Baker69

Here are a few photos of my new Vintage Reissued VJ74

Yeah, will send some photos when I get back off holiday. i did have another good look over the bass since my posting and I believe the neck does have a satin finish to it after all, perhaps it was the lighting I viewed it under. Also, I was surprised to learn that the neck width at the nut is 39mm which is very close to a Fender Jazz width at 38mm, it’s that actual neck profile that makes it feel a bit chunky. A typical Jazz neck is a low ‘C’ profile whereas the VJ74 has a deep ‘U’ profile which I understand is similar to a ‘74 Jazz neck. Apparently the necks on the ‘75 models are much slimmer. Possibly the Ash body in conjunction with the deep profile neck is why it is quite a heavy bass, but it definitely does not have any neck dive. I’ll post some photo when I’m back, will probably do with and without the chrome covers!

Just dropped on a brand new Reissued Vintage JV74 in Natural finish, I wasn’t looking to buy another bass but it was on sale at a stupid low price so I thought I’d give it a try. I think I’ve been through all of the internet searching for information and reviews on these basses, surprisingly found very little details about them, usually just repetitive advertising blurge, can any owners give me their honest opinion on them please? Anyway, my thoughts so far on the bass (after 2 days) are as follows; The bass looked very smart fitted with its chrome pickup cover plates, however as most will agree they make any jazz basses very difficult to play as there’s only a limited access to the strings and unfortunately they cover everywhere that I like to play. They had to come off! I couldn’t even leave the neck pickup cover on like Marcus as I play over the pickup a lot. Next were the strap buttons, I use Dunlop Strap Locks on all of my basses and I decided to fit a spare set I had on this bass. I was very surprised to find that the stock strap button screws were very thin and quite short and were very easy to remove which could have been an issue. In contrast the Dunlop screws are noticeably thicker and about half as long again, now fitted they are very secure. While the body of the bass looks very nice, the neck seems very bare, almost unfinished. I had seen a few photos of these having black edge binding but not this one for some reason? I can’t establish whether the neck is bare wood or satin finish?? Anyway the neck itself is quite good, no dead spots and the factory set up was really good, the G string had a very slight fret buzz but I raised the saddle a turn and cured this. Fret ends not sharp and it’s comfortable to play, however it is quite a chunky neck and very unlike the Fender Jazz bass necks I’m used to. I believe this is supposed to be based on a 74 jazz which possibly had a beefier neck, I think the Squier VM bass also has a substantial neck if I remember correctly? I’m used to having basses with rolled fretboard edges these days so the fairly sharp neck edge on the Vintage is not to my liking, if I keep the bass I might use a screwdriver shaft and burnish the fretboard edges a bit, I’ve done this before on a MIM Jazz and it was quite successful. I played the bass at our gig last night, first set was 1 hour and after only about 45 minutes my back/shoulder was starting to ache - this is a heavy bass! I don’t think I’ve ever owned a bass that has given me this level of discomfort (4 and 5 string). I swapped over to my Sire Z7-5 bass for the second set, this is also a natural finish bass (swamp ash with a roasted maple neck), still a reasonably heavy bass but a fiver no less and still lighter than the JV74. It was definitely better for my back but the JV74 had already done its damage so the rest of the night didn’t go entirely without pain. I assume they fit cheap bass strings as my finger tips on both hands were black by the end of the set. Overall though and partly because it came with a fairly good factory set up the bass was quite nice to play, it was just a bit strange playing a Jazz bass with a larger neck than I’m accustomed to. Oh, and I love the large black block inlays on the neck, I’ve always loved the look of these. I am pleased with the Wilkinson hardware (tuners, bridge and pickups), and I think it’s these that do sort of making it a reasonable bass. The overall quality of the bass though I would put it in line with a Squier, certainly not as good as the Sire basses I’ve owned. The Wilkinson pickups however are quite good, they are fairly hot with a nice warm tone. The tuners too seem reasonable quality and stayed in tune fairly well over the time I played it, funnily though I find that the D string tuner to be a bit harder to turn and I’ve found this to be the same with other Asian-made basses, I don’t know the reason behind this? Well, those are my initial thoughts on the Reissued Vintage JV74 bass, if anyone has one of these basses I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences with them, any tips on how to treat the hard maple neck and fretboard would be appreciated!

I’m awaiting delivery of a Z7-5 in Natural finish so I have found the postings very interesting and informative, thanks guys! Regarding the control pots and knobs, I have a P7-5 so I’m already aware of the failings and foibles of them. I would concur that the detentes on the pots are variable in their positivity and downright sloppy on one pot! My P7 was supplied with the earlier black plastic knobs which I promptly replaced as soon as I was able to with chrome domed knobs which I bought from Thomann. Very reasonably priced, I think they are Harley Benton one’s? With regards to the one posting on the limited effectiveness of the passive tone knob, I followed lowendlobster’s Youtube video tone cap modification on changing the one on my P7 from a .022 to a 0.047 which gives it a far more effective operation. If the Heritage 3 Preamp still uses a .022 cap it’s well worth doing the upgrade on the Z7. It is a bit fiddly, but do-able. The photos ‘under the hood’ are interesting, on my P7 all of the controls appear to have been coated in a clear wax or resin? I don’t know the reason for this and from the photos you’ve posted it seems like they’ve now done away with it. The wiring on the pots had the resin coating as well. Sire did send me a complete replacement mid control (via Thomann) f.o.c. as I had complained about the poor detente and sloppy movement of it. I still have the control as removing all the resin/wax off the wiring etc to gain access to it would have been a nightmare.

Yes the Stingray SR5 has a string spacing is 17.5mm so it would make sense for the Z7’s to follow suit, however the Indonesian-made Sterling SUB Ray 5’s have a slightly narrower string spacing of 16.5mm which some people struggle with, I have small hands and I’m fine with it though. My Sire P7-5 string spacing is 18mm (I think?) and I imagined the Z3-5’s & Z7-5’s to also be 18mm but it’s a newly designed bridge so they can make them to what they want. I did read however on another forum that some guys are complaining about the outer strings being too close to the edge of the fretboard and can be easily pushed off, so a slightly narrower string spacing would seem logical to me?

Discounting the neck pickup of the Z7, how does it sound compared with the Z3? In theory they should sound very similar but I’ve read that the Z3 has a ceramic pickup and the Z7 Alnico.

All of our band use LD MEI 1000 G2 wireless systems, we have been more than happy with them to date.

My first bass was a Wilson Sapphire Bass, it was white with black pickguard(s) and a black headstock. It was quite a nice bass and was styled on a Burns Bass, I think Watkins also brought out a similar model. I should have kept it but for some reason I didn’t see any reason in keeping after I bought a brand new Fender Precision in 1974.

Here’s a photo of my Sire Marcus Miller P7 5 string. So far mods are: Chrome knobs replacing the existing cheap black plastic one’s, and a custom-made red tort pickguard which replaced the stock one which was de-laminating. I’ve also just replaced the stock .022 tone cap for a 0.047 one, which has improved the tone of the bass. Oh, and I’ve fitted D’Addario strap locks too.

I drove about 40 miles to their shop once as I had seen a couple of left handed basses advertised on their web site that I was interested in, when I got there I couldn’t find any left handed basses at all and when I asked I was told that they don’t keep the left handed basses at the shop and if I want to see any I would have to give them prior notice so they could get them there. It’s a relatively small place and I can appreciate display space is a bit limited, but they only ever have a very small number of lefties. I was a bit disappointed but ended up buying some strings and a couple of other accessories.

I’ve used a Line 6 G50 system for quite a few years now, it’s been brilliant and as it works on 2.4 gigahertz there’s absolutely no loss of tone with the signal and no interference whatsoever from any other devices or lighting etc. I tried a Sennheiser wireless system the once and IMHO it did affect the tone. Battery life is really good too, I use Panasonic Eneloop rechargeable batteries in mine. With the G50 the receiver is of metal construction and is very robust. Some argue that the cable from the receiver to the bass can fail, I bought a replacement on EBay and it has been faultless and still have the original cable as well. I understand that other Line 6 wireless systems are available now, not sure if the G50 is still available but well worth getting one if they still out there.

Yes I remember the shop (and the guy you mentioned), I think his name might have been Gary? I bought my Warwick Streamer from there. I think he works at (or manages) PMT in Birmingham now? Didn’t they move premises away from the arches and to near the Alex Theatre?

Brilliant pickups, I swapped out 1/4 pounders for these on my P Bass and they’re superb! If EMG brought out a 5 string set I’d buy some right away for my Sire P7.

I’ve only ever owned two Fender cables (both received with new Jazz Basses), both were crap and broke within a very short space of time.

You may have read my post on the Forum somewhere about the same issue I had with my P7? The pickguard was de-laminating in several areas, especially around the screw holes. I bought the bass from Thomann who very kindly gave me a Sire Marcus Miller gig bag as compensation. I was going to buy a gig bag anyway so with the money I bought a replacement pickguard from Jack’s Instrument Services in Manchester. The replacement red tort pickguard looks better than the stock one. The black pickguard does look nice on yours though, but on mine I think the red tort looks nicer with the white paint finish.