SeanNeedham

Probably a bit late to the party, but this afternoon I was down at the local music shop for a business meet and they'd got a 425 in there, and I was noodling about on it and I was absolutely blown away by it; pretty much the same reaction as Delberthot above, it just offered so much in terms of control and it felt spot on. If it wasn't for the fact I was meeting the other half to be dragged around shops afterwards to look at things she wasn't planning on buying, I could have easily had it follow me home. I've tried a few Yamahas of late (a 424, a 1024 and then this 425), alongside the Fenders I'm more used to and every one I've tried feel more "right" than what I'm currently working with. I can't believe I've discounted them as an option for so long.

My main bass type for nearly all of my playing has been a Jazz. First Jazz what I got was a Squier (Japan) E that had been badly abused, so after putting that back together, sticking in a set of Duncans (don't know what model, they were in a box of bits in a music shop), that became my primary instrument. Alongside it came and went other Jazz basses (the neck never felt quite right compared to the Squier), a Stingray, a Peavey Cirrus 5, a couple of Precisions... And then one night someone "borrowed" it as we were packing up after a gig. Currently I've got a 2005 Mexican V that I've a love/hate relationship with (it seems to be a damage magnet, usually when I'm not about and others "haven't touched"), and its neck is an absolute pain to keep a decent action with during the summer months.

[quote name='mal2404' timestamp='1440939382' post='2854836'] Great, thanks. Love the "it just came out spot-on"! It's giving me lots of confidence with these basses, just that there is now soooooo.... much choice on the website [/quote] You should check out some of the stuff Adrian puts up on the Facebook page then! Whilst the website is some great eye-candy, the FB has some really great interpretations following on from the stock basses for other clients (and sometimes some sound samples as well).

I used to run a pair of near identical Jazz, one in EADG and the other BEAD and the only real issue I found working that way was momentarily forgetting which bass I'd got in the hands (though that could have been relative to beer) and getting odd scowls from the keyboard player for being "out". Everything else was pretty straight forward, just as said above, minor tweaks in intonation and neck as well as swapping the nut to accommodate the heavier strings.

USB powered hand warmer and a charging block for a mobile. Did some subbing on the bass last year at the end of an outdoor festival up in the Pyrenees in August (basically was anyone who could rattle a tune out got a turn as the crowd didn't want to go home) at 5am. When things were being set up during the afternoon previous it was 32ºC, when we were finishing off it was 4ºC with a 90% humidity!

I've been thinking on with this, and in relation to what Norris said (and also scratching a bit around on some paper to get an idea of the architecture of the beast) it may be a bit of an uphill struggle for a "learner" project (not including data for populating the tables!), and with being an online resource Python may not be the best choice. As it is, in simplistic terms what I've pulled up would be the db itself, a secure administration area (as you'd only want trusted members to modify database entries, and it'd be a pain in the danglers doing something like this through phpMyAdmin) but also maybe something where the end user can submit data on their instruments, then the search system itself (which I'd modularise to accommodate only specific relationships as it'd be a lot lighter on the code instead of trying to build a search everything model), as well as perhaps full information reference pages for each major component, then being able to package this up in a way that the end point user expects to work (in design of something like this, the old adage of "Make something idiot-proof and they will design a better idiot" comes to mind) and display on whatever device is being used to access the system. I don't want to sound like I'm putting a dampener on it, but from personal experience it's not going to be an easy build and I wouldn't want to see you getting to the position of it having an adverse effect on what you are wanting to achieve in the long term with the languages you are looking at working with. I'd probably approach this idea as a "long term" project goal and build little projects to start with and from each of them when you've completed them look at what works, what experience you've gained on them and then in a year or so come back to this and it'd be clearer to see where them little nuggets would fit in to the overall aspect.

Long term gas, that's a Fender Roscoe Beck 4. Fell in love with them many, many years ago and never had the money when one has come up. Short term is either a custom Maruszczyk (though I suppose that could be built to similar spec as the above) and the other is a carbon neck Status 4 string as the current (and previous) Fender basses where I live now are all over in terms of neck given the climate.

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1440759007' post='2853546'] Argh, I'm jealous, I'm mostly spec'd up but am making myself wait to pay the deposit [/quote] Ditto, same situation...

It's always cool to get up close with other players on any level, a very interesting and educational experience; can really alter self-perspective as well. As for sharing bass duties with Paul Turner, I don't know what I'd be doing in the position either feeling very humbled or bricking it!

Only thing that really makes me go "bleurgh" is split coils on a five string, anything else doesn't really bother me as long as the instrument feels right.

Depends on what sort of search you'd be planning to use, because just to find dimensions of something simple tabular data would work. If you were taking it more in depth like X body has a neck pocket of Y and A, B, C necks would fit in to that, then it'd probably be more worthwhile to create a database and application over the top. A bit of advice on this before you start looking at your data storage, and even the language used to retrieve/insert that data, make a pot of brew and sit down with a notepad and pen and decide clearly what you want the end point to be and how much you are wanting it to do. Once you have that down it'd make it a lot easier a decision to what you need to do to get there and a lot less work in the construction phase.

Thanks all, that's put the mind at ease a bit as it's the first neck job I've been faced with. [quote name='3below' timestamp='1440414752' post='2850393'] There are also metal inserts that can be inserted into the holes. You can then use machine screws (bolts) to fix the neck. [url="http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/2011/04/11/how-to-fit-the-threaded-insert-neck-kit/"]http://www.mancheste...nsert-neck-kit/[/url] [/quote] That looks a good option, might have to have a look with that as this bass needs about a half a mm shim at the body end of the pocket so the head is thinking two birds with one stone here.

Over the weekend, an impatient hired hand moved my Jazz V and for reasons I've still not fathomed separated the neck from the body and the only thing I can see that's taken any damage is the screw holes in the heel of the neck being stripped out. With that the in house accountant says I can buy a replacement bass, and when things have died down and insurance has had a look I'm going to give it a crack at repairing it if that's possible. In this, the way I was thinking about doing so would be to open out the screw holes with a drill/file then plug and glue with dowel, re-pilot them and put in new neck fixing screws. Is that a good way to go about it or is there a better way that I'm overlooking here?

That's one sweet looking/sounding bass! The more I see, hear and try out Maruszcyzk stuff, the more I'm drifting to one as my next bass... Problem is when compared to other manufacturers is there's so many available options (even just from stock) at prices that make Fender Mexican look expensive that it's a hard job trying to decide on what way to jump.

Very nice, I'm not really a fan of block markers but with the matched whites on that they do work very well. I've been seriously considering one as my next bass, but not had chance to get hands on with one (yet, but talking to a bassist I work with regularly, I don't think it'd be too long!).