shoulderpet

I posted my query on another forum and got the following response so judging by this it looks like you are bang on the money "I have seen video of the factory mounting pickups. It appeared that they don’t predrill holes, or not deep enough, for the pup screws and just drive them into the body with a power driver. So it is a matter of the screw holes not being deep enough and now when you try to lower the pickup, you are driving into solid wood and the screws don’t turn very easily."

Thanks for the replies, I have a screwdriver set arriving tomorrow as I think part of the problem is that my current screwdriver set has the correct size screw head but the screwdriver I am using is around 4" long plus the screw-head by about 1cm wide so I think it is hard with such a small screwdriver to get enough force to turn the screw so I will re try tomorrow when I have the bigger screwdriver set

I have recently acquired a lovely MIM Fender Mustang, however when I try and adjust the P pickup height the screws are really tight, I am nervous to try and adjust the pickup height as I dont want to strip the screw holes, any ideas on how I can loosen the pickup screws so I can adjust the pickup height? Thanks

I always find it strange to hear people say that they can pay better with a pick, I am mostly a fingerstyle player and I cannot play anywhere near as well with a pick as I can with fingers

Thanks for the links, I have purchased the sonic blue Mustang from them

Yeah I think i will contact them and see what they say, just found on GAK for £539

Ahh ok, that's very high considering Andertons has them at under £570 new

Thanks, have put a post on the Items wanted section on basschat as would prefer to buy used

Ok so after some thought I have decided to go in a completely different direction. I had a p/j Mustang bass a while ago that I stupidly moved on, the tone of the P pickup on that bass was awesome and the bass itself has a really nice feel to it so I am on the lookout for a used P/j Mustang and will swap out the J for a split coil like a model j or similar

Honestly as someone who has owned and passed on both and will shortly be re- purchasing the Mustang I honestly think the Fender is better, sounds better, looks better and the neck feels nicer on the Mustang, the Sire neck is kind of meh in my opinion.

Ok so to throw a wildcard into the mix another option I am considering is getting a Fender pj Mustang and putting a split coil j pickup in, technically a split coil is a humbucker albeit a J shaped one. I remember a while ago when I had a Mustang pj which I sadly no longer own I really liked it

I had an Epiphone EB0 that had "interesting" intonation, fun bass to play though

I had one of those several years ago and stupidly ended up moving it on, big mistake as the stock pickup had a great Tone

I like the double single coil P pickups in it, maybe a Duncan quarter pound single coil P pickup if they are standard size to fatten up the bridge pickup. Regarding the nut I would put some electrical tape on the zero fret to protect it and then use some bass strings in a back and forth motion to bring the nut slots height down

Thanks, a quick look on basschat and I found someones impressions of the bass stating that the neck finish was a little off which is a bit disappointing to hear as to me the feel of the neck on a bass can make or break it and ime is usually what makes a (decent) Fender feel better than a Squier, maybe I will have to try one of these in person

Have you played the Fender pj Mustang (the one that goes for about £550 new) ? Any idea how the Fallout tribute stacks up against that bass in terms of fit,finish, build quality etc? I have played one of the pj Mustang basses and was impressed with the build quality, it felt solid and had a good resonance to it.

Surprising to see some fairly heavy picks being used, I go with 0.73mm or thinner, 0.73 is the absolute heaviest I go with, I find that with heavier picks I end up absolutely battering the strings and ending up with lots of buzz, how do you heavier pick players keep your attack light enough for it to work or do you just use a high action ?

I saw a Youtube video where someone looked at what was under the pickup cover on the Les paul Jr and interestingly enough it looked like two single coil p bass pickups with oversized polepieces

Funny you mention that, I have had gas for one of those since they came out, they look great and in the videos ive seen they sound great too

Yeah there is some nice growl in the mids there

The Epiphone EB3 is long scale and the Gibson is more than I can afford to spend unfortunately

+1 my least favourite finish too

Awesome, I like my bass to sound like its out for blood so that is music to my ears

Yeah it is looking like the Fallout bass is a good bet, I bet that beefy looking pickup has some serious balls to it