On the change over in 73, the whole bass changed ( well everything got bigger) and the fret board was another 1/8 higher off the body, so the Badass 1 was ok, but fit one to a pre 73 and it wouldn't work, it wouldn't go low enough, although why you would want to replace the gap tooth bridge anyway, unless it got broken that is.
Other reasons for bad fitting or the need to sink the badass into the body would be perhaps the 73 74, 1/2 inch neck pup spaced 4001's which have been over strung and the body starts to bend in that routing, so needing a much lower bridge setting and even the originals don't go that low in these cases.