Doctor J

That line reads back quite poorly. It wasn’t intended as a dig and I apologise if it came across that way. What I was trying to get at - poorly - is that there is so much information out there for every aspect of a setup there’s just no mystery out there about it anymore. It’s in everyone’s hands to be able to set up their own instrument exactly as they want it whenever they want it and all for free 🙂

No, the fun was removed on arrival by the taxman. Whatever deal is in place, it doesn't include musical instruments.

Ooooh, faker than a very fake thing. Authentic plywood body! Once he actually does believe it, technically he's not lying 😂

I don't want a thin neck with a narrow nut, I want an old Jazz neck, which is why I went with and what I got with the Bacchus. I don't like thin necks front to back, but I do like the Jazz nut width. I wanted an old Jazz bass with Stingray tone, essentially. A Sterling, fine as they are, isn't that bass 🙂

No, I've played a Sterling, it wasn't for me. I was looking for something with a J neck size, not something with just a J width nut 😉 Nice. The current multitude of series are baffling when most of the information is in Japanese. The older stuff, though, it's all good.

Set the action to what fits your hands. There is no right action across the board as dictated in a manual, it's what is right for your playing style and your hands. Set it to what feels best for you. I find it hard to believe people give their instrument to a stranger, who has never heard them play, to configure and then accept what they get back without personalising it in some way. It's easy to do once you think about what tweaks to each adjustable part does to the instrument as a whole. It's as personal as setting a driving position in your car, you've got to go with what feels most comfortable to you. I don't measure anything but I know that I set my action lower than most. It suits me that way. My general setup is like this: Start with the neck. I like the neck quite straight so it's a big deal to set the tension on the truss rod correctly. Neck relief is good when I can see a tiny bit of a gap between the bottom of the string and the top of 8th and 9th frets, when holding the string down at the first and last fret. I need to be able to push the string down at the 8th fret like that and it has enough space to perceive it move down to the fret - but it's a tiny gap, the width of a piece of paper. I really like the neck straight. A slightly bowed neck just feels messy from the 5th fret on and crappy higher up the neck. Nut action is very important to me. I like the action at the first fret to be as if there was a zero fret, or the action at the second fret when you hold the string down on the first fret. I hate a high nut, it serves no purpose other than to make playing harder. Depending on how the nut is installed, I either file down the string slots or, preferably, take the nut out and sand down the base of the nut. This is something you do slowly and check frequently. The only way to undo is to replace the nut so do a little and then check a lot. It is, however, something you only ever need to do once. Once the neck is set, move to the bridge. I like to hear a bit of fret grit when I play hard so I set the action of each string accordingly. I generally set the action slightly higher on the bass side than I do the treble side, I don't strictly follow the radius of the neck. It's done by feel. I don't like the notes to choke, they need to ring clear and true when I play gently, but a bit of grind when I dig in is a sound I love, so I take a bit of time to do this. Again, it's how I like it set up, not what the manual says. Then I set the intonation, adjusting as required, then revisit the bridge action again to make sure everything is in order. After that, pickup height. I start with the bridge pickup (if there is one) and set that to a height where it doesn't get in my way when playing and isn't so high that it's not being pushed up against the screws by whatever springs or foam are underneath. I do like the pickup to be reasonably close, though. There's a bit of funk to be had by the string really violating the magnetic field which is nice to my ears, so I usually have the bridge pickup close enough to the strings to get this, not so close that the magnetic pull is affecting the string's vibration. I then set the height of the neck pickup so that, if I switch from bridge to neck and back, there is no perceivable volume drop. The bridge pickup is a naturally thinner sound and the vibration pattern of the string isn't as great as over the neck pickup, so the neck pickup is almost always further away from the string than the bridge pickup. An even volume balance across the strings is important too, so the pickups might be slightly closer to the strings on the treble side than the bass side. It's important not to adjust pickups visually, you've got to go with what sounds best, not what looks right when holding a ruler. Most people don't factor in pickup height into a setup but, to me, it's as important a step as any other. Then I play for a while and see how it all feels and sounds. If a string is hitting a pickup, the pickups get set lower. If the action is too low, it goes up, too high and it goes down. It's all down to how it plays and sounds to me. It's not to everyone's taste but we all come in different shapes and sizes and one size does not fit all. You don't play the bass exactly the same way as anyone else so why would I be set up the same as everyone else's? The best it is, once you get it right, if you use the same strings the only thing you'll ever need to set again is the truss rod as the neck moves, usually in Autumn and Spring. It is easy. You just have to think about one tweak at a time and what that means to the rest of the instrument.

I was amazed by the difference!

Fretboard clean and oil. Clean the frets with ultra-fine wire wool. Truss rod tweak if needed. General bio-sludge clean from neck, tuners and bridge as required.

Another vote for Ric here, albeit a half-hearted one. I had a fireglo 4003 from the early 90's. I loved the look, adored the sound but it was the most uncomfortable bugger to play. My playing style didn't get along with the slab body and bound edges and that wretched pickup mounting ring.

The more or less standard Jazzes, ESP 400 Series and Bacchus Standard 5. I've had the ESP for almost 30 years and it's the one which always feels like home. I recently installed a Noll TCM3 preamp which gives B,M,T cut and boost as well as a passive circuit with a tone control. It's a beast. The Bacchus arrived second hand about 15 years ago. It was a real eye-opener, amazing bass. The hybrids, J body but pickup deviations, Charvel JP and a homemade JPJ. The Charvel has a slim neck like a Soundgear but with a P width nut. It had a fretboard replacement before I got it, the 21-fretted rosewood board replaced with a fretless two-octave ebony board. I had it fretted and replaced the V,V,T Reflex active electronics. It now has Loureiro pickups and a Vol, Blend, Tone with a push-pull volume control which runs the pickups in series for Angry Bear mode. The JPJ is a Mightymite neck and one-piece ash body with EMG pickups and electronics. The neck J and P are routed to a three-way mini-switch and the output of that goes into a blend control with the bridge J so I can run any combination of the pickups with bass and treble cut and boost controls. The distant cousins, modified J shape and pickup deviants, Bacchus 24 and Grooveline. The 24 was the lightest bass I owned, a really nice and comfortable modern take on the Jazz. The Grooveline arrived last week and is even lighter. It's needs a bit of work, it has clearly had a hard life, but I really, really like it already. I'm confident it will be really amazing when the work is done on it.

Yep, the first thing which came to mind from the title alone was bass and treble boosted, little to no mids in the classic Stingray style. Try running all the eq flat and seeing if it fills the room better, then making minor adjustments to suit your tonal requirements.

Also available on axesrus https://www.axesrus.co.uk/Machinehead-Nylon-Tension-Washers-p/nylongwashers.htm

Bass playing aside, that is such a bloody good song. It's nice to just have a reason to listen to it again and enjoy the bejesus out of it 😎

Nice. It looks like it has been used as a rhythm stick... to hit people with.

Congrats. New or used?

...the answer is none, none more black.

The good people at Ishibashi sent me this old Bacchus Grooveline. I reckon it’s early to mid-2000’s. I’ve been looking for a Stingray with a J neck size for a while and this really fits the bill. It’s a dinky J ash body, weight is a sweet 3.5kg. Maple neck with with blocks and binding is always a winner. It’s a fixer upper and that was reflected in the price, but these Handmade logo’d Bacchii are always superbly built and the pickups are amazing. Such is the case here, it’s a really good player, even with a duff fret job, old strings and that criminal bbot bridge in place of the Deviser Tune-o-matic. What were they thinking? I will sort out that crack and replace the bridge and broken tuner. I’m thinking of stripping what is left of the finish and refinishing in an emerald green stain. The previous owner had fingernails like Wolverine, by the looks of it. I’ll also sort out the frets, a level, crown and dress awaits. Anyone know where a man can buy Gotoh tuner buttons?

That area around Leipzig and Dresden is a great part of the world. I have some friends from that part of Germany, I love going over to visit them and experiencing their culture. Lots of fantastic people there. If you can, try to get to see Halle, Leipzig and especially Dresden when you're not on duty. The trains are quick, cheap and reliable. Enjoy your trip, it sounds like it could be a great adventure.

There's also the "you don't live near me and that is your problem, therefore I a) expect you to deliver it to me for free, or b) will offer you substantially less because meeting you would mean I would have to leave my house briefly and the inconvenience could upset my hairstyle" gang on Adverts. I was made an offer on a pedal I was selling with an asking price of €40, they would only buy it if I delivered it to them in Dublin. It would have cost me around €40 in petrol and four hours of my life to do that. Other than that, I was crazy to decline their generous offer, I suppose. There are some great people on that site but the bad ones really take it to the limit.

I picked up Coloursound cd in a charity shop. Mike Peters and Billy Duffy. I had never heard of it before but it’s a nice slab of rock. Billy Duffy very rarely lets you down. Not essential but very respectable.

Just pull phrases from posts in this thread. There are some fine ones 😂 Anyone’s Nose If Not The Pop Years To Regret Seconds Coming Up I Come Upstairs Don’t Do Anything Damned If I Can Small Cards

Heh heh, I was looking this very thing up this morning. 1996. Mine turned out to be a 95.

There's no love like Bacchus love.

I picked up this old TRB6 yesterday, MIJ goodness and a fretboard wide enough to land an A380 on.

PÜSH Hey, it worked for Lemmy.