LeftyJ

At first glance I thought they only changed the saddle design, but I see they went with intonation screws instead of the free sliding saddle that locked in place. Interesting choice. 

I can't recall any bass gear purchases in 2025. The sad truth is I've barely touched my basses all year, I've decided to leave my doom band and I've had a renewed interest in guitar.

Because boy did I make some guitar purchases! I have long been interested in Fender's offset offerings, and have had lurking GAS for a lefty Jazzmaster for years now, and a short stint with an Ibanez ORM-1 left me madly in love with te 24" scale but hankering for something that also had a neck pickup. So lo and behold when in February both a Jazzmaster and a Jaguar popped up used for fair prices! Of course I did the sensible thing and bought both of them, and I've been playing both a lot but especially the Jaguar. The Jazzmaster is an American Professional II from 2023, and the Jaguar is a Mod Shop instrument from 2020 that had its electronics slightly (and badly) modded. I had the electronics tidied up and added the classic "strangle switch".

And then a few weeks ago the same seller I got the Jaguar from offered a MIC Danelectro DC for sale, that I also really wanted to try. At just €150 I couldn't resist. And I've been having a ridiculous load of fun with it so far! It looks like a toy, it feels like a toy, it's built like a toy, but it's REALLY fun to play (even unplugged, as the hollow construction makes it surprisingly loud) and the amplified tone is fantastic. The lipstick pickups by themselves are nothing impressive, but they have great clarity. The real surprise was the middle position of the switch, because as it turns out both pickups are then wired in series and sound surprisingly powerful and wonderfully chimey. 

There's some comfort in knowing it was a one-off at least. 

I guess Rickenbacker lost the blueprints of these:

Now that's a proper shortscale 4001. The proportions are slightly weird, but it's very cool. 

3 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

Hope you played plenty of Blues (the devil's music) on it.

Worse! Metal! 

I don't really see myself playing my air phallus behind my back, and especially not with my teeth, sorry.

When I bought my (nowformer) Stingray 5 in an eBay auction, the seller (the bass player of IONA) let me know his band would be coming to a venue near me in a few weeks time. Rather than shipping the bass to me, he suggested he'd put me on the guest list so he could hand it to me personally. I gladly accepted! To add to that, I was allowed to bring a friend, and he suggested I pay him my winning bid in Euros rather than Pounds (saved me about €100), plus I got a live DVD from their merch shop with the bass in action. The bass came in a well-traveled aluminium Stagg case with many airline stickers which I still have (I later bought a real Music Man case for it because the Stagg would leave sticky residue on the bass every time I used it). Very cool experience! The band played folky prog rock and I greatly enjoyed the evening, even if the band were very vocally christian and I'm usually not into religiously themed music. It was a wonderful bass too, that I kinda wish I still had. I traded it for a Status S2 Classic 5-string that is my current number one, so I guess it was a happy farewell! 

I have no basses or guitars with roasted necks, but I do have 2 cents about Music Man necks moving: I had a Stingray 5 which was very susceptible to changes in humidity, and would move quite a bit with the change of the seasons, but it got a LOT more stable when I had the neck re-waxed by my favourite luthier. The Music Man necks are oiled / waxed rather than lacquered, which should seal the wood just the same against humidity, but unlike lacquer an oiled / waxed neck does require regular maintenance. 

Caramelisation is also a thermal treatment, and should not just a layer of caramel-coloured lacquer. That would be rather deceiving. I see the words roasted, baked, caramelized and torrefied used depending on the manufacturer, and usually they all indicate the wood has been heated / thermally treated. 

There's a lefty version too, and I've contemplated getting it but they only offer it in black 

I would get the shell pink version in a heartbeat if they announced a lefty. 

They're rather lovely, and the current (second) iteration had a nice hardware upgrade, now sports a pickup selector (the first version only had volume and tone, and both pickups were fully on at all times) and a bound roasted maple neck that looks lush. 

I was caught by my girlfriend while practicing these moves with my headless bass, and was met with a sarcastic "What are you going to do with that short little thing?"

Of course the last thing I want is to be made fun of because of the size of my instrument, so I immediately took out my extra longscale headed bass. But then it struck me I can't have people thinking I have something to compensate for... So instead I have just ordered a Kala U-bass. Stay tuned. 

Mine is passive too, and with the much heavier ash body. I do feel the pickup in mine sounds fairly modern and powerful. In fact, the previous owner sold the bass for sounding too modern. He tried a different pickup in it (Fender Custom Shop '62 P reissue) but that didn't give him the desired results either. The ash body is very dense and incredibly heavy, even when compared to some of my longscale basses with fullsize bodies.

When I bought the bass there was a set of flatwounds on it that I didn't like at all - they were very boomy, and very unbalanced (the E was overly loud and thuddy even after adjusting pickup height, the rest was more or less OK). I played it with Ernie Ball shortscale Slinkies for a while, and currently have LaBella 043-104 on it which are perfect. 

I think the E and A sounding bigger than the D and G might be due to it being a shortscale: since the pickup is the same size as on a longscale bass, the treble coil is closer to the bridge relative to the scale length than it would be on a longscale. With the LaBella's it's not an issue for me. 

12 hours ago, snorkie635 said:

"Gay Kremlin?"

 

 

 

 

There's this famous photo of some really rare instruments (especially the lefties!) all together on one wall:

Just incredible! I'd love me that lefty Coronado and that Precision, but it's especially the Telecaster Deluxe and the Mustang Bass that have me hankering. 

On 14/11/2025 at 15:46, ped said:

https://reverb.com/uk/item/93109785-atelier-z-zpo-4-jr-short-scale-natural

 

 

Those are little beasts! It was the predecessor to the Baby Z-4J, and it's specced very similarly but minus the neckdive and I believe with an EQ that's boost/cut instead of the boost-only job in the Baby Z. They're amazing little basses, and sound very modern and punchy. The 17 mm string spacing will not be for everyone. 

On 15/11/2025 at 19:36, TheGhostofJaco said:

Also the tall frets on the am pro ii are not really my thing.

Aye, the  Narrow Tall frets are my one gripe with the Am Pro II Jazzmaster I own. They required some getting used to for sure. I've had many guitars with regular jumbo frets, and a Fender with medium jumbo frets, and I wasn't a fan of those either but these narrow talls are somehow even less comfortable to me. I'll take a medium or vintage fretwire over these any day! 

If that was just defretted it would have had to have the entire fingerboard replaced, because there's no hiding the original fingerboard dots unless you shave off a few millimeters!

Either way, cool score. It looks great! 

@uk_lefty is looking for an '80s style bass. I'd say it doesn't get more '80s than this! 

Seriously though: It looks like it was kept in a rather damp environment, judging from those screws, the separated fingerboard binding and the peeling finish. It needs some work, and the right loving home because this is definitely niche! It's also really cool though, and USA-made Jacksons have always been built to a very high standard so I'm sure it's lovely. It looks like it's mostly the clearcoat that's flaking, and most of the graphic is still in place? 

I don't think Sims do finish work anymore, but only pickups and LEDs these days? That's a shame, I couldn't think of a better man for the job.  

The JTKB200 with the two chrome-covered singlecoils should be neck volume - bridge volume - master tone, but the Ibanez Wiki says master volume - pickup balance - master tone. Conflicting indeed! The 2009 catalog confirms VVT though.

The JTKB300 with the three J-style pickups has 3 on/off-switches and just master volume and tone.

10 hours ago, Brian18242 said:

However, it would be nice if they reissued the BB3000 as they are constantly in demand and would fly off the shelf. 

They probably would not, for they would be prohibitively expensive for the general public and would only appeal to fans of the series. Especially if they were to be made in Japan like the originals. The current bolt-on BBP34 and BBP35 sit at €2100 which is roughly the same as a Fender American Professional II. They're probably better-made, but many people will still argue "Made in the USA" is the holy grail. A neck-through model would sit quite a bit higher still, probably not below €3000. 

1 hour ago, Kiwi said:

If I were him, I might be a little cautious about that.  It's not technically his property and he probably trespassed to get it.  Whether the matter gets enforced or not is another thing though. 

He's not. He filmed himself while doing it, and during the car ride back home described in full detail to his selfiecam what he has taken home with him, including many photo's and video's of everything. 

9 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

It's the same workshop with the original workbench where Leo worked when it was the original Fender factory, so a lot of classic Fender design work was originated there too.

It was not the original Fender factory. That has long been torn down, there's a parking garage there now. It's the old CLF Design facility, where Leo built the original Music Man guitars and basses for Music Man after he sold Fender to CBS. So FMIC has zero history in that building, other than all the cool prototypes Leo took with him.

I wrongfully thought this too, but was corrected when I posted it on Reddit. 

They should do a Peter Frampton / Richie Sambora version that lets you do talkbox effects. 

LeCompte makes some interesting pickups, with those triple pole pieces.

They were on my radar through NoTreble, who made their creations Bass of the Week several times. 

This one stood out to me, I love the body shape which appears to blend the offset waist of the Jazz Bass and something a bit Wal or Shergold like. 

LeCompte Electric Bass - SHR - Short Scale

Interestingly, they spec this one as a 30.3" scale model. 

I wish they had kept the 60s body shape, which was ever so slightly more elegant and more compact. And a 70s style tummy cut would have been nice. 

Stole this from Talkbass, where someone put the outline of a JMJ over a '66. The current reissues are more bulky and bigger: