How to install a Bad Ass II on a Fender Aerodyne? It seems too big...

#41
walterw said:
better pickups and electronics is what it needs!

like lots of otherwise cool MIJ fenders this one has cheap ceramic pickups and cheap mini pots bridged by cheap thin wire.
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Funny, that is exactly what I was going to post.. the PUPS need to be replaced. I will spend my $$ there... Now just what ones to put in.. I am sure there is a thread LOL
 
#43
After replacing the original bridge with a black Gotoh 201 that worked very well on it I decided to go with a Babicz. Much happier now, a no problem install and looks pretty cool as well. Next step, pickup upgrade, some Aguilar 70's most likely. My love affair with BA's ended in the 90's.
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#45
Can anyone tell me if there's a difference between the bridge recess in the 2006-2008 non-export Aerodyne basses vs. the newer ones? My non-export P doesn't have the Babicz bridge; it has the typical Fender bent-metal bridge and I'm just wondering if the Babicz or Gotoh are drop-in options.
 
#46
I went down this rabbit hole a long time ago, like a lot of people. The whole "hi-mass" bridge thing is 98% hype. Do they increase "sustain", maybe, but to what end? Are you playing a lot of long pedal notes? I bought a BAII when they first came out in the late 70's, intending to swap out my Ric bridge with it beacuse.... Geddy...., but chickened out. It's still on my fretless Jazz all these years later, where it works fine, but there's no magical tone sauce there. As long as it's fully adjustable for string height and intonation, you usually gain nothing but weight. I can see aesthetic reasons for doing it, or maybe to add a missing feature like adjustable string spacing, otherwise...meh. I always thought the standard Fender bent plate was a little ugly, Leo must have thought so too, hence the Ashtray cover, but the Aerodyne "smoked chrome" ones are actually pretty good looking IMO. Love me some Aerodyne, BTW, great basses.
 
#47
Reloy said:
Can anyone tell me if there's a difference between the bridge recess in the 2006-2008 non-export Aerodyne basses vs. the newer ones? My non-export P doesn't have the Babicz bridge; it has the typical Fender bent-metal bridge and I'm just wondering if the Babicz or Gotoh are drop-in options.
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There are dimensions about half way down the page, if this is the model you’re looking at. Gotoh should have dimensions on their web site also.

Babicz FCH-4 jazz bass bridge upgrade - p bass bridge upgrade

Babicz FCH-4 - Direct precision bass bridge replacement - jazz bass bridge upgrade
www.fullcontacthardware.com www.fullcontacthardware.com
 
#49
Gilmourisgod said:
I'll admit I wandered down this particular rabbit hole when the BA II first came out, I got one for my Ric 4001 because..... Geddy. I chickened out and never installed it on the Ric. It's still on my Warmouth Frankenjazz, and works perfectly surface mounted with no recess, and it's a fretless, so it's plenty low. Is the neck geometry different enough on an Aerodyne that the bridge needs recessing? My nephew has an American Aerodyne, the bridge is not recessed. I wonder if the "recess" on the OP's bass is just a big dent in that butter-soft basswood when they torqued the bridge down in the factory? At any rate, I'll agree changing bridges makes little to no difference tome wise, but can be a big improvement functionally or aesthetically. I suspect Leo knew the bent saddle looked like the cheap thing it was, hence the chrome bridge cover.
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I heard that Leo Fender was a notorious tight wad, who made choices on what to use on his guitars and basses, not by what worked best, but what was cheapest. Even in his bass bridges, the saddles were just bolts cut to size, hence the spacing.
Gilmourisgod said:
I'll admit I wandered down this particular rabbit hole when the BA II first came out, I got one for my Ric 4001 because..... Geddy. I chickened out and never installed it on the Ric. It's still on my Warmouth Frankenjazz, and works perfectly surface mounted with no recess, and it's a fretless, so it's plenty low. Is the neck geometry different enough on an Aerodyne that the bridge needs recessing? My nephew has an American Aerodyne, the bridge is not recessed. I wonder if the "recess" on the OP's bass is just a big dent in that butter-soft basswood when they torqued the bridge down in the factory? At any rate, I'll agree changing bridges makes little to no difference tome wise, but can be a big improvement functionally or aesthetically. I suspect Leo knew the bent saddle looked like the cheap thing it was, hence the chrome bridge cover.
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#50
Timothy Brosnan said:
I heard that Leo Fender was a notorious tight wad, who made choices on what to use on his guitars and basses, not by what worked best, but what was cheapest. Even in his bass bridges, the saddles were just bolts cut to size, hence the spacing.
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If he cut the bolts to size, the spacing was his to choose. The spacing would have had nothing to do with him using bolts. Keep in mind too that he had to develope everything for those early basses, there was no bridge for sale that he could buy and slap on. IMO if the story of the cut down bolts is true, it was a stroke of genius, not some tightwad making do.
 
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#51
wraub said:
In my bassy youth I had an old Ibanez Ric copy that, looking back, someone before me had loved.
I put a Badass on it (ala Geddy) and it killed everything I liked about it.
I later found out that Geddy had the same reaction.
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Yes, high mass bridges kills your tone, high mass bridges attenuate the harmonic content, which gives the perceived illusion of fattening the tone, because with subdued harmonics the fundamentals of the notes will sound stronger, but it will be at the expense of the complexity, richness and liveliness of your tone.

A standard bent piece of metal bridge will give a much richer tone, and it is questionable if a high mass bridge will even result in more sustain, if it does it is marginal at best.

A high mass bridge doesn't add to your tone, it subtracts.
 
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#52
sissy kathy said:
Welcome to Talkbass.
Forget it, changing bridges for other than aesthetic appeal accomplishes little or nothing.
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There’s a few very good reasons to change the bridge
- The original is poor quality
- The original is light and you have neck dive
- Fixed string spacing is off and you want a better spacing
- You prefer how the new bridge looks
 
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