wingnutkj

As you'll have no doubt seen from this thread, Andertons are currently selling a Roscoe Beck-eqsue 4-string bass called an MJ-1 for a very reasonable 250 quid. As you may have seen from this thread, it looks very nice in black sparkle. But the question you're all asking is - what does it look like in Lake Placid Blue? It looks like this: Nice, eh? Lake placid blue's a bit of a difficult colour to get right, but this is a good one - nice sparkle to the finish, and the colour shifts with the light, deep blue at some angles, hint of turquoise in there at others. Everything my old Fender MIM tele's LPB finish wasn't. Although I've kept @Geek99 waiting a bit, I've finally had a chance to sit down with it: The bass came double-boxed from Andertons. No gig-bag included (fair enough at this price), but there is a small pack of goodies - Allen keys, truss rod adjuster, Soloking-branded polishing cloth and picks, and a cable. The neck is roasted maple, my first experience with the technique, and feels very nice - slim, satin-y, smooth and shallow. Jazz bass string spacing, 21 frets. The fretwork is pretty well done. There's a matching headstock, wheel truss rod adjuster, decent enough tuners. The fretboard overhangs the neck to get the 21st fret in, which makes me wonder if the neck pocket is Fender-standard size (haven't checked yet, but I know it's the kind of thing Team Bitza will want to know, so I may report back on that later). The body is made of *checks Andertons website* alder, and feels reasonably resonant. This particular bass weighs in at just over 9lb/4Kg on my kitchen scales. It certainly feels like a reasonably lightweight jass bass. Electronics - there's two double-jazz humbuckers with coil taps (just on or off, the original RBIV had three way switches for single coil/series/parallel mode), with a 3-way switch, volume and tone. For anyone interested in the guts, here they are: I was hoping to put some tone clips in here, but they'll have to wait. As @neepheid pointed out his review, the cup-style jack socket is a bit too deep for Neutrik angled jacks, and guess what I've got on my recording rig? I know that I can just go and find another cable, but that's a bit much effort for this very instant. I've not played with the band yet, but have given it a blast through my practice amp. The set-up out the box is decent enough - the action is perhaps a touch high, and the nut could be filed down a touch, but I'm not rushing it straight out for a pro set-up. Tone-wise, the humbuckers are deep and bassy, but quite articulate. The various switching options offer a good variety of tones, but if I was being picky, I can't get a P-bass style growl out of it. But then, that's what I've got a p-bass for... All in all, a very good bass for the money. I'm planning on a few mods: I've got a Hipshot Bass Extender I think will fit it. Might speak to Earlpilanz about getting a white pearloid pickguard made to replace the cream one. I'm planning on replacing the cup jack socket with a surface-mounted plate one. I'll maybe replace the 2-way coil tap switches with 3 way ones and try to replicate the Roscoe Beck IV switching. With the 3-way pickup selector switch, tempted to go for a 4 way one for further series/parallel fun, but tne other thing I was thinking with the pickup selector - on Jass basses, the tones I prefer tend to be one pickup on full, the other knocked back slightly to open up the sound. With this, the middle switch position has both on full. I wonder if I could do something clever with a 5-way switch to get: Neck only, neck and a bit of bridge, both on full, bridge and a bit of neck, bridge only? One final thing to mention, with the headstock design, it's slightly longer than a Jazz Bass, which may be a consideration for cases, gig-bags and car boots.

The contents certainly did arrive intact, I've just been rushed off my feet with the pre-Christmas rush. Will try to do one this week. First impressions are very favourable - nice neck, lovely colour, sounds like a bass, but I need to do a bit more of an in-depth comparision between it and my other basses, and maybe even play it with my band if we get our act together.

Mine has arrived! Unfortunately I'm not home and won't be in until late, and out all day tomorrow, so Friday afternoon will be my first chance to give it a thorough going-over.

I went for the blue. It looks to be a fairly nice shade of LPB, but it's notoriously difficult to tell from a photo.

SO ANYWAY I've ordered one. Christmas present to myself. Totally don't need another bass. Just been explaining to my 13-year-old nephew, who has just started playing electric guitar last year and is already up to 3 and is fluently debating the pros and cons of EMG vs Dimarzio pickups, that more gear isn't the answer, more practice is, and tone is in the fingers, and all that, and here I am, setting a bad example.

It's like you've read my mind - I've bought a few things from Brian over the years, and he's even dropped them off at my office in person.

...and it looks like the pickguard's too much of a cream colour for me. Phew! (Actually giving this one serious consideration. I had given up on ever being able to get a Fender Roscoe Beck IV, and at that price, this looks too good to miss out on.)

Phew! It's got a Tele-style "cup" jack socket, which don't work with L-shaped jacks very well. Total deal-breaker, GAS averted.

I bought a Hipshot Bass Xtender from Pete this week. He was very easy to deal with, and sent it out super fast. Thanks Pete!

..and some depravity:

Here's some 90s Prince from Mark Radcliffe's White Room on Channel 4:

I was lucky enough to see one of the secret "hit and run" gigs with 3rdEyeGirl. I'd been working just outside London for the weekend, and I had a free Sunday because we'd finished ahead of schedule. He'd played a few unannounced shows around London already that weekend, and the rumour was that he'd be doing Koko in Camden on the Sunday. Turned up. Queued, got in for the first show. They started with Let's Go Crazy, and Ida Neilsen's bass solo was one of the best distorted bass tones I've ever heard.

Merchant City are great guys, and have a really great relationship with Reverend. I went to an evening with Ken Haas (Reverend head honcho) a couple of years ago which was really interesting. He also popped into the shop for a Tuesday afternoon hang-out a couple of weeks ago, and if I'd been working from the office that day, I'd have gone along - I have /thoughts/ about custom colours for the Wattplower mkII bass... @theplumber- does the Shifter's neck have a bit of a V profile at the headstock end? My SD bass neck has it, and it's one of my favourites to play.

Bought a Darkglass pedal from Ben - a pleasure to deal with, and the pedal arrived just in time to play a crucial part in a recording session!

The 60th Anniversary looks absolutely amazing - enjoy!

I can't remember where I got the pickguard from - I've had it for years, and wasn't entirely unsurprised that it didn't match up. It's quite a different shape to the stock one - I think it might have been based on whatever was standard in the 90s/00s, and this bass is basically a '75 Reissue (3-bolt microtilt neck with bullet, 70s bridge pickup position).

As promised, some pictures with the guard off. It wasn't the best day for photography, so excuse the yellow cast to them - it's much silverier in real life. With the guard: No pickguard - the good news is that the pattern extends under it, and the burst follows the edges consistently all the way round: Clear pickguard that doesn't quite fit right: And for anyone interested, this is what the innards look like - shielding plate, full-size solid-shaft pots: My personal choice is to keep the original black guard on, but I can see the appeal of guardless/clear.

Doh! I didn't even think to check the (afforementionedly shoddy) gig-bag for case candy - sure enough, it comes with the correct allen keys.

Meanwhile - first-world problem: the knobs aren't lined up as I like (aligned along the long axis of the plate when full off, pointing vertically up when full on), and despite having a comprehensive collection of allen keys, I can't find one to fit!

Nice problem to have!

Its... basic. For reference, it's a basic black polyester gig back with a bit of padding, one pocket that's not deep enough to hold anything other than a cable and some picks, a detachable shoulder strap, and "Fender" screen-printed on it. Nowt fancy. It's not the worst I've seen. I've got a couple of the kind of "get-you-home" bags made out of a single layer of polyester that music shops'll chuck in for a fiver if you've bought something that doesn't come with a bag. But also, it's not the best I've seen. I've got better ones in my stash, so don't think I'll be using it to carry the bass around in. What do the various levels of Fender generally come with these days? I know the higher-end stuff still comes with cases, and Squiers don't generally come with anything, but what about the mid-range? The other basses I've bought new in recent years have been: Lakland Skyline - very nice Levy's polyester gig-bag, very much a level up from this one, Reverend Wattplower - custom hard-case. Anyway, the many thing is that I've got the bass and I like it a lot. Pictures will be coming when I get the chance to take them.

Despite black blocks and maple not being my preferred neck (would have loved pearl & rosewood), I've given in to GAS for one of these. t will be arriving soon. If anyone's interested in seeing what it looks like with a clear pickguard, I'll see what I can do - I've got one somewhere. And there was me thinking I was doing really well at resisting the GAS-y urge for the 60th Anniversary Jazz.