Jono Bolton

Does that include JVs? SQs? Silver Series? Vistas? Classic Vibes? Or are you just following the belief that if its says 'Squier' on the headstock, it must be crap?

I saw a Squier Matt Freeman P Bass on ebay for over a grand from a seller in Japan.

There's one on here I've looked at quite a few times and would probably have bought a while ago were it not priced about £200 more than the going rate.

I've been conditioned by Fender to think their's is the only correct headstock shape, but I've grown to accept that others are nice in their own right. I really don't like Pau Ferro and Laurel fretboards; they're too pale and "grainy" in most cases. I prefer darker, closer-grained fretboards.

I used to play in a band that tuned to C#. I used the bottom 4 strings from a 5 string set; I think the low string was .130 and had no issues at all.

Bought a Squier Classic Vibe Precision Bass from Phil. He was incredibly helpful throughout, answering all my questions and taking very detailed photos to show off any blemishes. Posted when he said he would and was generally a very nice chap to deal with. Thank you once again Phil, much appreciated.

www.google.com

Good to see the end result, I've been thinking about picking one of these up for a while.

All resolved now. Rotating the socket didn't make a difference, so I'm not quite sure what was causing it to short; possibly one of the lugs on the jack was making a connection with the wall of the cavity. I've lined the tail of the cavity around the jack with electrical tape, including the floor of the cavity, so there is zero chance of it shorting anywhere. I'm not sure what's happened for it to start shorting, it wasn't an issue before. I'm not really sure why the jack on a P Bass is so close to the edge of the cavity; there's minimal clearance in there which could be remedied by the hole for the jack being moved a few mm closer to the tone pot. An email is currently winging it's way to Fender's R&D dept.

Cheers, that was my first thought but it wasn't an issue before. The jack socket is firmly secured, so I don't think it would have turned at any point. I added some additional tape around the jack spring so that any part that potentially could have made contact with the cavity should be protected. I'll try and rotate the jack 180° and see if that works.

I plugged my bass into my amp for the first time in ages today, and noticed that the signal was crackling and cutting out. After checking the usual suspects (lead, amp head), I worked out that the jack was the culprit; if I moved the lead around the signal would cut in and out. I thought that the jack was possibly touching the cavity and causing it to short, but when I opened it up the jack "arm" has electrical tape on it. I checked the position of the jack in the cavity and screwed the scratchplate back on, but when I plugged my bass into the amp, there was no output. If I listened closely I could hear a vague hint of a signal, and when I turned the amp up, the volume of the signal didn't increase by much, and was soon drowned out by the hum of the amp. If I hold the jack in the socket without pushing it all the way in, I can get the full signal, but when I push it in until it clicks, the signal drops again. Any thoughts on what it could be?

That looks like it neck-dive a lot. I like it though.

Its actually for a Jazzmaster, but I thought I'd ask on here if anyone knew where to get one made up. I had one made for a P Bass by the Bass Doc many moons ago.

Does anyone have a recommendation for somewhere to get a proper celluloid pickguard made? I find a lot of the "cheaper" printed ones look a bit flat.

It's possible they're designed to accommodate through-body stringing, which is why the string doesn't taper where it meets the post. The Fender flats are the same; on the E string, it makes almost a full wrap of the tuner post before it starts to taper. I find it odd that the JMJ Mustang comes with Fender flats as standard if the E is too long for a 34" scale bass, given that the Mustang is a short scale bass. On the Dunlops, I've had mine on a week, and I'm very happy with them. They’re far smoother than the Fenders, and although some of the Dunlops are a heavier gauge than the Fenders (45-105 vs 50-100), the flexibility makes them feel a lot lighter.