Those chrome covers are a nod to the Fifties when these things were born, everything was chromed (look at old kitchen appliances for instance), and back then, strings got changed infrequently. Simple enough to leave them off (like most did) or just learn to live with them.
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Fender Vintage-Style With Bridge Covers
- Thread starter scottrolf
- Start date
Try thick aluminium tape under the PU cover. Or perhaps some form of duct- or gaffertape
You can't.
I'm not a fan of the covers and ashtrays, myself.
They make it look like a vintage car (not that I don't like vintage cars) and they get in the way, big time.
Really???
Hi Scottrolf 
Some super snarky comments!
Why So Nasty? — TB Etiquette
Back on topic:
You can' t adjust the bridge or change strings, whithout removing the bridge cover.
Back in the days, when everybody used flatwounds, that was not a big deal.
Flats stay for years on your bass.
When roundwounds became popular, things changed. Bridge covers became…. ashtrays!
Stripped holes? Sooner or later it happens! You can' t use a srewhole again and again, forever and ever.
Even when you know how to work with a screw driver!
When you like the vintage look, you can do what Marcus does…
Let the bridge be bridge and use only the pup cover. I think that looks pretty cool!
may the bass be with you
Wise(b)ass
btw: when you use the bridge cover as an ashtray, get rid of the foam mute! It smells horrible!
Some super snarky comments!
Why So Nasty? — TB Etiquette
Back on topic:
You can' t adjust the bridge or change strings, whithout removing the bridge cover.
Back in the days, when everybody used flatwounds, that was not a big deal.
Flats stay for years on your bass.
When roundwounds became popular, things changed. Bridge covers became…. ashtrays!
Stripped holes? Sooner or later it happens! You can' t use a srewhole again and again, forever and ever.
Even when you know how to work with a screw driver!
When you like the vintage look, you can do what Marcus does…
Let the bridge be bridge and use only the pup cover. I think that looks pretty cool!
may the bass be with you
Wise(b)ass
btw: when you use the bridge cover as an ashtray, get rid of the foam mute!
It smells horrible! Attachments
No, it's just that I don't like the covers.... I know, the basic rule here is if I don't have something favorable to say, I should just not offer my opinion.
The Rickenbacker bridge is more closer to brain science for some and the plastic, fake horseshoe is dumb and gets in the way too.
D
What the heck kind of music are you into bro?
Lol, I didn't realise it could be read like that. I meant as a test of course. I've had lots of people say to me that the pickup cover doesn't affect the sound whatsoever. That little test changes their mind pretty quickly.
(Actually I DID scream into a microphonic pickup on a recording once. Prog rock...)
Nothing wrong with not liking the covers, different strokes and all.
Pardon my lack of current Ric-info (curiosity piqued here)....
Do some modern Rics actually have a plastic fake horseshoe-esque pickup cover nowadays, as opposed to the original "real" fixed-position horseshoe pickup? Or are you referring to the chintzy chrome removable cover that replaced the horseshoe ~ '69?
After the REAL hoseshoe pickup, Rickenbacker had and still has the cheezy, plastic chrome cover over the neck pickup. Most people remove it right away. It's the same lame one they have had on the basses for as long as I can remember.
It is completely useless and serves no purpose. Mine was off as soon as I got it back in 1981.
There were some real horseshoe pickups on the first 4001V63's in the late 80's I think, but the ones now are just like the lame one in the Chris Squire model, that doesn't even sound like Chris' bass. They aren't magnetized fully around the entire thing and they are wound way too hot.
Sorry for hijacking, but Fender isn't the only one with covers..... that I don't find useful, because they aren't.
My opinion, of course..
Got it, thanks. I don't think I'd refer to the cheezy cover as "horseshoe", though. I removed mine, too....it was in my way. Years later I scored a maple-glo '68 4001 from a vintage dealer, it had an actual horseshoe pickup. I thought I might love it, it was indeed the quintessential sounding 4001 bass, and drop dead gorgeous. I have no doubt the horseshoe pickup was integral to the sound, but damned if that thing wasn't right in my way again. lol
I think that that cheezy cover was a lot of times referred to as the horseshoe cover.....just because it looked like it in a way....
If it's a real horseshoe, then I wouldn't be in the way at all as I am used to the faux one in my 4001CS.
Good points from Wisebass. I use flats with foam mute and pick or fingers closer to the fretboard. And I haven’t broken a string in over 5 years. I love chrome covers, my band is 60’s themed so the look is a bonus. I keep a screwdriver with my spare strings on stage.
When I was a young punk and full of beans, using rounds and breaking one or more strings most gigs, picking towards the bridge and proudly spraying knuckle-blood all over my bass, there’s no way I would have had covers on.
When I was a young punk and full of beans, using rounds and breaking one or more strings most gigs, picking towards the bridge and proudly spraying knuckle-blood all over my bass, there’s no way I would have had covers on.
I seem to remember a thread where somebody had attached ashtray covers on a J Bass with rare-earth magnets, which is pretty slick, but only if the covers are chromed steel. Some of those magnets require a good bit of force to remove, but no screwdriver required. The big Ric bridge pup surround is chromed brass, IIRC, and non magnetic. The plastic cover supposedly has some shielding effect.... but doesn’t, of course. I never heard the “ringing” effect mentioned previously on P bass covers, I would have thought the cover was outside the pickup field, but I’m no physicist. They do look undeniably cool, some kind of “quick release” would motivate me to leave them on.
Try glueing a thin piece of foam to the underside of the chrome cover.
