police squad

[quote name='Junkyard Rocket' timestamp='1375945320' post='2167632'] I had something similar when I first bought my CIJ mustang when they could be picked up for £300 secondhand. As soon as I got it home I took off the roundwounds & put on a set of thomastik JF-324 flats, which are just as light & floppy as my favourite long scale 344s. I did as a good a setup as I could, but there was awful fret buzz around 7-9th frets which made the bass fairly unplayable. It seemed that this was due to the lighter strings being unable to pull any relief into the neck. I took it to the Gallery & the diagnosis was that the frets needed to be levelled. A fews days later I picked it up and it was perfect - no buzz or choked notes at all. The frets were leveled, crowned & the edges smoothed, and surprisingly there was now the ideal amount of relief in the neck. [/quote] I had the frets levelled etc and bearing in mind the bass is almost new, it still rattled. Maybe the strings were lower tension or possibly just knackered, who knows but it's lovely now

So, I've had my Bravewood 'Sting' relic/replica since November last year. An incredible bass but it suffered fret buzz quite a lot. I put this down to tuning it to Eb, neck relief etc. I finally got round to taking it to me local tech, 'Andy Crockett'. He said he's seen this before and could sort it. Well he eventually did a fret level and it made no difference. Very strange. Andy said that's also happened in the past, where he just can't sort it. Everything is as it should be. Last ditch effort, Andy said, 'try changing the strings'. So I picked up the '83 JV Squier P bass which had a set of lightly used Swing bass (tuned to E this one) and swapped the strings over, making sure to put the Bravewood strings on the Squier. Hey presto, Bravewood almost as perfect as anything else (detuned to Eb too) and the squire had developed the Bravewood problem, only worse. I don't know what the strings were, but they were nickel wound and I think had lower tension. Anyone else come across this problem/fix Here's a gratuitous picture of the Bravewood

I used to sell Charvette guitars back in late 80s early 90s. They used to set up really well and had Charvel pickups. Some of the top end ones had proper Jackson Floyd roses. The bodies were often plywood but they still sounded good. We sold bucket loads of them and I recently came across a top of the range guitar. Floyd rose, 3 pickups, 24 3/4 scale length in bright orange. It was immaculate. I gave it a set up and it was brilliant so I can imagine the bass you have is good. IMHO they were better than beginners guitars

I had a Vester produced jazz bass which apart from the ferules being loose in the headstock (it meant it took far too long after string changes to hold its tuning, but eventually it did) it was a very good bass. I stripped all the paint off and oiled it and used it in my Police tribute for a while.I've never really played a bad squire apart from the early Chinese ones. They were pretty poor

is it lower back pain? if so have you ever tried the stretch you see fast bowlers doing, lay on your back and twist your hips so you're laying on one of them, keeping your shoulders flat on the floor and pull your knee up and bend to the floor. eg, twist so you're on your left hip, pull right knee up and push it towards the floor. Ihave a bad back quite often and when I do this I hear/feel a click in the lower back joints, and usually it cures it

the Hohner B2-A is very good too

I've got 4 P basses. A '75 R/W board.............amazing. Best bass I've ever played. A modern jap maple board fretless (like Sting) again a great bass. A Squier JV '62 reissue made in '83, rings like a piano and my Bravewood '57 reissue (old shape, like a 55). great lightweight bass with a classic thump. They all sound like a P bass but they all sound different. Love em to bits

welcome Mark, I'm in Dover!!