Agent 00Soul

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

Here's my modded Reverend Triad.  Can you spot the mod?

 

 

Of course you can't, because that's the point.  It's got a Freeway 10 way switch fitted.  Direct replacement for the standard 5 way blade, virtually imperceptible from the outside unless you look at the switch tip being at a slight angle.  Sneaky bugger, innit?

10 way?  Nice!

20 hours ago, LeftyJ said:

This is my Fender Crafted in Japan JB75-US. The pic is from 2009 so this isn't even its final form ()

I changed:

• the electronics to an Audere JZ3T preamp with 3-way impedance switching, but hated it, for several reasons (1). I had a battery box routed into the back of the body for this;
• the electronics back to passive VVT, but with the addition of a De Gier / Vanderkley FatBoost,. It's a subtle active bass boost of up to 6 dB, accessed via a rotary switch where the jack used to be, with a regular Jazz Bass knob to camouflage it. It has an internal trim pot for setting the gain level. Works great, subtle but effective. The electronics cavity needed to be routed slightly to make room for it;
• the stock bridge to a Leo Quan BadAss II;
• the stock tuners to Hipshot HB2's and an Xtender;
• the strap buttons to Schaller security locks;
• added a pickup cover.

The previous owner had already changed the white pickguard to a black one, which I like a helluva lot better, and had holes drilled for both covers but I never mounted a bridge cover because it gets in the way of my playing and I don't like the look. 

 

It's a heavy beast with a fairly deep neck profile, and oddly for a '75 RI has the bridge pickup in the regular 60s position (like most CIJ JB75's in fact, but there are exceptions). But it plays and sounds great and I love it. 

 

 

(1) I was always struggling to find a "neutral" tone that matched the passive sound of the bass. It just wasn't there. And the most important USP of the Audere, its impedance switch, was a totally useless feature for me because I hated the high-Z and low-Z settings and only used the normal position. Besides that, the Audere was prewired righthanded, so the pots turned in a direction that was very unnatural to me. They were PCB-mounted, so I couldn't change that. I hated it so much that I stopped playing this bass alltogether, which is a shame because it's so good! So I had it changed back to passive and it reignited my live for this bass. 

That's one nice bass!  Mid 70s Fenders and their CIJ descendants are my favourite sounding of all the periods they were made.  But I've never owned one because they are so heavy!  

2 hours ago, rushbo said:

Most of my basses have been "creatively damaged" in some way.

 

This is the main offender. It started off as a purple Indonesian Squier PJ, which I stripped and repainted pillar box red. I swapped out the neck for a left-handed Mexi Jazz model and added some stick on blocks, which looked much less silver in the picture on the email listing...

 

The BBOT bridge was replaced by a lovely Schaller 3D and I added a three way toggle switch. I changed the pups to Entwistle's because they're ace. 

 

I think the tuners are Gotoh's, from the eighties. 

 

I came across this "end of line" neck plate on eBay, I have no idea why someone would think this was a viable product, but i had to have it:

That is one of the coolest basses I've ever seen.  Fender should issue it as one of the Alternative Dimension series.  (or whatever it's called)

I've had this late sixties Jazzmaster since 1984.  It became so infamous in my high school, where most of the other guitars were neon painted Charvel or Jackson super-strats for shredding, that it got a special farewell in the school newspaper when I graduated.

2 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

Quite a cool insight…

I'll definitely try one out because it's always been on the wishlist to play one.  Unless they are already pre-sold to other lefties for whom this was always the one that got away and won't even be in the shops.

On 29/04/2024 at 14:00, cybertect said:

Talking of Hofners, this is my '67 Verithin

 

We have been playing music together since we were both 21 years old

 

 

 Makes me think of people like Billy Childish or The Kaisers.

On 18/04/2024 at 17:53, Mickyk said:

I too can not stand this tune,Jefferson Airplane were garbage as well. 

What don't you like about Jefferson Airplane?

3 hours ago, Graham A said:

 

My band mates really love how punchy it is, & when my wife first heard it at a gig she commented how good it sounded.

 

 

That's a good word for it: punchy.  Also the word I would use to describe Thomas' sound on the Costello songs.  Also, it's the loudest pickup out of all my instruments.

18 hours ago, tobiewharton said:

I'm ambivalent about it, but understand the appeal. I'm 1983 and I think the Precision Specials were cool. If I had a need of something in that ballpark and found a good one for a good price, the year matching would be a bonus.

Not sure if you've ever tried one of the Precision Elites from that year.  My friend had one at the time and I thought it was the coolest.  Of course, I was 15 and didn't have much experience so no idea what I'd think of it now. 

21 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

You know that the fender neck codes don't contain the day don't you? it would just say June 68, the 15 is the jaguar model neck code from 66 on - (would be 1 before that), like 5 would be P bass and 7 would be jazz bass. So it could be 2 weeks closer to your DOB (or further away!)

I most definitely did NOT know that - thanks for filling me in!  All these years I thought it was the day (but I'm also a gear ignoramous).  Being a Jazzmaster, not a Jaguar, I looked up the number guide from another board.  Apparently 1968 Jazzmasters are 19 and Jags are 15 as you said.  So either the instrument was misnumbered, unlikely as one is long-scale and one is short, or far more likely, I misremembered.  Either way - 15 or 19 - is still about 3 weeks after I was born, so that didn't change.

On 06/04/2024 at 17:38, MrFingers said:

Do you have any pictures from the eighties, when it was stock? It's intriguing because it's a CBS-era Jazzmaster with a small headstock, which is the first one I ever saw.

The picture is slightly distorted.  The headstock is standard CBS-era as far as I know. Jazzmasters didn't get the larger headstock that Strats did, right? 

The finish was never stock - it came in that sparkle green that a previous owner added.  I added the targets a few years after I got it.  From a chip on the lower bout after I dropped it on a concrete floor, I could see that it was originally sunburst.

7 minutes ago, Jono Bolton said:

You've had an instrument for 40 years? I thought you were supposed to sell them on every two to three years. That's how it works, right?

Based on how often people claim they shift gear on all the boards and social media groups I subscribe to, you would think so.  I'm more of an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" person, although I certainly have accumulated a few more intsruments over the years.  A life of living in tiny apartments and being left-handed is great preventative medicine for GAS!

Not a bass (obviously) but:

My first electric instrument was a Jazzmaster that I got in 1984.  Nobody was buying them then so it was dirt cheap.  A few years later, I unscrewed the neck and found out it was dated 15 June 68, three weeks from my date of birth.

I still have it.  I didn't know this was a thing until I read this thread!

I haven't played out in a few years, but this story is worth posting.  I was in a band back in the 2000s where it got to the point that the gig itself had become just a delivery mechanism for the afterparty.  We did a couple of reunion shows in 2022, in San Francisco and Brooklyn, and we picked up that tradition again for old times sake but this time we all were older and had enough money to rent out a space in a bar or hold house parties.

Getting some early 80s Cure vibes!

"We Built This City," or as my AV teacher called it when it hit number 1 in the US, "DJs and radio stations are great!  We love them!"

It's one of the mysteries of the universe how Jefferson Airplane, one of the best and most challenging bands of the 1960s devolved through the 70s to emerge as Starship, one of the worst and least challenging bands of the 80s.

Substitute a Bruce Thomas pickup from Bass Centre and you are 75% there.

What did you mean by too old for this sort of thing?  I'm almost 56 and have both a fuzz and an overdrive on my pedalboard.  I don't want to look stupid using them and no one ever said it to my face but maybe that's what they are thinking?  Now I'm nervous.  

On 15/03/2024 at 20:07, kevham said:

Just had my Aerodyne in for a setup. Guy sent this photo - looks great. I might have to keep it now!

Those are great basses for hard rock and overdrive pedals.  Must be the pickups.

On 25/02/2024 at 09:29, Graham A said:

 

Cheers @Agent 00Soul

 

Yes, i'd read the same on here, so wondered how easy it was to get hold of them.

I suppose at the time they were willing to do it as they weren't producing a left handed Profile, could be a different now. 

I would just call and ask.  What's the worst that can happen?

9 hours ago, Graham A said:

The pickups sound great in the house, can't wait to try them out at a gig. I was looking at perhaps changing out the pickups in my Precision Pro 🤔 How easy was it to buy the pickups loose from the Bass Centre, as I haven't seen them listed?

I used the bass at an outdoor gig in Brooklyn, NY a few weeks after they were installed and they sounded great on stage.  At least I or the sound techs didn't have any problems.

The loose pickups weren't listed.  Someone on this board suggested I ring them up and ask.  As they weren't making lefty Profiles yet, the owner of Bass Centre was accommodating, although I had to be patient as the process was very slow.  Apparently, someone here read that I did this, tried it themselves and was essentially ghosted.  So no idea what's going on, but it can't hurt to call and ask, especially as you are a recent customer.  Bon chance!

1 hour ago, uk_lefty said:

Had no idea they did these in left handed. £595 is competitive at the moment too. Keen to hear more!

Lefty in action:

Lots of other reviews on YouTube, including from Bruce himself

Jealous!  Those pickups are perhaps my favourite P-bass ones ever.  I liked them so much that I bought a loose pair from Bass Centre and installed them in my Frankenbass.  I would have bought the whole bass like you did, but couldn't justify another instrument.

That's something I never thought would happen, at least in Paul's lifetime!

So much for his theory that it was in an alpine schloss mounted on the wall of a safe room where some Bond-villain locks himself in with a snifter of cognac to look at it.  It was very much the opposite.

These Bruce Thomas basses sound so good that I installed the pick-up from one of them in my Frankenbass.