TheGreek

One of my mates, Chris ( @bassface2k10) is imo a great player - never known him to miss a beat, always in time and had an excellent practice regime. Despite this he would never play at Bass Bashes - he held everybody else in high esteem while doubting his own ability. I think that this is a typical bassist characteristic - if we were shouty, "look at me" people we'd probably have been guitards.

Some photos. Note the "kill switch " on the lower front horn and some of the many "character" marks.

@Rayman I don't think that the humbucker splits but I could be wrong having only played with it for about half an hour. @Lfalex v1.1 each pickup has its own volume control so you can feed in as much of each pickup as you want. You can isolate a pickup using the same process. Makes it so that even an idiot like me can figure it out.

I agree...waiting for daylight before taking getting some done.

I posted details of this Spear Flextool HPJ (3 pickup model) on this forum before jumping in and buying it since it was local-ish. TBH I was partly motivated by curiosity - what tones can you get from a bass with a combination of HPJ pickups? Think of this as a standard Jazz body/ neck which has been played with by someone with OCD who has access to a variety of pickups. Following my manic journey through scenic (sic) Harrow and dealing with local drivers using The Force to navigate the suburban roads I picked up the bass, which, TBH must have seen better days, no shortage of nicks, dings and dents on this baby! Also one of the pots was wobbly (easily solved) and the tone knob a bit scratchy so this bass has lived a life. Home, walk the dogs before plugging the bass in and checking out the tonal range. The pickup set up is H in the classic Ray bridge position, where you would expect it, P in it's usual sweet spot (or there abouts) and the J in the neck position. Each pickup has its own volume with the last of the 4 knobs for the bass/ treble. So VVVT. Individually each pickup gives an acceptable though not exceptional in any way, tone - remember this isn't a premium instrument - retail price was in the £500 range - but the pickups certainly don't let it down, especially in combination. My expectation is that the H will be the punchy pickup - not so - on its own there's your standard humbucker tones with a nod to your classic Ray but adding the P incrementally provides you with a deeper, throatier tone, the J adding cleaner mid tones. Lots of combinations, adding and subtracting each gives you plenty of range to play with and I'm pretty sure that there's something in there for most people. Obviously there are far more tones available than I extracted in the half an hour I played it but it certainly shows that there is a fair bit of versatility and range in these pickups. It's actually surprising that you don't see more basses with this set up. Needless to say I still have more experimenting with this - I'm going to suggest that there's much more to get from this. Stay tuned for further updates. 😉 😉

Sell everything and take up playing golf... Just kidding. Enjoy the lull while you can...won't be long before your services are in demand again.

Viewing for later. Thanks

Samba Pa Ti - Santana

What's new pússy cat - Tom Jones

Fast car - Tracey Chapman

A nod towards the Ritter Princess Isabella

The kids are alright - The Hooo

First get your bass set up properly with a new set of strings. Next, learn your major and minor scales and spend some time finding whatever riffs you can in there - after all 99.999 of all riffs are based on these two scales. Using an open E and the G and A on the same string yields loads of riffs from Another one bites the dust, Jean Genie, 5 to 1, among others.

Ewe to me are everything - The Real Thing

All or nothing - Small Faces

Inevitably.... Blue Suede Shoes - Elvis

Sharp dressed man - Zed Zed Top

Cotton eyed Joe - Red Nex

La Mer - Charles Trenet

Jump - lots of people

I expect most of the 70s "dogs" have been worked on and the issues they left the factory with have been addressed and resolved. TBH they should never have left the factory - affected the Fender reputation and left the door open for other manufacturers to get their foot in the door. Not sure but I'd hazard that this was the time when smaller, independent builders came into their own .

Decreased?