bassbiscuits

I’m come to short scale basses (a MIJ Mustang) as I’ve got older and it’s a brilliant sounding bit of kit - like a smaller, lighter and more comfortable than a P bass. It does have a sound that’s distinct from a P tho - a tiny bit thinner and more midrangy perhaps, and a tighter low end? - but very comparable and very useful. Mine weighs something like 3.5kg and is nicely balanced so it’s a doddle for long gigs or even longer rehearsals. I’ve not recorded with it (other than some live YouTube things from gigs I’ve done) but I’m very happy that it lets me play and sound like me easily enough. Im not about to swap completely to short scales but they are useful and likeable basses I think.

I’ve had basses with and without thru body stringing. They all sounded good so I’ve got no way of knowing what the thru body stringing contributed. Makes using flatwounds a bit tricky tho as it increases the angle they have to bend.

I had tickets to see him just before lockdown hit but it got pulled.

The truss road adjustment is at the body end of the neck on these basses up until the mid/late 1970s. Not a great design as it involves removing the neck to do it, or at the very least taking off the scratchplate to get access. The action would be adjusted by the bridge saddles, and/or a shim if needed to raise the neck a little in the neck pocket.

Impossible to reach that conclusion without seeing it though, isn't it? We're just speculating.

I suspect that with the restorer not being a bass player, it would need to go straight for a decent set up after leaving Repair Shop....

Definitely - they look cool but are a pain to play with. But they're hardly invasive to install or difficult to remove either.

that was well weird wasn't it!

The neck shaving bit did make me wince, but it depends how badly that big dent on the back affected playing comfort. Apart from that it was a lot less bodged than I’d been led to believe - essentially a neck refin, refret, new logo (not sure why he bothered with that tho) and general clean up. The lad wanted it as a working instrument, rather than a museum piece.

Is that a good thing, or was it a botch job?

There are none that i really struggle without - a few that I miss, but not enough to replace them. I pined a bit for a lovely Sandberg TT4 that I'd sold too hastily, but when it came back up for sale on here a few years ago, I didn't buy it back. I miss my Epi Jack Casady, my PRS Se Bernie Marsden, my old 1980s Charvel Model 1B bass, but i'll live without them easily enough. The ride was fun at the time.

I remember lusting over the catalogues for these at the time - always fancied the red one in the middle, with the super slim body.

I'll include myself in this category - was once kicked out of my own band over some petty squabble I can't even recall entirely. I only found out I'd been sacked at a meeting to discuss my reinstatement some weeks later. I missed about half a dozen gigs while another mate got brought in to cover. World managed to keep on turning though luckily eh.

Did anyone notice?

Last weekend we did our first gig ever as a classic rock covers band which has formed during lockdown. None of the members have gigged since March so we’ve had to time to pull together a set, rattle off a quick rehearsal and pull off the gig! It was great to get out playing and make a noise, and the sold out audience seemed to feel the same way, despite the social distancing measures which meant limited numbers, table seating etc. Definitely got mileage for some more gigs and more songs. It’s a nice low-pressure way of us all having something creative to focus on without committing to stacks of gigs.

Definitely. I love Del Amitri. They’ve been the soundtrack to quite a lot of occasions in my life when Currie’s brand of melancholy has suited perfectly.

You Got It - Roy Orbison

I expect it's because the string spacing on the smaller model isn't standard, and so instead of making different pickups just for this model, they've set the regular ones at an angle to match the string spacing. Same as EVH did using a Gibson PAF humbucker to match the Fender string spacing on Frankenstrat.

Sorry - I didn’t mean to sound harsh. If you’re unhappy with it then that’s reason enough to send it back. It’s your money after all. The use of multiple pieces of wood, not always brilliantly matched, is far from rare in mass produced instruments and doesn’t mean it’s bad. Glad the shop was happy to take it back tho.

No but I’ve had the opposite more than once - where I’m a better guitarist than the guitar player.

Is that seriously all that was wrong - that the body was made of two pieces of wood? That’s hardly unusual. What about the rest of it, the stuff that matters - the fit of the neck pocket, the nut, the fretwork, the electronics, the general build quality, and how it sounded?