What is this on my bass and can I remove it?

Can't see the pic, but what you describe is a ground for the bridge. If you remove, you have to ground the bridge by soldering a wire from a pot to the bridge.

And why remove? Those things are killer looking.

 

Not familiar with the model, but it might be a shortcut to the bridge ground instead of drilling a hole to the cavity.

If you want to get rid of it you'll have to drill a hole under the bridge that leads to the cavity under the pickguard.

 

Yes, it's an early 60's style ground for the bridge. Later Fender soldered a piece of wire between the pots and the jack output. Both work equally fine. It's brass, IIRC.

Here's a 1964 Jazz for comparison:

 

there you go.

they originally came that way because all of that was hidden under the big metal cover, and nobody would ever remove those, right?

 

That's a gorgeous J bass in the pic above. Lotta history there.

 

Unfortunately, not mine. Got it from my good friend Google. Mine has some history on it as well, but doesn't have the brass strip so it doesn't count in this thread

 

Black Sharpies work wonders.

 

+1 .
(Great minds think alike, and ours do too)

 

'92 is hardly vintage, is it? If you don't like it, change it. All that whining about keeping stuff original...

 

Exactly! Those MIJ basses are amazing

 

Stupid question: what happens if the bridge/strings aren't grounded? I've held tuner speakers (the kind that emit a tone) up to my pickups before and the sound came through the amp loud and clear, and those aren't grounded.

 

Buzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Ah, that makes sense.

 

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but the ground to the jack output has to be there on any bass or you'd never get a signal. As far as I know, the early bridge ground scheme was discontinued only when Fender started drilling a hole from under the bridge to the control cavity.

If the bridge isn't grounded, you'll get more hum/noise, especially where there is interference like neon signs, a poorly grounded electrical outlet, a CRT monitor, etc.

 

Yup, you're right, my mistake

 

Earth = Ground?