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Thanks for all of the details on the bass. I love the sound it has. Great to find that the wood of the body is maple. It has a naturally bright tone without any eq. I just bought it off Ebay. It was described as a Squier Jazz with no model number. I have removed the washers and it is back to the original string spacing with a slight adjustment. I realised there can be a slight gap between the saddles if the strings are going straight out from the holes in the bridge. It's a bit too easy to shift them side to side, but really it's not a big deal. I may replace the bridge but I will leave it as it is for just now. Well I am learning a lot here! How can you tell it is a VM70s Jazz? What are the distinguishing features? Any idea what the body is made of? Is it alder?

Well I am learning a lot here! How can you tell it is a VM70s Jazz? What are the distinguishing features? Any idea what the body is made of? Is it alder?

Well that's interesting. I don't really mind how it looks. I couldn't hear any difference between the narrower spacing and wider spacing. It just felt a bit better to play and I thought that the strings were meant to be aligned between the centre of the two pole pieces.

It was helpful taking photos I realised that my initial measurement of the G being 3mm off was not accurate. The bridge is centred so it was both the E and G strings were close to 1.5mm too close to centre. The photo has the washers in place.

I recently bought a second hand maple fingerboard Squier CV70 four string Jazz bass with Duncan designed pickups. I am very happy with both the sound and the playability, It has a nice neck and sounds like a Jazz which is what I was looking for. The strange thing is that the original bridge is the wrong size for the pickup alignment. Has anyone had a similar experience? I have corrected this by pushing washers between the saddles to bring it to a string spacing of 20mm at the bridge and the strings then lined up perfectly with the pickup pole pieces and the neck. I prefer this slightly wider string spacing. Before I put the washers in, the A string was the only one correctly in line with the pole pieces and the G was 3mm too close to the centre line. I am pretty happy with it as it is but I am considering getting a Leo Quan badass II bridge or a more Jazz original type of replacement with 20mm spacing. The bass has plenty of sustain and brightness already which is why I thought the badass II zinc alloy might be a better option than a solid brass bridge. Any advice on a replacement bridge and alignment methods would be much appreciated. cheers Quee

Thanks for all the advice. I must have a try of one of these barefaced cabs. I do have a 2x10 that I made myself, a long time ago out of 18mm ply. It is fine for practicing but does not have enough power for bigger gigs. It is a 60litre cab with two front facing 64 mm diameter 150mm long ports made of plastic drainpipe. I made it to match the two Celestion BG10 80 speakers. It doesn't handle a lot of low end very well. Phil do do have any advice on replacement speakers that might allow it handle 400w and improve low end performance? Ideally to end up sounding a bit like an Eden 4x10 XLT. (hehe) I have no worries about efficiency as I have a 500W amp.

I have used a lot of different amps and cabs at festivals and my best sounds always seems to come from a 4×10, usually an Eden cab. While I would love to use one of these at every gig there is just not enough room in the back of the WV transporter for a kit a guitar amp and a 4x10 so I am looking for a 2x10 wedge with a 4x10 sound. How does the Markbass Marcus Miller 102 shape up?

Thanks for all of the tips on strings etc. I did get the Warwick strings with a tapered B and do the neck bolt re-tightening and I am happy with the resulting tone of the B string. I had to adjust the bridge for intonation so will stick with those strings for a while. No calculations were required!

Thanks for all of that advice. There are a lot of different takes on what affects the tone of the B string. I will start off by trying the neck screw tensioning thing and try an all steel piano wound B to see what happens. I am generally pretty happy with the musicman I have owned it since the 1990s but I am interested in trying a 36 scale instrument to compare the sound. Any other suggestions on 36" scale basses?

Well that is all interesting stuff. I will try the loosening and tightening the bolts. That is a concept!

Has anyone found a make of B string that will produce a very clear fundamental note? I play a Musicman Stingray 5 and have tried quite a lot of different B strings including the piano style ones but I find that there is always a muddiness to the notes played on the B string in comparison to the other strings. Not surprising given it's thickness but any suggestions welcome.

With the right saw you could saw off a complete 2x10 from either the top or the bottom of the cabinet. Just avoid any screws.