LeftyJ

Any idea about the origins of that neck? The glue joint down the length makes me think of a pre-2007 G&L neck, when American models had the "Bi-cut neck" that featured a compression-style truss rod that was put in from the side. I would expect the two pieces to match more closely in colour and grain though, as those started off as one-piece necks that were cut down the middle and then rejoined after installing the truss rod.

Good call!

May be worth checking out a Squier Rascal. It's a solidbody shortscale, but the bridge sits relatively far forward so it's equal in length to a longscale P-bass. I don't know about weight, but being a fairly large offset body I imagine it could be somewhat heavy.

Nope. Status Graphite started out with headless basses and guitars with graphite necks from the start. Only later did they start producing basses with wooden necks, until switching back to exclusively graphite in the late 90s or early 00s until Rob Green's semi-retirement in 2023 which saw them abandoning graphite necks and switching back to wood on the Series 23 basses.

You know they shook me baby They shook me all night long

Aye, and The Outlaws' selftitled debut album. Green Grass and High Tides is a true southern rock classic, clocking almost 10 minutes in the album version but live versions would often exceed 20 minutes. They're very much guitar-focused (three lead guitarists, much like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Eagles) and feature a lot of vocal harmonies. Their third album Hurry Sundown is great too.

LOL, quite right!

I beg to differ. Both our guitarists in my metal band used stereo FX and would to straight into the PA from their FX rig, and they incorporated panning in their patches. When they both played rhythm one was panned left and one right. When one played lead, both were panned center. Worked a treat, and sounded great in the venue! We got great feedback from both other bands and sound techs. Except that one time we had a sound guy walk out on us because he thought it was a stupid idea and he had too little to do. I wish I was making that up, but unfortunately it's a true story . We played a club in The Hague run by volunteers, and this guy had been grumpy from the moment we arrived at the venue. He really wasn't having it, and wanted us to all send out a mono signal to work with. When we asked if we could do it our usual way, he just got up and left.

I believe they did that on purpose. Fender had the Modern Player series for a while that was made in China, to fill this gap. But it had a ton of overlap with the more expensive Squiers in the Vintage Modified and Classic Vibe line. It was confusing many potential buyers, and in terms of quality the Squier CV and Fender MP were identical. They were quite succesful, but at the same time they made it even more difficult to justify paying that much more for a MIM, let alone an MIA Fender when you could have the Fender name on the headstock of a €400-500 guitar or bass!

I always preferred to stand with my headstock pointing towards center stage, but I had to be careful to avoid any cymbals when I got close to the drummer. In my band we always made it a point to roam the stage a bit, and to keep filling the empty spaces - i.e. when one of the guitarists played a solo he would move to the front of the stage and we made sure to spread somewhat evenly across the stage to avoid any holes where someone stood earlier, to keep every area of the stage visually appealing (if you can call it that when my ugly mug suddenly popped up in a different spot ). We also liked to incorporate little moments where band members made eye contact and faced eachother, and it made far more sense when I was standing toe the right of the drummer (or left when seen from the FOH) because then both the guitarist's headstock and mine would be pointed toward the audience. Felt more comfortable than the other way round, and more visually appealing for the audience. Either way, I always preferred to stay close to the drummer's side.

I don't understand these, to be honest. That's not that far below the recently introduced Sonic series, and close to (I think slightly above) the discontinued Bullet series. Doesn't seem to add a whole lot.

Disagree, I really enjoy it on mine. I noticed slightly tighter (and, in fact, weaker) lows and a minor increase in brightness that I love. It won't be an improvement to everybody, but it was to me

I have a MIJ '75 RI from around 2003. It does have the incorrect pickup spacing (60s style) but as you commented you lean towards a more vintage tone, I would say that it isn't a bad thing necessarily. Still, the woods chosen (heavy ash body) and the somewhat thicker '70s style U-shaped neck (which is in fact very much in keeping with the originals) add to the proper '70s vibe and tone. The weight on the '70s ash models is always a consideration, as the originals can be quite heavy too I would like to add that the Japanese JB75US models don't require a pickup upgrade at all, as they're fitted stock with American-made vintage reissue pickups which sound excellent. The pots can be a different story, and it's often worth upgrading those to something with a smoother curve. I modded mine with a Hipshot Xtender (and changed the other tuners to the same model Hipshot for the hell of it and to match the shine, as the original Gotohs had much more patina), a Badass II and at first I had an Audere JZ3T preamp in it but I didn't like it so switched back to passive but with a 6dB bass boost under a rotary switch to match the appearance of the other knobs. I had the jack moved to the side of the body, and had a battery box routed in the back. I kept the stock pickups, as they're excellent. Here it is before the preamp was added:

I always take pictures of my basses on the wooden floor, but I made an exception for this duo when the light was perfect: Both are early 00's Warwick Streamer LX's. Solid flamed maple body, chunky ovangkol neck with wenge fingerboard, and the stock MEC electronics. The 5-string had its worn gold hardware replaced with black.

If I ever get a boat I'm naming it "Unsinkable II".