Fazley bargain

[police squad]

the description says the body is solid ash

[HeadlessBassist]

10 minutes ago, neepheid said:

From my NBD post about the Fazley "Hot Rod" bass

 

"Of course, the stock strings are hot garbage, thin, rougher than Rotos and went straight in the bin."

 

"The stock strings weren't giving the truss rod much to do - after I put my beloved D'addario XL nickel rounds on it, the neck was a banana and I had to tighten the truss rod three quarter turns!"

 

TL:DR - they're just awful, chuck 'em in the bin and put on your preferred strings - just be ready to have to tighten that truss rod!

 

That's standard operating procedure with all new basses - bin the stock strings and put something nice on. Always makes a huge difference.

[neepheid]

12 minutes ago, HeadlessBassist said:

 

That's standard operating procedure with all new basses - bin the stock strings and put something nice on. Always makes a huge difference.

 

Depends - quite a few basses come with D'addario XL nickel rounds as stock strings.  As these are my strings of choice, I'm ready to hit the ground running.  I'm not being lazy, I genuinely like the sound and feel of bog standard D'addarios and I feel very fortunate indeed, because they're relatively cheap, readily available and like I said, often come as standard equipment.

[Woodinblack]

36 minutes ago, neepheid said:

"The stock strings weren't giving the truss rod much to do - after I put my beloved D'addario XL nickel rounds on it, the neck was a banana and I had to tighten the truss rod three quarter turns!"

 

Just so happens i have a twin pack of D'Addario XLs on the table just over there!

[HeadlessBassist]

9 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Depends - quite a few basses come with D'addario XL nickel rounds as stock strings.  As these are my strings of choice, I'm ready to hit the ground running.  I'm not being lazy, I genuinely like the sound and feel of bog standard D'addarios and I feel very fortunate indeed, because they're relatively cheap, readily available and like I said, often come as standard equipment.

 

Agreed. If they're your brand and gauge, you're good to go. On most of my basses I usually slap on a set of 40-95 Elixirs (I like the long lasting rich tone and bendability). I recently picked up a shortscale 5-string Maruszczyk 'Mr.Tee' as a P/X which had the thickest set of flats I've seen, so they had to go.  I actually found a reasonably priced set of Ernie Ball 40-95 flatwounds and added a 35 gauge for the top C. A short setup later and it plays like butter.

 

Due to the bargain price of my own Fazley Judge Plus (aka. Kermit the Bass), I threw on a set of cheap Warwick Red Label strings that I got in the Black Friday sales. Bass £63. Strings £8. Reminds me of the cafe menus on Discworld;

Rat and beans 8p

Rat and ketchup 7p

Rat 4p”

“Why does ketchup cost almost as much as the rat?”

“Have you tried rat without ketchup?!"

[MichaelDean]

I also bought some cheap Warwick strings with mine but I'm yet to fit them. After whatever grime was on the stock D'Addarios had rubbed off on my fingers, they're quite nice. Just took a week of playing it. 

[MichaelDean]

2 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

I wonder how you'd feel if your £2k Ric turned up with frets like this 😀

 

Or when they were like this on the replacement sent the following week 🤣

 

Yikes. That looks like I did the fretwork 😅

[kodiakblair]

4 hours ago, police squad said:

what bass is this please? That's not very good is it, even for 60 quid

Both were brand spanking new $2.6k walnut Rickenbacker 4003s some fella on Talkbass got last December. First photo was the one he received on the 9th, 2nd photo the replacement delivered on the 16th.

 

I posted it in response to Michael's

 

"It isn't a perfect bass like you'd expect from a US Fender either."

 

Badly cut nuts and poor fret work are not exclusive to budget basses, you'll see both on any production line brand; even premium priced brands. I know those are Rics but Fender US can be just as bad; same for Gibson. 

[police squad]

15 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

Both were brand spanking new $2.6k walnut Rickenbacker 4003s some fella on Talkbass got last December. First photo was the one he received on the 9th, 2nd photo the replacement delivered on the 16th.

 

I posted it in response to Michael's

 

"It isn't a perfect bass like you'd expect from a US Fender either."

 

Badly cut nuts and poor fret work are not exclusive to budget basses, you'll see both on any production line brand; even premium priced brands. I know those are Rics but Fender US can be just as bad; same for Gibson. 

wow that is bad. It's almost like it's been done on purpose

it really isn't difficult to put a fret in a slot