Early 90’s Music Man Stingray has this on the bridge then the HH version (Sabre) has it too, it’s called Flea Bridge after the artist I guess. In 93 they put them on the Sterling Model, no not the Sterling by Music Man but Ernie Ball’s son, Sterling, who has his own line of bass. It’s a slimmer body bass with narrower, faster slimmer neck 1.5” width at the nut (jazz profile) and very aggressive tone, with some fun electronics. Really cool bridge, as they stamped the serial number on the bridge instead of the neckplate.
I have a few MusicMan with Flea bridges.
94 ( first production year) ENMM Sterling.
Those are badass. I’ve fallen in love with the Stingray HH, despite my initial assumption that it’d be a jazz bass for me.
The Sterling (sub) that I have has the slimmer profile neck, maybe not as slim as the sabre I don’t know. I did try an Ernie Ball Stingray, and while you could feel the quality, I liked the neck on my cheapie a lot better.
I asked my luthier about this, and he told me that the stock Fender bridge is usually ok, but if you REALLY dig in, he’s seen cases where the setup can drift.
There’s really nothing wrong with it; as flimsy as it looks it’s more than up to the job. I primarily only replace bridges for aesthetic reasons, repair, or changing the bass balance; and they are the lesser half of that last one (behind replacing the tuning machines).
And the stock Fender L-frame is miles ahead of a Tune-o-Matic or Trapeze.
Music man bridge design is much better than fender G&L bridge is pretty much Leo’s best bridge.
If you come across one the Fender Elite bridge is probably the best bridge with Fender logo on it. Of course, they don’t make it, it’s made in Germany.
Fender Mute has been around a while too. Some bass bridges, like the Mustang, can use it, and there are different designs of the mute. This is an old one
Like I said file off the sharp corners. I work with extremely sharp knives for decades I hardly cut myself. The first time I use this mute kit ripped my finger tips open like San Andres.
