Fender Jazz MIJ - odd brass earthing strip?

[Hanry]

Hello,

I bought an 80s (I think...) Fender MIJ Jazz Bass some time ago on eBay and I was so naive, I did not even ask the seller whether he was a smoker!
Well, some time later, the bass in absolute bits, I had stripped the layers of tar off it, and it looked half-decent again. Unfortunately I had been a bit careless with what I considered an "ugly bodge": there was a thin strip of tarnished brass going from the bridge to the bridge-PU. It was simply clamped to the body by the bridge, and laid flat on the body, then vanished into the PU cavity and soldered onto the wires there.
Ok, you can guess that I cut that off, expecting to run a new ground connecting lead. My wannabe-Gibson at the time had a hole drilled from the wiring box to the counter-piece for the bridge height-adjustment screw, which struck me as the proper way to do.

But then I saw a similar bass on TV that very evening and I could see the stage light glinting off that strip of brass and felt very daft indeed!

Is this something that ought to be in place for this vintage (not got the neck at hand, but will add the numbers if that helps) in order to keep the re-sale value? Or is it actually a perfectly acceptable mod to drill a fine, long hole from the bridge area to the wiring cavity and run a nice piece of wire through there?

That bass and I may yet make friends, but just in case, I'd like to be able to pass it on one day for the max, obviously :-)

Thanks a lot!
Hanry

[stu_g]

yes that would of been there originally,you can see it on the reissue jazz basses.

[Rumple]

That was indeed meant to be there, I'd fashion a new one from a sheet of brass.

[Hanry]

Rumple, stu_g,

Thank you both for the confirmation!
I am pretty nifty with a surface-mount soldering iron and love my woodworking, but when it comes to sheet metal I have proved many a times that I am incompetent.
Is there someone in the UK who makes such things to the right dimensions? I don't mind paying a fiver if it means I don't have to spend half a day researching, trialling and erroring ;-)

Thanks!
Hanry

[Rumple]

I put together a MIJ Jazz many years ago and struggled to find one of those straps, a kind soul on here sent me a small sheet of brass, it was way thinner than the standard fender stuff and easy to cut with decent scissors, it looked OK but more importantly it did the job

[Thunderbird]

Pm kiogan he's a member here and he will sort you out

[Hanry]

Ok, I shall go and do some online shopping for very thin sheets of brass :-(

Thanks again!
Ulrich

[Hanry]

Ah, I just noticed the hint for Ki0gan - I shall do that!

[Thunderbird]

[quote name='Hanry' timestamp='1502705681' post='3352938']
Ah, I just noticed the hint for Ki0gan - I shall do that!
[/quote]it's worth it his stuff is top notch

[blisters on my fingers]

I've got an ongoing bitsa Jazz project that will be completed soon er soonish. The body has the brass plates that sit under the pickups, but no earth strip from the bridge.
There is no hole to poke a wire through. As I've already got some self adhesive copper grounding sheet from Stewmac, would making an earth strip from this material ( and soldering it to the brass plates ) be a good idea ??

[gjones]

The brass grounding strip is functional and used to be hidden from view, on early Jazz Basses, by the pickup cover. Then when bassists took the bridge covers off, as most of them did, Fender drilled a hole from the control cavity to under the bridge, to make an invisible grounding circuit.

Only Japanese, 60s reissue, Fender Jazzes, have a functional grounding strip these days. The USA versions come with a grounding strip but it's only for show, as they ground their basses the modern way.