HowieBass

I understand that setting up a bass is a very personal thing done to suit an owner's preference, which is why I always do my own; I know that setting the neck relief (using a string as a straight edge) takes no account of the neck angle and I wonder if tilting the neck back using the shim could cause the fret buzz issues you're hearing?

Great looking bass, love the figuring with the growth rings (?) seeming to radiate out from the end of the fingerboard

Re shimming the neck and the action; did you run out of adjustment on the saddle height screws? I'm a little puzzled why you shim the necks on all of your basses unless the saddles won't go any lower. It's a lovely looking bass anyway, I like the colour!

What's the acoustic like? Is it salvageable as a playable instrument?

Though I've never seen or handled one there are several Basschat members who own and sing the praises of Limelight built to order Fender-alike basses. I believe these are usually reliced to look and feel like old instruments and have the exact specification of the real thing. In addition I seem to remember that Limelight also sell old original basses. A Limelight would be a lot cheaper than a Fender CS.

I like the Ziricote because it's more obvious that it's a bookmatched pair whereas the Macassar isn't quite so clearly defined as such.

This will come across as total pedantry on my behalf but I really wish they'd stop calling this type of image a hologram because it isn't one; it's a modern version of the Pepper's Ghost illusion. *physicist type rant over*

Mmm that Pino-alike RPB-65 is ticking a few boxes for me. Just as well they don't offer a Stingray clone LOL

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1416776277' post='2613520'] Are those saddles original? I'm getting vertigo looking at them. If they were shorter - and there's enough drop on the pickups then the short shim could work. [/quote] Looking at this article which features reviews of the Overwater Inspiration 5-String and the Overwater by Tanglewood Aspiration Elite 4-String, the bridge saddles look just the same, particularly so with the Aspiration's bridge http://www.tanglewoodguitars.co.uk/images/reviews/2012/075_BASS_APR12_TO4Z+OW.pdf

Solid floors won't resonate so strictly speaking there's no need to isolate the combo from the floor. I'd say trust your ears next time and only use your isolation pad when you can hear any adverse booming.

Assuming the bass plays well now then the neck to body geometry is in good alignment and that's with the full neck pocket shim. Partial shims will alter the neck to body alignment and will necessitate changing the neck relief with no guarantee the bass will play as well afterwards. The best solution is to remove the shim and rout the body with a shallow recess to drop the bridge into, with the rout about as deep as the thickness of the shim. All in my humble opinion of course...

Nice video, I always wondered how he got his sound

Skank, I think he was referring to the "Frills, gussets, elastic" that you're into...

I'd bet the shim is just held in place by the neck/screws so could be easily removed but you'd then probably ruin the action. As others have said it's been done well. Are the saddles near to the end of their height adjustment, in other words almost bottoming out? I bought a second hand Tanglewood (Cort) Curbow 5 and had to insert a full pocket shim to get the action down to an acceptable level for the G and B strings because the saddles wouldn't go any lower (the shim I put in hasn't compromised the neck to body joint rigidity). If the saddles won't go any lower then you need the shim to raise the neck. As others have said a luthier could plane the end of the neck to match the body or perhaps rout a shallow inset for the bridge allowing you to remove the shim and then be able to use the saddle height adjustment screws as usual.

Not keen; the weakest link for me is the vocals. I'm sure Michigan Avenue do just fine entertaining the punters in a pub but I wouldn't make a special trip to see them. I notice they're from your area bubinga5, are you connected with them?

The wobbling bass sound you describe sounds like something resonating but since you have the rig on a solid floor (concrete? stone?) I suppose it isn't the floor itself, though maybe you could try raising the rig to see if that helps. I wonder if when you turn the amp up are you simply drowning out what might be resonating? I used to rehearse in a large hall at one time and even with a 120 watt amp I could play certain notes and get the ceiling mounted hot air ducting to resonate alongside the drummer's snare. The deep bottom end you say you prefer might not be helping matters either, maybe try backing off the lows a bit to see if that helps?

The pickup isn't 'seeing' that part of the string vibrating between the nut and where you're fretting it, you might hear some noise but that shouldn't colour what's coming out of your amp. As for the speaking length of the string; the right amount of relief ensures there's no fret buzz at either the nut or body end of the neck - if you have it too flat you'll probably have to have a higher action than necessary to get rid of fret buzz near the nut, too much relief and you'll get fret buzz at the dusty end. If you have a minute gap between the string and the first fret when you hold the string down at the third fret then that to me sounds like a properly cut nut.

I don't think there's much, if any variation with Jazz necks (unlike Precisions), they all seem to be 38.1mm at the nut though I can't comment on thicknesses/profile further along.

Are you certain it's just the neck that's the factor here because, although I've never owned a Ibanez, from what I know the bodies are somewhat more compact with a very different shape than that of a P bass. The VM neck on your bass (assuming it's a Squier) is 41.3mm wide at the nut (which is already a bit slimmer than a traditional P bass) whereas a Jazz comes in at about 38mm. A Jazz neck certainly does feel slimmer and it might well be just what you need - I seem to be one of those who adapts to pretty much any neck profile, string spacing and string gauge without any trouble so I can't really say if a Jazz neck will work for you; I suggest you go try one in a shop or find a fellow BCer with a Jazz bass living near where you are?

I like the look of that, the black hardware really suits the body colour.

I can't see how the bridge pickup would affect the tone. I have an old Westone that's a super PJ; it has a 3-way selector switch, different than a blend pot I know, but when I compared it to my Squier VM Precision (with roundwounds on both instruments) they came out sounding very alike indeed in spite of the differences in pickups (the Westone has a Magnabass II pickup with pole pieces in a conventional P bass pattern). I certainly hear no influence from the bridge pickup on the Westone when the neck pickup is selected anyway.

Bowie does film noir thriller theme tune with sixth form level lyrics shocker...

You don't need any frets at all to get harmonics since you're touching the string with the fretting hand at the appropriate position for the harmonic rather than holding it down against a fret - you can get harmonics on a fretless bass (and slide them along a string too when you know how). AFAIK having the frets levelled/dressed will allow for a slightly lower action; it depends how bad the original fret dressing was at the factory. I've got two Squiers and have no complaints whatsoever. Finding the open string harmonics is all about accuracy; after which you have the technique of false harmonics... (which I've yet to master!).

To my knowledge there's no authorised service centre in the UK; gear bought new would have been covered by returning to the retailer if problems developed; I think it would have been dealt with via the Fender network. You would probably have to find a decent amp technician for getting secondhand/old gear fixed but having said that I believe Genz Benz is pretty reliable so unless it's been abused you're probably only looking at eventually replacing valves where appropriate. Hopefully other Genz Benz owners on here can add their views.

I can't see that your fretting hand is going to notice much difference (in terms of how much pressure you need) if you raise the action a little with the E string. I reckon you'll be raising it much less than a 1/64" (by the way I've got my action the same with both rounds and flats on my basses where I adopt Fender's recommendations, 6/64" for the E and 5/64" for the G at the 17th fret).