Hellzero

First of all, all shieldings wherever they are must be grounded otherwise it's useless. Don't forget to shield the pickup(s) cavity too and star ground it. All the wires going to earth have to be star grounded including the wire coming from the bridge. Star grounding simply means that all these wires come to a single point, here, for example, in the control cavity on the copper. Is it clear enough? Do you understand the rest of the diagram?

Quite easy, but harder to explain to a 5 years old kid, but I'll try. I'm on my third coffee, so it will help.

Can you show that diagram?

Or even more... but, all considered, it's almost the entry price of a Fodera...

In fact, the preamp you had was a boost only model, so no center detent here as it starts flat at the zero position, and there are plenty, not only by John East. Sometimes, reading the manual helps a lot. 😉

Typical from the Dobbratz brothers. 🤣

No charges on gifts but you'll need to put a value on the CN23 (or CN22) as 0 is not accepted, so it needs to be 1. Customs can be very binary. 🤣

Already looks gorgeous. 😍

Yep, 3 gear boxes in a row for my ugly Talbot VF1. 🤪

If you're in the EEC, there's an interesting bass in Germany with a Bogart carbon neck: https://www.bassic.de/kleinanzeigen/g-l-usa-jazzbass-mit-bogart-carbonhals-und-emgs.42705/

Overrated: TalkBass. Underrated: BassChat.

It's a Vester, Mick, not a Vesta... 😉

I also have fretless basses with both, but it doesn't really bother me as I've been playing fretless since the first day, so something like 40+ years. That said the first option is the fretless option and the second is the defretted option. Starting with the first will certainly help your intonation.

That said you have to start somewhere, so using Fender's pickup height adjustment chart is a very good start and they are very close to the best settings, you'll only need slight adjustments afterwards.

You made me feel 41 years younger @Leonard Smalls. Always loved The Residents and saw them live once in my life when I was 17 years old (and had been a huge fan since I was 15 years old), I even "slept" at the Brussels Central Station with all the fauna you can expect. We were fired at around 5 in the morning and spent the rest of the night wandering in the streets of Brussels until the first train home arrived which was 2 hours later. Great memories with these night walkers always kidding, laughing, drinking, smoking, but taking care of the others and absolutely not vandalising anything (as opposed to what is believed).

As a complement to what @Steve Browning just wrote, here is the complete Fender chart (same but easier to read) :

It made my tinnitus reappear... 🤦🏻‍♂️🤪

When you have a long day to spend, you can unscrew all the 234 (funny suite) screws one by one, put a drop of Superglue or Threadlocker and screw each one back. This would prevent any screw rattle forever, but it will be a very very very long journey.

And yours must be a first generation as the IC is soldered directly on the circuit, not pushed in a soldered support.

Looks like an old Nordstrand indeed. The lettering is the same at the same place with the same references and the IC is the same. You know what it is now.

I had some DR Black Beauties on a bass and frankly they are as good as Elixir's. They are softer to the touch than the Elixir's as they have a round core so more flexible, and even if they are stainless steel coated, they are not aggressive to the ears or the fingers. I prefer the sound of nickel strings and these DR Black Beauties are a very good alternative. They do exist in your favourite gauge too as BKB-40.

Looks like a very well done copy of the original 2 bands EQ, but not a Mojotone and certainly not a Nordstrand. Remove the double sided tape, maybe there's something engraved... but I had an original US Sub and it looked like this preamp.

A photo (or more) with close up of the wiring might help. Maybe one lug of the tone pot is earthed (or touching the shielding), this would mean it's acting like volume.

By the way @Linus27 it's Mick Karn. 😉