Ritsugamesh

Purchased a pedal from Matt recently. Great comms. Good pictures. Prompt postage. Well packaged. Happy days. What more can you ask for! Thanks very much Matt!

Currently just rocking the JMJ for specific gigs/bands I work with, and do still migrate back to a P or J for other projects. I am another on the pile of fallen soldiers in the fight for that Atelier Z @DanDoesBass - so much so that I currently have Danny Stewart from Bass Japan Direct trying to specifically hunt one for me. Have you ever seen the insanely rare Ocean Turqiose? Because I would sell an organ for it 😂 I've spoiler warninged the picture because it's definitely one of those... Once you've seen it you can't unsee it type of basses. I am unsure if he'll be able to actually find one in the wild.

Picked up his Clayton Jazz Bass on a wild ride of impulsive behaviour and serious sherwood green GAS. Super prompt response, no messing about, and was really helpful throughout the whole transaction. Even drove halfway to meet me under the threat of rush hour traffic. Nice natter before we went our separate ways. Pleasure to deal with and very happy with the bass!

Purchased a set of Lindy Fralin pickups from Walshy the past week. Great comms, super prompt, and no fuss to deal with at all. When a small issue cropped up, he was quick to help and provide a fair solution. Credit to the community as you'd expect. Thanks mate!

+1 vote for P-Ray as the name. Cool bass!

Ah that's good to hear, must have just been a duff string indeed! I'm honestly sad I gave it up haha. Glad you're happy with it either way pal. EDIT: And if you are thinking of selling, get in touch and I might nab it back! 😅

Purchased a bitsa bass from Ash to grab hold of a lovely example of a late 70s P bass neck. Great communication, prompt and direct, friendly to boot, and was flexible in arranging collection/meetup. Bass as advertised and he even showed me some other cool basses during the necessary basschat deal bass chat that ensued. Credit to the community, would absolutely do business with again (hoping to if he ever shifts that Tele bass!)

The G string will be accurate at the 12th and about 50c flat on frets below the 12th. The inverse occurs above the 12th. It's only the G string that is struggling to intonate, the other 3 are fine, which suggests scale length isn't the issue. It's seemingly impossible to have the lower frets tuned to pitch and still have it accurate to the 12th. Going to try and put another string on to see if that fixes the issue. Any additional troubleshooting tips welcome!

Thanks for posting those pics Valerian - very similar looking neck to mine for sure, ebony slab thickness withstanding! I've taken the time today to pull it apart for a brief look and review scale lengths, etc. Scale length appears to be absolutely bang on from the end of the nut to the bridge saddles. The G string being a pain to intonate must be either related to the nut at this point or the string itself being old and done in. I will look at changing at the very least the G to check whether this is the case. I've also taken the neck off and pickguard off to get a bit more information about the actual parts in use! Some very interesting insights for sure, at least I think so 😁 The neck has this code on the bottom - I have done a bit of googling to figure this one out and I believe it's 01 (precision) 02 (no clue) 36 (36th week) 9 (79) 3 (weds) - the 02 I have no clue, but I think the rest is correct. Anyone with better info let me know! The stuff on the back of the neck eludes me, although googling J Torres brings up a fair few results about him being a well-regarded neck builder of the era. The sticker I have absolutely no idea what that's about, but assuming original. Also not sure what the stamp codes mean, so any englightenment is appreciated! All the internals look well done, though I honestly have such poor knowledge of electrical work on my instruments it just looked like a mass of cables to me. Anyone with better knowledge please chime up! Not sure what dates these EMGs are either. The silver foil job appears to be as from the factory, suggesting this is also the original pickguard. I've never seen a silver foil on a bass before from Fender, but the serial number sticker on the underside suggests it is indeed how it was done in the factory. Last but not least is a sticker with F 1-23 written inside the pickup cavity - again, absolutely no idea. The buttons are removable, one I've got out and the other is providing difficult. Even with big holes in the body it looks a damn sight better than whatever those metal buttons were, so I'll take it. At this point I'm likely to buy a fretted replacement neck to avoid doing any major work to this one, the neck pocket is 2.5" by 3.8" or so, which I believe is relatively standard for a Precision neck? Hope the guts and glory photos are of interest guys, thank you for all the comments so far - very illuminating for both me and my father!

Thank you for the alternative perspective. I'm perhaps being too critical, simply from the shield job being visible and the fret marker situation, but otherwise it is a series of well-done modifications. I'm more in the mind to keep things as-is, though I'll be taking the neck off and electronics to see whether there is more information to be shared. What nut would you suggests as a replacement? I believe this must be a bone nut, but I've never actually replaced one before! Appreciate the feedback, leaning this way for sure, it's had a lot of work and a lot of character as a result. Might change the control knobs though, not a fan of the plastic ones!

Will check that out - it's never had a string change since we've owned it, so some very funked out flats as it is. I have heard of this happening before, but haven't experienced personally. They are indeed active, I believe the battery is housed beneath the pickguard cover but haven't had time to take it all apart and review. To be honest, given that getting it back to vintage is unlikely, tempted to just get some nicer looking control knobs and leave it at that. The plastic black ones don't really do it for me!

I can attest that intonating this bass has been an absolute p***take - hence the mangled looking saddle placement. I'm in agreement that the adjusted fret markers must be to account for the positioning of the larger bridge, I'll take some measurements tomorrow when I'm back to see whether it's properly set at a 34" scale length or not. It seems to be the G that is having the most trouble, i.e. if it's intonated at the 12th it's out elsewhere, none of the other strings seem to be having the same issue and the neck isn't warped, so not entirely sure what the crack is there! I think this is the long-term plan, I am not really a fretless player either and those chrome caps are just gaudy to my eyes. Not sure if I could git an ashtray over the badass bridge either, but we shall cross that road when we come to it.

+1 for Bass Japan Direct. I purchased an amazing Tokai Jazz Sound off him earlier this year and it was well-packaged, reasonably-priced and he calculated estimated additional costs for me for customs and the like. Really sound guy called Danny and well worth dealing with. It did get caught in Dutch customs too, funnily enough, maybe they have a thing for holding basses!