nilebodgers

Cultural issues aside, this has to be one of the least cheerful songs ever recorded. When will this ever work live for a pop cover band?

Quite right. I usually buy cheaper basses to do up, but if I was buying a new "premium" model I'd expect it to be perfect in every respect.

Funny thread. The slightly off the pole-pieces thing doesn't bother me at all, but strings visibly not centered on the neck would drive me mad to the point that I couldn't own a bass like that.

If all strings do it, then it is probably one or more slightly high frets. However 2mm/1.8mm is a good action unless you have a light touch, so I'd be inclined to stop there if that plays comfortably and sounds good. I can't really play with a sub-2mm action myself even on a bass with perfectly level frets, I'm just too heavy-handed and the fret rattle/buzz gets too much.

Bought some pickups from @hooky_lowdown Great communication and everything very timely and efficient. Nice one!

Yes, the long one reaches past the end of the headstock so the key can be relatively flat and more in-line to the trussrod.

I have one of those Fender tools (3/16), but the long-reach one. Fits both my MIM Jazz and MIM P.

Imperial 3/16.

My new (to me) 2008 Mexican Jazz Standard. An ebay win at a sensible price with the extra bonus that the owner happened to be passing through my town in the next week so could drop it in and avoid the postal damage lottery. It has needed a bit of cheap fixing (jack socket replaced, pots squirted with cleaner, some rusty/damaged screws replaced) and a set up to get it basically playable. Strings are utterly dead though. It needs a full strip down and deep-clean, fret tidy up and polish and nut slot tweak, but I think it's going to be a good player. I'm going to replace the pickups immediately (original ceramics), they sound OK-ish, but have staggered poles and I keep hitting the A & D string pole pieces with the strings when I dig in. The ultra-light strings aren't helping that either and I'll be fitting 45-105s. I just scored an inexpensive set of Alnico pickups off here that I will install as soon as they turn up. If it turns into a keeper I may get something more fancy, but no hurry on that.

Interesting that the fretboard has rounded edges, my MIM Standard precision from 2012 had very squared-off edges to the point that it was uncomfortable to play until I had rounded it off a bit. I was vaguely looking at getting a MIM Jazz, but was shying away from maple fretboards as the finish means that a simple round-over isn't possible without lots of hassle. I swapped the tuners on my MIM P to HB7s too (very easy, didn't even need to change the bushings), the gearing is a bit low on the standard machines making it hard to tune precisely and they also creaked a bit when first moved after sitting around.

If you are diving into the electronics the main thing that needs replacing is the jack socket, the stock socket is a fairly crappy imprecise thing. A switchcraft socket sorts it out for £2-50-ish. On my 2012 mim the pots are absolutely fine. I replaced the capacitor with a better part while I had it in bits, but it didn’t really need it.

I use these: http://www.japarts.ca/Uo-Chikyu/Uo-Chikyu-Products-Nut-Files.asp I haven't got a 0.130 yet, but I have the rest for normal bass and guitar setups. I have tried the Hosco double-sided files, but I found that the slots they cut are so inaccurate and oversized as to be pretty much useless. (at least for guitar, the larger bass sizes may be better)

Out of interest I looked it up and EMG quote circa 1500 hours for a 2-pickup bass. Equates to 1h/day for 300 days a year for 5 years, so that probably isn't far off for a moderate amount of playing - and assuming the bass isn't left plugged in 😉 Not much of a chore if you remember to swap the battery every now and then when doing other maintenance.

I haven’t played in a proper band for a long time and the problem I have with learning stuff on my own is that once I have cracked the interesting bits I feel like it’s job done and I often don’t go on to work out the arrangement and all the duller bits that comprise the full song. The discipline of working things out to actually play the whole song minus band is definitely something I struggle with.

That volume knob looks ridiculous 😝

Is that wood filler in the fret slots?

"not that noticeable from the front really" 👍

Wow! That is really good, splendid effort!

The most useful lesson I have found on Rhythm Stick is the Josh Fossgreen one on youtube: Listening to the bit where he plays the complete verse through slowly from 11:12 along with looking at his pdf transcription completely cracked it for me.

On line it says the Jazz pickup is the latest noiseless one - is it that that sounds dull, or the P-pickup, or both?

Level B doesn't do anything unless the 2nd channel (Gain B) is active. If you were using the FX return as an input only then you'd leave the amp in the 1st channel mode so Level B is out of circuit and only the overall Master affects the output. The helix would still need to be in line level output mode to drive the MB800 hard enough going in via the FX return.

Try setting to output to "line" level? (assuming that you can on one of those)

I look sadly at my 4x10 SMX combo from time to time, It's a lovely thing but I can't see any way of ever being to use it ☹️