Telebass

Indeed, easy to produce and maintain. Precisely as Leo wanted everything he made. To reply to some other comments: No, I've never installed one, but did have two identical basses, one with, one without. The BBOT was every bit as good as the BAII, or the BAII was not any better than the BBOT - whichever way you care to put it. Collapsing saddles and perishing springs is usually down to poor maintenance, not poor manufacture, although self-loosening grub screws is something I've been afflicted with just the once, easily remedied by improving the admittedly rather poor factory setup (something Fender still are not that good at, even on high-end stuff, although the transatlantic journey probably doesn't help much...). I'm not in any way saying the BAII is a bad bridge - it isn't. But neither is it such a piece of uber-engineering that the BBOT MUST be replaced by it. Fitting them as standard to the MKII Highway Ones seemed an upgrade without a purpose, but if I had one of those, I wouldn't take the BAII off - wouldn't be worth the effort!

The short answer is "how hard to you hit it?" Basic factory settings for Fender is 5/32" ± 1/64" at the 17th fret. A reasonable starting point, in other words.

I've been scratching my head for years over this. The standard Fender bridge is entirely up to the job. Basic, yes, just like the bloke who designed it. But, like all else he did in the early days, it was built to be easy to make, and therefore easy to service or repair. 100% on that score. Although I doubt anyone really knows why he changed from string-through-body, it was likely that he felt there was no advantage to it, and it simplified the body drillings. The BBOT is more complex than the old 2-saddle job, but only complex enough to get the job done. I've owned Precisions with Badass IIs on, and never noticed the slightest difference in any way (except for the extra 'bling' factor). But what really gets me about 'bent bit of tin' is that that is a grossly inaccurate description. That's a solid bit of steel by anyone's reckoning, and nothing so puny as a set of bass strings is ever gonna bend it. The current Fender Hi-Mass bridges are just marketing hype, IMHO. They're not hugely different from the BBOT. So, I say again: what's the problem?

If it's a P-bass, no matter what make, it can't be all bad! But then, I'm a bit biased...

Welcome!

Howdy!

Welcome! Enjoy the forum!

Howdy!

Howdy!

Welcome! Mid life, yes. Crisis? What crisis?

Welcome! The only cure for GAS is... Damn, I forgot...

Howdy! Edited for spelling...d'oh...

Welcome, from a former Londoner! What bass did you buy, out of interest?

Welcome! '74 P-bass - outstanding!

"maybe a bit old at 38 and 60 months". Hmmm, in 3 days I'll be 57. 57! Only eight years to me pension, gov! Welcome! And enjoy that new Fender. Even if it is the wrong one...

60 for 2009, 37 alreadt booked for 2010 - looking good!

Welcome! Nice rig and bass!

No better place For all things bass! Welcome!

Welcome! Not seen a bass like that before, very interesting!

Welcome, and enjoy!

Cool, jump in and enjoy! And yes, the arthritikies can be a nuisance...

Howdy!

Welcome!

Howdy Jamie!

Howdy!