JJTee

Lots of mentions of Duff McKagan. He’s the reason I picked up the bass, and this is still my favourite ever pick tone 35+ years later. Fender Jazz Special (the TBX circuit gives a certain emphasis in the upper mids/low highs, that’s not present in my other PJ basses), fresh round wound strings, Dunlop Tortex pic (the yellow 73mm one):

It never even crossed my mind it was a fretless all those years ago in the mid 90s when I first learnt it. Always loved the bubbling, parpy, slurred tone. The scales fell from my eyes when I heard the isolated track and someone pointed out it was a fretless. Blindingly obvious now! All those bits I though were string bends…

‘Don’t Stop Believing’ - smothered in chorus!

Definitely a fretless. 100%.

This is quite interesting: https://youtu.be/iE-6N_sy0CY?si=oEfvg4fBIgWuetCY

Yep, I reckon so. Really enjoyed her set.

I’ve always been intrigued by this arrangement since I first saw Metallica’s Jason Newsted’s Alembic Elans with this configuration:

How about C.K.Watt?

Thanks all, glad it’s not just me who can’t quite pin it down! Almost sounds like a heavy chorus that’s then gone through a subtle phaser.

Caught this on Pick of the Pops earlier and the bass, and the very heavy use of effects, caught my ear. Found the isolated track and out of curiosity I was wondering if this is a very heavy chorus effect, or flanger? (Or maybe phaser, but thought not). Anyway, it’s very effective (pun intended…): https://youtu.be/AYtG3NSJ5CU?si=4WG4ym4_o98_laVT

You all have it all wrong. THIS is how a jam night should be…

This is a great little vid.

I think in profile, the bottom half was fatter/thicker and more bulbous than the top half. So looking down the neck the lower half was just a bit fuller feeling in the hand is my guess.

Thanks for your thoughts Belka - you’ve certainly given me pause for thought with the refinishing plan. I also wasn’t aware of the difference in truss rod access between the different years. I vaguely recall something about the very early versions not having a jazz-width neck (unlike mine and all the later ones), and perhaps they somewhere in between a P- and a J-width. I don’t know what year that’s from though. There are a few differences between the main run in the years 84 to 87, and from what I’ve read this was due to what was available at particular points in terms of hardware. So some have different bridges and tuners. And obviously at some point they stopped painting the back of the necks - sometime in 1986 I would guess. I knew Duff’s had a manufacturing defect in the neck which meant it had a slightly ‘egg-shaped’ profile which took Fender a couple of attempts to get right when they made a couple of copies of his original back in the late 80s/early 90s.