Jean-Luc Pickguard

That's exactly the same as mine. (except I haven't drilled any extra holes & fitted a pointless extra pickguard to mine) I think I got a good bargain when I got it about six or seven years ago secondhand, but in totally mint condition for £165. They were still available new at around £300 at that time and the going rate for secondhand ones was around £200. Its Korean made and I believe that version was only made sometime between 1998 & 2001. It is much closer to the original 50s version than the unbound version that followed. At the moment my longhorn gives me my favourite sound for low volume gigs with acoustic guitars and I can get a nice thumpy upright tone out of it.

I haven't tried one with my CR5M, mainly because I don't need to as I already look like fozzie bear.

I get fantastic results with a zoom H4, but had the H2 been available I'd have probably gone for one of those at the time.

I would take it to the Gallery for a fret level and get a set of thomastic JF324 flats on it as well. I've never played a PJ I've preferred over a straight precision.

I can vouch that a Markbass LMII (or these days a III) with a schroeder 1212L is a stupidly light combination which is almost embarassingly light, but sounds massive.

Could be the relief needs setting as the weather has been cold & damp

I was looking for some double ball flats for my hohner B2A. Strings direct managed to get some in from picato for me and they are perfect. They've been on the bass for a few years and still sound great (although I don't tend to use the bass much). They're certainly better than any rotosounds I've ever used in that the windings are consistent string-to-string as is the tone.

[quote name='RussFM' post='665949' date='Nov 26 2009, 09:32 AM']Looks like an SX neck?[/quote] Spot on - or possibly one made on the same production line, maybe with a different branding. Out of interest isomela, how much did you pay for it and what info on its origin was given? Other things that may help with recognising what parts make up the bass would be a view of the body with the pickguard off, a close-up of the electronic bits on the back of the pickguard, close up of the front & back of the headstock. Pic of the neckplate if there's anything stamped on it, and a close up of where the serial number & any other identifying marks are if not clear in other pics. Also close ups of the damaged areas may help identify what the body is made of.

I'd say its most likely a squier affinity body with a cheapo chinese ebay neck put together by someone called tim in his bedroom.

Maybe there should be a separate thwakkita-thwakkita day for all the bedroom players who want to play lead twatar & make a horrible clanking racket.

Last time I made one I'd found a big box of imitation ivory chopsticks in my kitchen drawer which I'd bought from Wing Yip. I hacksawed a few appropriate lengths to have a few to practice on and set to work sanding these down to size. Lots of filing & wet & dry papering later and I had a perfect nut and got the slots exactly right for TI flats. I still have it on the fretless P bass i built.

I have a white one. You don't have to live with the neck dive - its easy to fix by moving the strap button though. I prefer it being a bolt on as you can adjust the pitch of the neck with a shim to get the best setup, which isn't possible with a neck thru.

It sounds like it'll be a trigger's broom by the time its finished. If the body is decent then its probably worth doing as that will probably be the only original bit left, otherwise I'd spend a bit extra & buy a decent alder body from brandoni or similar and build up from that that a bit at a time.

I had some jazz lessons from Dave Jones at Richmond college, but also worked through the homespun tapes Todd Phillips DVDs, whick although bluegrass orientated were very good.

My S8 precision is an '81. If its a late 70s to '81 precision it will have a thumbrest and bridge & pickup covers or at least holes where they were.

I used to have a Dean Pace EUB which doesn't have any EQ & I used to use it with a Behringer ADI21 acoustic preamp pedal which is cheap as chips and made the pace sound much smoother and richer. I would think that OBBM would be able to sort you out with the correct cable.

Don't announce the song names and play them so badly that no one can recognise them. Works for my lot.

there's nothing cooler than a fliptop

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='658180' date='Nov 18 2009, 03:02 PM'][/quote] Why have some of them embroidered the name of their favourite gateau on their backs?

[quote name='Les' post='656757' date='Nov 17 2009, 10:28 AM']Probably worth more to a collector than a player.[/quote] I'd play it rather than hang it up if I had it. I gig with the modern version, but unfortunately I'm only gassing for a daphne blue one without go-faster stripe & of course with lollypop tuners. Yeah - I know - fussy, but if I did get one in any other colour, I'd still want a blue one.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='656806' date='Nov 17 2009, 11:24 AM']After spending a small fortune on my DJ5 recently im just not liking it. I think its down to the wood but its got a very deep tone that i really cant get in to. I expect ill sell it and take a huge loss but i think its for the best.[/quote] Maybe you need to look at swapping out the pickups and/or active eq before ditching it?

I'm a thomastik fan - I have TI JF344 on a jazz, three precisions & a thunderbird, JF324 on a mustang & a daisy rock, JF345 on a Peavey 5er, pluse a set of thomastik spirocore weich on the double bass. Blummin' expensive if I ever have to replace any, but I have a spare set each of JF324 & JF344, so I should be OK for ten years or so.

I cured the neck dive on my thunderbird by relocating the front strap button to the neck heel.

Back in the day I was a pick player. When I picked bass up again nearly ten years ago after ten years of not playing I was more into Motown & Stax & made a conscious decision to ditch the pick and only play with fingers. I prefer the control and articulation I can get when playing with fingers and pick no longer works for me. One of the songs we do is a fast version of 'get out of denver' which often used to cause my right hand to tense up with cramp through playing hard, fast & repetitive. I no longer suffer this. A few things I discovered by trial & error which helped me: [list] [*]I built up the strength of my fingers with a gripmaster [*]I turned the amp up higher so I didn't have to play so hard [*]I use a limiter so even out the dynamic range when playing softer [*]I use very light gauge, and very responsive strings (flats work for me: Thomastik JF324 / 344) [*]I worked on still getting it sounding aggressive without playing hard - ie the attack [/list]