Bobness of this parish and myself were fortunate enough to see the wonderful Joan as Policewoman at the equally wonderful Birmingham Town Hall last night. Something that I noticed during the gig was that Joan’s bass player had some sort of chrome cover across his strings on the body of his guitar, and we wondered what it was for on the way back to Nottingham.
A search of the internet did not prove conclusive. Suggestions ranged from them being ‘just for looks’ to having some sort of mute function, whilst some bright spark on the much respected ‘thegearpage’ thought:
“It’s to keep those annoying caffeine-fueled funksters from inflicting that horrible ‘pop n slap’ crap on the world!! Or something like that…”
Can any light be shed in these parts.
I assume they just cover and protect the guitar’s pickups. Might stop sweat getting in. Some pickups had visible ‘windings’, where most now have plastic-covered ones. Rickenbacker basses used to have those covers, as well as the Fender in the clip.
They were fitted to early Fenders like the one above to – I think – prevent finger tips plucking directly above the pickups. Doing that was considered wrong (it makes a plucking noise).
They were dropped early on as bassists wanted to vary their tone. As if anyone is listening to the bass* player!
(*) I am
They have no function whatsoever.
But don’t take my word for it. Skip to 2:22 on the below and let Mark Agnesi at Norman’s Rare Guitars tell you all about it.
Lifted from a bass message board; When Leo Fender designed his first electric bass he put a chrome cover over the pickup and the bridge for multiple reasons.
A. He thought the cover over the PUP would provide some electrical shielding (it’s too open to do any good there, but that was one reason- early Precision had a wire going to the cover even).
B. The original P bass PUP was pretty open with the coils subject to damage, so the chrome cover would protect the PUP.
C. He thought the instrument would be played with the thumb, like the way Wes Montgomery played guitar (his brother Monk was an early user of the Fender bass, and did play it that way too). The tug-bar was under the strings to help with this. You’d wrap your finger tips under the tug-bar, rest your palm on the PUP cover, and the thumb would lay on the strings.
D. Everything that was cool in the ’50s had lottsa chrome. Aesthetics- the chrome covered up the kinda primitive/ugly parts of the bass.
E. The bridge cover had a foam mute that knocked down the sustain, and helped the bass emulate the double bass.
When the Precision was changed in 1957, they kept the covers for most of the same reasons, except they’d made the new split PUP covered in plastic to protect it. So, when they made the Jazz bass in 1960, they again kept the covers, mostly for aesthetic reasons. Fender shipped all the 34″ scale basses with the covers mounted until about 1982. Why? Because they’d always done it that way!
It’s a sign of the player’s almost painful need for historical authenticity….for all practical purposes, these covers are better removed (see also Telecaster “ashtray” bridge cover)….
I can’t add anything to the splendid posts above but will share, amongst friends, that I have serious GAS for a nice vintage P bass.