Bassassin

On 06/11/2025 at 16:43, W1_Pro said:

... and Bassassins idea about routing a hole for the bridge...

😲 I absolutely wasn't suggesting you should do that!!! I just showed that as an example of how someone corrected a build flaw in a through-neck bass, where there wasn't an alternative fix, short of prising off the whole fretboard & replacing it with a thicker one!

You have other alternatives available - it occurs to me you could shim the length of the 'through' neck with a series of graduating thin shims, layered like steps, so they add height at the bridge end but not the heel end - I did something similar to a guitar with a fairly long heel, using layers of thin plastic card.

If someone else already suggested this, just ignore me. I really should go to bed...

I think what we can't be clear about with this bass, is whether this is a problem that's developed over the years, or whether it's always been like this. This is a Korean-made bass from the late 70s, a time when factories like Samick (who made this) & Cort were upping their games but still not achieving the QC of the more established manufacturers. I've had a few Korean-made through-neck basses from this era which had unadjustably high actions simply because they came out of the factory that way, rather than deterioration. Here's a Samick-made Satellite I had, which some previous owner's corrected by routing the bridge about 5mm into the body:

I think before suggesting any remedial action with the SD Curlee, I'd need to know whether we're correcting an age-related problem, or a manufacturing flaw. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the former.

3 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

Over the years I have installed and removed many shims and the main advice I can give is to start small, as @Andyjr1515 says. I now use the matal shi,s from Warman https://www.warmanguitars.co.uk/product/set-of-4-brass-guitar-neck-shims-3-different-thicknesses-in-one-set/

 

Easy to fit and easy to change to a different thickness. The main thing to remember is that it takes several changes at each stage to get things just right. 

A conventional pocket shim won't work on this bass - it has an extended 'heel' which extends back to, and constitutes part of the anchor point of the bridge, or a previous poster described it, a bolt-on through-neck.

If it's the neck angle rather than curvature that's leading to an uncorrectable high action, unfortunately this will need the neck itself to be addressed, by accurately removing wood from the entire length of the back of the 'heel' - at the correct angle to bring the strings closer to the fretboard. That's not a job I'd feel confident tackling!

Love it. I'm not normally a fan of black hardware on a Jazz but that white/black/maple aesthetic really works.

And I'm a complete sucker for a maple/dots J neck. 😎

4 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

I bought a Roadster as a project about five years ago.  It all works.

 

It's been up for sale here for a while.  Might be easier to part it out.  Hit me up.

 

 

 

 

Might be worth PMing the OP in the hope they've got notifications turned on - they've only posted once + a status update.

Btw that's a bargain at £250, even not entirely original. Apropos of nowt, IMO wiring it passive with 2x V & T (ie making it an RS824) is actually an improvement - I prefer mine passive, and wish it had a facility to blend the pickups!

That is definitely a defretted RS924, and the OP should absolutely get it refretted. These are extraordinarily good basses (if a bit of a boat anchor!) and increasingly rare - as I implied in my earlier post, you're not realistically going to pick up a replacement neck for it anywhere on Planet Earth - they're getting on 45 years old & were only made for a couple of years before the Roadstar IIs were introduced. I own one of these, old MIJ basses are sort of my thing, and I know of what I speak. And if I'm wrong, please point me in the direction of a replacement blueburst neck for my irreparably twisted 1984 Aria RSB Deluxe II - cheers!

RS924s are also worth a bob or two in an increasingly collector-oriented market - as it's not factory fretless, returning this to standard would potentially improve its potential resale value.

On 23/10/2025 at 22:10, martin8708 said:

Rush have announced a small tour with their new drummer  Anika Nilles , tickets going for about $350 to $1500 for VIP tickets , most fans are not very happy .Seems  most  of the money going to the promotors/ tour organisers rather than the band ?

That "small tour" (with a session drummer) is currently standing at 56 dates and I'll be surprised if there aren't more. Given the short timescale from the initial announcement of 11 gigs, for an event of this scale all of those additional dates & venues must have at least been reserved in advance. So those 'unhappy' fans are clearly willing to bend over & accept the sphincter-ruining ticket prices, however much they may complain, and the band/management would have had a pretty shrewd idea that's exactly what would happen.

I'd be very, very surprised if the band weren't well aware of, and getting a pre-agreed percentage of the outrageous prices - I don't think any of the tickets & packages are a consequence of dynamic pricing - that's just what they cost.

I first saw Rush in 1981 and I'm quite saddened that even going back that far, I never saw them in a venue smaller than the colossal, soulless, acoustically disastrous sheds that 'big' artists tend to play. I detest these venues with a passion & at this point I don't think there's any band I'd be willing to pay 3 figures to 'see' (through some f*ckwit's phone screen waving in front of my face) in one. And that includes 2/3 of Rush!

Finally - a new bass I can (almost) justify buying! I've been shortscale-curious for years but so far nothing's been pink enough well specced & affordable enough for me to justify it.

In the wildly unlikely event that the UK market gets anything other than the drab green one, I'm in. 😎

59 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Some people are easily pleased, I guess.
 

Regrettably a lot of people appear to be. You'd think musicians, who you'd expect have devoted a lot of time, effort & dedication to learning & refining their craft, might be skeptical about music 'created' in seconds from a handful of lines of text, whether it's supposedly 'original' or intended as some sort of jokey pisstake.

Maybe not being content, even eager to embrace my own obsolescence means I have finally succumbed to old-fartdom. I dunno.

22 minutes ago, mep said:

I came across this last night on YouTube. What a version!

 

 

AI slop, then. 

I'm curious but don't feel I want to encourage it.

Hark! Is that the echo of the sounds of salesmen?

Yes I do. It's not something I feel there's any ambiguity about - I play musical instruments to create music that would not exist if I had not created it.

It's not for me to judge whether or not the music I make has any 'artistic value' - but I like it; since I first started dabbling in composition many thousands of years ago, I've always been motivated to try & make music I'd want to buy or go & see if I heard it.

I didn't start out with any ambitions to be a composer/songwriter - I just wanted to play in a band because I loved music, and wanted to make the sort of noise my favourite bassists made! I doubt I'd still be playing at all if I'd never got beyond just playing other bassists' lines, though.

4 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

All my rush tshirts died a long time ago, even if they still fit me, which they wouldn't!

I never said it still fits me... 

19 minutes ago, prowla said:

(I think you embedded your reply into my post.)

Anyway, I've seen them, got the T-shirt.

Hah - still got mine, somewhere...

That's an objectively awful design.

1 hour ago, Misdee said:

I suppose that Rush can't help that the world has changed in the interim period.

I think 1980 Rush would be shocked - possibly even horrified - that the band still existed in any form, 45 years on.

I've mentioned I've followed them for a while. I distinctly remember reading an interview with Geddy - I think it would've been in 1984, the band's 10th anniversary and the release of Grace Under Pressure, their 10th studio album - discussing the future of the band. Of course, a band with a 10 year career was fairly unusual back then, and they already had a huge back catalogue & had been through several musical metamorphoses. Discussing what he thought the future held Geddy said Rush was "nearer to the end than the beginning", and that when it came it "would be a beautiful day".

I wonder if he remembers giving that interview?

22 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Why buy a cheap one from China, when you can pay a king's ransom for one from America that's almost as bad?

😁

I'd like to hope QC has improved in the post-Big John era. There's been progress - they seem to have finally managed to drag themselves in to the mid-late 20th century with truss rods & intonation adjustment, after all!

26 minutes ago, prowla said:

And the profits were written on the concert walls.

Quite. Wonder what 1979/80 Rush would make of 2025 'Rush'? 🙁

On 14/10/2025 at 23:27, lea Eric said:

Hi all

I need a replacement  neck  for  my ibanez RS924 roadster bass. 

Any thoughts welcome 

Thank you 

I would think any full-scale 24-fret neck with (what I assume is) standard Fender heel shape/dimensions could be made to fit. Unless you can find a random 80s Ibby neck with the correct proportions (which is wildly unlikely) you'll have to improvise/do some modding, or at least shimming to make it work.

Is the original neck definitely unsalvageable?

And do change the thread title!

On 15/10/2025 at 01:18, alyctes said:

Needs gold pickup covers.

 

Obviously.

Lob a set of these in. 😎

2 hours ago, Paul S said:

I had one for a brief period, moved it on to someone here who had been yearning for one for some years - maybe he'll chip in.  They are nice, more organic sounding than the Hohner B2 range.

That'll be me!

Cool little thing - have wanted one since a much younger & poorer version of me saw one in the old Wapping Bass Centre back in 1980-something.

Its future may hold a refinish - the black's not original anyway, and I always fancied a pink one...

I'm also vaguely curious to find out if the wood/build's like this under the paint.

But I bet it's not.

I have read a bit (old MIJ basses/guitars are sort of my thing) about the background of Headway/Riverhead & it's likely the info on the current Headway/Deviser website is a pretty reliable overview.

https://www.deviser.co.jp/en/headway/about/history

Prog nerd factoid - Fairport Convention/Tull bassist Dave Pegg played one of these, & liked it so much he named a bass instrumental piece after it. And presumbaly it's the bass he's playing here:

https://youtu.be/iC_GmZzfq8M?si=lowA6MZInIv5wWKm

There was someone on the Rickenfakers FB group a while back who got a Chinese builder to make them a one-off Kip Winger Spectorbacker copy. I think they mentioned that it was subsequently available as a 'standard' model!

I'm strangely OK with the gold bling!

1 minute ago, prowla said:

I have to say I think Rush are in it for the money. 
I was looking at buying their Steven Wilson HD remixes, but (apart from one album) they’re only available in £300 box sets.

As for Ticketmaster, they’re just a bunch of shysters. 

Much as I didn't want to think this was a cynical, last-ditch cash grab, the screen grabs I've seen of prices for some of the different 'packages' tickets are being flogged in, with prices going into the multiple thousands, do lead me to the uncomfortable conclusion that my once-favourite band whose principles as artists I once admired, are quite happy to gouge like there's no tomorrow.

2 hours ago, itu said:

EMG makes P pickups in a DC (dual coil) case. I also remember that Ibanez and few other manufacturers in the 80's had P pickups in a humbucker case. I think @Bassassin could list all of them. 

 

(EMG widths, as everybody knows, are 3.5" - 4.5".) 

Probably not all of them! I do know Aria's MB range of pickups used in the SB, RSB, TSB etc basses did include P-style coils in a soapbar case. Some even had exposed poles.

That may well be the single w@nkiest thing I've ever seen, musical or otherwise.

2 minutes ago, prowla said:

He didn't say it wasn't a live one! 🙂

Apropos of nowt, there's a very early live bootleg (I think Peart's second or third gig with them) where they jam bits of what became By-Tor in the instrumental bit of Working Man. 😎