The Leo Quan Badass Bridge is back!

The Badass has been largely missing from the Allparts’ product offering the past few years. Sporadic supply suggested a change was happening behind the scenes, and that’s exactly what’s been going on.

No longer manufactured in the US, these bridges are now produced in Korea and the resulting product is a bridge that is incredibly familiar to the Badass of before. There’s no compromise on the quality of build or finish; in fact, I’d say the new plating is a marked improvement.

As you can see, the Badass II is not too dissimilar to the old model. It’s a zinc alloy construction with a choice of all chrome, nickel, black or gold plated finishes (that includes the same colour screws).

However, they have gone with pre-grooved saddles rather than the un-notched as before. This does this allow for spacing adjustments, which is an improvement, but is not nearly as flexible as “3D” saddles as found on something like the Kickass. At present, there is only the one model available – another may yet be added to the range with old-style saddles.

The bridge still offers both setup options (string-through and top-loading). It’s great having the choice, but Fender 5-hole bridges will generally be top-loading. I feel removing the string-through option (or offering another model with that setup) would rid the need for string-through holes, thus tidying up the overall design. Having said that, it does give you the option of using this bridge on your own build or any other bass guitar.

You aren’t short of replacement options for the Fender 5-hole bridge, that’s for sure. But there’s something in having what is the original Fender upgrade bridge, that you just can’t beat.