Doctor J

I never thought I would find myself on a planet where those wretched last gasp of crap early 80's Jazzes with the extended scratchplate cost £1700 but here we are. Look at this junk. To save the cost of two screws - that's right, to scrimp on two screws worth of money - the bridge is held down by only three screws. As for that ridge sticking out under the treble side of the neck, well, you better hope the holes for the neck screws are big enough to move the neck a good 2mm south. I wouldn't rule it out, they made them bigger so the screws would just drop freely in to speed up production, ignoring their primary purpose of keeping the neck in the right place but, still, I wouldn't put the mortgage on being able to centre the strings on the neck. Then you get a a handy gap to stick your sandwich in on the bass side, so, I suppose it could be win-win? Also, £1700 only gets you springs on the E and A saddles, you'll need to stop by B&Q on the way home and buy more yourself if you want a full set. I'm reasonably confident it left the factory with four springs but in 2021 you only get two of them. It's past the 30 year mark where junk becomes magically desirable but, still... £1700 🤣

Very tasteful bassline when it all kicks in. Good stuff!

In summary, you want to tighten the truss rod so that, when in tune and the strings and neck are under tension, you have a relief (forward bow) of about the thickness of a business card between the top of the 8-10th frets and the bottom of the strings. Hold down the E string at the first and last frets, which provides you with a straight line along the neck, to see what the relief is like. Too much relief and you get buzz and choking in the higher frets, as you are experiencing. Too little relief or back bow and you'll get buzz and choking at the lower frets. Get the relief right and you can set a comfortable and playable action along the length of the neck with no buzzing or choking. Only after you have the neck set up should you think about adjusting the bridge saddles to set the action.

It's not a truss rod issue, it's actually why it has a truss rod. The truss rod needs to be tightened to counteract the pull of the strings. You'll then probably need to raise the bridge a little. There are countless setup guides on youtube, watch some before you do anything.

There's your problem As long as people lose their senses when something old pops up, old tat is worth silly money.

It's a 2012. That was one of the good years.

Not at all, some things need to be asked every now and then 🙂

I don't. Every gig I've had since I bought it has been on guitar 😂

Thanks. Both DI'd with a plugin used for the overdrive on the first one.

Neck-Through

30 years old = rare!!! original!!! vintage!!! = ca$hmon€y!!!

Mint on Olympic White looks fantastic, especially when the mint ages and goes a bit darker, but only with a rosewood fretboard. With maple? No thanks. White, or cream, on white usually looks dreadful and cheap. Yeah, it's a guitar, but it shows the difference well.

Oops, forgot all about this. Here they are. First one is overdriven and slightly favouring the bridge pickup with some treble rolled off. Second one is cleaner and about 65% neck pickup with some treble rolled off.

That's the ancient Aztec symbol for a taco, no?

Lovely. How does it sound?

Looks great! 🤔

They don't mess around in Liverpool.

A bass every four days. That is incredibly impressive work 🙂

So sad about him.

Just as well they didn't choose "Why go?", not the best thing to put on a gig poster.

Nice!

4 real?

The mortgage gets paid, the car gets serviced, the cats get fed. If I've got money left to spend on a bass every now and then, where's the problem? Some people blow their money on smokes and booze. I don't. I like playing basses, I like building and repairing basses and I enjoy the different designs from an aesthetic perspective. They're tools, they're instruments and they're art pieces, all in one. I don't mind who knows it, I'm going to say it now... I... like... bass. 😳

Looks nice but also looks uncomfortable. Classic Rickenbacker.