daws0n

Given the bass a setup and it's singing well across the fretboard - turns out the muted tone on the A string was caused by the bad bass bridge innotation screw - it was too close and was choking the string. Action/innotation sorted and the strings wrapped tidy around the tuning pegs. No more choking and playing much better now. She almost took a bad knock on the weekend, I brought it down to show a mate of mine who's into his guitars - 5 mins after putting back on stand the bass slid side ways falling onto the living room TV!! Luckily I caught it before a total drop, but left with a scratched panel and bent machine head. Bloody annoying but nothing broken thankfully, could of been worse. Lesson learnt the hard way there, simple A frames have been absolutely fine for smaller Ibanez basses but for larger jazz bodies they can be unstable. Just collected a new stand off eBay for a tenner, much better

Good spot on the headstock Bassassin, I didn't know that either! Re: finish it's had a life and taken a few knocks, not bothered as it wasn't an expensive buy. The pick up screws are badly rounded on a couple of sides, so I'll be swappijg them out before I look under the covers - putting these on order https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266341683444

Picked this up today on a whim from a local s/h shop - it's been strung with flat wounds and modded with a badass bass ii bridge - the burgundy pick ups suggest they're not original either. Back plate says "steel adjustable neck made in Japan" with serial number starting with 05. I've a hunch it could be a 60s/70s model, any ideas? Plugged in and she's a bit quiet but all pots are working.

Cheers John. I assume it's just a case of unstringing the bass, removing the pick up screws completley, lifting them out and add some foam cut to fit underneath before popping back in? I'll see what I have around the house that will work.

It's frustrating but tinkering over the weekend has been an education! Fender recommended spec for pickup height is 2.8mm bottom (E) / 2mm top (G) - I've got them close @ 3mm / 2.5mm (neck) & 3mm / 2mm (bridge). I can't get the neck pick up rise anymore, if I unscrew them a little and wiggle the cover I seem to be moving the housing more than the pole pieces as I can see them recessing. Repeating the same exercise with my MiM player jazz, it was a lot simpler and the pickups stay firmly in place. With the AMII pro, the pickups move about under pressure, if I use one as a thumb rest they start to sink. Can anyone suggest a durable material to put under them for support? I've read mouse mats are a good choice. With shims removed and proper neck relief, I've set the action now as follows: E 2.6mm (bottomed out) A 2.5mm D 2.5mm G 2mm Looks like the plastic shim put in on the first setup was doing nothing to help, my guess is that it sunk into the body pretty much straight away after the neck was put back on. If I decide to try a shim again, I'll insist on a full pocket one.

Thank you John. As it happens I found a video afternoon on YouTube which follows it step by step - very interesting watch!

Bass is now back to original state, glad I whipped up the bottle to get the neck off and take a look (equal size screws in case anyone's wondering). Found the original plastic shim in place with a piece of folded sand paper on top of it. I've spent over £100 on setup fees since getting the bass, I seriously don't think I could do any worse a job myself with the basic tools I have at home. She is back together while I figure out what to do next. Thinking either Blue Peter a shim out of cardstock or splash out on a Stew Mac full pocket shim. A wood full pocket shim would be better long term however I'd need to buy a blank shim and make the holes myself. Damn shame he doesn't do a 5 bolt variant! Option C is to buy a babicz bridge as recommended above but that will have to wait.

Back onto the subject of pick ups, here is the distance between the neck / bridge pickups with finger down at fret 20: 4mm at neck pickup 5.5mm at bridge pickup A long way off fender's recommendation here https://support.fender.com/en-us/knowledgebase/article/KA-01903 Had a good look at under the neck pick up with a flash light, I stand correct earlier - there are no springs over the pick up screws

Agreed, I am surprised given the cost of the instrument. The first bass I bought 2 years ago was a used JSH Vintage 940B - it's heavy and sounds uninspiring but it plays nicely was no more than £250 new. There is nothing fancy on it hardware wise but it works as it should. https://hazeguitars.com/blog/neck-shimming-and-ski-jumps-the-latest-research This guy says that full pocket shims are best and small shim can cause ski jumping. Not a term I've heard before, but my old Hondo definitley has this issue - for it's age it sounds and plays surprisingly well for budget aimed 80s instrument. Until Fret 14 onwards, when every note chokes and buzzes. I don't mind as it was not expensive and I enjoy it for what it is. I really want this Fender to play well as it's cost me more than most of my other basses put together!

Here are some better photos the AMII with shim #2 installed. The E string saddle has gone from being bottomed out to 3mm above the bridge, since the rest of the string heights were OK they are now standing very proud. I am thinking it would benefit from a thinner shim to bring the saddle height down and increase pickup output?

Good point MrCrane, my Hondo has equal sized screws but I'll be sure to check what's what on the Fender.

I've found a comprehensive guide on here courtesy of BOD2 which has been very helpful (good job!). Got up early before everyone else to make a start. As a trial run re: neck removal I've used my trusty Hondo 830 precision copy as a guinea pig. I took it to the same luthier last year and I recall that he put in a shim on this bass also, here it is: It's a couple of strips of sand paper near the back pocket, at least it hasn't squashed in like the plastic strip shim #1 had on my AMII. I've taken it out and the saddles still have plenty of room for adjustment (see attached) so seems pointless putting it back in. Will move onto the the AMII later today, I'm assuming it will be sandpaper cut in similar fashion but we'll see. BOD2's above guide suggests cutting a shim from thin card stock to the fit back pocket snuggly, so I'll try that if needed.

Dead notes were not an issue prior to shim #2 install (shim #1 was a thin plastic strip so wasn't doing much). My knee jerk thought is to take out the shim tomorrow and see how it plays now the relief is in a better place. I'll admit though I am a bit unsure about taking the neck off, is there any best practice to follow for unscrewing the neck? Thinking the safest/best way to go about it would be to unscrew the lone one furthest from the body, then the other 4 in a criss cross fashion. Does it really matter?? No idea! Excuse the pendantry if it's not needed

Yes, the screws threads rise but the pick ups seem to be at full height already. If anyone out there owns an AM Pro II jazz, could you kindly measure the distance between the E string and the pick ups for me? My are measuring as follows: Bridge 6mm Neck 6.25mm Edit: Mojo restored now that relief is measuring somewhere between 0.012 and 0.013 again - when I plugged it in earlier my heart sank a little, all the snap and pop had gone. Re-measuring the action tonight it's in a very similar place height wise prior to adding the shim. What I don't like is that the E string chokes out now between 16-17-18-19. The A string less so, D / G strings are fine. I am half-tempted to take it out (he used a strip of sandpaper in the back pocket) and re-do the saddle setup myself. I've read praise for full pocket shims, particularly the ones from stew mac. Are they worth a try?

Man this bass is giving me a headache! She's back in hand again today - good news is the truss rod is definitley working and it now has a straighter neck and a nicer look bridge / saddle setup due to the new shim. Bad news is the neck is too straight now, I measured 0.008" relief so it now needs more relief added. Output and tone have been robbed somehow - I noticed when I bought it that I needed to dial the amp volume up 1/2 steps to get the same output as my other basses. Now with the pickups even further away from the strings I need to dial up considerably higher. I've taken the scrath plate off and am slowly adding relief myself, currently at 0.010", aiming for recommended 0.012" as a starter.