Rayman

Well I've got a US one coming, but of course it might not fit. I'll see how easily the paint will flake off first as I can see some flaking from the pictures of it. I don't fancy wire wool because I want to avoid swirls on the plastic after I've finished. Maybe acetone will do it, but obviously I want to avoind melting the guard in any way.

I will hopefully be taking delivery of an old Squier Precision in the next week or two, but the previous owner has painted the white pickguard with grey paint. Is there anything I can try to remove the paint without damaging the guard itself underneath?

First impressions of the Fleabass are as follows....(these are [i]my opinions[/i], others may disagree)....... [u]Pros[/u]: I like the design and colours offered, many don't, I do. Mine's the Blue/Orange "Water" bass. [i]For me[/i], out of the box with no adjustments, the setup is great. I like a medium action, not too low so I can pound the strings if I want, but not too high so that I can back off and groove in comfort too. The bass came exactly how I like it. It feels nice, good balance, plays well acoustically, slaps nicely, and there's little buzz. The frets feel fine to me, no sharp edges, and the nut's not bad. Fit and finish, the neck fits the pocket very snuggly, no shoddy paintwork that I can see on the body anywhere and the knobs feel pretty dependable. Cool gigbag with some nicely embroidered logos on the front, feels like around 10/15mm padding. [u]Cons[/u]: OK, so the tone is....unexciting shall we say, but only through the Tascam, I haven't had chance to play it through a rig yet. My favourite tone is with the tone pot set around halfway. It sounds more like a mid control than bass/treble though, maybe it is, I haven't read up on that yet. So there isn't a lot of top end sparkle, and the bottom end is lacking a bit. Fit and finish, I've seen worse, as mentioned before the truss recess is poorly finished, and the rear control plate isn't the cleanest fit. I like this bass, more than I thought. My wife bought it for me for Xmas, and I'm glad she did, I'm going to have fun with it. Upgrades will surely follow, firstly an EMG 35HZ, and maybe the EQ too, and I like brass nuts, so I'll have one of those too. Is it going to rival the Sadowsky at gigs? No, but it'll certainly come out for a couple of tunes, and I'll be perfectly proud to use it. I think these basses have had an unfair press on here. Some may be better than others, but the couple I've tried have been genuinely great. I think maybe they [i]are[/i] a bit expensive as I'd but them into the Epi Thunderbird, OLP Tony Levin kind of bracket (I've had both), and while I think the Thunderbird is a better bass for that money, I believe the Fleabass is not far behind, and [i]for me[/i] it's a better bass than the OLP was out of the box. A brand new bass really shouldn't need obvious upgrades, especially at this price, but the Fleabass really does need a better pickup, the stock pup is pretty lifeless, but the rest of the instrument is great IMO. I'm a 44 year old bloke with 30 years of playing on and off behind me, and I've owned/played a lot of decent gear, so I know what's good and what's crap. The Fleabass is not crap, but it needs further attention to detail and a keener price. If it was made in Japan maybe it'd be a cracking bass, but probably even more expensive. Get it [i]under[/i] £300 and it'd be a better option, and in fact I only paid a fraction over that for mine after looking around. The Fleabass is not for everyone, but [i]it is [/i]for me, and I'm going to have fun with it, that's if I can prize it out of my daughters hands. I'll give a few more details on sound and playability after I've rehearsed/gigged it.

I endorse McDonalds, but I'm still waiting for my freebies.

Dave Perry's your man, he's a slapper and loves narrow spacings. I personally have been slapping a 17mm Kinal and a 16mm Fernandes for a few months with no problem. It takes a little more acuracy and practice than with a wider spacing, but you soon get uesd to it. The Fernandes is for sale by the way .

Yeah, there's no way he'll use an off the shelf version of the Fleabass. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to getting mine tomorrow, and I'll be rehearsing with it a few days later, so I'll reserve judgement on upgrades until after then. If nothing else, it'll be a fun gig backup for the Sadowsky.

[quote name='OldGit' post='692167' date='Dec 23 2009, 10:41 AM']Hummmmmmm Not sure I want to do UB40 ones [/quote] my wife found a copy of the best of UB40 in my CD collection and filed for divorce the next day.

Too much Too Young by the Specials. Not exactly reggae, but it fills the floor every time. Excellent list from Rasta, that's given me some food for thought too.

Will a US pickguard fit my early 90s MIJ Squier Precision??

GUTTED!! I had no idea they were in Manchester last night....bugger.

I for one would be grateful for a sensible review of the bass, as the Mrs has bought me one for Xmas, and everybody else seems to be jumping on the "they're sh*t" bandwagon. Ok, there are QC issues, but how does it play/sound? I like pimping basses, so an EMG and a brass nut will surely go on mine anyway at some point anyway. The idea is to hand it on to my daughter in a handful of years when she's a bit older because she'd love one.

The annoying thing is, I need a white pickguard for my Japanese Precision, but I'm not sure a US plate will fit mine.

[quote name='solo4652' post='688752' date='Dec 18 2009, 10:02 PM']Yes, but to change the pickguard means I'll have to unscrew screws and suchlike. Massive undertaking for me, that.[/quote] Piece of cake mate, honestly, I'm useless at stuff like that too. Litteraly undo all the guard screws, undo the nuts that hold the two controls in, lift the plate off, put the new one on and screw it all back up again, really simple I promise. 10 minute job, and you'll be so glad you did it.

Post us some pics in the porn section when you have that black plate on it, I'll look forward to it. Every bass I've ever bought (and that's been quite a few I can tell you) has needed tweeks on the action etc, and your favourite strings always do the trick too. Black/maple Precision.....marvellous.

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='685724' date='Dec 15 2009, 09:14 PM']I'm sorry. Really I am. I feel like I've just outted myself in public. Definitely "The bass that taste forgot"![/quote] Mummy........[i]I'm scared[/i].