Doctor J

4 hours ago, skychaserhigh said:

It's a bit of a Jazz...a bit of a Precision...it's just a bit odd...

Yeah. They should have spent a bit more time where the scratchplate meets the neck pickup. That just doesn’t work. It looks poor.

On 03/06/2020 at 12:21, Stub Mandrel said:

I suspect there are those who have very clear mental pictures of what they want from an instrument, and spend a long time searching for it, and may turn over basses at a great rate.

For sure. I suspect there are also those who have no idea what they actually want from an instrument, but just feel the need to buy something, as we frequently see so many bizarre and different pairings in the “What should I get?” threads. I’d say a lot of these get moved on too.

I thought the mojo formula included the mythically aged magnets, which are weaker, of course, and nobody knows by how much, but somehow different to magnets which just start out weaker.

Both are helpful if you have an iron skull but do not sound the same.

Stronger magnets, as you know, pull the bass towards the Earth’s core giving the feeling of added heaviness yet, if you put magnets of less strength but equal density in there the bass will feel lighter. Aaaaah.

Now that you’re here, can I also interest you in some magic beans?

He's a great player with more interesting basslines to his credit than most. I saw them quite a few times in the 90's and they were always great fun live.

From genius...

Practically every reference to this lyrical line elsewhere states that the word present is

“clitares” which is supposed to be a French word for a bathing costume. However, there don’t appear to be any French dictionaries that actually feature such a word. Furthermore, every discussion of the word itself seems to be in reference to it as part of this song. Finally, even with the incorrect accent point, it still sounds a great deal more like the specific point of a woman’s anatomy than anything else. This would leave the sentence incomprehensible, but it would certainly fit the tenor of the song in its entirety.

I believe ABBA also frequently double tracked drums, particularly for choruses.

Sweet.

The cuts into the waist are deeper too.

4 hours ago, songofthewind said:

Very cool. I am “working” on a similar project. How much smaller is the body than a regular Jazz?

It looks quite subtle but there is a lot of wood not there. You definitely feel it on a strap when standing, not just the weight but the size against your belly 😁

Thank you

I am done. After an interesting quest to find rare Japanese tuner buttons and bridges, I reassembled this last week. The headstock crack has been stabilised, glued and is now solid as a rock. The bridge abomination has been cast into the murky past with the arrival of a replacement part sourced from Deviser. The pearloid tuner button required a custom order from Gotoh via an agent in Canada. I stripped and stained the body, more in sympathy with the blocks and binding, I feel - though the sooner the whiteness akin to a contemporary twentysomething’s bleached teeth has faded, the better.

i also added series/parallel switching which I am quite delighted with. The bass was originally hardwired in serial and I am enjoying the flexibility, much preferring the parallel sound with the set of Chromes I strung it with. I also added a Hipshot string tree which adds a level of consistency to the break angle across all four strings.

Overall, I am delighted. It sounds and plays wonderfully, so very playable. Perfect.

My gripe is the "Whaaaaaat?" caption, it reeks of the tantalising "You just won't believe what this bass did on holiday!" kind of crap which I am just oh so weary of. As I age, I appreciate the simple approach of Dragnet - Just the facts. I don't need any sensationalised tabloid type nonsense approach to pull me in. Tell me about the bass. Play it. Let me hear it. Then I'll clik, I promise. I don't care for the other guff and the guy is probably selling his video short by adopting this approach based on the other comments here, but I'm still not gonna click that picture 😂

Drax's post has made me even more interested in the Berlin model. Hmmm, need to find a cheap one somewhere.

😂

7 hours ago, Mykesbass said:

If that's marketing then why do the ship them with rounds?

So you pay for the flats, too 😉

A lot of the price you pay goes to covering Fender’s quite extravagant marketing budget. You hardly think that “P bass ‘n’ flats ‘n’ Leo got it right first time!!!” wave came about by chance, surely?

I’d really like to have some time with one of the Jeff Berlin models, as Cort make some really fine instruments when they want to, but that clickbait image for the video is enough to make me not want to click 😁

Yeah, saw it a few days ago, a great companion to the book (which is very entertaining).

As is VHII

The older Japanese ones were all hand made. I am unfamiliar with the different series they have now but anything Japanese pre-2012 or so will never have seen a CNC machine.

It would be so much easier if you just posted a photo clearly showing the current state of the wiring.

If you think you’re looking at a stock photo, or the photo is too small, or the photo is lo-res, or the seller doesn’t give you the information and the details you need you simply do not buy from them 🙂

1 hour ago, ClassicVibes said:

Build quality isn't important then?

Very important. I’ve seen enough outrageously priced Fenders with shonky neck alignment to always study the pictures very carefully. So much about an instrument can be seen if you actually look for it. Pay attention to the details in the pictures, the hardware used to build it and the reputation of the builder. There’s not that much you can do, after that. You either get on with it or you don’t. You’ll never know, however, unless you try 🙂 

I don't even go by youtube reviews, I farking hate slap 😂

If it looks nice and has an interesting pickup/electronic setup, chances are that's enough.

I don't really see the point in trying as the first thing I do is apply my preferred strings and setup to it, so it's going to feel and sound different anyway. Plus, the setups in most shops would discourage anyone from purchasing in the first place. Nowadays I tend to be drawn to instruments I haven't played, rare birds, if you know what I mean. Who needs to try a P or a J, it's not as if we haven't played hundreds of them before?

Give it time. When I started playing nobody thought 70’s Fenders would ever be worth a damn and now look at the crazy, crazy world around us 😉

Everything becomes more valuable once it hits thirty years of age. A limited model like this? For sure, I think it will be priced on the higher side by our future replacements.