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Excellent news! I have never heard anything but good things about Mr Baxter and that is great customer service. I really need to stop looking at threads about Mustangs, it’s driving me nuts with envy!

I think Sibob has hit the nail on the head. It looks very much like an amateur attempt to fit a regular precision pickup in there (seems to happen a lot to old mustangs). It won’t affect what is still a cool bass but you should have been informed and the seller should have known about it, especially as I thought he dismantled most of the basses he has in, or used to. You seem to have been really concerned about the bass from the start so I think you would be perfectly within your rights to return it. If it was me, I would suggest seeing if there was some haggling room and seeing if you could get a decent chunk off what you paid. As the Bass had been modified anyway, I would perhaps look at having the route properly done for a Precision pickup to smarten it up, and you have the option then to swap in the future. I doubt it would do anything to the value, especially if you have the work done by someone with a lot of credibility and shielded properly etc.

Well folks I think you have me convinced! ?. Got a couple of gigs over Christmas which may help me gather enough funds. I’m off to Cardiff at some point in the next week or two so may have another try out in PMT with a more critical eye to make sure it’s not just one of my fads.

Cheers chaps, I must admit its only a small tiny voice in my brain niggling at this issue, I normally don't give a monkeys about what people think of me or my choice of instrument. I was just curious to see if any other big fellas were proudly hitting the pubs/clubs with their short scales. On the subject of the bass, I was incredibly impressed with the overall build and feel, they really are doing good things in Mexico. The one I tried had the well known pickup switch issue, (a little intermittent when going between pickups) but by all accounts its a simple fix and a good haggling point for a discount!

I'm glad I am not the only one who thinks about stupid things like this. You are right, Dave and Pino are both very cool individuals and I watched a John Mayer video and he completely dwarfs his strats and doesn't look daft. No one would think it odd if I picked up a guitar as you say.... hmmm

I had a day in Bath yesterday trying to break the back of the festive season shopping. As a spot of luck I walked straight past a new music shop there, Guitarbitz. What a lovely surprise that was, a lovely little shop with friendly staff and more than happy to let me have a try out and chat without any pressure. Anyway they had a few Fender basses in there at a few price points which was nice. They had a lovely RoadWorn, some squiers, SUB Stingray etc but what caught my eye immediately was the Capri orange Mustang PJ. What a incredibly fun and playable bass and well made for Fender, I was really blown away. I sat and played it for a while, it was so easy to fly around the neck, just sheer joy. I REALLY want one now, but the only concern I have is that I would look like a weirdo playing one. I am a pretty big chap, height and width (I do like a biscuit with my tea) and I worry that I will just look daft, like a giant playing some kids guitar. Most of the guys I see playing Mustangs are skinny/small hipster types and they don't look out of place on them. Are there any more 'substantial' members playing mustangs that can alleviate my concerns of looking stupid? or shall I just give up on my Mustang dreams

And another image emerges: https://instagram.com/p/Bb736fqDCcU/

I think as a player you need to decide what you want to achieve, do you want to get a ‘better’ sound or do you just want to change your sound? What sounds ‘better’ is all subjective and causes huge arguments on forums like this. Different is a lot easier to achieve and you have already highlighted the ways to create different. Without spending money, the quickest and easiest way to change your sound is to change hand position. Then age of strings, leave them dead if you want a warmer ’vintage’ sound. Next option, eq on your existing amp, try extremes of eq and everything in between. A plectrum is another big change for nothing (if you steal a mates plectrum). I can do almost any kind of music and find a complementary tone for that style with just these things. Personally, I would not look to pedals to help make my sound better, only to modify, leads IMO make little to no difference (in a live situation). That is where I would start anyway, but it’s all down to what you want to achieve and that’s down to the individual.

I used to worry incessantly about what bass I was using, what rig I had, was it right for the job, were my strings bright enough etc. I came to realise after playing in 3/4 different bands over the past 4 years that, certainly in my case and situation, it doesn’t matter, and no one cares or notices how my bass sounds. I am about the only person who notices the difference in my rig or bass and most band members can’t really hear a huge difference in a live situation. This is also compounded by the fact that I go through a PA and ‘my sound’ can usually only be heard by me on stage, and everyone out front just gets the dry signal from my DI (pre EQ most of the time) which is set up by the engineer, I don’t normally hear it. Dont get me wrong, I will get a comment when there is too much ‘woolly’ bass or treble in a venue, but as long as I sit in a mix and play the right notes, no one cares if I’m using a Squier Precision, 3k Overwater, Aguilar rig or £250 Ashdown combo. For me it has become quite liberating, no one apart from me and few folks on here or other bass players (I don’t meet many to be fair) give a monkeys about my kit. This means I don’t swap my kit very often apart from out of curiosity, and I free up mental space to play and try and retain 3 bands worth of material in my brain.

This is really interesting and I am so pleased to hear it has been working for you. About 18 months ago I was looking to do almost exactly the same thing, but I found very few examples where anyone had done it and anyone I mentioned it to seemed to think it wasn’t a good idea. For a long time I have thought that great quality PA speakers would work better for bass, but my main reason for it was wanting a wedge pointing back at me at gigs, as I am always going through the PA via DI from my Tonehammer amp. I gave up on the idea after I found a very reasonably priced cab and it was easier to keep my amp and not change my whole rig. After seeing this I am definitely going to look into when I next fancy a change, very inspiring.

I’m the same, if this is a PJ with a proper precision neck, then there may be trouble ahead! He has obviously had a couple of prototypes at least, so It will be interesting to see what the final spec is.

I love Premier Guitars rig rundowns, even if they don't talk to the bass player a lot of the time. I couldn't sleep last night so I watched the new one from Guns 'N' Roses. To my surprise they showed off a new prototype bass that looks like it might be hitting the streets soon. Im not a big signature bass fan, and not even a huge GNR fan, but the new bass ticks a few boxes for me, especially if they do a pearl white one. The video shows it a bit better: but here is a pic from the man himself:

I don't mind a few sympathetic mods by any means, anything done properly is fine by me but be realistic about what you have and maybe do some research? Anyway as the title said it was an unreasonable rant and I have recovered from my bad mood now. Its not worth getting het up about by any means, I just don't like nice basses being abused.

That is a blinder of a bass, and not doing anything to help my Mustang/Musicmaster GAS either. Knowing where you got it from, I would say there is very very little chance in it not being original. That is a very cool refin, and you have a very unique bass there. Enjoy!!

A small rant because sometimes you just have to. I frequently look through the sale thread here and Gumtree/eBay and various other selling platforms, and keep an eye out for certain things I would like to own again or like to try. Recently a few things have popped up and I have got all excited until I see photos or the description which basically outlines how the owner has done loads of (unnecessary in my opinion) modifications to the instrument to 'make it better' and now they want basically what the instrument cost new, or close to it, or even in some cases, more than it was in the first place. I am sorry, but this seriously p*sses me off, why would you badly fit a load of hardware, damage the bass, sand or refinish it yourself and then expect to get so much money for the thing?? Worst of all is that most of the time they don't even keep the original parts to put it back to how you actually want it. I have seen tuners fitted wonky and the person didn't even go to the effort of buying tuners that retrofitted, botched logo changes (seriously who are you trying to kid) huge amounts of damage through use and low and behold its £20 less than I could buy new one with a years warranty! That is all, I am in a bad mood today.

Don't know if you were planning on making your own, but by all accounts WD music make pick guards to fit MIJ Mustang basses, not overly expensive either: http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/pickguards-c62/fender-basses-c111/mustang-bass-japanese-reissue-c294

Yeah probably! The world didn’t need another Fender clone with a fugly headstock, and lets not even start on the ‘Shark’ bass. They were well spec’d and did look like good solid basses, but some weird promotion/ambassador scheme he had going seemed to kill the bass off on Talkbass which was not the best business move.

I think they aimed this and his previous signature model at the wrong price point. I think the Mexican made signature models as well as the RoadWorn and classic series are incredibly well made instruments and at their price point, although expensive, I think more people would be willing to overlook the 'signature' aspect of the bass for the cool features. I am not a Roger Waters fan but his signature P ticks a lot of boxes for me as an example. I liked the spec of his green Jazz (I love the lollipop tuners and colour) but it was just too expensive and the one I played was a complete dog for the money. Lifeless sterile characterless instrument for 2k, no thank you. I payed a £300 squire PJ at the same time and it was a much more enjoyable bass. I think this a great customer colour option with some unique-ish features but why not do a Mexican like the Flea? Someone will buy them though so Fender don't give a monkeys...

In my opinion you will sell a standard Stingray faster than the other two if that is a big issue for you. The Dargie is great colour but a bit ‘marmite’ and might not be to everyone’s taste so you are limiting your market straight away. The reflex was supposed to be a great bass but there aren’t many around and is not a well known instrument. It’s also very distinctive looking and again not going to appeal to ad wider audience as a standard Ray. The Stingray is a classic design and almost up there with Fender so always in demand and always fairly easy to sell in my experience.

Really refreshing to realise I am not in the minority for playing music I don’t necessarily like. It’s a bit of a weird situation for me, I play about 99% music I would not listen to on a day to day basis and that had been the case since I was about 17, with the odd exception. The things is, just because I wouldn’t listen to, it doesn’t mean I can’t get some enjoyment from it. If the band and musicians are good and people enjoy it I would probably enjoy playing any music, that’s where my pleasure comes from. I play loads of disco/pop/90s dance music and soul with another band, I would never put anything like that on at home, but maybe that is because I get enough of that type of thing from the band. At home is lots of folky/electro/pop stuff that no one would want to listen to if I played it a band. It’s part of the reason I usually don’t like live music (ironic really) because most live bands play music I really can’t enjoy.

I have a mate who used to use Monster cables, he liked them but I think he made more of a fuss about them because he realised he paid a stupid amount for a cable and needed to justify it to himself. I have OBBM cables, superb in every way, for my instrument cables I have had the last two from Design-a-cable because they offer more coloured cables. They have lasted me about 6 years so far and still look good and work perfectly, which is more than I can say for friends who use planet waves cables! For my next cables I think i am going to give Bedford Audio - www.bedfordaudio.co a go, nice looking kit and they do lots of colour options too (I gave up on black cables years ago, get a bright colour and noone can accidentally walk off with your nice guitar leads)

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1509960791' post='3402808'] The amount of chat I've seen about this on social media has been astonishing. I think Noel's a very clever chap. [/quote] Exactly!! Noel has a new album and single out and pulls a clever little stunt to get people talking, the guy isn't stupid. Its exactly like Liam, as soon as he has a new project/band/album/single you start seeing him mouthing off about all kinds of people and subjects. He and Noel say a lot of stupid and hilarious things to get people talking, its all simple self promotion and a laugh to them. Whether you like the music or not is another thing, but I bet the whole band had a good laugh getting a scissor player on Jools.

Keep on the lookout for a secondhand Mexican Classic 50's precision. They are GREAT basses, such a big beefy tone and neck which I love. I have seen them go for £450 in good condition and they are well worth the money. I have never found aftermarket necks that match those big 50's necks so if you want to keep that level of authenticity I don't think you would be able to build a bass from parts for less.

I played one a few weeks ago and loved it, I have been searching g every day for a secondhand one. However the one I really want (apart from the capri orange) is this Sweetwater exclusive.... https://media.sweetwater.com/api/i/ha-e991394d1f89d327__q-85__hmac-fd9a7df0a984f82a017bd8630bdd283a02e67087/images/guitars/MustBaSESFG/MX17931118/MX17931118-body-xlarge.jpg