HeadlessBassist

Can you say that again? I didn't hear you the first three times...

That looks good, SM. I keep wondering what the little round dents are supposed to be, or what happened to Flea's '61 from which these basses were copied?

WHAT..?!

Very true. I've been plotting a new Jazz build with @Silky999 and the parts I want are often prohibitively expensive. Right now I'm looking at combining this build with one of Kiwi's forthcoming graphite necks. [Even more expensive!]

I hate lazy renaming of things too. While I'm at it, string instruments have a fingerboard, because the wooden board glued onto the neck doesn't necessarily have frets. It's not a fretboard.

People who drive over the middle of mini-roundabouts instead of driving around them properly. The clue is in the name - Roundabout! Oh yes, basses... People who call my instrument "a guitar". It's not a guitar, it's a bloody bass! People who think music is a hobby as opposed to [in my case] a profession. Precision Basses. (I've tried, I really have. Many times. Honest.) Flatwound strings. (Again, I've tried. I really have!) Being buried in the mix. Ampeg Amplification. People who think a bass player is some simpleton who lurks at the back of the stage. Dull old strings.

There’s something satisfying about little finishing touches - my genuine Fender Road Worn™️ strap buttons arrived in the post today…

Which gives us the tag line of: “Slap-up Curry or Fender Tax..?” 🤔

40's work well on a short scale bass. Fender puts 40-100 as standard on the American Performer Mustang I have, and I use cut down Elixir 40-95's which suit it down to the ground. I do have a set of nearly new LaBella deep talking flats for short scale bass that I took off my previous Vintera II Mustang if you'd like me to send them to you to try, @Swills?

I'll have to try that with my '95 Stingray's mutes.

Palm muting can sound even better and more expressive.

They're basically metallic talent inhibitors. We can't get to the sweet spot or move around the pickups for different sounds with them on. Marcus Miller uses the neck pickup cover as a wrist rest, but I'm sure it still gets in the way. I'm sure it was a great idea in the 1950s/60s to add them and have mute pads attached inside the bridge cover, but techniques have moved on in the ensuing 75 years - unless you're looking for the Laura Lee style consistency... I'm sorry, I fell asleep there for a moment.

Excellent sub-reason to buy more basses. I agree wholeheartedly.

It's a difficult one... The new standards with the ceramic pickups made by the Cort factory (is that correct?) have received very good reviews. I would say the new Fender standard would just edge it. The cachet of the Fender brand definitely helps, too. Maybe a well set up Squier 40th Anniversary Jazz would just pip the scales in Squier's favour. I sourced one of these for a pupil in recent months and it was an excellent instrument. There's definitely not a lot between them. I'd say it's down to the individual player to play both and decide which they like the sound of best.

It almost sounds like the circuit is picking up your mobile telephone or some other device with an internal antenna. As others have said, if you can send us a picture of the internals with the control cavity cover off, someone here may spot an issue like a missing ground wire.

Cash Converters seem to have cottoned on. Only a few years ago, they'd have sold this for £85 thinking it was a toy.

The pickup cover and bridge cover have never been attached to my American Original Jazz since new. Nor will they ever be. No unsightly holes in my bass, thank you very much. One instrument I had already had the bridge cover attached by someone else (Grrr!), so I carefully replaced the screws after removing said Talent Inhibitor. I don't like unsightly holes if avoidable. If I take an instrument's scratch guard off, I always lay the screws out in the exact pattern they came in, so the correct screw goes back into it's original hole. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to walk to the Post Office without walking on a single paving slab crack or join... 🤔

"You mean you want to beat the living daylights out of it with a metal pick and make people's ears bleed..?" "Yeeeaaah..."

I've never played one plugged in, but have been hanging my nose over the Triad occasionally for a while now. Need to investigate further at some point... 🤔 @dmckee Dave, loving the IrnBru!

Lovely collection you have there too, @Stub Mandrel. Especially liking your Sire P10. I had the V10 for a while. It was a great bass.

I guess they're basically the follow on models to the previous Road Worn Jazz and the Highway 1, both of which were universally loved. Same basic recipe with some added 'Signature Bass' dollars added on.

Yes, interesting coincidence, although I do generally like things to be shiny, new and well looked after. Maybe they both spent their childhoods in bedrooms full of broken toys..? At least with these reliced basses, you're definitely not worried about scratching them! 🤣

Agreed. With the right set of strings, the Pure Vintage 64's are just about the richest sounding Fender single coils. The American Original has the same set. I couldn't get PV64's for silky999's prototype Daphne Blue Nitro Jazz, so I've ordered a set of the newer Pure Vintage 66's from the Am.Vintage II to go in that one.

Alternative title, "I'm not buying that one - it's all scratched!" Alas, poor Nate has gone. It was a lovely bass, but I don't gig Precisions. It's not my sound. So here's [yet] another Jazz bass... Previous owner has added a Parallel/Series switch (like Fender's original S1 switching), quite why, I have no idea. Also a Leo Quan BadAss II bridge, which is an excellent choice, although I'd have preferred the Fender American Standard/Professional bridge with the through body stringing. I guess you can't have everything. Liking the Shell Pink finish and the Pure Vintage 64 pickups (same as my American Original), but the relic job is VERY heavy handed. Then again, I could've been playing it since 1961 (eight years before I was born... 🤔) Like I said in the Nate Mendel for sale thread, I haven't kicked this around a gravel car park, but some Mexicans in Ensenada probably have. With it's American Original cousin...

Another Everly's & Friends Live Tribute Show last night. This time [relatively] close at Warner's Holme Lacey near Hereford. But... Due to a mixup with diaries, we arrived to find we had no drummer on site. Mass panic ensues, and I managed to get an old teaching colleague from my Gloucestershire days to step in, arriving in 1.5 hours, who learned the whole set in his car, making notes on each song (full two hour set of Everly's, Buddy Holly & Jerry Lee Lewis) after setting up and pulled off a blinder. Phew! I seem to be the 'on the fly drummer trainer' for that show. 🫣