Jean-Luc Pickguard

Alright then — https://reverb.com/uk/item/63044138-fender-mustang-bass-1971 (the price was lower in the shop) When I was there yesterday a couple of chaps came in, one looking very much like Matt Berry. He saw the mustang sitting in its open case and said "That is a thing of beauty" In a perfectly modulated rich baritone voice. I told him about the bass and he expressed that he'd be more interested in a 1974 one so I showed him where they have a similar '74 mustang hanging on the wall. And that is how I met Matt Berry.

There’s no problem with the neck joint — that was nice & snug. The pickguard is a bit off though as can be seen in the pics.

I was able to give the truss rod a tweak to decrease the relief using my stewmac tool (without taking the neck off) and it didn't feel any different to a normal truss rod, so I think it is probably okay functionally, however I just don't know enough about what is inside the neck causing the ajustment nut to be recessed so much. My main reason to return the bass was actually that it was listed as a 1971 mustang, but the serial number indicated that it was not quite that old, and there were other clues to back this up. I believe this was a genuine mistake, and the shop owner did seem genuinely concerned that I had been let down, so I won't name the shop publicly. It is a terrific bass otherwise — certainly on a par with my perfectly set-up twin JMJ mustangs, but with a lighter swamp ash body and some good-looking genuine mojo.

+1 for hiscox

The bass has been returned for a full refund.

Rotten Roostersuckers' ball - The Clovers

Sam Cooke - The Coffee Song

I'm more concerned about what has caused it to be so deep in the hole - eg compression of the wood at the end and it if might break down further in time. In my experience chromes or similar strings on a mustang or musicmaster wouldn't normally pull enough relief into the neck for the truss rod to require being tightened to any great extent to counteract it.

It’s a 1971 Fender mustang - it wasn’t cheap!

On arriving home yesterday with a rather expensive acquisition, I gave it a close inspection and found that the truss rod adjustment nut is buried inside its aperture by about 5mm. The action and relief are okay at the moment so no immediate adjustment is needed. I haven't attempted to adjust the truss rod so I don't know whether it functions. I would normally use a StewMac truss rod crank (see below) on this type of bass, but I don't think it would even fit in this one. Should I be worried about this? Should I be thinking about taking it back? — and if so is this a valid reason to ask for a refund?

When wanted to reshape a Harley Benton HB-50 headstock to resemble a telebass I traced out the required shape in sharpie onto masking tape stuck to the headstock and my pal who has a better equipped toolbox than me used an angle grinder with a velcro sanding pad and various grades of abrasive disc to first get close to the line and then to finesse the shape. Then I did a bit of hand sanding to get a good finish.

I have an ebony board on the bitzer fretless precision I built around a brandoni body & neck, and also an ebony board on my NS-Design CR5M upright. both sound great in their own way when they are set up perfectly, but I wouldn't be put off by ebanol, engineered wood or other alternative material as long as I can set it up properly.

Can't You See - Mary Wells

Here come the nice - Small Faces

Vibrator - Motorhead

I'm Stealing the Towels - Frank Zappa

Jockey Full of Bourbons - Tom Waits

Everyone boiling strings in water is doing it wrong. You need to boil them in pure isopropyl alcohol. That freshens them up a treat. If you don't have any isopropyl alcohol, petrol is probably just as good, but doesn't taste as good when you drink it after.

I got kinda lost - Chris Bell

Zero The Hero And The Witch's Spell - Gong

Take this bread - The Felice Brothers

Inflation Blues - B.B. King

Bearded Cats - Renaldo & the Loaf

I saw a video from NAM where new stuff from Ernie Ball was mentioned including short scale cobalt flatwound bass strings. This was almost mentioned in passing and no further information was given. I've looked on the EB website for more info and tried googling but I'm non the wiser. Has anyone heard anything about these? — eg are these 30" or 32" so they'll fit a mustang? I've recently fitted all four of my mustangs with chromes, but I have Cobalt flats on my thunderbirds and if they are available for mustangs I might have to repeat the process again.