I bought two Kala solid body uke basses that came stock with bent plate bridges. On both basses the G at the third fret of the E string sounded very 'hollow' compared to the rest of the notes and irked me a bit. For a long time I have been intrigued by the design of the Babicz bridge with the cam string height adjustment feature and larger surface contact area of the saddles, so I finally pulled the trigger. It wasn't a direct replacement unfortunately, as the mounting plate was slightly longer and required plugging up the existing mounting holes and drilling new ones about 1/4" back. But that was actually a good thing because with the stock bridge I was running out of room to intonate the E string and had to cut the spring in half and adjust the saddle all the way towards the back of the bridge. With the Babicz mounted farther back I had plenty of intonation 'breathing room'.
With the Babicz the sound of the hollow G was much fuller and very long sustain. I must admit that I thought maybe the whole 'larger surface contact' design of the Babicz might be just a bunch of snake oil, but I can't argue with the tremendous results. I ended up buying a few more Babicz bridges to put on the other Kala, my Flight Jazz bass and Ibanez Mikro.
Prices range from $115 - $150 depending on finish. Quality is high, although the one small detail that bothered me is the Babicz logo is upside down on the black models and right side up on the chrome model. If I ever buy another bass with the bent plate Fender style bridge I would probably switch it out for a Babicz first thing.
With the Babicz the sound of the hollow G was much fuller and very long sustain. I must admit that I thought maybe the whole 'larger surface contact' design of the Babicz might be just a bunch of snake oil, but I can't argue with the tremendous results. I ended up buying a few more Babicz bridges to put on the other Kala, my Flight Jazz bass and Ibanez Mikro.
Prices range from $115 - $150 depending on finish. Quality is high, although the one small detail that bothered me is the Babicz logo is upside down on the black models and right side up on the chrome model. If I ever buy another bass with the bent plate Fender style bridge I would probably switch it out for a Babicz first thing.
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