SumOne

I understand the need to cut the nut slots depending on gauge of strings, and the disclaimer that you need to mount to the body properly and do setup, but it seems a disclaimer about frets potentially not being level is a bit slack for an expensive neck.

Nice one, and I like the logo! Are there side dot markers?

Has anyone had any better experiences from Northwest Guitars for Jazz necks in the last year? Ideally I'd get a cheaper second hand Jazz neck (£40 was my initial budget!) but it looks like I need to get in the queue as there's plenty of competition from fellow Basschatters! .......or eBay has plenty of new necks from China for £80 but I'm assuming quite a risk of low quality and returns/refunds will be difficult. At least Northwest are a UK company that seem to give refunds/replacements if it isn't a good one. £130 from Northwest hopefully indicates higher quality (or are they just importing those £80 ones from China and taking a £50 cut?!). Or other new alternatives are quite pricey but might be worth it in the long-run. £218 from Thomann for a Player series one, or Allparts have un-finished licensed ones for £231. It seems that the genuine Fender finished one from Thomann is is the better deal being cheaper, finished, and genuine Fender. And I'd rather not have to buy tools to do fret levelling if it can be avoided but Allparts states "All necks may require fret leveling and polish".

Using just the headstock and horn strap buttons is the winning move.

The best thing with digital multi fx is the convenience and cost effectiveness and versatility. But the best thing about individual analogue pedals is they are foolproof: click the switch to turn the effect on/off and the light goes on/off, glance at it and you can instantly see where the controls are set and can turn the dials if you want to change them, and 90% of the time I only need the basics (Tuner, EQ, Compression, Drive, DI) but not many multi-fx do them all or do them as well as individual pedals. I find that most multi-fx fall down on the foolproof factor so after owning three different Helix multi-fx and two Zoom multi-fx units I am now back to individual pedals. It is too easy to have a hidden effect/EQ/IR etc. lurking in the background without knowing it and doing a simple thing like turning on a chorus can be a minefield of menu diving and footswitch/preset asigning. So my preferance for a multi-fx is one that has individual footswitches for each effect and each with their settings clearly on display at all times. The TC Plethora seems the closest to that, but the effect setting displays seem tiny and for the cost I'd also want it to do all of the basics as well as the more exotic effects.

I've got wood! From G&B. Arrived quickly and is all looking high quality. I expected I'd need to sand it down a bit but it is all done already very smoothly. Compared against my Fender CIJ bass it seems almost identical in dimensions. If I was being picky then there is that small knot in the wood at the neck pocket that goes all the way through and seems to have had some filler to stabalise it - perhaps one of the worst places to have an inconsistency in the wood but I guess it won't really matter. And I know this is petty but it was advertised as 1.9kg and is actually closer to 2kg (could be my kitchen scales that are wrong though).

Yeah, if I need to save ££ then that is one of the first things that'll change. Apart from easily changing straps over (one is set higher for slap) one of the main reasons I like the Schaller locks is that they are an easy way of extending the horn by a couple of cm to help balance the neck angle up a bit. I tend to add a washer between the bass/strap button, and another rubber washer between the lock on the strap and the strap, it adds perhaps 2-3cm distance which does make a small difference:

Overall I now think I want: P Bass body, lightweight. I've bought a new one from G&B for £148 incl postage, it is Korina wood and is light at 1.9kg. Jazz bass neck. Ideally Rosewood fingerboard with no front facing inlays (what's the point of inlays on the front of the fingerboard - you don't really see them when playing? Just need good visible side dots - which many basses do not have), but I'm not too fussed though. Northwest Guitars do new Jazz necks from £130 which seems an alright price for new (main benefit being no holes drilled - so it'll line up with no faff). I'll wait a while to see if any suitable second hand necks become available though as my budget was £40 second hand. If I feel ambitious perhaps I'll reshape the headstock to be 3+1 like a stingray. It would reduce the length and weight and make it more unique. And up to about £200 for these second hand: Black scratchplate. Passive P bass pickups (I'd probably add white covers, just for the look). Pre-wired loom. Hipshot ultralite black tuners. Black Pickguard. Black bridge. Neck plate. Black schaller straplocks. ....so basically P Bass body and pickups etc, Jazz neck, Stingray type 3+1 headstock shape. All black and white, probably quite a scruffy, lightweight, Frankenbass. Apart from the fun of putting it together I think that it is unique enough that it makes it worth doing as it is very unlikely I'd be able to get all those things in a pre-made Bass. My budget of £355 has risen to over £400 as I've already spent £60 more than expected on the body and that's the first thing I've bought so I guess the cost could keep creeping up if I'm not careful and patient.

Cheers. I'm not sure yet but I think if I go for a scruffy/roadworn white paint job on the body then I'll go for a black pickguard. This sort of thing: Bonus of that option being that I don't need to do a good job of the painting. Or, I am a fan of purple sparkle. It's not something that's easy to find on a P bass so doing it myself seems to make sense if I want to put together something fairly unique (although I imagine it's quite hard to do well and I wouldn't be able to do metal flake but just some rattle can glittery spray might be easy enough). Again though, that'd probably suit a black pickguard:

On sound alone: I'd prefer an OC5 (fat synthy sound) over a sub n up (slightly odd organ sound). But an Octamizer beats both (although isn't as good at tracking low notes).

Ah yeah, I forgot about the Stingray. So that sort of layout works in principle.... In practice (with my lack of skills) probably not, might give it a go though. How hard can it be to cut the end off and drill a new hole?!

It strikes me that the Fender Jazz and Precision headstocks could be made about 3" shorter and also save weight (and reducing weight at the furthest point away is the best place to reduce weight and prevent neck dive). I guess they are the shape they are for looks and for the Fender logo rather than necessity. At the very high risk of this ruining a budget neck/headstock (not the one in the picture) does it look like this could work in theory ?

Nice!

Thanks, yes actually I can now just about see that they do have a hole drilled in the corner of the pickup cavity.

Has anyone here had good or bad experiences from G&B bass bodies? Specifically, I'm considering a 4 piece Korina body as it's 1.9kg , or perhaps the 3 piece Alder 2.1kg (vs 3kg for Ash), both £148 and unpainted. I know 'tonewood' is a contentious subject for non-acoustic instruments but any thoughts on advantage/disadvantage to those woods? (For what it's worth I've owned a couple of 3.3kg Basses that use basswood and they sounded just as good as much heavier Ash Basses I've owned, that wasn't comparing like for like though). Another option is northwest guitars 2 piece Alder at 2.6kg (painted) for £175. Also, as these don't have the cutout between the pickups and the control cavity how are the cables ran between them?

For what is worth, I had never owned a P Bass but got the itch for one a while ago. I considered a lot of P Basses and ended up with a 'Crafted in Japan' from 2006. It seemed the best mix of quality and value: 3.9kg, well balanced, everything feels as good quality as most of the USA versions I tried while being a bit lighter and cheaper than most of them.

I don't think £500 RRP is that bad seeing as they sell for less than RRP. They are already discounted to £395 at GAK (and can be bought with £11 per month repayments), and I expect ex-demo/B stock could be got for less than £350, or second hand for £250. That's reasonably affordable for a musical instrument that can be sold on again without much loss and I guess Fender don't want to quite be the cheapest on the market but it's still cheaper than things like an average drum kit, brass instrument, or a decent synth (or a Playstation 5 or new Smartphone or electric scooter, all of which somehow seem to be affordable for most teenagers).

I'm sold on the P Bass erganomics and tone. And I like the sunburst/tort/rosewood look, it has a 'sitting by a fireplace with a whisky' kind of look to it. Got to say though, on looks alone I do think one of these is my end-game, funky and punky:

I think it's a cliche for a reason - it is a classic Bass that is well designed and does its job well without any unnecessary complication, and the sunburst/tort/rosewood just kind of looks like a traditional Bass like this should (although I am also keen on White precision with Black Pickguard and white pickups).

Cheers, it came with rounds but I think I might eventually change them for Tapewounds.

.....tried it, I can see why no-one does it anymore!

Ah, nice one. I wonder why no-one ever uses that position any more, I'm gonna give it a go.

As most people on this forum probably have, I've been on a bit of a Bass owning journey to try and figure out exactly what I want in a Bass. 9 Basses in I've finally followed the crowd and gone for my first Precision - not only that, I've gone for probably the most cliche looking one (I figured that if I'm going to be un-original and 'classic/traditional' then I might as well fully embrace it!) It's a 'Crafted in Japan' 2006. Relatively lightweight at 3.9kg. My early impression is that I like it. Good tones, no unwanted hum or rattles or cracking pots, fairly low action, comfortable, looks good - the colours kind of look like what I imagine the Bass sound to look like, and it has some nice natural aging which seems to fit well this type of Bass. Compared to other Precisions: I tried a lot of Squier/Player and US Precisions over the last few weeks and I'd say that they do generally fit with their price-points: Squier can be fine but you can tell certain things are done on the cheap, Player/MIM are good - particularly the new ones, but Japanese Precisions are better as things like the neck seems nicer wood and the fretboard wood is more consistent and everything feels like it is a bit more solid and fixed in place better and little things like the strings being in better alignment with the fretboard markers, US ones - some second hand ones haven't been very good at all (heavy, crackly pots, loose pickips, pickguard not fitting perfectly) but a US AVRI was the best of all the Precisions I tried (although cost about £700 more than this CIJ I got). A couple of issues with Precisions in general: Not to argue with Lord Leo's choices but going from my previous headless Bass to a Precision the headstock now seems ridiculously large/heavy for something that is at the furthest point from the pivot point - it's exactly where you want to keep things as light as possible but there seems to be no effort in the Precision headstock design to do so (I'll probably get some lightweight tuners, but that big lump of headstock wood is still going to annoy me! i.e. if the G tuner was moved to face downwards from where the 'Fender' logo is couldn't about 3" of the end of the headstock be removed?). And the old Precision bridge isn't great - the saddles can shift about a bit (the E or G moving outwards) and the saddle grub-screws seems to be waiting to slice my wrists! Easy enought to get a new bridge though. One question: What is the extra screw on the back of the headstock for? I'd always assumed it's the other side of the string tree, but it isn't, it seems unnecessary: