fergs40

Well, we live in a golden age of consumerism and benefit from 200+ years of manufacturing expertise, that’s certainly true. Sadly it’s wildly inequitable, not at all sustainable and will be the end of us but, hey!, why not enjoy it while it’s here. Two hundred years ago we’d have been digging coal or weaving cloth and dead by 35. Two hundred years hence -well, who knows, but it probably won’t involve a Squier jazz. We only get one turn round the wheel, we don’t get to choose when it is, we make the best fist of it we can. Right, enough empty philosophising - enjoy your bass!

I recently picked up an immaculate 2024 pearl white SR300e (for €150!) as I’ve long been curious to try an Ibanez bass and this seemed as good (and as cheap) a place to start as any. I’ve got it fitted with a GK3B pickup and the combination of this with the onboard pickups is sounding mighty fine. To me, anyway - I guess I haven’t conducted a poll… Anyway, to the point of this post. The one thing I’m not 100% sold on with the bass is the fretboard - it’s more red than I think I’d like it to be. Plus it’s an opportunity to tinker with an otherwise fine instrument, and who could turn that down? I’ve previously had reasonable success using Montypresso wax to darken/brownen the fretboards on an Epiphone Casino (yes, I know…) and the Squier Precision I deblinged recently (see build diaries). However, both those have neck binding and glossy neck finishes, meaning it didn’t matter how sloppy I was with the wax (and it can be sloppy stuff), I was only going to stain the wood of the fretboard. The SR300 is slightly different - see pic. Two potential problems: 1. As there’s no binding I need to make sure the side of the fretboard is stained as well as the top. Otherwise it will look silly. 2. But as the finish on the back of the neck is satin/matt I’m not sure whether or not the wax will also stain this. Which would also look silly. So, I’m wondering if I need to mask off the rest of the neck for this job. Sadly this introduces a level of tedium which probably outweighs my aversion to the redness. I know, no dedication to the craft… Anyway, what thinks the collective?

The neck was a large part of the reason I wanted another of these. I also considered a 70s CV, but I much prefer the white/pearloid blocks and binding to the black. And I’m delighted that someone shares my appreciation of the pearloid pick guard. And surprised no one has popped up yet to suggest tort…:-)

My ‘de-blinged’ Squier 40th. There’s a thread in Build Diaries with a bit more info for the curious.

I know there's a lot of love for these, and I share it. This is my second one - the previous was identical, but a victim of one of those 'perhaps I really do have too many basses' moments of doubt which can strike the unwary. This one cropped up on our local Irish small-ads site for a price not dissimilar to what I sold the old one for, so having watched and wondered for a while I eventually did a deal for it. When I got it home, though, I realised that it hadn't just been the 'too many basses' feeling that had prompted the previous one's departure - I was also not loving the bling. So in a move which I'm sure some will regard as quasi-sacreligious, I set about replacing all that fine gold hardware with something a bit more, well, restrained. And here is the result: There's no 'before' picture as I'm sure you all know what one of these looks like when it comes out of the factory (if you don't, there's one for sale in the classifieds at the moment). I bought all the parts I needed - tuners, string retainer, pick guard, bridge, neck plate - on Amazon.ie, all sold by Musiclily Direct UK, for the grand sum of €62. I already had some vintage-style telecaster knobs and some regular strap buttons, so I didn't need those. I think the quality of the parts is every bit as good as those I took off it. I particularly like the pick guard, which fitted perfectly with no need for any fettling or redrilling of holes. The tuners, despite being shown by my (admittedly crude) measurements as having the same dimensions as those I took out, did require me to fill and redrill, and the ferrules were slightly too small. Still, a few minutes work with some cocktail sticks and duct (duck?) tape (I couldn't find the PTFE) sorted that: I'll get round to adding the other two screws to each tuner at some point. Maybe. I was particularly pleased that I managed not to drill through to the front of the headstock... The only evidence left of its illustrious origins is the output jack - I'm sure I could find a silver one in the parts drawer if I looked, but I a) couldn't be bothered with the soldering and b) quite like leaving this little marker for 'those in the know'. A few more pics: the new bridge (somewhere between a hi-mass and a BBOM, and perfectly functional - it even came with a shorter spring on the E saddle to allow for intonation), the pick guard (which picks up the blocks quite nicely I think), and the rear with its new plain neck plate (and my foot). And done! I'm very pleased, and much more likely to pick this bass up in its new guise. Fickle, fickle, fickle...

My Lowden came to me in pristine condition. One careful owner. And then me. Same issue you have - cedar top with a thin finish. But that is a big part of why it sounds so wonderful, as you’re also finding. After trying to polish out some of the earlier scratches I’ve just learned to live with it. Plus, there’s only one reason any instrument ends up looking this way - because it’s been well loved and often played.

Is it literally new, or new to you? Either way, how do those screws go missing? Did someone take off the pickup cover and forget to put them back? Actually, I’m not sure the 4003s has the cover? Anyway, apologies - none of these questions helps you in your quest for replacement screws - I’m just curious about how you ended up needing them…

Ordered last Friday on Amazon.ie, delivered today to me here in Cork. 26 euros and change. Marvellous - thanks OP!

Double post…

It’s lost its original pickups and preamp, and had a bit of a respray on the front, but the rest of it’s still there, and for what seems a decent price. Vigier Passion Bass 1986-87

Now sold, apparently, but came across this on Reverb recently. I want one! If it’s real, that is - anyone come across such a thing before? Sandberg Rickenbacker Sondermodel 2003 - Black Custom Shop

https://www.bassic.de/kleinanzeigen/vigier-passion-ii-1988.62867/ Well-played Passion II on bassic.de in a very handsome blue for relative buttons. Should anyone be on the lookout…

For some reason I love that it has EIGHT tremolo springs. Because of course it does.

Google translate strikes again. With apologies if the intended humour has just gone over my head, I’ll defend the seller’s entirely appropriate use of the German word Koffer in this context to mean hard case (as well as its more common meaning of suitcase). Though maybe I shouldn’t be tangling with someone with self-confessedly big hands…

https://www.bassic.de/kleinanzeigen/fender-player-2-jazz-body-mit-player-2-precision-hals.61918/ Came across this in the bassic.de small ads - a jazz body with a precision neck. Now I’ve often come across precisions with jazz necks - people want P thump with a slimmer neck, of course - but never seen this combination before. is this a thing, or just someone selling off the spare parts from a precision body/jazz neck transplant as a complete bass? Google’s translation of the ad below, FYI. ‘Fender Player 2 Jazz Bass Body with Fender Precision Neck . The neck is from a Fender Player 2 Preci and has a saddle width of 41.3 mm. Unfortunately, I no longer have a bag or suitcase to hand in. There is a second pickguard included. Condition is very good would even say almost like new. Has never seen a stage. Had the bass only once in the rehearsal room to test. But jazz sound is unfortunately not for me.’

Yes, what he said 🙂

I may be wrong, but isn’t the amount of silk showing at the tuner not completely dependent on the length of string from bridge (or ferrule if through body) to the tuner? Having more string wound round the tuner will make no difference to that - no?

I previously recounted the tale of my Vigier Excess on here - despite An Post’s best efforts to mess things up, Ishibashi went above and beyond to make sure the bass arrived with me safely. I’d not hesitate to order from them again.

I had one of these (though - probably - not this one: picture borrowed from Gumtree): Like many here, it was the mid-80s and affordable options were many fewer than now - I think I paid £90 for mine second hand from Musical Exchanges in Brum (IIRC). No, it wasn’t a great amp. Not anything like as loud as it looked like it should be (that well-known measure of sound output…), but turned up full and with my Thunder 1A’s preamp set to ‘maximum bass’ it was great for playing the bassline to Peaches. And it had a thing called a parametric EQ, which I didn’t really understand but nonetheless believed to be frightfully clever. Ah, happy days. I’ve no recollection of what happened to it - I don’t remember selling it, but, equally, how does one lose such a thing?

I would love to believe that some studio trickery was employed and that Mr Watt-Roy’s efforts were ‘assisted’. But this video suggests maybe not: Back to the metronome…

Running any sort of physical run-of-the-mill shop, never mind a musical instrument shop, these days seems highly risky to me. You really do have to present a good reason why your potential punters shouldn’t just shop on Amazon/Thomann/insert online behemoth of choice here. I spent three years living in Berlin recently - somewhere you might imagine as the very archetype of a place that would need a decent generalist music store to support the many and varied creative musicians living in the city. And when I was there it had one: Just Music. Four or five floors of everything you and your band might need. Staffed by the usual mixture of people who made you feel you were wasting their time and people who genuinely felt like they wanted you to succeed. I bought a lot of strings there, though never an instrument. And I was really sad to hear that they’d gone under a few months after we left the city. Read the message on their website: https://justmusic.de For those that don’t speak German, it essentially says, ‘we tried, but you didn’t spend enough money here instead on with the big online sellers’. They’re not blaming us for that, just pointing out how it is. And so it goes.

Yes!! I can get up to somewhere between 95 and 100 bpm on Rhythm Stick depending on the day. And I feel like a bass god! I enjoy playing this bass line, I completely appreciate its genius. And then I try to play along with the track, and curse my stupid clay feet…

For the amount of money we’re contemplating here I suspect you could make either (or both!) happen whatever the catalogues say…