hiram.k.hackenbacker

Yep, pink Hawaiian shirt, stone washed denims and baby blue plectrums on order 😀

Ooh, that’s good news. Hopefully he will be along in due course 😀

Here is the bass he used on the day.

So, the charity gig that I’ve mentioned elsewhere on Basschat (The Last Resort) is happening again this year in November and I’ve been asked to return. The theme this year is ‘tributes’ and being in a Bowie tribute, I was originally asked to play the Bowie set. Obviously I said yes, but I now have the opportunity of doing the Queen Live Aid set as well, which I’m super excited about as I’m a big fan. I thought it would be a nice touch to play the set on a bass that looked the part and I’ve been having a look for some information on the bass John used, which seemed to be quite a favourite of his, a stripped Fender Precision with a 3ply tort guard and rosewood fingerboard. There are many photo’s of him playing it and it seems to be distinguishable by a dark blemish below the bridge. However, I can’t seem to find any specific details about it, what it used to be finished in, it’s vintage etc. The thing is, I don’t get on with P necks. I did find a Fender Artisan Precision on Thomann which had a Jazz neck, but it’s €4,400! It also has Fender Jazz on the headstock, even though it has a Precision body 🙄. [I should add that I’ve always wanted a P bass that I could get on with in the arsenal, so I’m not searching for something I would only use once. I did have a Pino CS, but I just couldn’t get on with it and I did try]. I came across some information this afternoon that suggested that Nash Guitars once made a John Deacon tribute bass. Their web site makes no mention of it and I don’t even know what it looked like. Maybe it was a one off? I then had a moment of epiphany - a Limelight Custom Build. So I rang Limelight today and had a chat about the aim of the build and I found myself being asked questions I couldn’t really answer, like what vintage JD’s Bass was, what it might have been finished as prior to being stripped, what saddles it had etc. There are pictures, but they’re not great and I can’t find specific details about this bass. Surely the Basschat Collective must be able to assist.

I’m kinda loathed to tinker around with the Flea really as it’s just perfect as it is, not to mention just a little bit different.

Yes, me too. Shame I can’t play it at the moment 😂 Another thing I noticed was that the edges of the frets are finished ten times better than the original. It really is a nice looking neck.

I found some photo's of it from when it was delivered. Am I imagining it or is the new neck fret wire slightly thinner?

Yes, you’re right. I guess the value of the end product (bitsa) matters less if you’re guaranteed to end up with something that really floats your boat. Since I’ve not done this before, there’s no real guarantee of that. What struck me when I opened the box was that how wonderfully well finished this neck is. Obviously, I don’t have the old neck to compare it directly to, but it does seem to be very nice indeed. Again, I might be imagining it, but I’m sure the frets on the old neck were larger. The frets on the new neck seem very thin, almost like the banjo frets on my Dingwall (Lee Sklar). I’ll post a picture later. Can anyone confirm what the fret wire looks like on their ‘61?

I now have a brand new Fender Jazz neck (with cut nut). After the last rather curse e-mail exchange, someone a little higher up the food chain decided it might be a good idea to give me a call and apologise personally rather than batting this back and forth. Sensible move and good on them for making the effort. So, I'm now thinking what I could do with the neck: 1) Sell it 2) Leave it in the box. Should I ever decide to move the '61 on, I can then keep the graphite neck and sell the bass with the neck it should have. 3) Build something. When I sent the defective neck back to Fender, it was stripped of hardware (it's now on the Status neck). The new Fender neck came loaded with relic'd tuners and string tree, so all I really need is a decent four bolt body. I've never put a bass together from parts before, so this is what I'm leaning towards at the moment. What are the potential pitfalls of doing this?

Sorry, I probably didn't explain the chain of events very well. Fender UK collected the faulty neck back in September. During the initial flurry of emails with Fender I decided I needed the bass back in action quicker than it looked like it was going to take dealing with Fender, so got Rob Green to fit the graphite neck. I've never had to replace a neck before. Would they need the body back? Can't the nut be cut without the body?

In respect of batch nimbers and when my bass was made, here is the serial number. I don’t know how Fender’s number system works, or even if they have a system, but if it helps anyone who is worried about their bass, here it is.

Yes, that what I’m leaning towards. If I decide to keep it, I could get Rob Green to fit it and I’ll have a ready spare. Not that I’ll need it with the graphite one in place though. I’m definitely leaning far away from sending my bass to them. They haven’t exactly inspired confidence in me thus far. They’ll have toddled off home for the weekend by now, so I’ll give it until Monday morning and have a think about it until then. Thanks for your input one and all. You’ve been very helpful and supportive.

Can it be any coincidence that I have today received an e-mail from Fender UK, an unsolicited one this time, rather than a reply to me chasing them? Good news - they have a neck for me. Bad news - the nut is uncut and they want me to either send the bass to them or they’ll ship it straight out to me and I can get it done myself. Mmm 🤔

Thanks.I would probably of thought of that if I wasn’t so unbelievably crap at Twitter.. I had to get my bleary eyed son to help me with that at 6am this morning.

I don’t do Twitter very well. I tried to find the account for Andy Mooney, the Fender CEO, and failed. I almost gave up, then found the feed for Flea, so I tagged him in instead 😀. ‘Here’s a question for @flea333 - how long is the neck on a Fender ‘61 Flea Bass supposed to last? Answer: 12 months according to @FenderGBI. Neck on mine went & 5 months down the line I’m still waiting. It’s a known issue with your Sig Model. Thought ‘You Oughta Know’.’

Mmm. I'll sleep on it. It's not the sort of thing I would normally do tbh. I thought twice about posting the update on here, but thought it only fair should another '61 Flea owner suffer the same issue.

One of those Artist Series would be very nice 😀

Part of the reason for their half heartedness in my case may have to do with the fact that I disclosed to them that I had the neck replaced by Rob Green at Status almost immediately so that I could continue using it. In hindsight, that probably wasn't a great move on my part. That said, I've only just found this out some five months down the line. They also seem to be sticking quite rigidly to the "it's over a year, so it's out of warranty' approach. I questioned whether Fender basses are supposed to last longer than 12 months. Ignored. Apparently they're doing me a favour and as a good will gesture have offered me a box of strings. Woo hoo! Go me 🙄

UPDATE: I still have not received the replacement neck from Fender. I think they may be growing the trees it will be made from. I’ve had to enquire a few times for updates and one of the most recent communications indicated that there was a ‘known issue’ with the necks on these basses. Quote: ‘The known issue seemed to affect only a small batch of Flea Bass necks that for some reason were failing in terms of twisting and bowing with the trussrod unable to offer any relief at all.’ I bought mine from what I believe to be the initial run that was shipped to the UK. This is probably worth noting if you bought or own one from the same batch. I’m happy to forward you the e-mail from Fender if you have any ‘out of warranty’ issues like I’ve had.

My 80’s band are in a bit of trouble in the keys department. Since the original guy emigrated we’ve had another guy in his place who is brilliant. He’s a great fit for the band, really nice chap, has all the gear plus the skills required and more. The only issue with him is that unless the gig is local, Friday’s are pretty much a no go due to his work commitments. We have gigs coming in all over the country for both Fridays and Saturdays so need to find someone to either replace or dep him ASAP. Rather than advertise on a bass forum for a keys player, I thought it might be better to sign up to a keys forum. I have had a look, but finding one with a decent amount of UK activity is not as easy as I thought. Any suggestions?

Tickets available here.

I'm a fan and have been for many years. I still have that bulky vinyl set The Complete Works which I bought on its release. A fabulous collection of albums it is too. But I'm not an anorak obsessive about Queen unlike other artists I'm particularly fond of (Genesis, Frank Zappa, Peter Gabriel, Rush etc). So, I was watching the Live at Wembley Stadium DVD set yesterday. Although it's essentially the same set, it's great to see two gigs of that scale filmed back to back on consecutive days. Within the extras there are interviews with May and Taylor where they state that the final gig with Freddie was at Knebworth at the end of the 'Magic Tour' in 1986 and that it was 'almost perfect' (for them) sonically. There are clips also which appear to be from Knebworth. This suggests that it was also filmed, but I can't find any reference to it having been released. Is anyone aware if the gig was filmed? It seems a shame if it was that it hasn't been released, being Freddie's last full gig.

“a sinister midget with a bucket and a mop”

Yes, another great album. I remember listening to The Torture Never Stops for the first time and wondering what kind of mind this could have come from....

Yes, spot on. Over-Nite Sensation is one of FZ's finest studio works. Got me into George Duke big time. This is one of my favourite FZ guitar phrases. There's nothing particularly difficult about it, it's just in the context of the song, it fits perfectly. Straight out of the gates as the first song of his second show in San Diego THAT DAY, the note that starts at 0:48 just makes the hairs stand up every time.