge covers had rubber mutes except for the the first few years of the Jazz Bass when the mutes were mounted to the body. Mutes were an seen as an essential element for electric basses for the first few decades, and many major manufactures (Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker, Gretsch) included one in their designs.

Aside from the supposed grounding function on the earliest Precision basses, I think the covers were designed to for muting, protection, aesthetics, and to serve as a hand rest when using a pick...a design element carried over from the Fender steel guitars. The covers didn't hinder hand placement as most bassists in the 50's and early 60's plucked or picked the strings close to the neck, as evidenced by the pickguard designs and placement of the finger/thumb rest. Plucking/picking the strings over the pickups or close to the bridge is a "modern" concept.

I don't think the covers themselves affect the sound in any meaningful way, outside of the mute.

- Steve

 

[radioripster]

I still use covers on my straight up p basses. I like them and I play right in that space between them anyway. I like how i can rest my thumb on the one over the pickups and sometime I want to have a mute and ..well..there you go. Some of the old guys know that you can get a pseudo cowbell sound out of your amp with the pickup cover too. I still do that from time to time. It's cool.

 

[2cooltoolz]

It's for the sound...

The P Bass Cowbell

 

[eli]

My first P bass ('71 or so, post-CBS) had a rubber mute inside the bridge cover that was tapered: wider over the E string to narrow over the G.

However, no less a bassist and Precision player than James Jamerson has said something to the effect of "That [pickup] cover ain't just there for the looks"... which makes me think there was a sonic element to the cover, but of course in the quote I saw, there wasn't any further elaboration. Still haven't heard what Leo's original intention was, unless DigitalMan, you have some evidence of your statement that it was physical protection for the pickup.