Fender and bridges

Nobody’s perfect :joy:

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it’s my only imperfection

:v::grin:

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I have never used a Fender HiMass bridge, so offer no opinion on it. I have installed a Hipshot Kickass bridge a couple times.

My take is this.

If you want more sustain, go with a kickass

If you want more resonance, go with the Fender

On my P bass from Squier, with a nato body, the Kickass is the ticket. On my Jazz with an ash body, I’m sticking with the stock bridge to pull the most out of the tonewood.

I think it comes down to the tonewood

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I just finished reading Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass. In the final chapter on his own basses and the vintage ones he took on the last tour, he and Skully, his long-time bass tech, came to the conclusion that the Badass bridges they were installing were, except on rare occasions, making little to no difference. They stopped putting them on.

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As a relative noob with a penchant for tinkering, I did this upgrade on a Squier CV 70s P-bass. I do notice a little bit more sustain. I like the look better. I like the saddle adjustment better. But, switching to the Badass raised the action such that I needed to shim the neck a little to get it low. So…I would say “meh”. If you like tinkering, then go for it. But its not going to magically transform your sound.

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Personally, I do love the hi-mass bridges…. Probably form my guitar days when I put them on every Fender I had because I despised those double barrel bridges….

I guess most of it depends on the user…. I also have a fender hi-mass on my PJ and love it - that bridge will stay on that bass….

Although many people cannot hear any differences other than a bit more sustain or whatever, the one thing that cannot be denied (in my personal opinion) is the looks of those bridges…. They’re just friggin’ cool!! Yea, maybe a bit more mass, but when you’re really diggin’ in and bending strings, those bridges perform…. They don’t give…… Again, a carry over from my guitar playing days on Fenders with two strings on one barrel….

So, maybe it’s just another one of those things where “Whatever floats yer boat” works for you…. This is the cool thing about playing this instrument…. There are NO set rules, and thats what make us all bass players……:joy::joy:

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I replaced the bridges on my Squier Affinity PJ bass and Gretsch Junior Jet with high mass bridges from Performance Music.

I cannot say that they made any radical difference in the tone, just a bit more sustain. Upgrading the pots (which I’ve also done to both basses) made a much more noticeable difference in tone.

I’m of the opinion that the sheet metal bridges look cheap, so I consider the high mass bridges a definite upgrade cosmetics-wise. But that’s just me.

One nice thing about the Performance Music bridges is that the undersides of the saddle barrels are flattened, meaning that the action can be set as low as desired without having to shim the neck.

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Didn’t know about this :point_up:
I will have to go trawling the net now

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I saw an interview with Geddy talking about his signature Fender Jazz Bass where he said he didn’t know how much difference they made but they sure look cool and that was enough reason for him.

I don’t even know or care how much of a difference it makes. I’m in the “it looks cool” camp. If for no other reason than thinking your bass looks cool makes you like it more and want to play it more. That’s good enough for me.

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I know it’s an unpopular opinion but, look-wise, I prefer the old barrel steel bridge. it looks very “Fender” to me : simple, cheap (to produce) and efficient.

but all the High-mass bridges look more modern and polished for sure.

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That does kind of sum up Fender (as in, what Leo’s vision for the company was)

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