Jono Bolton

My main bass is my Squier Matt Freeman, which is truly excellent. Very well made and has a great tone too. Every bit as good as the U.S. P Bass I had a few years back. My other P is a bitsa with a MIM body, Warmoth neck, Schaller tuners and a Wizard Thumper. It's in standard tuning so doesn't get much use these days and may well be up for sale soon but has a really nice low action and sounds great too!

[quote name='bassmachine2112' timestamp='1427017889' post='2724642'] Early Peavey Foundation with super ferrite pick ups. Cheap as chips and made in USA. My one is 31 years old and gets gigged every week. These are seriously good basses [/quote] Agreed. I don't particularly like Jazz basses because of the body shape, so the Foundation suits me better. The Super Ferrites are great pickups. My Foundation is a dream to play, thin, fast neck, straight as an arrow and really low action. The neck tilt feature is totally underrated.

That's a mid-nineties Foundation. Mine is (was) a '92 and had the same body shape, bridge base plate and Super Ferrite pickups, but has a different headstock shape and logo. Your headstock design came slightly later. The body of mine was pretty knackered (absolutely bumped by the seller) so I found an early '80s body and bridge on eBay so it's a bit of a bitsa now. The Super Ferrites are excellent, and it's a lot of bass for not a lot of money.

[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1426365186' post='2717438'] Which Gotoh did you try? The 201 is pretty similar to that style and available in gold if it's just for aesthetic reasons. [/quote] Yep, it was the 201 I tried and I didn't find it was much improvement over the standard BBOT and quickly moved it on.

I'm looking to swap the threaded saddle bridge on my bitsa P Bass for something big, heavy and preferably brass, like the one in the pic (borrowed from a thread in the For Sale section!). I've tried Badass and Gotoh in the past but I don't like the aesthetic, and I couldn't go a Babicz for the same reason; they're just too ugly IMO. Is there anyone who does big brass lumps like they used to make? Or sell second hand ones?

[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1424006186' post='2691407'] Have you tried a shim at the side to see if it helps I would think if the neck moves it can't do the intonation any good [/quote] Not yet, but that was my next course of action unless someone else came up with a reason I may not have thought of. My thinking is that the tension of the D'Addarios when tuned to E is higher than that of the Newtones in C# (even though they're meant to be high tension strings). When the D'Addarios are at E the tension is helping to hold the neck firmly in place, this stopping any intonation issues. When the bass is tuned down to C# the lower tension allows the neck to move in the pocket this causing the intonation to be out, although I can't work out why it would just be on one string. A shim on either side of the neck will hopefully sort it out as the Peavey sounds great and suits my band's style better than the P Bass.

I'm having trouble intonating my Peavey Foundation when it's detuned to C# (all 4 strings down 3 semitones). The main issue is the 4th string (low E/C#). Even though the string is in tune, and it's intonated correctly at the 12th fret, it's quite out of tune between the 2nd - 8th frets. The 5th, which should be tuned the same as an open 3rd string, is about a quarter tone sharp. It's very noticeable. I don't have this problem when tuned to E standard. When I had the Peavey tuned to C#, I was using Newtone High Tension strings and when I tuned it to standard I had a set of D'Addarios on that came off my P Bass. The Newtones went on to the P Bass and had no problems with it. I don't know is that means it's down to the strings or not. The only other thing I think it could be is that the neck pocket it slightly too large for the heel of the neck. When I'm tuned to E the neck seems stable enough, but when I'm at C# there's certainly a bit of give and I can wiggle it ever so slightly side-to-side. Is that because of the reduced tension when the strings are tuned down? Any ideas what could be causing the intonation problems?

[quote name='Marc S' timestamp='1423127094' post='2680983'] Ah no - if you really like Squier basses, then it's not an "average goal" - just cos it doesn't have a big name on the headstock .... it's just that you realise just how good these basses are Me? I've got too many basses, and really love everything I have So I shouldn't be GASing at all at the moment .... But I keep thinking about ordering a Limelight P bass..... And quite fancy the Dee Dee Ramone Fender P signature they've just released Groan...... [/quote] That's true, the Matt Freeman is a great bass, not just "for the price" as a lot of reviews say. It could easily be a couple of hundred more and it'd still be worth it. Save yourself a few quid and get the Matt Freeman in Vintage White instead of the Dee Dee, doesn't look to be much difference between the two

I really want a Squier Matt Freeman in Vintage White to go with my black one. I have pretty average goals in life.

I had a problem with a rattling tuner, and a quick, firm squeeze with a pair of pliers where the clover leaf meets the stem sorted it right out.

A few new pictures of my bitsa P Bass. Not much has changed since the last pictures other than a bridge cover has been added, the Fender tuners have been replaced with Schallers and the scratchplate is black instead of tort (although I may change back). The Telebass neck is from Warmoth and is one of the best necks I've played; Jazz-width nut but very chunky front-to back.