ikay

These are better, from the US though - https://reverb.com/item/19640053-lt-0484-000-10-clay-vintage-clone-1-4-inlay-dots-fret-markers-for-guitar

Allparts do a 'vintage clone' dot inlay, although they don't look right to me:

https://www.allparts.uk.com/products/fingerboard-inlay-dots-vintage-clone-1-4-inch-face-10-pcs-and-3-32-inch-side-dots-10-pcs

49 minutes ago, Aidan63 said:

I've recently moved my pickups further away on one instrument and got a to my ear better sound without much loss of volume

+1 I recently did this with one of mine and was pleasantly surprised with how it evened up the string to string balance and opened up the tone.

Ta!

Sorry to be the one to ask 'that' question but what does it weigh? An accurate weight please if poss (not bathroom scales). Thanks

This is worth a quick read. It's about guitar frets but the same applies to bass - https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/latest-updates/fret-sizes-and-materials

There's an MIJ '51 reissue on FB marketplace here (not mine, just came across it) - https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/225905075216407

30 minutes ago, Delberthot said:

... I can't understand how the preamp can get 18v and the pickups 9v using the same two batteries.

In the diagram above, follow the orange line from the pickups and you can see it connects with one terminal of the lower battery. This taps off a 9V feed to the pickups. The second battery is connected in series to the lower battery and delivers the full 18V (9V+9V) to the preamp.

If you can't get more headroom out of the MEC circuit one option might be to swap that out for a John East BTB-01 Bass/Treble stack which will run at 18V.

https://www.east-uk.com/index.php/bass/single-stack-modules/btb-01.html

2 hours ago, goingdownslow said:

Found this on Youtube...

Thanks and interesting, I've not come across this mod before.

2 hours ago, goingdownslow said:

... and swapped the tone caps for parallel inverse diodes. 

@goingdownslow can you explain what this mod does?

Here's an American Traditional headstock for comparison. The small decal at the top should read 'American Traditional'. The tuners in the original post look like they've been upgraded to vintage tuners with straight posts.

In the neck pocket, above the S47843 there's a faint date stamp - looks like 1999 which would tally with the N9 serial number.

Unusual and interesting mod! How are the pickups selected/switched/blended? What is the exact weight please and can you double check the string spacing which I think might be 19mm. Thanks.

3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

All of your rics seem to have the pickup at the same angle - maybe it is intentional.

Having dug a bit deeper you may actually be right 😮. The adjustable pole pieces on newer Rics (2007 onwards) screw through the bobbin into the magnet. I found a pic of a disassembled bobbin and you can clearly see that the holes in the magnet for the pole pieces have been drilled at a slight angle. So when assembled the bobbin will look on the wonk.

The holes used to screw the bobbin/magnet assembly to the baseplate are over-sized so there should be a bit of wiggle room to straighten things up by loosening these off and repositiooning. The magnet would then be on the wonk but that could be covered by a bezel. 

On pre 2007 pickups without adjustable pole pieces, the bobbin was just glued onto the magnet. Some of these were also wonky so whichever way you look at it it's not exactly a precision assembly job!

4 hours ago, chris_b said:

That couldn't have been true, because it never made me sound anything like him!

Same as my old Zon Legacy fretless which I bought from John Giblin. Used by JG on various recordings with Kate Bush and Scott Walker, even a James Bond score. I was anticipating a dramatic improvement in my fretless playing but sadly not!

Yes I looked at the bezel but even with that you can still see the pickup is slightly on the wonk! It's just sloppy assembly which is pretty bad for such an expensive bass. I don't actually have a 4003 yet BTW but have my eye on one and this is putting me off!

I've noticed that some 4003 bridge pickups aren't quite square on the caddy which my OCD finds hard to deal with. How is the bridge pickup attached to the baseplate and is it an easy job to straighten it up? 

1957 P. Possibly touched by the great man himself. (I don't have that in writing 😁)

59 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Why not just wind some PTFE tape around the shaft ?

Mex pot shafts are slightly too big for a typical metric knob (not too small).

There quite a few on ebay UK. Not sure about ebay Spain but worth running a search for 'Stratocaster knob imperial'.

For around 400Euro the Bach BRBB comes quite close to a Laredo/Cheyenne ...

http://www.bachmusik.com/en/music-instruments/bass-guitars/model-bach-brbb

That would be interesting, give it a go! For 30" scale (762mm) the Stingray pickup position should be 303mm from the 12th fret to centreline of the pickup. Bear in mind that the Bronco in standard form has 18mm string spacing, but the neck is just about wide enough to take a regular 19mm bridge. I think the Kent Armstrong has full width bar magnets so that should work with any string spacing.

Fender Ultra  P + J also have compound radius boards (10" to 14"). Plenty of other basses out there with compound boards.

Are you sure the pots are 473k? The pic above shows the number 473 on the tone cap which signifies a 47nf cap (a standard value). Or is that just a coincidence?!