ossyrocks

'73 Fender Jazz.........ooooh heck. I kind of hope you decide to keep it.

Well, the noob got another bass yesterday! My Precision is set up with flats, so I wanted something else to set up with rounds. This Road Worn Jazz Bass cropped up on ebay reasonably close to me and we met halfway yesterday so I could pick it up. It was in desperate need of a setup though, but a tweak of the truss rod took the bow out of the neck, then a little bridge height and intonation adjustment and it now plays wonderfully. It's a very lightweight bass, I haven't weighed it yet, but I reckon it's around the 8 lbs mark. I also took the opportunity to polish out the dull finish with Virtuoso Guitar Cleaner. I know these basses come with a satin finish, but I've never seen an actual vintage bass with such a dull finish, so now it's a bit more gloss. Has anyone else got an opinion on these Road Worns? Anyway, the pictures! Cheers, Rob

That must have taken all the willpower you could muster. I know you’re looking for one of these, and ^that one is an absolute belter. I can’t help with your dilemma over which one, except the MM, that’s sentimental, and you would probably regret selling it. I’ve sold two guitars recently which I thought might cause me emotional pain, but I’ve been a brave boy and it’s been ok, sniff. Rob

I’ve had a couple of amps stored in my detached garage over winter. It’s dry, but cold. Admittedly these are little Fender handwired guitar amps, but the first one I switched on in order to test it before selling did make a lot of noise. It’s probably down the the fibreboard circuit absorbing moisture. I left the amp switched on in the house for a day and it settled right down. Personally, I’m not going to keep amps out there going forward.

Your Dad has come up in conversation a couple of times in just the past couple of weeks. I was talking to an old bass player buddy of mine about tutors in Lancaster and he mentioned your Dad. He’d had a few lessons years ago and recommended him. A few days later I was talking to Gary Thistlethwaite in Promenade Music, Morecambe, and he talked about him too, and explained about his poor health. Gary may have some tales for you, he was very complimentary about your Dad. Rob

Thanks for all the advice chaps. I’ll look into it. Rob

Cheers for that. Where did you buy the tri-flow?

Well. ok, pretty bloody stiff, but usable.

My P bass tuners are a little stiff. I've read all kinds of stuff on the internet (haven't we all?) about this and I'm still not sure what to use. Most advice seems to be what NOT to use, WD40, 3 in 1, vaseline etc, because either it won't work, will damage the finish, or will just attract more gunk. I've seen that some luthiers like to use Teflon/PTFE based lubricant, like the one in the link below, but I'm struggling to find anywhere to buy that. https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/supplies/cleaners-and-lubricants/tri-flow-pin-point-lubricator/ What do you guys use? Cheers, Rob

I’ve been playing my new to me P bass a lot this week, and yesterday a had a bit of an epiphany. I’ve played in many bands over the last three decades, always on guitar, bass is a new adventure for me, but I’m seeing playing now from a different perspective. Over the years I have had the pleasure and honour to play with some of the greatest bass players, Scott Whitley (latterly Big Country), Roberto Ruiz ( Jake Stigers, The Animals) and many more. Some of the guys could be described as “busy” players, others just sat right in the pocket and grooved, keeping it simple but jaw droppingly musical and appropriate. What I’m finding now, playing bass myself, is that I am tending to over play, too many notes, too fast, and I know I’m doing it, and I want to move past it. I think with me it comes down to my lack of confidence in my own abilities and I’m over compensating by playing too much. I want to reach a point where I can play the simplest of grooves which absolutely serve the music. I feel some of the busy players I’ve gigged with over the years similarly lacked a degree of self confidence and held a degree of self doubt, even struggled with their mental health, and perhaps used bravado on gigs to mask it. The Bass players I most admired playing with, were more relaxed individuals, confident in their abilities, and therefore could just relax, listen, and lay down the greatest grooves and bass lines without ever getting “busy”, overplaying, or deterring from the material. Roberto Ruiz was/is one of those guys, and now I’m playing bass, I have a new found respect for how he managed to achieve this. I suppose the point I’m trying to make is that personality and self confidence is a factor in how one might approach playing bass, and affects how one’s bass lines either sit perfectly or subtly work against the material. So, I’m determined to understand the instrument and the fretboard on a deeper level, try to be more relaxed whilst playing, so that I may one day become that guy who just grooves, doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb, and doesn’t over play. What do you think? Rob

I’ve had a look at it today. It was immediately apparent what the issue was. One leg of the cap was touching the wiper of the tone pot. I just gently moved the cap a bit and moved the leg away from the pot lugs. I did re-do that ground on the back of the pot, and I shortened and tidied up that added ground to the jack. All back together now with a new set of flats on it. Everything is as it should be now. Thanks for the input chaps. Rob

@ikayThat’s really useful thanks. I can see why that earth wire was added, and I’ll probably wire another in, but better. Relying on the shielding under the guard to hold the earth to the jack isn’t the greatest, but there are probably thousands of P basses out there with exactly that.

250K Audio CTS pots, dated 1973 with a .05uf capacitor/ Looks ok, and original. I might just reflow the solder to start with and see if that makes a difference.

I haven’t yet. But it is original, I’m told.

I know Fenders of that era can’t be done. Again, you’ll be able to find out when you look at it. There may be multiple unused primary taps and if there are, then you just need to find out which one is 240.

I’m the proud owner of a ‘73 Precision. I’ve only had it a couple of days, but yesterday I spent time with it through two different amps, my little Rumble 15 in the lounge, and my Markbass LM. I feel that the tone pot doesn’t have the sweep that it should have. It does work, but even backing it off completely doesn’t roll off the highs as I feel it should. The cheap Squire I have has a lot more tonal sweep than this does. I want to be able to really roll off the highs if I need to, and at the moment I’m using the bass with the tone pot rolled all the way back, and it’s just getting there. As I am unfamiliar with vintage Precisions, is this normal, or should I be taking a look at the pot and the tone capacitor? My feeling is that the cap might be way out by now. I can’t see the pot being at fault, it’s silent in operation, and I’ve got older pots in older equipment and they rarely fail. Any opinions and experience welcome. Cheers, Rob

Here's the schematic. There's a .047 600v cap to ground off the Polarity switch (look bottom right of the schematic), this needs to be removed. Simply clipping it off is good enough. Then you need to make sure that the LIVE goes straight to the fuses, on to the mains switch, and on to the mains transformer. You can hang the wires off a single lug of the switch, just using it like a tag strip. The neutral needs to go straight to the mains transformer too and can be also hung off another single lug of the switch. Wired correctly, the switch will have no function at all except to be a convenient placeholder for the wiring, and it won't matter what position the switch is in, as it will not function as a switch. A simple visual inspection will confirm if this has been done, and if not, it's a ten minute job for anyone who knows what they are doing. Rob

Ok, so the polarity switch on the front of vintage Ampegs IS the equivalent of Fenders ground switch, so if there's a cap in there, that's what it will be connected to. I'm back home now, so will have a look for a schematic. Rob

I wouldn’t hesitate to buy it over this one minor thing. It’s very straightforward to put right

You’re probably right. But 96db is very low, the punters themselves could trip that.

You could bypass the whole thing though. Only the sockets on stage will be wired to the meter. In the past we’ve run long mains leads from other sockets up to the stage and powered everything from those. The meter can do what it likes then and the power will stay on. Just don’t let the Jobsworth see you doing it.

Perhaps, but it’s worth checking. Just look at the ground switch, the cap will be visible if present. Often the ground switch is left there, with the cap removed, and the mains leads are hung off the lugs as it’s convenient to use it for this purpose. Post a pic here when you have it in hand.

If you are at all uncertain how to do it, then yes, get it done by a tech. However, I did buy an amp last year, which had purportedly been serviced by a tech. He had replaced the mains lead with a three prong, but he’d wired it as original, keeping the ground switch and death cap. I found this quite amazing really. But I found this before ever even switching it on, and was able to wire it correctly myself.

I’ve run vintage USA amps in the UK on a transformer like the one from TAD for 30 years without issues. Just get that one. More importantly, you need to make sure the amp has a modern grounded “three prong” US plug on it, wired correctly, and the death cap removed. This bit is important. After that, if the electrolytic capacitors are original, consider changing those at the earliest opportunity. They have a finite lifespan and could fail at any time. Rob

I’ll check those, I’m completely open minded at the moment as I basically have zero experience. Cheers