Original Fender High Mass Bridge Design

[Billw97]

I found this while looking around in one of my parts drawers at home. Had to take pictures to share. I know that there was a bass posted here at one point with one of these on it, but it's hard to get a sense of how big this thing actually is, until compared with a stock bridge. Keep in mind that the weight on this thing is over 2 lbs! It is solid brass and the two screws holes on the outside of the saddles are design to use the bridge cover screws hole for mounting.

[Billw97]

The stock bridge to compare the size.

[pjmuck]

Wow. Never seen one of those before. 2 pounds is insane, though might come in handy to counterbalance a neck heavy bass (like a Mockingbird, for example). Were they ever installed stock on any Fender models?

[paulo]

Wow this thing is an anchor!
The only description I found of it says it's called a "boomerang" bridge.

[ezstep]

Leo Fender carried that thought to his next companies, MM and G&L. The G&L has always had a "heavy" bridge with a locking set-screw. Once you set intonation and are finished adjusting, you tighten the set-screw that locks each individual carriage together into one massive bridge.

I cannot swear that they heavy bridges are vastly superior, but I like 'em!

[Billw97]

I haven't seen any stock basses with this thing on them, so I am going to say no. It's likely from the 70's and was a possible Fender solution to the high mass bridges that were becoming popular. As for Leo, he had an eye for detail/function and I would strongly doubt that he had anything to do with this thing. Also by this time he had been gone from Fender, but CBS didn't listen to him while he finished up there. If I knew what it was called, a patent search would explain the design and when it was made.

[Billw97]

It reminds me of one of these-

[NoXX]

It reminds me of one of these-

Excellent find Bill! ... and I was thinking the same thing, and almost fell off my chair when I saw you had already posted a pic of it

[Matt R.]

Are you selling that?

[Billw97]

I am going to go out on a limb and say that this bridge came about, in or around 1980. I am finding a number of ads for Fender with parts of similar construction and stamps on instruments made at that time.

[Billw97]

Hey Matt, if it's something you want, PM me.

[Jeroen]

I've seen one before (actually, there was one for sale near me, NOS in the original packaging) but I had never realised it was THAT big! Holy crap.

EDIT: What do you know, it's still there.
http://link.marktplaats.nl/m1257133276

[tim]

Nice way to turn neck dive into shoulder dive.

[Agent00Soul]

Mass and brass were a big deal in the late 70s/early 80s. Any one remember Fender's The Strat or Precision Bass Special?

(I've actually seen the PBS a lot lately because the bassist in Portugal The Man uses one.)

[AzWhoFan]

my back started whining as soon as I saw that bridge!

[Pineweasel]

Mike Watt of the Minutemen had one of those on his Fender: http://www.hootpage.com/minutemen_1984_street_scene.jpg

[screambasses]

Mike Watt of the Minutemen had one of those on his Fender: http://www.hootpage.com/minutemen_1984_street_scene.jpg

Hello, fellow Minutemen fan! We played Glory of Man at our high school talent show in 1985 (and That's When I Reach for My Revolver).

pete

[andrew]

Watt again.