sblueplanet

If you need to change anything on a Musicmaster it will be the pickup. The original will be a six-pole guitar pickup and is pretty woeful. I replaced it with a Seymour Duncan one. The same as for a 51 P bass.

Why oh why!!!!!!! Cut the wires to fit the terminals, fine. Bare wires, not so fine. Bridge pup ground wire snaps off pot at solder. Attempt to connect remaining wires into terminals and re-position control plate, disaster. Half the wires come loose and control plate won't fit back into cavity! Bass will in pieces for a while as I plan to sand and prep it for a respray but at some point it's going to need sorted.

From 12th fret to middle of neck pup is 32.5 cm. Bridge pup E string 39.5 cm. Bridge pup G string 39 cm.

The image you show is a neck-thru thumb with 26 frets. Will this be a different length from a bolt-on model with 24 frets which is what I have?

Def worth £250. There's also a Ken Smith Design J 5 string on at £350.

I had a Steinberger L2 fretless and it's phenolic fingerboard did not stand up to wear and tear at all.

I've seen it done elsewhere on here but can't remember the topic. I just wonder if the wiring blocks have to be of a certain amp or something?

Is the wiring block used to connect the pickup any particular type or ampage?

Bought a bass lead and Item was posted quickly and arrived next day. Great transaction, great guy.

Thanks for the info. Always handy to know where the good techs are.

Can anyone tell me what type of terminal blocks can be used to join my jazz bass pickups to the control plate so I can remove everything for a refin and not have to try soldering afterwards? Also fancy trying a stack-knob setup in future so would be good to be able to switch between hassle-free.

Pretty sure any decent luthier will offer this service. Some good instrument shops have workshops. Phone around for quotes. Someone may know a specialist in the London area.

Have you considered trying to do the job yourself? May be something on youtube about how to do it. On leftybassist.com the member called Matt R, based in the USA did this to two jazz bass necks with great results. You might be able to get good advice/ direction from him about this.

I have gone for long periods of time without playing and gear has either sat in the cupboard or been sold off. Getting a hold of equipment is a lot easier with the internet. It's just a matter of whether you are sentimental about your stuff.

Try playing seated for a while to take the strain from your back and arm. If problem persists it might need a break from the bass till you recover like any injury. Good luck getting back to playing fitness!

Interesting comments by BassBod and Beer of the Bass about amplification being a factor. Hadn't considered that.

I remember my older brothers listening to records in the early 70's that featured fretless playing and I used to ask what instrument was making that 'mwah' sound. Certainly wasn't Jaco.

So no one thinks it strange that a fretless model was never available from the beginning for existing upright players to switch to? This was my main point of discussion, not the concept of putting frets on as frets had been around for hundreds of years. The instrument may have evolved differently had fretless been available as an option from the start and I wonder if many people ripped the frets out even in the early days?

When Leo Fender introduced his electric bass in 1951it must have been obvious that a large potential market for his instrument were the many double bass players out there and the opportunity to downsize and be heard. So why did it take until 1970 for Fender to produce a fretless model? Surely many more existing upright players would have been attracted to the electric bass had fretless versions been available from the outset? Given that the fingerboard starts its life without frets in the factory, it would have been cheaper to promote the P bass as fretless with fretted as an option. So was it because Leo had the mindset of a guitarist or just had poor marketing advisors? For instance, when Jaco Pastorius made playing fretless bass popular around 1975 using a de-fretted Fender Jazz bass, Fender still didn't seize the opportunity and offer a similar model fretless till the mid-80's. I'm not knocking the introduction of the fretted electric bass but had it started as a portable fretless alternative to upright, maybe the evolution of bass-playing would have taken a different journey.

In the case of Fender, there has been a call for a lefty Mustang bass for years now but to no avail. Even Squier has been a major let down in not producing a lefty Mustang model in their range as well as lefty versions of their Classic Vibe series, although they make lefty guitars in this range.