biro

Looking good! May I ask you where you sourced the piezo bridge? Thanks!

I sold @Clarky a Jazz Bass I am very fond of in the easiest of transactions. Excellent communications and experience. 10/10 would do it again.

Thanks guys, this is very useful! It is exactly how it has been put—I thought I was going insane, as I had a very distinct memory of piezo bridges of dubious origin being readily available on eBay for decent prices. Not anymore, it appears. Well, I will hunt around or take a look at the Graphtec offerings...

Assume I am a heathen and I want to put a piezo bridge on a my Jazz Bass. Where do I even start? I remember that, a decade ago or so, it was quite easy to find spare piezo bridges. At the moment, it seems you can only go Graphtech, which I am sure are great, but a bit impractical in terms of accessibility. Is there anything in EU / UK, cheap and cheerful preferred? 4 and 5 string options would be great. (BTW, I have discovered that individual, monorail style ones might be an idea for my Ibanez basses since they are available from the manufacturer, but I don't need piezo on those.) Thanks!

I have used credit card shims in several instruments. Bear in mind that the alternative is generally sandpaper. What should worry you is not the loss of sustain (I'd be surprised if this could be a factor), but rather the potential for the neck to develop a ski jump. See here: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/getting-the-facts-about-ski-jumps.1111265/ The short answer is that if your neck is made decently, there should be no risks. That said, I would recommend that you cut the credit card properly and you fit it more or less precisely at the bottom of the neck pocket, so as to make sure that it won't shift if you have to remove the neck and so on.

So, in the end this bass is quite something. It's a thing of beauty and it really makes me think that it was so simple all along: just make a passive 5 string jazz bass with 24 frets, that's really it.

I'd say the quality is really the same. The pick up must be somewhat different on paper, but in practice I they struck me as essentially the same.

If it's of any help, I did not find the tonal difference in slapping on a 24 fret rather than on a 20 fret to be nearly as marked as I had expected. I owned two V7s (first generation and second generation) and they were both very nice, the second being spectacular with an almost birdseye maple fretboard. Quality-wise, I think we're the V5 is up there.

Ok, so: I am still a bit on the fence as to whether or not I am going to keep it, but I am leaning towards the affirmative. Overall, it plays wonderfully—it is just a question of whether or not I can get on with the concept of a 24 fret jazz bass, which I love in principle and feel weird about in practice. Fit and finish is great—not entirely flawless, but great. Fretwork is stellar, except perhaps the 24th fret is slightly higher than I'd like it to be. But I play with a ridiculously low action (just a hair over 1mm on the G at the 24th fret), so I would be surprised if this was an issue for anybody else. Nut a bit high (again, ridiculous action for me), and the truss rod works like a charm. The metal pickguard is a nice addition and feels nice to the touch. Tonally, it is definitely a Jazz Bass, very close to my Jazz bass with CS pick ups. This feels a little less airy and perhaps more organic. It feels as if there are more mids and bass. Judging by some lazy playing over backing tracks, it sits in a mix beautifully and has a nice woody, throaty tone on the bridge pick up soloed. The neck pick up soloed is nice and creamy with the tone rolled off, nice and gritty when you open it up and summon your inner Geddy. The tone control is not as continuous as that in my Fender US Pro, but does the job nicely. The B string sounds great. No complaints whatsoever. As to the bass itself, it appears to me to have been built very well. It is ever so slightly neck-heavy, but no more than most other 5 string Js I have tried. With a leather strap, I did not feel that at all. For me, it sits in a territory between my Soundgears and my Fenders. I like to think that I am a Jazz Bass kind of person, and to see the Soundgear as the evolution of that philosophy. This is much more traditional and closer to the inspiration, and works extremely well for whatever situation may call for 24 frets and a 5 string.

Not quite on / off, but definitely less taper than my Am Pro I. BTW, I think if I keep it I might drop a stingray pick up between the J pick ups and get myself a poor man's Atelier Z.