Azureglo Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 (edited) Strange clear bubbling appeared on the headstock one week after purchase, perhaps it didn’t take to rainy Dublin’s "soft days"? Fender UK (or whatever they were then) offered a replacement or £100 credit which, on a £375 purchase, seemed very generous to me... I wonder what became of Eugene and the other fine fellas who worked there, last time I was in Dub, the place was occupied by an artisan cheese shop This has been on the long finger since I sprayed the body back in 2022. It was to salvage a Fender Mexico fretless Jazz bass I bought new in Dublin back in 1998 for a job, played once and was consigned to the gig bag till 2022. I just found the weight and size of the Jazz body cumbersome but always liked the neck. Wasn’t a fan of the lurid metallic aubergine or whatever this colour is, either. But it was cheap and in stock and the session was a week away… The plan was to get a lightweight Precision body, repurpose the neck, bridge pickup, hardware then add a US Precison pickup and thus get a more useable instrument by recycling. The MIM body I'm sure will make a collector of lurid purple basses very happy. Body sourced was a 2 piece alder one from Guitarbuild in the UK that was on sale for a measly £95 delivered. I sealed it then sprayed it with 1K automotive clear that the mobile repairers use as its way less toxic that the 2K version. I cut it with Menzerna fine and then just hand polished with a microfibre cloth as I wanted a more subdued gloss than the mirror shines that are prevalent . Pickups are a Fender US P and Tonerider J: I was hoping to use the MIM bridge from the donor but it was larger than a stock US version for reasons only known to FMIC. The J bridge is more a tonal addition that I use subtly to bring forward the “singing” tonality on a fretless so not really bothered by its provenance. Lovely original 1998 lined fretless Jazz neck, did they use rosewood? Who knows? Who cares? Not me. Stock 250K CTS pots but a mini required for the tone control required due to tight clearance in the cavity. Capacitor is a Russian NOS 0.05 that I have large box of. Setup is Vol/Vol/Master Tone but I have a bass “warmth” control in the spares box ( 5 way rotary with multiple cap values not a “choke” like the Gibson Varitone) so might rewire this later this year with dual concentrics for each pickup and said “warmth” control . Right now it’s needed for an urgent job so “Less is better” as Dieter Rams tells us. Strings are 26 year-old ? gauge Fender flatwounds that it came with in 1998. Should be nicely broken in by now. Bridge/saddles are the original MIM items, polished with Solvol chrome polish. It works fine so keeping it. I hear a lot of stuff about high mass bridges etc, but when I listen to James Jamerson, he sounded ok with a stock Fender bridge so if it’ was good enough for him… Side jack with real Electrosocket/switchcraft components for reliability. My instruments daily go on paying jobs so any snap, crackle and pop is strictly reserved for the cereal bowl. Note remedial work required after brilliant idea of driiling a pilot hole for the Fortsner bit turned out to be not so brilliant. Easy fix though and who looks at the bottom of my bass on a session? 8.75 lbs is not a featherweight compared to my 6.3lb Limba Tele but a vast improvement over the MIM orginal's 13lbs. Action is a little high but will work on that later as I need to source the the 3/16" Allen key these MIMs use so just shimmed with 1 degree shim to get the action a bit lower but this appears much less critical on a fretless from what I can hear. Cosmetically it transports me straight back to my teens in the mid-70s when everything was natural wood. I like the look of wood so might make another fretted one if I can pick up a nice slim Squier CV Jazz neck at reasonable cost. This one would have just a control cavity cover like the Musicman/G&L/CLF control plates. If the G&L version doesn’t fit, it’s easy enough to cut down a stock black Precision pickguard. I rather think the large expanse of wood grain would be quite fetching. That said, it’s already being put to use on a track we’re getting ready for TikTok, cheesey UK garage anyone? So a pleasant afternoons work and a nice inexpensive way repurposing of a closet queen into working instrument and one that brings back happy memories of the the stripped 1970s Fenders I started my session career with, back in the err, 70s’… Edited January 21 by Azureglo 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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