nilebodgers

I always feel that the “how high should the action be” discussions are pretty futile as it is so personal. 2.3mm through 2mm E-G and 12-15 thou relief works fine for me with my moderately heavy hands and personal tolerance for buzzing and fret-slap, but someone with a light touch could undoubtedly go a lot flatter and lower. It would be unplayable buzz-city for me.

I like the idea of that check sheet.

Wow, that is pretty bad. It sounds like someone messing about demoing a bass in a music shop by playing a lick they haven’t quite mastered yet.

Yes, everything up to nut making and level and crown frets. I hope to progress on to refrets when I get a workshop again. I have a couple of guitar necks I defretted ready to practice on.

After a bit of time playing them, I'm really enjoying flats. The smooth slideyness is really comfortable to play. It's not a sound that would work for everything, but it sits well when the bass is required to be supportive rather than up front.

This is a cracking episode. I really enjoyed it. The thing that gets me about Rick B is that when he plays along he syncs exactly with the track so it sounds like he is on it. I wish I could do that!

Maybe a fraction higher for the flats, but close enough that the playing feel isn’t too different. I looked at the Rotosound string tension info and deliberately chose a slightly lighter set of flats than my usual rounds to keep the tension down. This is how it has played out in practice.

Yes - flush. Some of the aftermarket wiring looms don’t use the short bush length (6mm) pots though and the knob skirt ends up with a gap under it.

I stuck 40-100 Roto 77s on my USA Jazz and the tension feels pretty much identical to the 45-105 stainless rounds that were on there before. The truss rod didn’t need touching.

After my successful experience of just changing the G, I have followed through and put a full set of Rotosound 77 Jazz 40-100 flats on my J. Interestingly the neck didn’t move at all compared to the 45-105 rounds, so I didn’t even have to tweak the truss rod. I like them for doing the Jazz exercises I have been practicing, it’s a more mellow sound (and no finger squeaks) and the initial pluck of the note seems more prominent compared to rounds, so it’s a tip of the hat to the attack of a double bass.

I can’t listen to that snare (sample?), it’s really annoying.

That is not my comment quoted, my response to that mentioned the city&guilds testing course.

Lol. I always fancied a Shergold Marathon when I was a teenager, but that is comedy.

Gain is actually combined gain and master volume, you just turn it up until it is as loud as you need.

Lol. The plan for 2022 is just to stick a set of flatwounds on my Jazz and play it as a much as I can. I don’t need more gear.

You can’t go wrong with an old Peavey Bandit.

This: https://www.cityandguilds.com/qualifications-and-apprenticeships/building-services-industry/electrical-installation/2377-electrical-equipment-maintenance-and-testing#tab=information

If you don’t have it already get a copy of iReal, it’s a great practice tool for jazz backing tracks.

I’d recommend this free course, you should be able to whizz through the first 2 modules on a superficial level and that should be enough to fake it. https://www.walkingbasslessons.com/walking-bass-lines-course/

Mim-style tuners and headstock end truss rod adjust suggest mex.

I’d have used a thin cutoff disc in an angle grinder myself, good Allen keys are going to be hardened steel.

I am in the middle of an experiment on my J. I’ve been grumbling about the “twangy” character of the G string (elixir stainless roundwound) not sounding the same as the other strings and not being right for the Jazz exercises I have been working on. Instead of trying a full set of flats I bought a 0.040 single Rotosound 77 flat string (similar tension to a 45 roundwound) and fitted it tonight. Sounds surprisingly good, tonally it’s very similar to the other well played-in rounds so more even across the neck. I’ll play it for a bit to see if it goes too dead, but it’s promising so far.

Over at the other bass forum there is an old thread where a bunch of luthiers are attempting to prove or disprove the “shims cause ski-slopes” thesis with a bunch of long-running experiments. As far as I remember, they haven’t managed to cause one yet with shimming.

If a band can't agree on and stick to a song arrangement then there is no hope. Gigs will just be a perpetual series of car-crashes. Where is the enjoyment in that?

I’m keen to try flats on my J. I’m doing a load of jazz lessons at the moment and the twangy G of the rounds on there just sounds wrong. I can roll off the roundwound edge from the other strings with the tone control, but there is no fixing the different character of the G.