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I have just bought a jazz bass


Geek99
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I will, but I'm baby sitting at moment and it's not the done thing

It needs a serious clean up, fret polish and Truss rod fettle as it's currently enjoying Jamerson degrees of neck relief. Got this case with it

http://s1149.photobucket.com/user/geek99/library/case
Has an orange tolex lining

If I ever decide to move it on, it will be listed here first for fans to get first refusal on

Edited by Geek99
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Met them and interviewed them in the late 90s/early noughties. Nice people.

Their music is a bit pedestrian - a kind of sanitized Massive Attack - but they rode the wave of 'trip hop' and probably garnered a lot of fans along the way.

But whatever. Nice to have a bass with a story behind it :D

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I bought several of their albums - nice "feel" to their sound though I found the singer's voice could get a bit too much when I listened to them for too long...fave track was probably "Trigger Hippy" as it didn't suffer from overplay like some of the tracks which ended up as adverts.

As Howie says, Big calm is as good a place as any to start - you'll know most of the album if you watch TV.

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It had more neck relief than I have ever thought possible. Leigh Gordon said to me "is that a lot of neck relief? I just play them".
After a fair few turns following a spell in a warm room, new strings and some TLC the neck is more where it should be. The body and neck (lemon oil) cleaned up nicely and the frets came up well with some duraglit.

The bridge seems a bit strange- normally on a BBOT the screw holes and strings holes are roughly alongside each other. Here the string holes are low and the screw holes are up high - this means that the saddles are angled down undeer string pressure and so setting intonation inevitably raises the action. It is however in the same state as the rest of the bass so I think its original. It has strat type knobs as many early Mex jazz basses do.

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I've just checked my Squier Active Deluxe Jazz and the saddle intonation adjustment screws and string hole locations look to be in the same place as the bridge on your Fender. All of the long saddle screws angle down slightly, with the G the most affected, the only difference is I set my saddles horizontal (the bridge has shallow channels for the saddle height screws to run in).

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[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1390254814' post='2343304']
I've just checked my Squier Active Deluxe Jazz and the saddle intonation adjustment screws and string hole locations look to be in the same place as the bridge on your Fender. All of the long saddle screws angle down slightly, with the G the most affected, the only difference is I set my saddles horizontal (the bridge has shallow channels for the saddle height screws to run in).
[/quote]
Ok but the screws are at a steep angle so I can't set them level
I'll measure my p bass strung length and set the jazz saddles to match as a rough start

Intonation is spot on though

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[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1390291673' post='2343540']
Ok but the screws are at a steep angle so I can't set them level
I'll measure my p bass strung length and set the jazz saddles to match as a rough start

Intonation is spot on though
[/quote]

I mean the saddles in the photos of your bass bridge have the saddle height adjustment screws set at unequal heights meaning the saddles themselves are not horizontal, maybe set that way to try to prevent sideways string movement (as I suspect the bridge baseplate doesn't have those shallow channels in it). This is my bridge...

[attachment=152899:DSCN0992 (small).jpg]

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I think it was actually to mimic the fingerbvaord radius.

I looked at my p bass and all the saddles are virtually in a line, so all strings amost exactly the same length. I havent changed it since the bass doc set it up.

I think though that if I move the jazz's saddles very much that although the action will change and become lower it will go out of intonation

The screws are definitely at a more extreme angle than my precision

Edited by Geek99
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I think the accepted wisdom is set the saddles horizontal rather than angled (as they have been on your bass in some attempt to match fingerboard radius) and in doing so get the action the height you prefer, then set intonation if needed (and small adjustments to get the intonation right will have only minor effect on the saddle height even if the intonation adjustment screw on which the saddle rides is at a bit of an angle). I realise it might be a bit of an iterative process homing in on correct intonation and saddle height, but for me that's almost enjoyable, knowing that I'm setting an instrument up to the best of my ability. :)

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