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Fender Vintage-Style With Bridge Covers
- Thread starter scottrolf
- Start date
If that’s the case, then I would imagine the screws would eventually strip the wood.
You’ll strip the screw holes only if you’re careless.
The only viable way is Ant-Man style, Shrink yourself, crawl in there, then un-shrink to play the thing.
Why do people take the covers off, to the point where they're not longer supplied? You've figured it out.
Why do people take the covers off, to the point where they're not longer supplied? You've figured it out.
You have to take the wheel off to change your brake pads so it's no biggie
...anyway, Leo did a fantastic thing by coming up with the Precision, then he did a STOOOOOPID thing by adding these monstrosities that restrict your playing
While I don’t use pickup covers, I’ve got bridge pickups on many of my Fenders. They’ve been on and off many times with no damage.
You have to remove them to access the bridge, which is why I keep mine on. I don't want schmutz and gunk getting into my saddle screws :/
If you strip out the screws, you can always put a section of toothpicks and wood glue in the hole and put the screw back in (after the glue dries.) It doesn't take much to hold those covers on, so this works fine. In then end, if you are careful, you'll probably never even have to do this.
So long as you only nip the screws up and don’t force them it’s no problem.
Chrome covers = good. They stop me constantly tweaking and encourage me to just play the darn thing
Chrome covers = good. They stop me constantly tweaking and encourage me to just play the darn thing
Also the foam mute thumpiness with flats is nice
You can put a pickup cover over the bridge rather than the bridge cover. This will allow you to access the back of the bridge for swapping strings and setting intonation.
Well...you haven't done MUCH wondering about it, then. Use your common sense, man. Do you also sit there and wonder how to get cookies out of the jar without opening the lid?
If YOU strip the holes, then the holes will be stripped. They won't just strip by themselves, with competent use of the screwdriver.
You could Velcro the bridge cover, the pup cover shouldn’t be in your way much
A better solution might be to fill the hole with a T-nut (glued in place), and use a machine screw thenceforth...
D
The bridge/pickup covers look cool but they're not very convenient. The worst part is that they cause a slight ringing at certain notes. The pickup cover is worse than the bridge cover (at least on a P where there's no pickup under the bridge cover). The ringing occurs at different notes for every bass but it's ALWAYS there when a P/J-style pickup cover is present. Some people say the covers don't affect the sound but that's just wrong. Got a bass with a pickup cover? Try recording when you're screaming into the pickup with and without the cover installed. Yep, the pickup cover somehow makes the pickup slightly microphonic.
I keep the covers on for live gigs because they look cool but I ALWAYS remove them when recording because of the ringing and the (very slightly) more "hollow" sound caused by the microphonic behaviour with the cover installed.
I've tried dampening the covers with silicone and rubber foam but it doesn't help much. And yes, I experience this problem with ALL my Fender basses with bridge/pickup covers, even when they were brand new.
I'm actually surprised that this problem hasn't been discussed more. Whenever it is mentioned people just say the covers don't affect the sound. I strongly disagree. The pickup cover in particular has a clearly negative impact on the sound IMO.
Then again, if you're trying to copy the sound of a specific legendary player who used the covers you would probably want to keep them installed at all times.
EDIT: I just realised I haven't owned a J-bass with covers in over 15 years. I'm more of a P-bass person. I honestly can't remember if I was experiencing the same problems with the J. But it's certainly present on all my P-basses with pickup cover installed.
I keep the covers on for live gigs because they look cool but I ALWAYS remove them when recording because of the ringing and the (very slightly) more "hollow" sound caused by the microphonic behaviour with the cover installed.
I've tried dampening the covers with silicone and rubber foam but it doesn't help much. And yes, I experience this problem with ALL my Fender basses with bridge/pickup covers, even when they were brand new.
I'm actually surprised that this problem hasn't been discussed more. Whenever it is mentioned people just say the covers don't affect the sound. I strongly disagree. The pickup cover in particular has a clearly negative impact on the sound IMO.
Then again, if you're trying to copy the sound of a specific legendary player who used the covers you would probably want to keep them installed at all times.
EDIT: I just realised I haven't owned a J-bass with covers in over 15 years. I'm more of a P-bass person. I honestly can't remember if I was experiencing the same problems with the J. But it's certainly present on all my P-basses with pickup cover installed.
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