Jean-Luc Pickguard

nice! I have two of these in sunburst.

Yep - my JMJ is sublime, but then I'd been wanting a daphne blue mustang with lollipop tuners for ages so its pretty much perfect to me.

They should have all been plugged into amps turned up to eleven so the horrific death noises of all those geetars could have been recorded. Without a quirky angle to dictate the narrative its just wanton destruction.

sit on it?

That delay in being able to buy one is crazy, but not too dissimilar to the lengthy wait I had for the JMJ mustang and epiphone vintage pro thunderbird after they were originally announced. I suppose the initial stocks go to US customers first.

Definitely a cheapo copy. No way a USA Fender. Probably worth around £50-100 on a good day if the scribbles are removed.

I wonder whether hofner would still be selling their viola basses today if Paul McCartney had got his hands on a left handed Fender in Hamburg in 1961?

How about some pics? I used to have one a pink vista musicmaster. It was a cool little bass.

That's one more than I need

Have Fender found a secret stash of badass IIs or are they being made again?

It isn't a musical instrument - its a collector's piece. Any sold will probably never be played but will live in a glass cabinet.

My three favourite sets of flats are Fender 9050L stainless. Although a long scale set, I've only used these on my mustangs so far. They came as stock onthe JMJ mustang and I liked them so much I got a set for the CIJ mustang. They sound very punchy but they have more upper mids than I'd normally expect from flats. Thomastic JF-344 Jazz flats - I have these on my Precisions, Jazz and a few others. They start off a but zingy, but they mellow out and last forever. They are very low tension which I like and their flexibility makes them very comfy to play. LaBella 750T white nylon tapewounds - I have these on a Epi Vintage pro thunderbird and the equivalent short scale set on my Squier SS Jag. These feel like flats but live somewhere between rounds and flats tonewise and there's a greater range of control over the tone using the bass's tone controls. These are even more comfy to play than the TIs

Dopey git started with the neck blank upside down so the headstock came out the wrong way round. 😁

I'm pretty sure the hardware on the vintage pro is nickel plated rather than chrome.

I was looking to buy a really good compressor last year when I came across this thread and also read about similar experiences with the MXR pedal elsewhere. I would probably have bought one, but the prospect of it potentially failing & needing an expensive repair due to costs being cut in manufacturing put me off & I went for a TC spectracomp instead.

The vintage pro t-bird is a great bass - I currently have two of 'em, both sunburst although I think I'd quite like one of the white ones. I love the slim neck & the mighty tone they puts out. I also have a natural wax-finish pro-v five string epi t-bird, but although the neck is quite shallow front to back it is massively wide, and although it has active eq, the vintage pro beats it hands down on sound. The pickups in your pro-iv look rather rather unusual - what are they?

That looks great fun, especially to give as a present to someone eles's kids. I wonder whether they are still available.

The Tech 21 VT Bass does it for me

I’ve just though of another one - considering how fantastic the epiphone vintage pro thunderbird has turned out, a reissue of their own 60s rivoli bass is probably long overdue.

Well, the new thunderbird turned up and it could pass for a new one - there's not a mark on it. The case although superficially bearing a few battle scars is structurally sound as I hoped and there doesn't seem to be any rips that require attention. All in all not a bad purchase. It arrived when I had the house to myself and its rehearsal night tonight so its in the back of the car where the missus won't see it.

I keep several of mine inside my acoustic guitar

My favourite Rotosound endorsee is John Paul Jones, who was one of my first bass influences when I was a teenager.

Some materials will react with a laquer finish - I have a guitar stand with foam rests which reacted with a rattlecan finish I put on a bass - the affected areas weren't pretty.

Cheers - I looked at that one but I was put off by the description that warned that it wasn't suitable for instruments with a lacquer finish (like the JMJ mustang) Also it looks like it would be a very tight squeeze, I'd be worried that a knock to either end would transmit the force right through the bass rather than the case absorbing the shock.