Evil Undead

3 hours ago, jahfish said:

I really shouldn't,... but I'm interested in this fine looking bass. What is the neck like please, nut width, & is it a thin jazz style or not? Cheers

Hello, sorry for the delay, have only just remembered to take a lunch break 😅

It's 38mm nut, nice and slim.  I've taken pics for you of nut measurement, depth at 1st fret, and depth at 12th fret 

Very reluctant sale as I love this bass, but I only need one these days and my other one gets slightly more play time.

I've had this since it was built in 2015, it is parts so I'll list what it's made up of and the cost of those parts

Body, control plate, knobs, pickguard, and neck plate are from the very popular squier short scale jaguar, was about £220 for the original bass, so say about £120 for those bits

Neck is made by the brilliant luthier Jon Shuker and was about £350, excellent quality neck, most stable of any bass I've owned, perfect fretwork, great finish, and Jon made a nice brass nut for it.

It's got carbon fibre reinforcement rods, and dual action truss rod that's fully working and very smooth. 50 year old Indian rosewood fretboard. Truss adjustment is at the heel like an old Fender. 

Schaller lightweight tuners were £90

DiMarzio model p and j pickups were £90

Wiring and pots were installed by Jon Shuker, don't know what brand he used

Gotoh 201 bridge was £35

It's got Dunlop strap lock buttons installed.

Strung with new D'Addario nickel rounds 40 60 75 100, and I also have two or three spare sets that I'll throw in for free.

Scale length is 30.25", action is low and it practically plays itself.

The neck dive normally present on this style of bass has been very much reduced by the scale length and bridge/tuner mods, it's not completely gone, but with a good strap it's absolutely not noticeable.

Total cost was £685 so £450 seems like a fair price. 

No case so meet up preferred - Gloucester area but can travel up to an hour away

EDIT: Just been asked about the weight, I should have added that originally 😅 it weighs bang on 7lbs

EDIT2 - at the out of hours vets with a great big bill, lowering price to help shift this bass

EDIT3 - now sold, thanks 

I had one of these as my gigging head for several years, it never let me down and always sounded great.  GLWTS

I’ll try these please ead.  Will PM 

Did I kill this thread? 🤣

Mine’s an Ibanez SR505 with maple board, that I did own for a while.  Nothing super special, but I really loved it.  Was going through a 4 string phase, didn’t have the confidence to switch between 4 & 5 strings all the time, and traded it for a Warwick.  Regretted it even before I got home, but the other guy wouldn’t trade back, even though I offered him a better deal.  Still really gutted about it, and it’s probably been 6-7 years now.  Wonder where it is now

I’d like to come along this time, never been to a bass bash!

I bought an amp and cab from Jez, great transaction and great bloke, deal with confidence!

I've also had the pleasure of hanging out with him for a couple of hours and trying out his bass builds, which was a real treat - superb build quality, design, and sound on all of them, very talented man!

Thanks Jez

Looks amazing!

Well I'm very disappointed - I was off to see Jabba_the_gut this afternoon for him to have a look at this bass, and hopefully resolve the issue, but my partner has asked me to put the trip off for today. Winds are supposed to get up to 45 mph this afternoon and BBC weather has classified as a potential danger to live, so I'd be silly to go against her request really.

The bass is sitting by my desk at work, all packed up in its gig bag all ready to go and get fixed up - if it had feelings, it would probably be as bummed out as me at the moment

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1507841896' post='3388373']
What's the balance like between the P and the J?

Keep the cable tie on - it's doing something from the sound of it - and try lowering the bass side of the P pickup by a couple of mm
[/quote]

Hey Andy! Sorry for the delay, hectic couple of days at work!

I had a minor breakthrough this morning with it. I got frustrated with the lack of note definition on the E string, and it was making the G string sound funny (haha) so I took the cable tie off. Then I decided to see if it would work with the tie just on the E string and not the rest.

It definitely makes more of a difference, and the notes are more defined. However the string is not quite as bright now. Overall it sounds a lot better.

I also lowered the poles on the pickup under that string as well, and I think the combination of the two is much better!

That was a joke, by the way

I just had a thought

Maybe I just don't like P pickups?!

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1507751872' post='3387794']
Trust me...it'll work with anyone
[/quote]

Hehe!

Well Andy. I tried the foam, no effect actually, in the interests of full disclosure, I can't find any foam short of stealing from the. Sofa cushions and that wouldn't go down well, so I shoved a sock under the strings.

I also tried the cable tie. It massively lessened those 'orrible overtones and got rid of the rattle at the nut, but had a weird side effect - at least to my weird ears anyway. J pickup still sounds fine, but as soon as the P pickup is brought in the lower notes on the E string are almost indistinguishable from each other. And even worse when soloed. No idea what that's all about

Ohhhh I see! Would that work with a rather tubby sort like me? Haha

Thanks Andy! I'll definitely try the foam and the cable tie fixes tonight to see what that does! Pressing on the string behind the nut does seem to solve the issue so I'm fairly confident that the cable tie (and therefore the bar) will sort it. I think I have some hardcore cable ties at home, will give it a whirl tonight.

Just out of interest - you mention that the bar comes with it's own foibles - what sort of issues crop up with those?

Regarding the strap button, that's interesting. I might have a mess around with some playing positions later - when I played long scale basses I used to have them quite upright, but that's mainly because I couldn't reach the lower frets otherwise haha! I've never had that issue with the shorties so play them more at a 45 degree angle.

[quote name='alyctes' timestamp='1507671876' post='3387222']


That wasn't quite what I meant. If you damp the string behind the nut with something stuffed under the string (sponge? bit of balsa? cigarette filter?), what happens then?
[/quote]

Ah, I got you. I'll give it a try tonight

Sorry for the delay guys, work has been mental this week so far!

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1507552816' post='3386257']
It sounds like you want a generally clean sound, in that case I would definitely be looking at EMGs personally

Find a bass in a shop equipped with pickups you'd like to try and see what they sound like maybe the easiest way to test without losing a tonne of money
[/quote]

That's not a bad idea, thanks

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1507553208' post='3386264']
You're getting a luthier to look at the neck and break-angle. If I were you I'd wait and see what he does and how it is after he's finished.

You could try a plug-in pre-amp. You can then use it on other basses. Yet, Mowtown sound was done with a pretty basic P-bass. No fancy stuff back then. James Jamerson played a P-bass with dead flats.

Have you got both pups going? Maybe try turning to using only the neck P-pup. Try some flats, if you haven't already?
[/quote]

I was mostly using the Motown sound as an example of the kind of versatility I'm after. I like all sorts of tones really. I'm trying to learn slap as well and only have the one bass so flats wouldn't be for me I think.

Plug in preamp is interesting. This might be a silly question but do they do the same thing as the onboard ones?

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1507563406' post='3386367']
I'd be looking at setup/strings/nut for your issues. Wouldn't be swapping out pickups or adding a pre without that as the issue could remain.

Also I'd question whether you need a pre for the flexibility you're after. Pick tone and motown sound are both achievable with a P pickup and tone control. Add in bridge pickup and maybe a switchable EQ curve (pedal) and you're sorted.
[/quote]

I get you. I definitely want to sort the break angle issue first, as you say, it might be perfect after that. But, that said, I do miss the little bit of extra "bite" of my old active basses, and I miss not having one any more really. And I'm gonna look for a preamp with a passive bypass so I've got passive when I want it as well.

Definitely, thanks! I might have to invest in one

Hahaha!

[quote name='alyctes' timestamp='1507507187' post='3385981']
If you damped the string behind the nut, does that make a difference?
[/quote]

I seem to have to press quite hard but yes, the overtones disappear

[attachment=255273:post-14417-0-10437700-1507403969.jpg]

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1507539378' post='3386067']
You didn't mention short scale was an issue and you're wrong, Spector do make a short-scale model.

You still haven't said what this mystery bass is either.
[/quote]

you said a Euro spector, which doesn't come in a short scale so I'm not wrong thanks haha

I posted my bass in my other thread, referred to in the OP of this one, but I'll add a pic here as well

EDIT- and I mentioned that I'm a short scale only player in my other thread as well

[quote name='Hellzero' timestamp='1507481631' post='3385758']
If you have some wrist problems, in 99% of the cases, it's a bad playing position and has nothing to do with the scale... For your bad sound, in 99% of the issues, it's a bad setup.

Before going any further, go see the two specialists who will really help you : a physiotherapist and a luthier. It's worth going this way than spending money in the wrong direction...
[/quote]
[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1507537312' post='3386054']
Just a thought; you've had hand/wrist problems a long time. I don't know if you've seen a Doc, or if you have lessons etc. But maybe if you share a video of you playing a teacher here might be able to see if there's something in your technique that causes your pain. Could it be a matter of playing height or something?

Even if you don't want to share publicly, Ped or another teacher might be able to put a finger on it.
[/quote]

I've had lessons, and he really helped with my technique, which I think is pretty much ok (EDIT: it is now anyway, wasn't before!), and I've seen physios and specialists in the past, especially following a wrist injury in about 2009-2010. I think most of the issue with my hands is my day job, it's very keyboard/mouse heavy, but I love my job so I'm not willing to change that.

I'm not a good bassist so a video might be embarrassing haha, but I'll see what I can do

[quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1507508055' post='3385986']
You're not playing it very often? Are you in a band?
[/quote]

No