SubsonicSimpleton

If you can find multiple examples of a mass manufactured instrument at one store with the same spec(excluding finish colours), they will not all sound identical(but they will be similar) if you play them back to back - electrical components have manufacturing tolerances which means that for a given rating for a tone capacitor or volume pot for instance, some will be higher and some lower than the nominal value, which will change the frequency content of the sound, and wood is pretty variable in terms of it's physical characteristics from one piece to another, adding in more variation to frequencies that get sympathetically boosted/cut by the vibration of the neck and body when the strings are plucked. As soon as you look at custom builds, all bets are off, because even though lots of makers make "super jazz" type bases, they don't construct with identical methods and specs, and I wouldn't expect two instruments coming out of the same luthiers doors to sound identical tbh - many high profile players get given multiple custom shop instruments(which are somewhat close to hand made and supposed to be identical in spec) for touring as part of their endorsement deals, and they invariably have a favourite that has number 1 status, with a bunch of clones for backup. Also in many cases this applies to amps as well, as they are choc full of components with variable tolerances that can make an individual amp sound better or worse than the next one off the production line.

That same description popped up a while back on another almost identical listing.

Try lots of different instruments and go with what works in terms of ergonomics and feel - most important thing for funky bass is how the groove feels, not it's precise tone IMHO, and it is much easier to get the fluidity needed for a good feeling groove on an instrument that works for you.

Tuners missing ferrules and looking well wonky, and no pic of rear of headstock - tread very carefully if you feel tempted.

Before jumping to conclusions, lets gather some information to make a diagnosis. What makes you think that you knackered it? Did you crank away on it with the strings at tension and have the nut go from providing some resistance to free spinning, or did it just spin freely/have low resistance when you tried? Which direction did you turn it first(clockwise or anti-clockwise when facing the adjustment nut? How far did you turn the nut before deciding it was knackered?

Having hard mounted I/O points on a pedalboard kinda makes sense if you are running an umbilical with connections for power, midi, effects loop insertion on the amp and preamp input - you can use locking multipole connectors [url="http://www.cliffuk.co.uk/products/cliffcon/ip68.htm"]like this[/url] to connect multiple signals and also low voltage DC for pedals, and connectors [url="http://www.directindustry.com/prod/lemo/multi-pole-circular-connectors-28792-106888.html"]like this[/url] if you have a really complex setup, but if your setup isn't super complicated and you don't have to make it bomb proof then tonyf's solution one post up is a sensible one - it takes very little effort to cable tie down the captive leads to the pedal board end for effective strain relief. If you just plug in to the first pedal with your instrument and run from the last pedal to your amp then the main consideration IMHO is whether you need to use a hardmounted socket to protect the cable plugs from being accidentally stood on or kicked mid performance by yourself, clumsy bandmates or drunken punters, which can render the whole board useless if everything is fastened down solidly and you can't access a new in or out point to bypass a damaged pedal.

Couple of other low budget options; Lowering the overall height of the nut by sanding down the underside using a bit of wet&dry stuck onto a flat surface rather than trying to cut the slots deeper will also work if the mounting surface of the nut is flat - as long as the nut slots were originally cut to the same radius as the fingerboard they shouldn't need individual adjustment, but be sure to check clearance on all strings as you progress, so you don't end up lowering one side too far by mistake if the pressure on the nut isn't even(or if it was off to begin with). You can also use valve grinding paste and an old roundwound string of the correct size to finesse the slots - stretching the string down the side of a bit of wood to make it controllable.

Nice to see this coming together, way more challenging as a project than just bolting on a new neck, and hopefully also more rewarding - well done sir. Now sort out that nut and get busy enjoying playing it.

Square pocket tele basses have the same number of frets, it is just the shape after the 20th fret that differs - assuming the width of the neck pocket is identical(check this first), you could place the two necks back to back, and use your existing neck as a template to mark out how much material you need to remove from the P/J neck by lining up the fret tangs with an engineers square. Using the large images from the fender website, and the guide grid in GIMP indicates that the amount of material you would have to remove from the end of a round heeled neck would be very small - approx 2mm would be my estimate based on the available images which I couldn't scale exactly to each other. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/hOOxX27.jpg[/IMG] The most important thing to remember is to make sure that the neck you get has truss rod access at the headstock, and the width of the heel needs to be the same.

One of the most important reasons to learn music theory IMHO is that it gives you the ability to communicate in a quick, concise and precise manner what is going on in a given musical situation - having this knowledge doesn't mean that you become a lifeless automaton who can only reproduce whatever is placed in front of them on a musical score, or drain you of your attitude or the energy you bring to your playing. Imagine not being able to understand the english language in written form, you could still chat freely in person or on the phone, but the amount of information/ideas/art you had free access to would be severely constrained, even something simple like leaving a message on the fridge door as a reminder to pick up something from the shops on the way home from work would be impossible. It is really easy to get defensive and dismissive about things that test you on an emotional level that is connected to early childhood experiences in school, and I would bet that part of the fear that is associated to music theory is playing on a much deeper sensitivity related to experiences studying maths in school, and losing confidence or feeling humiliated as a result of failure (which is the fault of the teacher, not the student in these situations) - the natural reaction when facing a similar situation as an adult is to become defensive and to avoid the challenge, and this is one of the most challenging aspects of teaching adults - you need to get past the emotional baggage in order to re-establish the persons confidence and empower them to learn. I don't recall the exact videos, but Scot Devine relates this situation really nicely in a couple of his videos, which is both courageous and very astute as a teacher.

I've been looking at the various options for substituting real amps with modelling options (mainly from a transport/storage convienience viewpoint), and Bias looks quite promising (cheap, sounds good based on demos I've found) but in terms of live use for gigs/rehearsals what are the options for remote control of patch changes and using expression pedals etc? I couldn't find any info on midi implementation on the appstore blurb for bias/jamup, and attempting to change patches using the touchscreen during a song doesn't strike me as a reliable solution, maybe someone who is using this hands-on can shed some light. I don't own an ipad/iphone, so I can't try this out for myself unfortunately. edit:supported bit/sample rates for bias/jampup would be nice to know as well

@OP £300 buys a lot of bass secondhand, and there is almost too much choice of quality instruments at this price bracket, so you might make your own life easier if you can identify what you want - go to your nearest music shops and play with whatever they have in stock(remember to play them on a strap not just on your knee), everyone has different preferences in terms of neck profile, string spacing and sound, best to check them out first and getter a better idea what you like, then you can get some solid advice on what might suit your needs best.

RE Tuner machine screws, there are a huge number of different screw threads, and the machineheads on your Rick could have been made using tooling pre-dating the bass itself by a long margin regardless of whether they were made in-house or bought in. Go to your nearest engineering fastener suppliers, and take the correct original with you (if you can also take the tuner post much better, but don't bring the whole guitar) - they should have a proper selection of thread gauges and a micrometer to be able to correctly identify exactly what you need - if they don't carry it in stock, be sure to make a note of the exact details. Call first to check they have the ability to identify what you need, (places like screwfix and suppliers to the building trade probably wont) if not, most jobbing engineering shops that do machining work will have thread gauges.

Looking at the pictures, the counter-bored tuner holes is a really nice detail, and the fretboard overhang looks wrong, but I did manage to find some pics of fenders with this type of neck, no doubt someone with more knowledge could identify which models if any have had this type of neck fitted at the factory - warmoth certainly make 21 fret necks just like this. The seller also has a number of guitar necks listed, with vintage correct walnut plug+skunk stripe+heel truss access. The thing that grabbed my attention however, was the "selling on behalf of deceased german luthier's estate" story - no doubt the german legal system has some differences to ours, but sorting out an estate is complicated and time consuming, and it seems strange that someone would choose to send items to another country, to someone who speaks another language to then sell stuff through ebay on a comission basis - this looks to me like establishing plausible deniability in case everything goes wonky later. So curiosity aroused, I went to the sellers website, to discover that he specialises in replica 50/60s instruments - at this point my inner cynic thought well if business was slow, making up a bunch of necks and then passing them off as unused old stock might be a nice little earner as "MIJ", "matsumoku" and "fujigen" association is really pumping up sale values on ebay (like that [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Sunburst-Precision-Bass-Guiter-1962-Fantastic-Condition-/331159353161?ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:3160"]MIJ reissue[/url] that sold for £1,270 ). Having a quick browse of his website, I found this pic http://www.josephkayeguitars.com/#!untitled/zoom/c1x0a/image18oi nicely illustrating a bunch of vintage correct fender necks during construction - not exactly a smoking gun, on which to launch accusations, but certainly intrigued my inner sherlock holmes.

Ibanez spacing is usually in the 16.5-17mm territory, according to GAK the spacing is 16.5mm on the SR1205, pretty sure that the BTB also has the same spacing. http://www.gak.co.uk/en/ibanez-sr1205-vnf-vintage-natural-flat/45301

Check your string spacing on your Marleaux, Ibanez tend to use narrow string spacing on their 5s, and I found them quite difficult to play as a result, probably not an issue if you use the same bass all the time, but very confusing for the fingers if you are used to playing on regular Fender P-bass spacing. Yamaha on the other hand make a lot of 5s with the same string spacing as you get on a regular 4 string - when I bought my RBX 775 it was the string spacing issue that sealed the deal in preference of the Yam over the other 5s that I tried out.

If you have good bandwidth and a spare machine to run a server, you could try using something like [url="http://mumble.sourceforge.net/"]mumble[/url](open source) or [url="http://www.teamspeak.com/?page=teamspeak3"]teamspeak[/url](proprietary but free) - there will still be latency issues, this is pretty much unavoidable due to the laws of physics, but you might find that by hosting your own server, and using an application that is focussed on efficient audio streaming, you can get significantly better performance compared to using skype/google/whatever where you are relying on a third party to provide you with server time for free. If you wanted to experiment, there are public teamspeak servers available, but there might be bandwidth and geographic distance issues, but probably worth trying anyway, as the client is free, cross platform and fairly simple to use.

Try asking this seller, not the first time that I've seen them selling mighty mite necks on the bay, I suspect that they import on a regular basis in small quantities. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lic-by-Fender-70s-Maple-Precision-Bass-Neck-MM2907-/331166295458

Crimson guitar guy takes some time off from relicing to demonstrate how to use a router safely http://youtu.be/iyKiY-OK7WM?t=6m44s kinda reminds me of this http://youtu.be/MU2BO5Obg2k?t=2m41s

The Fender special tools are simply ball end allen wrenches with a Fender branded handle, take a close look at tips of the tool at the bottom of the pic in the ad that dannybuoy linked. Ball end allen wrenches can be inserted at an angle and still function correctly.

[quote name='bigd1' timestamp='1396100993' post='2409954'] Yes I am serious, I really can't see what you are all worried about.. They have not said they will deposit 500 squillion pounds in your account etc or they will pay you after you send the goods, in fact they have been the opposite. Willing to wait till funds clear etc. Why do you seem to think because he has a job away at sea they don't need a bass amp, they may want it for on ship to fill the long hours at sea. You know they might be a Bass player !! [/quote] It is a phishing scam, the "buyer" wants to obtain the advertisers paypal ID and email address, and will probably attempt to hack the sellers paypal account via their email account.

Harley Benton 30" scale violin bass looks like a very promising buget option, I'm quite tempted to give one a try as a lightweight back relief option. http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_beatbass.htm

What about filling a combo size carboard box with random rubbish and mouldy potatoes, gaffa tape it up carefully to ensure that the package gets to the oceanographer intact, and hand it off to the courier with a big smile.

I bought an Allen & Heath System 8 16:8:2 desk a few years ago when I was working with a big soul band performing sound engineering duties, it is a truly lovely piece of kit to use - worth way more than the paltry £200 I paid. http://www.dancetech.com/item.cfm?threadid=2651

Squier classic vibe Ps and Js have a BBOT with grooves in the baseplate. The BBOT with grooves is a pretty old concept, and lots of budget non-fenders with fender string spacing have these type of bridges also (but without the fancy brass saddles - I'd guess chrome plated steel).