HowieBass

Good luck with the repair whatever route it goes - I genuinely hope it will become a great playing bass again!

Hi cameltoe - did you see my comment on the other post about the shim/truss rod issues? I noticed there's a luthier in London who looks to have one of those truss rod repair kits - I think he's still in business; try http://grahamparkerluthier.com/

I'm quite a fan of Cort built basses. Enjoy!

I'm pretty certain these are standard single coil pickups; it's just the EQ classed as 'active'. Not sure how much output these produce but I don't see why you couldn't wire them in a tradional 3 pot circuit as a VVT combination (but what do you do with the spare control holes?).

This bass is going to be a BEAUTY!

cameltoe, I've just been browsing online and there's a luthier in Lewisham, London who has that truss rod repair tool - stories here about truss rod repairs [url="http://grahamparkerluthier.com/tag/truss-rod/"]http://grahamparkerl.../tag/truss-rod/[/url] and links on his site so you can make contact if you think he can sort your bass out.

If you're happy with Cort build quality (assume you are with those Curbows - pretty certain the early Tanglewood Curbows are just rebadged Corts) then you might consider the Cort B4, similar layout to the Ibanez SR500 but about £90 cheaper (and I'd bet that Cort build those Ibanez instruments anyway). I've got a B4 fretless and am very happy with it.

That's some collection you've had! I've promised myself something special for the day I win several thousand on the Lottery (and of course half the fun will be trying a few hand-crafted instruments out) but I must say I've always wanted to get my hands on an original Greg Curbow bass. How long will it be until the Fodera arrives?

I've always rated Derek Forbes as a great player - I got into the band from Empires and Dance onwards; happily his bass was often up front on Simple Minds recordings.

I have a Vintage V900 bass off eBay (bought as a 'throw it in the back of the car' bass that I wouldn't worry about); it has a P/J pickup configuration. It also exhibited the same kind of hum problem. The control cavity has some shielding via conductive paint but it's clearly not as good as a decent full shielding with copper foil job. I thought I would just have to live with it and whilst tinkering with pickup heights whilst trying to balance the volume of the split P pickup at the neck to the J pickup at the bridge I screwed the P pickups down as far as they would go into the body (so that they're flat and NOT angled to match the string/neck radius) and strangely the hum has vanished! The only explanation I have for the change is that maybe the pickup holes are also shielded with conductive paint and most/all of the pickup coil is now surrounded by the body of the bass. Note that I haven't noticed any major diminution of volume by increasing the string to pickup distance.

I'm really sorry to hear this when it seemed to me that you might have had enough relief but just incorrect neck angle because of the shim. I guess that now you've got to get the bass to a luthier they will make a decision on whether to retain the shim or not. Best of luck with getting it sorted.

Precision then? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwNQosbDLVM

I'm always happy to see a Westone come back to life!

Ahhhhh, well now knowing something of your joint capabilities you might have quite a bit of fun with that body - time to start a build diary eh?!

... don't forget the flatwounds

[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1388842865' post='2326707'] And not being funny it would be a shedload cheaper just to buy a bass like this in good condition you can pick them up complete on ebay for about £100 and it will cost a lot more to buy the parts to do your bass up even if you can source 2nd hand parts [/quote] +1 save yourself a load of bother and buy a decent secondhand instrument

I imagine factory shims are there because the neck + pocket geometry isn't quite right for that instrument but the location with yours is causing the neck to angle back and is probably causing the issues you've encountered. It won't do any harm to remove the shim and you seem to know what you're doing with setting it up... bear in mind it's a Squier so it probably won't have been given the fullest of attention when first set-up after assembly and the shim might be unnecessary for how you like a bass to be set up.

The fact that you're now getting fret buzz might be due to the absence of the shim. Was it at the front of the neck pocket? I've raised the neck on my Curbow 5 because my bridge saddles were bottomed out and the action was too high but I used a full neck pocket shim - a shim just at the front of the neck pocket will angle the neck up a little which might be what you need.

I can't offer any opinion on resale value (and maybe nobody else can either if the Squier VI is a new model to the range) so I'd ask these questions; which feels nicer to play; which sounds better; which suits your current and future musical ideas best?

The third screw (when loosened) allows you to move the grooved saddle roller from side to side so you can adjust string spacing. I've got the same type of bridge on my B4FL.

How about a pickguard in something like a cream/pale yellow to match the binding and the maple fingerboard?

Both the Vintage Modified Jazz and the Deluxe Jazz Active basses get good reviews - I've got the latter as a 4 string version and am very happy with it - the 3 band EQ plus slap switch offer bags of potential for varied tones.

I have a bad habit of gear spotting too but at least it took my mind off the less than stellar performances aired last night.

I immediately thought of the Red Hot Chili Peppers as a funk rock band... more examples named here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funk_rock

I've seen lots of good reviews for the Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz and it comes with an ebonol (hard synthetic) fingerboard so it won't wear (as ebony would) even if you decide to use roundwounds, plus it's lined which will help with correct intonation [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVP7EEl8HfE[/media] I've also seen some good reviews of the Vintage Icon V96 which is a 'distressed' Jazz version that tries to emulate Jaco's bass with a more conventional lined fingerboard but note that the board isn't epoxy coated so you'll have to run flats to avoid undue wear (note on this second YouTube clip that the bass is being run through effects; fretless sounds lovely with a little chorus and reverb) [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQlys9ooGZI[/media]