sth about fender jazz bass strings spacing

[Mastermold]

Yes. Before many understood grain, metals, and other aspects of the interaction of hardware and woods, it was the age of, "Heavier is better," not only thinking that only added mass would damp spurious vibrations that lessened sustain, but with all the marketing hype you can imagine. So you had Strats with northern ash bodies that weighed half-again more than swamp ash, Les Paul bodies with dense mahogany that weighed over ten pounds, everybody selling brass bridges, brass nuts, etc., for both guitars and basses, and so forth. All it really took was proper construction, alignment, and the replacing of corroded parts with quality fresh ones. I have a custom fanned fret PJ-style bass that has a modified "antique-style" bolt stock bridge for narrowed string spacing and the fanning of the frets, having sawn it into two parts to account for the fanning. That bass has more sustain, clarity, tone, and rocks the house when I put Roto's on it than most people can get on any bass with any hardware, all using "obsolete" parts.

Yeah, speaking of heavier is better back then, my 83 Fender Elite II has a heavy ash body and weighs 12.5 lbs. It plays and sounds great, and I’ll keep it forever, but wouldn’t mind it a bit if it lost a few pounds.

 

[Dynacord]

Yeah, speaking of heavier is better back then, my 83 Fender Elite II has a heavy ash body and weighs 12.5 lbs. It plays and sounds great, and I’ll keep it forever, but wouldn’t mind it a bit if it lost a few pounds.

Now you need to put one of "the Claw" bridges on and a brass Fathead on the headstock

 

[waynobass]

Also what is "sth" in the thread title?

Shut the hell (up)?

 

[Dynacord]

Shut the hell (up)?

"Something"

 

[waynobass]

Wouldn't 'something' be more like 'smthg' ?

 

[fhm555]

Pickup pole spacing was designed when fender used threaded saddle bridges which you could adjust spacing easily. Then they switched to single groove saddles. The worst decision they ever made on their basses.

Yep, I like the threaded saddle best of the straight L plate bridges. I like being able to go left or right of center. I prefer Allen head grub screws though.
IME just bite the bullet and snag a gin u ine Fender vintage if you want the threaded saddles, then take it to Ace and get a set of stainless Allen head grub screws for it. All the threaded saddle basses I had were MIM J basses I swapped the bridges and grubs on. You can spend more, but only if you want to.

 

[sissy kathy]

Maybe there's a technical reason it isn't, but IMO being able to tweak the spacing at the saddles should be a standard on bridges. Even the slightest bit of wiggle-room makes a difference for picky players (like myself). For example on my G&L JB5 the spec is 17mm but if I loosen the saddle lock screw all the way I can spread 'em out and it measures about 18mm. It is noticeable. Glad I can do that little hack, because 17 is too tight for me (I prefer 19mm like on my Sadowsky). Seems crazy to me it's not more common to have some degree of adjustable string spacing at the bridge

A triangle file makes any Fenderisck saddle adjustable.