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Post subject: Mutes and bridge covers
Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:11 am
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Does anybody know when Fender stopped including the chrome bridge and pickup covers on their non-reissue basses? I think it was about 1980.

Does anybody know if the foam mute under the P-Bass bridge cover was always included or was it discontinued before the chrome covers were discontinued?

The reason I ask is because I have a 1973 Precision Bass that I bought used in the early '80s. It was missing its bridge cover. I was going to replace it with a new part from Fender, which I know does not have a mute. Luckily a friend gave me an original stock cover that still had remnants of the foam mute. I'm trying to figure out roughly how old this cover is. I can do that if I know when Fender stopped attaching the foam rubber mute.

Thank You.


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Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 11:48 am
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I think they stopped installing the pickup and bridge covers by 1983 when they went to American standard models on the Jazz and Precision basses with white pickguard and pickups and no bridge or pick up covers.

I own a 1976 Fender Precision and it has its original bridge cover with remnants of the mute. The mute material is foam rubber weather stripping and its the same stuff that supports the pickups.

My bass had the mute glued to the bridge cover but I recollect some Fender basses having a removable mute that would stick to the bridge cover but it could be easily peeled off or put back as the player desired.

Sears used to sell the exact same material as a window weather stripping product.

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Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:19 pm
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Yes it is essentially weatherstripping foam rubber, but very dense stuff. Guitar Parts Resource sells Fender Pickup Mounting Foam which works. But I prefer to be able to remove or replace the mute. Just regular packing foam works for rounds when placed under the strings instead of over them. For flats I use a felt wrap. I think the rubber mute is why so many players removed the bridge covers in the first place.

To see how I do muting go here: http://brotherdave.com/add_mute.htm

I've heard of people using old socks, t-shirts and even dog chew toys. But I like packing foam or felt depending on the string set.

Fender also briefly had a complicated mute that had tiny little spring arms tipped with a cotton mallet material used on Jazz basses.


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Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:36 pm
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brotherdave wrote:
Yes it is essentially weatherstripping foam rubber, but very dense stuff. Guitar Parts Resource sells Fender Pickup Mounting Foam which works. But I prefer to be able to remove or replace the mute. Just regular packing foam works for rounds when placed under the strings instead of over them. For flats I use a felt wrap. I think the rubber mute is why so many players removed the bridge covers in the first place.

To see how I do muting go here: http://brotherdave.com/add_mute.htm

I've heard of people using old socks, t-shirts and even dog chew toys. But I like packing foam or felt depending on the string set.

Fender also briefly had a complicated mute that had tiny little spring arms tipped with a cotton mallet material used on Jazz basses.


Great info as usual, BD. My daughter plays bass in her high school jazz band. To get that quick upright-like decay, I used sponge under flatwounds on her fretless Jazz bass. I wedged a small piece of sponge in between the bridge pickup and the strings. That option turned out the best as it makes a very direct pressure point, which kills the sustain but allows some pitch of the note to ring for a short period of time. By pulling more sponge over the pickup, the amount of mute becomes easily adjustable.


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Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:55 pm
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Yes, basically it seems the closer you move the foam or felt to the bridge the more sustain you get and moving it toward the neck deadens the strings much more. I keep them as close to the bridge as possible. All I want to do is kill off the overtones and harmonics and it also seems to deemphasize finger squeak on rounds.


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Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:10 pm
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The additional challenge I had was that in competition, the bass tone is judged on not just overall tone, but how the decay matches an upright's decay, i.e. the value of the note. After much experimentation with an upright at the house, I was surprised how quickly the note on an actual upright decays. Hence the shopping trip to test sponges at the local grocery store. I may also try some weather stripping.

She had her first show the other night, and I think we arrived at a pretty acceptable "thump - thump" sponge tone that still had decent intonation.


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Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:46 pm
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There are several upright electric basses on the market. One of them might yield a more perfect tone. A few of the electric uprights are compact and affordable. This was a concept pioneered by Ampeg with their "Baby Bass" which I used to fool around with at the music store where I worked. It was an excellent electric upright but has been out of production for decades and commands high prices.

Another suggestion is to try the nylon wrapped strings on a conventional electric bass. Know up front that if she is playing a fretted bass the frets will eventually chew up the nylon coating if she plays daily. Also it seems to me that when nylon wrapped strings go dead it will happen overnight. However the tone from the nylon wrapped strings is very mellow and has very uprightish tones. Fender makes a nylon wrapped set designated the 9120 set that should be fairly easy to find. I've actually used them several times on one my fretted basses and gigged with them for ballads. I love the nylon wrapped tone for ballads! But I play fretted basses and the frets will wear away the nylon after just a few weeks of daily use.

You might want to load it up with those for the competitions. They are pretty reasonable at about $20 street price per set. That combined with some judicious muting should give you a real upright sound.


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Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:26 pm
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If she sticks with it, we'll look at EUB's for sure.

She's playing a fretless Squire Jazz bass, looks like a junior Bass of Doom. I was thinking about tapewounds and such, I'll check out the Fender set you mentioned. Thanks!


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Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 12:41 am
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Since she is playing a fretless bass I'd rush out and find some nylon wrapped strings. You'll wish you had tried them sooner if you looking for an upright sound! You will still need some muting (BUT not as much as steel strings) until they break in, say 2 weeks of daily use. Then they will mellow out nicely.

There are several brands. Fender, Rotosound, Labella, Thomastik-Infeld and GHS all make nylon wrapped electric bass strings. The TI's would probably be the most expensive set followed by the Labellas next. Then the Fender, Rotosound and GHS would all be about the same price around 20 to 25 USD in the USA.

I've used the Fender, Roto and Labella sets. I've never actually SEEN a Thomastik or GHS set in person, but I know that those companies do make them it just that I've just never found any of them. Of the ones I've tried the Fender set actually seemed to suit the Fender bass I put them on best and as I recall they were lighter gauge. HOWEVER, there really wasn't a nickel's worth of difference between any of them in how they SOUNDED. They all sounded mellow and thuddy. The Fender tension seemed a little lower but that is subjective because I didn't use a scientific method to test the tension. Fender makes some really good string sets. Their stainless flats for example.

I haven't used nylon tape wound strings in a long time, maybe it is time to revisit that. It sure is a different sound from nickel or stainless.

Really the 3 sets I tried years ago were all good and I'd buy any of them again if I was looking for the upright sound. Thomastik-Infeld is my usual string of choice, but I've never tried the nylon wrapped TI's.

Once you put the nylon wrapped strings on, you can't do any sort of real hard rock or fusion with that instrument, so keep that in mind. It will change the entire character of the instrument and make it more of a rhythm instrument.


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Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 11:46 pm
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BCbassman wrote:
I think they stopped installing the pickup and bridge covers by 1983 when they went to American standard models on the Jazz and Precision basses with white pickguard and pickups and no bridge or pick up covers.

I own a 1976 Fender Precision and it has its original bridge cover with remnants of the mute.


Thanks BCbassman for attempting to answer my questions. I appreciate it.


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:29 pm
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brotherdave wrote:
Once you put the nylon wrapped strings on, you can't do any sort of real hard rock or fusion with that instrument, so keep that in mind. It will change the entire character of the instrument and make it more of a rhythm instrument.


She only plays this at school. I'll check out some of these suggestions, thanks!


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