BlueMoon

Even within the population of flats there is a world of difference in the degree of zing (or lack of) among those on the market. Personally, I prefer GHS Precision flats on my P bass. I haven’t used vaseline or creams on flats, preferring to wear them in naturally.

^^^ this. It would be very unusual for a metallic finish to not have a clear coat as the finish coat. In which case, careful use of mild auto polishing products as mentioned by others should be fine.

Truss rod, bridge saddles typically addressed first. Then, if not low enough for your personal taste check the depth of the nut slots and whether you need to shim the neck (assuming the instrument is a bolt-on neck). As to your question about typical measurement for action, that will be a personal preference. Start with the manufacturers’ recommendations and go from there. Hope this helps, but shoot with questions if you have them.

Going from say a P bass to a Höfner violin bass can require a quick adjustment regarding string spacing and scale……..but no big deal in my personal experience.

Sad news. John Paul Jones will be gutted!

I make the analogy of playing fretless or fretted the same as driving a vehicle with automatic transmission or with manual transmission. Both are out there and I know which I prefer personally. I drive a manual car and learned double bass. More control, more work, but once it becomes second nature it becomes just that, second nature. Enjoy whatever you prefer!

Those are the best words !! Sincere best wishes for a speedy recovery @Telebass!

I have a Blade B2 Tetra from mid 2000s, Japanese made. I think the scale is 34”. The preamp and pups had been swapped when I bought it. Subsequently, I installed Sadowsky pups and preamp. The bass is now rock solid and is a nice player. I particularly like the little design features. For example, mine has the Musicman-style truss rod wheel under a stylish cover with the Levinson brand on it. Neat.

To do a proper job of staining or spraying you would normally remove the tuners and ferrules, and the string tree. Any residual coating would be then sanded back (if not already done). I have had great results spraying shellac in such situations. It is very forgiving and the colour can be increased (i.e. to a darker shade) with each coat until you get to the desired shade. The benefit of shellac is it sticks to almost anything and can be over-coated with almost any of the more modern and robust transparent coatings. You can then choose matt, satin or gloss. The decal would be applied on a smooth surface, sealed with a thin coat of shellac, and then build up the transparent coats until the edges of the decal become invisible to the eye. Sounds involved, but it’s not that difficult to achieve professional results.

@spacecowboy how do you find Labellas when strung through the bridge? Not sure, but I think that is how it looks from the pics. Great bass, btw!!

I am lucky enough to have a 2006 Metro (with VTC retrofitted) and a 2017 MetroLine. There are no differences in build quality as far as I can tell. Both are cracking basses.

Very nice, @Giacomo! Well done. Very interested to see more pictures and details of how your bass build journey progressed.

Interesting idea and quite unusual to leave the chambers (holes) visible. I kinda like it on this example.

Another one bites the dust!!

Tone monster!!

That’s a very nice place to be!

These guys are a hoot!

I’d go with Dimension as well. Waiting to see.

https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2012/03/22/larry-graham-and-graham-central-station-play-maroon-5s-moves-like-jagger/ Embedded video clip. Tasty player.

Larry Graham had a custom one on his Moon J4 back in the 70’s. Nothing new under the sun (or moon)!

The Pretender?

Deja vu. ^^^^^^^

I have to admit to being in the camp (pun intended) that dismissed him as a bit of a bellend back in the 70’s. Absolutely unjustified! I’ve subsequently seen a few videos that really impressed me both as a talented player, but also as a really nice and genuine person. He also wrote a few well regarded contributions to bass guitar magazines on technical stuff. The guy knows his onions. I also thought ABBA were pretty meh at the time. Just goes to show how wrong I was on both counts.

I saw Nash and Crosby do a show a few years back and, even then, it was clear that Crosby had some health issues. His voice though and those harmonies were just fantastic. RIP.