My Sung Il BB404 arrived today, and I am as impressed by it so far as I was with it's TOM sibling that lives on my hybrid.
As I posted earlier, I am not a great fan of high-mass bridges, but if you want one... this weighs in 243g which is over a half pound. That is heavier than a Badass, a Fender High Mass or a Babicz. String spacing is 19mm. I checked this against my mid-1970's Precision and my FrankenJazz basses, and it is identical. The Hipshot A-style is a little heavier at 260g, and will adjust string width.
I am not convinced that mass adds much more than weight to a bass, but I do think that you get a tiny bit more sustain from a bridge that locks the saddles in place, as the G&L, KSM and Babicz do. The Sung Il also locks the saddles. The Hipshot A-style does not, but I am not sure about other hipshots for F style basses. The Fender and the Badass definitely do not lock the saddles.
The Sung Il has a low profile, and quite a bit of adjustment, both vertically and for intonation. Some high mass bridges seem to require shimming the neck or routing the bodybecause they are higher than Fender stamped bridge plate. That should't be a problem with this bridge.
The finish is superb. Really nicely chromed. It also comes in black and gold.
I will be putting it on a paulownia body. These are notoriously soft, and my one worry with the bridge is whether the screws may pull out. On the positive side, this bridge is made to accommodate both string on top and string through. I plan not to do string through, but it is nice to have it as an option of I do get pull out problems.
I want to build a light bass, but the paulownia is almost too light, weighing in at around 1220g. So a high mass bridge should help prevent neck dive. I am hopeful at least. For the same reason, however, I would not put this on my Frankenjazz which weights in at 4390g with a fender style stamped brigde--already pretty heavy.
My one beef is that the four mounting screws are too small, so they will be getting replaced with screws that are a bit longer.
I overpaid for my Sung Il at just over USD $25 with shipping. That is still a tremendous bargain compared to any other name-brand locking bridge I have found. I have seen them on eBay for as little as USD $18 with shipping.
I'll report back with anything I learn in the installation, particularly if it negatively affects my outlook, but for now this seems like a great bridge for the money.
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