DF Shortscale

I love the one I have, it’s the easiest, lightest, fastest playing bass I own. The build quality is brilliant, I think they’re actually made by Valiant in Ukraine who tend to make decent stuff. I added a bridge pickup to mine, the tone was a bit one dimensional but that’s more of a Musicmaster characteristic rather than a problem with the bass itself. The only thing I would say is that the paint on my bass is a little thin so it started to ‘relic’ quite fast but I don’t mind that. Also dealing with the people at Woodcraft can be a bit sketchy, they’re very nice but it’s a small operation, there’s lots of stories about orders taking a while to turn up so you have to chase them at times. But the bass itself is amazing and gets lots of compliments and questions, people generally don’t know this brand so they can’t figure it if it’s a modded Fender or something else. It doesn’t have the charm of an original Musicmaster like the one above tho!

Yeah, I think their intention was to update the functionality while allowing it to be a drop-in replacement so it’s definitely not a vintage-styled copy. Same applies to the Ampmaster basses, they’re basically refined Musicmasters without the issues that can affect the originals (noisy pickup, intonation, neck dive etc) but all the individual parts fit Musicmasters perfectly.

If you’re feeling brave and don’t mind paying shipping / taxes etc, Woodcraft in the US sell excellent replacement parts for Musicmaster basses. Their bridges and pickups are really good and should be an easy fit. Dealing with them can be a bit hit and miss at times but check out their replacement bridge, it’s nice: https://www.ampshopbassexchange.com/product/albridge-parts-mms18-vintage-bridge-for-musicmaster-short-scale-direct-replacement/ (No affiliation, I bought one of their Ampmaster basses a while back, wasn’t the smoothest transaction but the bass is great)

Bought an Aguilar compressor from Paul, all as described and sounding great, and just in time to be gigged this weekend. Thanks Paul!

Thanks Paul, it worked out well! Great to meet you both, hope you enjoyed the show.

editing this because it turns out I was shipped the wrong gauge set - problem is now hopefully solved

*edit: I'm deleting this comment because I was shipped the wrong gauge strings previously so it turns out I re-ordered the wrong set.

I have a recent set and they only have silk at the peg, and they do have the coloured ball ends. They all feel the same though, same level of rough/smooth across all strings.

Thanks, they look ok and the price is ok too. I'll see if they can give me any indication of weight.

I have an old P-bass which I'd like to bring back to life, it was my first Precision and I was fairly clueless when I bought it, but despite that I loved playing it for many years. It's supposed to be an '83 Fullerton re-issue, but in reality it's a random P body with Quarter Pounder pickups, with a legit '83 Fullerton neck on it. It is incredibly heavy (feels like over 14lbs), so I stopped playing it many years ago, but given that the body is a random very heavy chunk of questionable wood, I'd like to replace it and hopefully reduce some of the weight. So my question is - who makes a decent quality, relatively light, already finished Precision body? Doesn't have to be Fender, doesn't have to be chambered / super light (to avoid neck dive), just has to be better than the boat anchor the neck is currently attached to.

These are currently my favourite strings on a precision. They mellow out after a little while but they definitely are bright to begin with, give them around 2 weeks to mellow. They’re pretty stiff too, and a little rougher than other flats but that’s what I like about them.

I wonder if he ever sells anything at these prices, I had a look at the rest of his shop, there are some shockers on there.

Yeah I thought it was a 'touch on the optimistic side'. It has a couple of watchers, which means there must be some people out there thinking it's not completely crazy.

I saw a converted fretless '72 P neck on Reverb for what seems to me like an insane price, around £1.5K (link here). I have something similar which I was going to put up for sale at some point soon but I had a very different price to this in mind, I'm curious what people's thoughts are - to me it seems like this should be priced as anything else that's vintage but modded, but who knows.

The G&L Fallout is basically a Mustang with a humbucker, they might be worth a look if you like that sound.

Cool, let me know if you’re looking to move it on, it needs to go on a Precision so that might just work.

Hmm yeah that does seem a little sketchy. I chucked in a couple of offers on that neck on eBay, both rejected so I'm guessing the seller is expecting to get close to asking price. I suppose it does come with tuners but it is quite a high price. I looked at Warmoth too but by the time you include frets, nut and finish it ends up being more like $370, and that's before tax and shipping. Allparts is coming out on top at £260, but I'll need to factor in a proper set-up / fret dressing etc. All in all, it's gonna end up costing roughly between £400 - £500 whichever way I look at it!

If you have a moment, would you mind expanding on this a little bit please? Wondering what makes let's say a Warmoth neck better than an Allparts neck. I'm guessing fit / finish will be ok with most of those brands, so does it come down to fretwork, weight, overall feel? Or how close it feels to the real thing? Or is it reliability / stability? One thing I really like about USA Fender necks is that (in my experience anyway) they tend to be very stable, I very rarely have to adjust any of my USA necks unless I'm changing string brands - once they're set, they're set.

Having looked around, AllParts seems to be my best bet, they’re MIJ necks from what I can tell. I trust MIJ a bit more than MIM. I’d potentially be willing to fork out the extra for a USA neck with the F on it, but there doesn’t seem to be a maple one for sale anywhere and I have no idea what the difference in quality is actually likely to be between that and one of their MIM necks. Too much of a crapshoot.

Fair enough, looks like I’ll need to up my price. Maybe this is a supply problem too, most of that inventory says ‘no stock’. I’m guessing the issue with Fender’s site is similar, it looks like all they sell is mim necks but they’re more likely just out of stock on usa ones. In any case with 600 quid for a neck (especially once you include shipping and fretwork etc) it might be that buying a used usa fender starts to make more sense.

Hmm maybe I should add that the cost should be vaguely realistic (let's say up to £350ish?) and the neck should be available somewhere within reasonable shipping distance to the UK..

I’m looking for a replacement jazz neck for a USA Fender, and wondering if the necks available directly from Fender are any better than the alternatives that are available online (from places like Northwest Guitars etc). The replacement necks Fender sells are all made in Mexico, and I’m not sure how those compare to the necks on their USA basses - I’m guessing they’re the same but I don’t know what makes the necks on USA basses more ‘special’. Their prices are between £250-350, and they’ll need some fretwork and nut filing etc. Elsewhere, seemingly similar necks without the F logo are maybe £100 less than that. So let’s say you had a really great USA Fender, and you wanted the best possible replacement neck for it - what would you go for?

If you get a chance to try one, pls let us know what you think.

Yeah, really nice sounding duo for sure. I'm not 100% sold on that bridge pickup, it's really nice in that context but I think I'd prefer a single coil / J style pickup back there for the kind of stuff I play. I know there are a bunch of options for pickups, I think I'd configure them a little differently. Although that front pickup sounds nice, not as boomy as I expected.

Yeah looks like you're right! Wasn't aware of that (or him). Here's a video: