ikay

This is only an educated guess but looks to me like the linked brass plates are there to ground the pole pieces and the two lugs at either end are hot and cold for each coil with the yellow wire going to the hot terminal as in pic below. This gives you a four-wire hook up with options for wiring the coils in series or parallel. I stand to be corrected!

Not tried it myself but here's a short thread on the subject - http://www.luthiertalk.com/threads/neck-re-profile-to-asymmetrical.360/

From 12th fret to centreline of bridge pickup on my '72 J is 377mm. To front edge of casing is 368mm. This is the early '70s position which is closer to the bridge than standard 60s position.

I had one of those too, took me ages to work out what it was!

Have you tried giving the trussrod a gentle tweak to see if the rattle goes away? A one-way trussrod generally only rattles if it's loose - a small tweak to make sure it's engaged might be worth a try. Also worth checking that the rattle isn't coming from the tuners.

Aha, +1 to the benefits of good luthiery vs mass production!

Radius only makes no difference to string action IF the strings all run parallel and have the same strings spacing at nut and bridge. But in most cases string spacing is wider at the bridge and the strings (particularly the outer strings) then run at a slight angle across the curvature of the fingerboard. The tighter the fingerboard radius, the more pronounced this will be, and this affects how low you can get the action. Conversely the larger the fingerboard radius, the less pronounced this will be and you can achieve a lower action. The difference between the string spacing at nut and bridge is also a determining factor (the more 'splayed' the strings, the more pronounced the hump). Here are some pics to illustrate: Pic 1 - Strings running perfectly parallel with the fingerboard can take a uniformly low action Pic 2 - Strings running at a slight angle have to effectively cross a 'hump' in the fingerboard which requires a higher action to clear Pic 3 - Strings running at any angle across a completely flat board can take a uniformly low action This assumes a fingerboard with a fixed radius (ie, a cylinder with the same radius at either end) which is generally the case. One way to eliminate the 'hump' issue is to have a fingerboard with a compound radius. This follows the curvature of a cone (rather than a cylinder) with a smaller radius as one end and larger radius at the other: This allows a uniformly low action with typically 'splayed' string geometry.

Some input from TB here - https://www.talkbass.com/threads/mighty-mite-vs-allparts-necks.1330074/ Both seem to be pretty well regarded but a few comments about Allparts being a notch up in quality with better fretwork. I thought MightyMite necks were generally cheaper than Allparts? Not tried either myself. I had a Warmoth jazz neck once which was very high quality but the steel reinforcement rods added quite a bit to the weight.

There's a long thread on TB about this with several suggested replacements but all needed drilling - https://www.talkbass.com/threads/sire-v7-5-string-bass-replacement-bridge-tuners.1240782/ From your pic, the bridge and through body holes on the Sire just seem to be about half an inch too far north to stand any chance of intonating the B. A couple of pics on the TB thread have a similar problem with the B so looks to be a basic design fault.

Here are a few: - Squier Bronco - 30" scale with 17mm spacing - Hofner Club or Violin - 30" scale with 14.5mm spacing - Danelectro Longhorn - 30" scale with 16mm spacing - Status Mark King Artist headless - 32" scale with 16.5mm spacing - Overwater Scott Devine J series - 33" scale with 16.5mm spacing - Ric 4003 - 34" scale with 17mm spacing

Sorry, I've just read the full thread again and see that the two pickups are completely different (Schaller 232 & Dimarzio DP 120). The construction, magnets, winding wire etc are likely to be quite different in which case the DC resistance really doesn't tell you anything about how they compare in terms of output or tone. They might work well together - or not! What's the bass? Can you just drop in the new bridge pickup and see how it sounds?

If the pickups are otherwise of the same construction (same magnet type/strength, same winding wire/gauge) then the difference between 11.3 and 14.4 is nearly 30% which is pretty substantial. I'd expect there to be a noticeable difference in tone and output between the two with the 14.4 being louder and darker. With this one being in the neck position (where string movement is greater) the difference would be even more noticeable. By way of comparison, a regular vintage type jazz pickup would generally be somewhere around the 8k to 9k mark with a difference between neck and bridge of around 1k or less.

Running a quick search on ebay for 'cheney key' brings up quite a few. Is there a number on the lock somewhere? You could try contacting Abbey who seem to be the supplier for Cheney locks - [email protected] http://abbeyengland.com/Store/List/1/CategoryID/423/Level/a Failing all else a paperclip usually does the trick on most guitar cases!

The spec here says the body is nitro and the neck is satin poly - http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Precision_Highway_One.html

If it's poly then trying to patch it by spot filling will not work as well as if it was nitro. Poly cures to a hard finish and patched areas will leave visible fracture lines, unlike nitro which melds with the existing finish.

Pic?

Ah yes, duh!

Love to see the re-bodied version (the elongated body is the one thing that puts me off the Rascal), can you post a pic?

Man that is tough, sorry to hear. Not sure if this is any help but here's a video of a cover with a good view of the fingering all the way through -

Can't see the chart without a premium account, but from the fleeting glimpse I got before the paywall banner came up and blocked it, it looks like guitar sales are on the up. Can you post an image of this chart?

For anyone who's interested, I contacted Delano and here's their reply: "One difference is the hum free single coil mode of the The Xtender HE pickup. We added some more bass and sparkling highs to the quad coil pickup. The HE/S is a little bit more aggressive with a punchy bass. Both pickups have the same switching options."