Terry, then your bass does have one! The block is brass and maybe weighs around 2 pounds. It sits flush to the top of the guitar, but most of it is hidden inside the body. If you were to remove the strings and unscrew the bridge, you could then see and remove the block. It screws to the body with one screw in the middle. I wouldn't do this unless you are already removing the bridge for a complete cleaning. If you are like me who must see and know everything on my Alembics, you will take it apart some day, if you keep the bass. Of course, before you actually do this, take some measurements first, and some pictures of the bridge and how it goes together. I've had to learn the hard way that once it's all apart and now time to reassemble it, the parts don't fall right back into place. I always take a measurement of the heights of the 2 bridge screws, and you can even count the number of full turns out, and write it down. I also measure the distance to the front inside edge of the bridge to the front edge of each bridge saddle using a vernier dial caliper, and again write this down, so when I reassemble the bridge I can set the intonation and string height to a fraction of where it was before. This alone will save hours of set-up time.
Good luck in your hunt for a trade. I know there is a perfect match out there. Once I went to six strings I really didn't want to go back to 5, certainly not 4! Maybe it is out of your comfort zone. I find the 6th string (high C) is really usefull for upper chord voicings and adding triple stops where I could only get double stops on my 5. That might be a different style of playing you haven't explored yet. My toughest transition was to the 5 from the 4. My thumb kept resting on the B so my hands sometimes weren't in sync.
Keurosix
