HowieBass

There's a Jazz 5er for sale on here @ £350... http://basschat.co.uk/topic/231212-big-price-drop-1999-fender-5-string-jazz-bass-mint-fsft-l350/

I keep telling myself that I ought to visit the MBL some day but I'm frightened of what'll happen to my GAS... Happy new bass day!

If the pores are evenly spread throughout the end grain then it's alder (which is diffuse-porous). If the pores vary in size with larger pores visible in a ring then it's ash (which is ring-porous).

[quote name='BassBod' timestamp='1394398126' post='2391037'] No, not Pau Ferro. It was parraticolo or something like that..hence the parrot sh*t. Its about as hard as an ebony board, I suspect - but looks dark brown very much like rosewood. He's been playing (only) the same bass for over 25 years and it hasn't got much wear. [/quote] Cocobolo?

Just found this quote from Fender's own page http://www.fender.com/news/tech-talk-ash-and-alder/ "Like the majority of Fender instruments since 1956, this Standard series Precision Bass has an alder body."

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Jazz-Bass-Guitar-Made-in-Japan-excellent-condition-/281280425888?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item417d9eafa0 Seller states: [color=#333333][font=ProximaNovaRgRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=4]Fender Jazz Bass - '75 reissue made in Japan - serial number Q068218 (Dates it between 2002 and 2004).[/size][/font][/color]

On BBC Radio 4 recently, all about Auto-Tune http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01shwkq

Happy new bass day!

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My parents, mostly my mum, listened to Frank Sinatra, Sacha Distel, Johnny Mathis, Burt Bacharach, Herb Alpert, and musical and film soundtracks such as Paint Your Wagon. But equally important for me were TV theme tunes, such as those for the Gerry Anderson series (eg. Stingray, Thunderbirds, UFO) and the likes of Mission Impossible and The Man From Uncle... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwBW7EKfBac

Probably right as I think iTunes will just add content to your library.

I don't know what computer hardware you have but Google just threw this up http://download.cnet.com/PodTrans/3000-18546_4-75733600.html

Did I just spot a guy with a Squier bass in the studio?

Get a mate to help you tune up...

Looking at entries in the Wood Database website to my eye that end grain looks more like Red Alder http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/red-alder/ but others more knowledgeable than I will probably know better.

On the topic of what's actually happening with 'healthy' fret buzz, am I right in thinking that when a string's been plucked/struck there's momentary contact with the next fret along which adds some higher harmonic component to the actual played note?

If you're prepared to take the neck off I think (if it's a genuine Fender) that there ought to be a date stamp in the neck pocket and also the tone and volume pots will carry date stamps too, in which case choose the most recent of any date you find, assuming the pots are original to the body.

... and you've learned how to have fun setting up a bass to be just right for your playing style - given chance I'd probably be doing stuff like that every day LOL

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1394103620' post='2387907'] A pre-amps been added? There a no knobs? [/quote] Maybe the OP has seen the tone capacitor and mistaken that for something more than it actually is?

[quote name='ern500evo' timestamp='1394115315' post='2388077'] Well i did it! i got the tools needed together, sat down and watched a series of 4 short videos by John Carruthers and went for it!! Did the truss rod first, and immediately the buzz started disappearing,. Then followed his instructions and did saddles, checked intonation etc. Only thing i didn't have to do was the height at the nut, which i'm rather glad about because he might have looked confident filing away at a brand new bass but i wouldn't have been! Still going to keep practicing it on my OLP though, but both HowieBass and yourself are correct, i did sit there after thinking "Well that wasn't as bad as i thought"! [/quote] *High fives you*

This seems to be THE place for vintage/weird guitars and basses http://guitarz.blogspot.co.uk/ - send him the pics? From what I've read, the Kay/Satellite brand were likely from the same maker as the Silvertones, ie. Teisco?

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1394092714' post='2387760'] The neck looks to be seriously out of alignment judging by the strings. [/quote] I thought that too. In fact of the photos of this type of bass that I've seen around on the Net, many seem to share the same problem (slavish copying from some original badly constructed instrument?).

I love setting up instruments! I was probably a luthier in a previous existence

What happens if you sound the same notes on the D (15th fret) and the A (17th fret). Still the same buzz? If so then something is vibrating in resonance with the beat frequency note created by the two notes sounding together. I think (please correct me if I'm wrong anybody) that the frequencies of these two notes (F3 @174.6Hz and D3 @146.8Hz) are 27.8Hz apart which is the same as a low A (A0).

If it's buzzy all over the neck the saddles are probably a little too low for your playing style and raising them is simple (just do it say half a turn at a time until the fret buzz goes away). Checking intonation is again simple with a good tuner; tune the open string, then check the fretted note at the 12th, if the 12th is sharp the saddle needs to come back a little, if flat then the saddle needs to move forwards. I like to check the tuning higher up too until I have it pretty much perfect. And happy new bass day!