dogbender wrote:I know that the early precisions came with the dampened ashtray and p/u cover but what are the advantages/advantages of having these fitted?
The only reason there can be is that Fender felt that the sound of the Precision (and later, the Jazz) was a bit too lively, bearing in mind that they were both supposed to be replacing the double-bass, and that the sustain response of the strings needed to be attenuated somewhat in order to more closely simulate the string-bass sound.
dogbender wrote:I know that most people, myself included, took the ashtray off the Strats but why did Fender stop fiiting them to the Precision Bass?
Do you mean the cover, or the cover plus the damper foam?
I'm not aware of very many people ever having played the Stratocaster or Telecaster with the metal bridge cover in place. The one fitted to the Strat looks wonderful when it's in place (like a brochure illustration or a memory of a 1962 Strat hanging in the shop window fifty years ago), but playing with it on is impractical. Later versions of the Strat and Tele bridge omitted the facility altogether, probably because it was thought a waste of money and effort. I've never seen anyone play a Jaguar or Jazzmaster with the bridge channel cover in place either (which is a little more surprising in the case of the Jaguar because original USA Jags had a separate damper fitted).
Bassists, on the other hand, were usually wont to leave the bridge and pickup covers in place (á la Jet, Lic and even John Rostill in the first couple of months he was with The Shadows), but the covers gradually fell out of favour when players started to use a brighter tone (especially when Rotosound brought out their wirewound "Swing Bass" strings in the mid-60s), but perhaps the most telling thing is that the pickup cover actually makes no difference to the sound of the instrument. It looks as though it performs a function, but except as as hand-rest, it doesn't - it doesn't even shield the pickup underneath. And the bridge cover makes string changing - and damping - awkward. Vintage Reissue models still have the original covers supplied (as is also the case with the guitar models).