mrawlins

I just got a beautiful CV "Pino" Precision - one of the nicest basses I think I've ever played (the neck beat out two early 70's Fender P's in Vintage and Rare which was a bonus!) I've seen some nicely aged original 70's P/J tuners on eBay that look very close to the ones on the Pino sig bass. Yes they will cost half what the bass did but I really want to give it a posh cosmetic treatment. I've already ordered a Fender pickup replacement and CTS pots etc. Anyway, with the Fender machines being much larger, I can have new holes drilled for the back plate but are there any other potential problems such as the diameter of the hole for the tuning column? Or perhaps could the lacquer crack if the holes are not drilled by a someone with experience? (If there is a thread where people are already pimping their CV 60's Precisions to closer to Pino spec, could someone point me to it?) Thanks a lot for any advice!

[quote name='Telebass' post='907993' date='Jul 28 2010, 11:21 AM']Remember, the shop is in [i]Beijing[/i], not the UK. I doubt the rules are anywhere near the same...[/quote] Heh, yes, it's the wild east out here - there are no rules! I consider myself very lucky to have been able to return the bass at all, I had to push very hard for it and it took about 45 mins of discussion... I'll definitely make a point of going to the Bass Gallery, thanks chaps.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='907817' date='Jul 28 2010, 08:00 AM']I'll be the first to say visit the gallery in camden town. In London it's THE bass shop. Not always the cheapest compared to online but they have a huge stock and some very nice higher end basses. You can spend hours there. Alex is the guy who runs it and will sort you out. Good luck.[/quote] Brilliant, thanks Dave.

OK guys, so I got my money back - I had to pay a small fee to keep them happy, in fairness Fenders never seem to be perfect, we tried quite a few Jazzes off the rack and they all had buzzes somewhere regardless of action. I had the bass for 5 days so I considered it rent. No regrets. I actually do think I was being a bit of a perfectionist about that bass but I managed to return it so now I can start planning what to get next (in the UK!!!). Can you tell me, what is the go-to destination for bass shopping in London? I'll probably check out Vintage & Rare but there's nothing on their website that suits me right now. Somewhere that stocks the Pino Precision and stuff like that would be awesome. I'll only have one day in London to do this so I'll need a place with a good selection. Thanks again for your support!

OK so it went better than I thought, of course the G being louder was still inaudible in the shop but they definitely understood the fretboard issues. Re. the pickup, he tried adjusting the pickup on a '62 reissue Jazz and it had the same problem, so "it's the way it's supposed to be". They both actually do move, fractionally. So they are going to hold on to it for a few days and try and get it properly set up, and if there's still a problem I might get my money back or they might try and give me another Jazz... which I'm not sure I want.

I should clarify when I said dead spots, I was being lazy with my language, I really meant identifiable parts of the fretboard where there is fret buzz regardless of setup (as I have now found with the truss in 3 different positions from loose to tight and saddles as high as they will go).

[quote name='redstriper' post='906187' date='Jul 26 2010, 06:48 PM']How do the prices in China compare to the UK ?[/quote] Well the road worn jazz was 8900rmb - £865 which I was surprised by as things like this (luxury goods) are normally much more expensive here. The cheapest I've heard of people finding road worn basses for in the UK is £800.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' post='905815' date='Jul 26 2010, 01:51 PM']Let's hope you get it sorted, we don't want a China Crisis.....[/quote] Boom boom!

[quote name='geoffbyrne' post='905759' date='Jul 26 2010, 01:10 PM']From what you say, I'd try *tightening* the truss rod until it's pretty nearly straight (very, very slight UP-bow) and raising the saddles. I reckon your hitting the bottom frets because there is a bow in the neck & the saddles were too low. I'd take out the pups & replace the foam underneath with layers cut to shape from a mouse mat, and you can make it that these hold the bass side higher, reducing the output from the G - also a decent set of strings might also be in order. Good luck whatever you do. Geoff[/quote] Thanks Geoff, that's very interesting, I will definitely try the foam trick if they don't play ball with me tomorrow. Actually I'll take the neck off now and adjust the rod the other way. I can't figure out why the G is so loud, acoustically it doesn't seem too bad but when I plug it in it's just ridiculous.

[quote name='OldGit' post='905716' date='Jul 26 2010, 12:46 PM']Ah .... A recent thread on buying basses in China I found an expats website that said many of the Fenders in China are fakes so that may be something you need to look at...[/quote] I'm fairly confident this is real, they had the whole road worn series - strats, a tele, another road worn Jazz (now sold) and also a P bass. They also had Marshall amps, Orange, Jet City, a John Mayer Strat, a Jaco bass - all good stuff so I think this is one of the kosher shops. The fakes are usually dead obvious. But yeah it was a risk buying here due to after sales service which will be non-existent, and also Fender doesn't even have offices here (unlike Gibson who seem to be taking China very seriously as a market).

Thanks guys for the fast and sensible responses!! Yes I mainly play at home and do recording so it's really an issue. What I didn't mention is that I live in Beijing and we foreigners tend to get laughed at anyway for our foreign ways, bad chinese and "huge noses". I'll take the bass in tomorrow and let you know how I get on. Cheers Martin

Hi there, I'm new to the forum - looks like an amazing resource. I'm posting because I just bought a new Fender Road worn Jazz - it seemed perfect in the shop but you can never tell until you get an instrument home and play it for a few days what it's really like. So I discovered a few issues and I'm hoping to get some advice whether to setup, repair, replace parts or take the bass back. 1. The pickups will not be raised or lowered. If I loosen the screws the screws just come out of the pickups and the pup stays in the same place, it is not raised. The screws will not tighten any further. The pickups are at sort of a middle-low position. 2. (this is why I tried to adjust the pickups) The G is way, way louder than the other strings. On my RME software mixer it shows as something like 8db louder than the other strings. So it will clip my input even when there is plenty of headroom for everything else, and of course the notes stick out like sore thumbs in a bass line. 3. The neck had dead spots (string hitting the frets) on the first fret (fretted) and also up past the 14th. I loosened the truss rod and raised the saddles but it's still an issue and now also the action is high. The action was dead low when I got it but I couldn't hear the dead spots or fret buzz in the shop. I bought it five days ago and can potentially take it back to the shop tomorrow. But I'm kind of concerned that they will laugh at me... Can anyone offer any advice? I like the bass but it was quite expensive and I just want a bass with no issues, for once! Cheers all Martin