Doctor J

I don't think there is that much of a correlation between price and quality, certainly not in the used market and that's where I operate. Over the years, I've had some very expensive instruments, plenty of much less expensive instruments and those inbetweeners. In my experience, the price is often more associated with the brand name than the quality of the instrument. My favourite basses over the years have usually been picked up used for around the 400-600 quid mark, often less. I've bought much more expensive instruments, going on myth and hype, which were utter rubbish, not just as an instrument but in terms of build quality too. When you've been around long enough, you see how the price follows hype rather than quality. Did Japanese Squiers only become good in the last couple of years? The prices now compared to 10 or 20 years ago, relative to other instrument prices, certainly suggests so. And then there are 70's Fenders... wow 😂

I had one, it was useless. You quickly tire of being told the time is 1:vision Got coat, off I go.

I'd love to pick up a mint early 90's Thumb at some point. A Warwick Streamer with Wal pickups and electronics would be real nice.

On a tangent, if you're spending 4 grand on an instrument and you're not getting the full-fat brand, made by the main people, something is seriously askew.

Crimson guitars youtube channel has at least one build video for this idea. He made a Les Paul style IIRC.

Maybe they no cry?

When I saw the picture, I thought plastic society and teenage me had grand visions of the Crumbsuckers or D.R.I. style hardcore punk of my youth with lots of shouting. Unfortunately, I quickly realised I can't drum like that at all, so I needed to bodge together a compromise and somehow ended up with Devo playing a spaghetti western theme. The technical stuff: Guitars are a Bacchus Duke into an Avid Eleven. Drums and bass came from Reason, all smooshed together in ProTools. The song: A reflection of the superficiality of modern plastic society where little is of substance and little pandas stand beside big toadstools, probably taking selfies.

Gotoh branded bridges on some, ABM bridges on others. Possibly a licenced Japanese line? I wouldn't think they were made in NYC by Fodera, anyway, and certainly wouldn't be spending 4 grand on one any time soon.

Quite the opposite for me, it's my favourite configuration particularly when the pickups are blended. What is it that you don't like? I have found, over the years, that I tend to set up my bridge J a lot closer to the strings than the P. Most folks tend to set the pickup height visually, in my experience, so that they look about the same distance away from the strings. I go by ear, so that the bridge pickup has plentiful balls and, when blended, gives immense growl to the meat provided by the P.

I don't fancy any decals, custom or otherwise 🙂

While the price is quite revolting, the most offensive part is referring to the Brazilian 'slapboard'. Thumbs down to this kind of thing.

When is your one due to arrive, Andy?

Given Jaco's strings never actually made contact with the wood of the instrument at any point, surely the type of epoxy used, how thickly it was applied and the percentage of resin to hardener is what's really important here? Jokes aside, in the video with Jerry Jemmott, Jaco sounds like Jaco playing a J bass with a fretted all-maple Precision neck. How you play is going to get you closer to the Jaco sound than any tonewood witchcraft.

Having grown up with records, I was quite happy with the sonic upgrade to CDs too. I never sold my old records, still have them, still have a record player, but would always choose the CD to listen to first. I like the large artwork but that's about it. The price of new records is something I find quite astonishing. I remember filling my boots in the early 90's when you could pick ip records for a quid or two, they couldn't be given away. On the other side of it, it seems that it's mostly younger folks buying these and, if this is what it takes to get kids interested in music and the artist gets paid too, then it's fine with me.

You're right. That does not make a lick of sense.

A collection of very serious business, indeed.

I watched countless videos of single coil and double coils Ps and what sounded nicest to my ears were those with the Seymour Duncan SCPB-1, so that's what I went with in the end. No electric funny business after all, which is quite unlike me. The Warmoth stuff has been good to work with. The neck pocket is snug, though would have been too tight if I had sprayed the neck with lacquer instead of an oil finish. I've rolled the fretboard edges and had to slightly widen the output jack hole but that's the extent of the woodwork, pilot holes aside. Fret dressing and polishing was straightforward. It's coming together nicely. Schaller tuners, brass nut, old Gotoh bridge leftover from a previous upgrade to another bass, SD pickup and shielding done. Just the pots, output jack and associated control plates left to do from a functional perspective before I string it up. I'll add a bridge cover and Cabronita-style mint scratchplate for the sake of aesthetics too.

Is the damaged screw flush with the body or is any of it exposed?

It takes more than $4,300, it would appear.

I sold my one last year for €350, I think it was. Lovely bass. The price being asked is a bit steep, I reckon.

On the plus side, you now have licence to refer to relics as Old New Stock.

That's fine, but was it exposed to sunlight daily during those 57 years and, if so, for how many hours per day, which hours and at what latitude?

Looks like it means about $500?

Fender's quest to make Fodera prices look very reasonable continues at pace 😂

Reminds me of my old 77 which was less NOS and more POS 😉