Jean-Luc Pickguard

I made a great fretless bitzer Precision several years ago with a Brandoni neck & body. The Neck is fantastic with a nice bit of flame/birdseye in the maple and a lovely dark ebony unlined fingerboard. I wouldn't be surprised if they still sell the same necks.

good grief

nope, my playing is equally inept whatever colour bass I'm using.

'F' for fake logo on incorrectly shaped headstock.

I tried a plectrum once; I didn't like it.

I'd been planning to replace the original mini pots & switch in my '97 CIJ 1972 reissue telecaster thinline guitar as they crackled badly and randomly cut the signal making the guitar unusable plugged in. Before ordering all the bits & bobs to make a new harness, I thought it might be worthwhile to attempt to clean the pots & switch so I ordered a can of WD40 'specialist fast drying contact cleaner' (not the same as regular WD40) from amazon. It comes with a funky straw attachment to direct the spray into the pots. I wasn't sure whether to expect a big improvement, but after a quick squirt and rolling each pot & the switch back & forth a few times, there's now absolutely no crackle so I won't be needing to get the soldering kit out. Pretty good stuff for a fiver.

My '04 CIJ Oly White mustang bass with its rather fetching 'aged white pearl' pickguard.

Nonsense. There's a thread discussing Rickenbacker at https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/327793-is-rickenbacker-a-dirty-word/

The last page of this PDF has the list of patches https://zoom-na.com/sites/default/files/products/downloads/pdfs/B3_Operation Manual.pdf

Thanks goingdownslow - that helps a lot. It looks a bit too tight for me to be comfortable with. I think I might have to look into getting a custom-made flight case.

Cheers - If its possible to post a photo to show how much room there is at that end, that would be a great help.

Thanks. Is that because the end of the headstock is touching the end of the case when the bass is inside, or is there a gap between the end of the headstock & the fur lining?

I need a hard case for my Thunderbird Vintage Pro. I'm happy to use my Ritter thunderbird gigbag laid across the back seat when I'm going to a rehearsal or gig in my car, but I need something with more protection when it goes in the back of the van. Is the Epiphone thunderbird hardcase (the non-rectangular version) long enough for the vintage pro, or does the end of the headstock touch the end allowing any shocks or bumps to possibly affect the bass? Can anyone suggest a hard case that is big enough to protect the Epiphone vintage pro properly? Anyone have a Gator GWE-TBIRD-BASS or Freestyle Thunderbird Case, or other alternative?

it sounds like you’re describing the shure super 55: https://www.studiospares.com/Microphones/Mics-Dynamic/Shure-Super55-Deluxe-Dynamic-Microphone_433190.htm there are some cheaper alternatives, but that’s probably the one they’re copying

My favourite strings on long scale basses have been Thomastik JF344 for well over ten years, but I put a set of La Bella white nylons on my Epiphone thunderbird vintage pro to replace the stock roundwounds. The tension & feel is similar to the TI set, so they are very comfortable to play and I can get a big sound with a light touch - like the TIs, but I prefer the sound of the La Bellas.

The neck looks like a standard cheapo strat copy with the headstock sawn off rather than an originally headless neck. It looks like the string retainer thingy might make it difficult or impossible to get an allen key in to adjust the truss rod.

There's nothing wrong with a curly cable 😜

They might get a 'Cease & desist' letter from FMIC for describing it as a 'relic' as that is a fender trademark: https://www.fender.com/pages/terms-of-use

I ordered it from Chandlers in the US at http://pickguards.us I also got a 3 ply black pickguard cut for my CIJ 72 tele thinline reissue. The pair came to £60 in total but I expect the cost would a bit more these days as it was ten years ago, so it would probably be more cost effective now to look at UK suppliers.

I put a double ball set of picato flats on my '86 hohner B2A as they were the only double ball ones I could find at the time - probably about 15 years ago & they're still going strong. They sound pretty much like you'd expect flats to sound, and the surface is very smooth.

yep - mine looks just like that. When I put on some low tension strings (La Bella white nylon flats) I was getting a bit of buzz at most the frets on the D string, and would have liked to be able to raise just the D, but after tweaking the relief and the height of both sides of the bridge a little I seem to have managed to get the optimum setup with no buzz.

nice! I have the same bass, but I changed the tort pg for an aged white pearloid one & upgraded the pots & socket with CTS & switchcraft bits. Its a great little bass and the tone with flatwounds is fantastic.

I played a note at the 9th fret once & the low end dropped out of the song - I certainly won't be doing that again.

I use a polytune clip, which I have used for a few years and is the easiest and fastest clip tuner I've used. I'll probably get a unitune also if TC ever make a black version as I never use the polyphonic feature on the polytune. The tuner in the Zoom B3 pedal is pretty good so I use that if I forget to take my polytune to rehearsal and when I'm feeling old-school I dig out my old A440 tuning fork & tune by harmonics - just to be sure that I can still manage without an electronic tuner.