Stub Mandrel

Update. I am sooo happy with this bass. I've dropped the action VERY slightly and played with the intonation. I also spent some time with a flexible sanding block on as I felt the fret ends were just a tad rough, certainly not as nice feeling as my Squier Jaguar, but this is partly because the Jag has rolled edges (not known back in 62). The fingerboard has sucked up three doses of Dunlop lemon oil but seems happy now. Mercifully I haven't needed to touch the truss rod. The bridge pickup sounds really good and through my TE combo it's my main choice with tone right up. The neck pickup with tone rolled back is great for songs where i want a cod-upright sound. It's great being able to have tone pre-set to suit each pickup. I've started delving into mixing eth pickups now, to me it sounds best with one pickup right up and a bit of the other mixed in, rather than both on full. I haven't yet found a 'bad' sound, and its great to plug it into the Trace and get real, rich sounds. It slaps well (as you would hope) but most of the time I'm playing it conventional fingerstyle. It deals with chords nice and clearly. It's very slightly neck heavy, which is only an issue when playing above fret 12 and it starts to rotate slightly. The reverse tuners are quite 'quick' but I've had no problems with accurate tuning. It holds tune in the case very well. I also like the factory fit nickel strings - normally I'm a stainless string fan. I have attacked some of the relicing with the back of a scissors blade, there were multiple small marks that all looked very similar, they are now not much bigger but look more varied and natural. the same is true of the dents, but less obvious (and harder to do anything about). I'm surprised how much I like the colour. Jack has a (bright new) shell pink Fender Strat with a single humbucker which makes an interesting contrast. It already feels like an 'old friend' and certainly flatters my playing. I sometimes wander off mid-song because I'm just staring at the lovely aged finish on the back of that lovely slim neck... I commend this bass to non-Flea fans who want a reliced jazz. Having said that I think I'll take the performer to the next rehearsal, as now I've got a good solid mental image to compare it to.

We doubt this...

Clear nail varnish might work as well,. although it will wear off in time.

I've got an eye on the Eden but funds limited at the mo...

Does a Trace Elliot Elf do the classic 'TE pre-shape' sound?

Today I did a main band rehearsal using the Laney and a single 2x12 as an experiment. Despite appearing a clone of the TE (similar graphic, pre-shape, parametric EQ) I had to set it up very differently to get a good tone, lots of bass boost and I found I had to use the neck pickup a lot (I mostly use the bride PUP alone on a Jazz). Even with the graphic boosting all frequencies (especially bass) found myself running at with master volume at about 80%, which is roughly where I used to have it for gigging with two 2x12s. I do vaguely think this was my old rehearsal setup. I normally run the TE on 1 or 1.5! But, it did sound OK and will be fine as astopgap for small quieter pub gigs. I'm increasingly minded that the best solution will be a pocket sized 300 or 500W class D as a backup head and a high efficiency 1x10 or 1x12 for small gigs.

No sustain issues on my headless basses. Through neck is what really makes a difference.

I finish nuts by scraping with the edge of a rounded scalpel, this makes off very small amounts. Also a new nut is cheap as chips so not expensive if you screw up. In fact a luthier probably won't charge much different from doing a nut to fitting a new one unless you want some esoteric material.,

I could live without the screen 'popping' in time URGH!

As an ignorant savage (a) I wonder how you hit the right note first time between say 5th and 9th fret anyway! and (b) surely an Eb neck is going to give you marginally better access to higher notes? If I had an EUB I'd reckon I'd need dots on the side of the neck 🙂

Usually (if not always) means action too high at nut. How big is the gap between string and first fret? How does it compare to the gap between string and second fret when you fret the string at the first fret?

She may not be a songwriter, but can sing and she's an ordinary middle aged woman with Aspergers who overcame a lot more barriers than 99.98% of them!

Sixpak was the one who was ripped.

Well that must have scared the s**t out the Radio 1 presenters ("We can't expose our audience to rock music!")

Gosh! Jama Tuning Heads!

Monkey Wrench Chorus is a bit of a bugger!

You have to huint around a bit for a 2019 figure, but it seems they both have a net worth of around $40M, but SuBo has had greater chart success...

The TGI bags are a step up from the likes of Roksac. I have a mandolin one as well and it's about as good as you can expect a gig bag to be, any more protection needed and I would go for some type of hard case.

Brings to mind “Don’t judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.”

or Ron Weasley...

That's just the same bloke after a good night out.

Maya, probably about 8/10 years old when I got it, over thirty years ago.

Try Planet Rock Dating?