January 14, 2005 - Letter from Glen "Leo" Quan

GENERAL NEWS

1. "Old Nickel" plating will be available for Badass® bridges to give your instrument that antique 1950's and 1960's look, especially if your instrument has Nickel Plated parts, or you intend to switch your hardware to all Nickel Plated parts.
   
   The difference between "Old Nickel" and Chrome Plating is that the former was the standard for Musical Instrument parts in decades past and has a soft yellow aged look, as opposed to the hard blue shine of Chrome. The picture below of two Bass II bridges shows the difference. In time, the Old Nickel will oxidize and assume that oldie but goldie appearance.
   
   The "Old Nickel" Plating is on the Left and the regular modern Chrome Plating is on the right, in the photo:
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2. We will be offering a prototype run of Bass II Bridges for Fender® Precision and Jazz Basses, with THROUGH BODY string mounting for OEM use and is not intended as a direct replacement for the 2004 Fender® Americana or Deluxe models. New products are pending for 2004 Fender® replacement bridges. These will be the same top quality Bass II made with the special tone transfer metal we developed, modified for artists who want to run their strings through the bass body. This will be available for OEM manufacturers as well, once the prototype phase is completed
   
   
3. We have THREE (3) sizes of the 5 String Bass Bridge available. Each with different tone characteristics and application. All of the 5 String Bass Bridges can have string spacing filed cut from 17mm to 20mm ( from narrow to wide necks ). Each bridge differs in length details as follows:
   
   
   • 68mm Standard length with mass and metal grain to enhance the "B" string
     
     
   • 62mm Medium length with our new Tone0 Casting technique, for more aggressive Attack. This unit will provide the attack of a solid brass bridge, but it will retain the natural "woody" tone, clarity of notes and sustain for which our bridges are designed.
     
     
   • 56mm Short length for compact or special application. This is available through Allparts.
     
     
4. We have developed techniques over the past few years to change the tonal characteristics of our bridges. We can form them with more aggressive Attack, or with less Attack depending upon the application. A more comprehensive report on this new casting technique will be made later.
   
   
5. For years, we have informed builders and players that each of our string saddles must be file cut with round files equal to the diameter of each string. Sometimes the installers or resellers do not inform the players, and the result is a less than optimum sound.
   
   Unlike Round saddles of most other bridges, we've maintained the need to custom fit every string to every instring. This results in the very best of tone transfer from string to body, and provides a precise "Speaking Point" ( a phrase we coined ) which is far more accurate than a prenotched rounded saddle. As they say, if you are a serious artist, you will use serious tools; so please take the time to have the work done properly by an experienced professional guitar repair person - you wouldn't believe how many saddles we sell to people who thought they could file the notches and save a few dollars and time :-( So, do it right the first time. Thank you.
   
   
6. In a few months, we will have a new set of high Attack saddles for the Bass II Bridges. These can be used singly for that one string you want to hear "crack" or for all of the strings. They will fit onto existing Bass II Bridges and will require professional installation.