ikay

They crop up quite frequently on the FB Rickenfakers forum - https://www.facebook.com/groups/78514186083/

This thread on TB says Skyline 5s have always had graphite reinforcement bars (4s don't): https://www.talkbass.com/threads/lakland-skyline-5s-are-graphite-reinforced.165673/ Skyline necks are flat-sawn though, not quarter-sawn.

Don't know about the Bob Glaub, but I have an early Lakland Skyline Jazz with Fralins. Sounds fabulous. I think they're standard wind as I'm generally not keen on the slightly darker sound of overwound pickups. EDIT - Just found the extract below on the Lakland site. Doesn't mention the wind, but it's all about old school tone so probably standard. Bob Glaub and Lakland spent considerable time finding the right pickup. After many A/B tests, the team chose a Lindy Fralin split-coil humbucker that they connect to 250k volume and tone controls. Fralin rewinds a ton of vintage pickups, so it’s no surprise his single-coils and humbuckers have a wonderful Old School sound. Speaking of tone, the BG sounds like a good P-Bass should: strong low-mids, a slight upper-midrange bite, and a taut top. The bass sounded way fat through an Ampeg SVT rig. A hi-fi setup brought out the instrument’s woodiness with even more low-mid definition. Like all time-tested P-Basses, the Glaub sits well in a variety of situations, both live and in the studio. https://www.lakland.com/testimonials/review-of-skyline-44-64-vintage-p/

The stock pickups sound pretty good to me so I'd def try that before swapping them out. I love my TRB5 series 1 (been one of my mainstays for over 20 years now) but every so often I wish it had a regular mid control rather the 3-way switch. I'd be interested to hear how the stock pickups sound with the Uni Pre if you do decide to go down that route.

+1 If the strings are currently hitting your open pole pieces then they will certainly hit any top covering unless you lower them which will slightly reduce the output.

Yes that's true. Lowering pickups can help to give a more even balance across the strings, but you also lose some punch and volume.

It depends on the type of pickup poles. Pickups with a 'double pole' configuration (eg. standard Fender) give a fairly broad and even magnetic field so string alignment isn't that critical. Pickups with single poles are far mores sensitive to string alignment. See vid below - if you jump to 3m 40s he demonstrates the effect of sideways displacement of the pickup which is quite significant.

Yes, the saddles can be adjusted a little wider if needed.

I had a Roxy B5 for a short while. Lovely bass and I would definitely have kept it were it not for a couple of small niggles that just didn't quite work for me. These were quite minor issues and I actually wish that I'd kept it! Here's my list of pro and cons: Pros - Excellent build quality, great neck and fretwork (could easily dial in a low buzz-free setup), quality ETS bridge and hardware, loved the single Xtender pickup - much more versatile than you'd expect with series/parallel switching, excellent Glock preamp and active/passive switch, sounded fantastic and played superbly. Cons - at 9lbs 7oz mine was a bit on the heavy side for me (I was hoping for closer to 9lbs but it was a distance purchase so took pot luck. I know some B5s are much closer to 9lbs), the body and headstock felt a bit chunky and no forearm contour, it felt a touch neck heavy.

This might help (see schematics in fourth post down) - https://forums.vintageguitarandbass.com/gibson-basses/eb0-wiring/

Here's a 14v adaptor on Amazon. 3amp rating is fine, your Backbeat will only take what it needs. https://www.amazon.co.uk/ARyee-S19B300NW-S19B360BW-S22B360HW-S22A330BW/dp/B079M8R6Y2/

I have an HCT Club which I really enjoy playing. The staple pickups and pickup spacing give it a quintessentially Hofner vibe so it's quite a different animal to the Mouse, but I think a piezo would bring out a whole other side to it's character. Here's a comparison pic with the bridge and nut aligned. Which shows up how compact the Mouse is!

How about modifying a Hofner Club with a contact pickup or an undersaddle piezo? With the right strings and setup that might be something worth experimenting with for pretty low cost.

Yes, lined fretless. The most amazingly resonant and 'alive' bass I've ever played.

The Shuker Artist has a similar vibe to an MB-2. Comes in a variety of different configurations. https://shukerguitars.co.uk/basses/shuker-artist-bass Also the original Godin Acoustibass with a double cutaway, which is often called a poor man's RA. Not too many of either of these around but they do come up for sale from time to time. On the short scale front, I've never come across anything that looks or sounds quite like an RA Mouse. I loved mine but no longer have it - dang!

Yours trumps mine by about 10 years lol! 👌

Here's what olympic white looks like after 58 years of wear and tear 😎

Here's a pic of the olympic white Pro II from the Fender website for ref

This should help - https://forum.gibson.com/topic/62347-thunderbird-pro-wiring-diagram/

If you want better control of mids then something like the John East Mid Sweep module would be a better bet than a low pass filter https://www.east-uk.com/product/mid-sweep-01/

I recently bought a state variable low-pass filter with variable Q from Helmuth Lemme. Details here - https://www.gitarrenelektronik.de/produkte/aktive-elektronik/state-variable-filter-detail. High quality electronics and reasonably priced. Intended for onboard installation but I configured mine as an external pedal to have the flexibility to play around with different basses. Works great. Freq range is from 300Hz to 5kHz. Q factor is continuously variable (weak to strong) with a pot or you can use a 3-position mini-switch. There's also an Alembic style filter called JTEX Distiller made by a chap in Canada available on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/JTEX-Distiller-Alembic-style-Resonant-Low-Pass-Filter-for-Basses-VIDEO-DEMO-/233803173958

The paint on mine (ex BreadBin) is quite thin and showing signs of wear in places but it has a lovely soft worn-in feel. Here's a pic of the top edge. Personally I prefer necks that have been well played and naturally worn in. Like an old pair of slippers.

Thanks for that, it looks like a great bit of kit.