Al Heeley

My Squier JB is really a great bass for really very little money; friendly playable neck, but although i know the pickups are ok(-ish) I think I could probably get a good tone improvement with an upgrade (I'd like to see better tone/vol balance across the strings as well as a richer tone in general). Since the bass itself cost me under £100 I'm not into spending big bucks on upgrade pups, but I'd be interesed in opinions on a better set of JB pups for her. I've heard the real Fender JB pups are maybe not a huge leap forward in tone but I have an open mind - just not into spending more than the value of the bass on a set of pickups. I'm assuming the Squier JB pups are probably worth upgrading and the bass hanging onto. What would you recommend?

[quote]...like 32" similar to a Rickenbacker...[/quote] I thought Ric basses were 33 1/4" scale? I don't think you'll find an off-the-shelf replacement neck in that scale. You could order a pre-slotted fingerboard blank from somewhere like David Dyke Luthier Supplies, cut ready for fretting in 32", but it would be a special one-off and likely quite costly. Or have a go at doing it yourself on a fretless neck, as henry already suggested.

I would say a squier jazz is a great all-riound bass for a good price, can't go far wrong with that and very resellable.

Welcome - Holmfirth Last of the summer bass here.

Not sure there is a wiring solution to this - isn't this a problem with the two tapers not complementing eachother? I had a load of problems installing a 'true' blend pot into a passive jazz bass system because the blend pot was not balancing the volumes properly thru the sweep. In the end I ditched it and went back to 2 separate vols. There's still a big thread about it on the Guitar Nutz forum where plenty of amazingly knowledgeable electronics guys with a vested interest in guitars will be happy to give advice. [url="http://guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=wiring"]http://guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=wiring[/url]

I borrowed one of those nail buffing pads off my wife - you know the sort you can get in Boots or your high street chemists - a rectangle of foam rubber about 5 inches long with emery on one face, then sucessively finer pads of abrasive on the other 3 long faces, ending in a polish pad. They are really great for buffing up little details like these brass/wood instert dot markers and because they deform a little they take rough edges off very gently. If ever you want to do some very fine gentle buffing or sanding these pads are absolutely great. Once the dots get set into the fretboard they will be rough sanded flush then I will buff them to a nice polished gloss with the nail buff pad before sealing them. Also got a jig made tonight for the router, for shaping the fingerboard radius when it arrives. Hopefully Saturday I'll have time to go out and buy all the wood. then we can really get going.

I need to ask you ric bass owners a question - are you able to measure a neck angle on your 4001/4003 basses? Or does the neck & fretboard lie perfectly parallel to the plane of the body? Thanks!

Making really good progress on the tricky parts sourcing. Bridge arrived today, and I've got a couple of pups sorteed. The little white dots are the fretboard markers, they are made from 8mm brass pipe drilled into a small block of sycamore, then small slices cut fromt he wood-filled end with a hacksaw. Once sanded down and levelled they will make pretty fretboard inlays, a little brass ring inlaid with blonde wood.

Hey thanks guys! Great to have such positive feedback from the forum. You may be pleased to know that Mark II the Ricken Baker has begun. I'm quite excited

Just do a google image search for Fretboard Chart. plenty to choose from.

Lovely lovely lovely! Any pics of the rear (mmmm....) and the neck? Surprised and interested about the shorter scale and low B, I thought you'd have to go the other way with a low B and get a longer (35"?) scale to suit the tension/tone better?

I use Rotosound or D'Addario nickels 45 - 105, whichever is cheaper in the shop.

Drooooooolll - give him my warm regards, just eye-oglingly beautiful wood lust in his work.

This is a nice US 5-string, but what really puts me off is just too many exclamation marks, I just don't trust them. A good Stingray needs no exclamation marks, he's trying too hard. Oooh got Gas. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MusicMan-USA-American-StingRay-5-Bass-No-Reserve_W0QQitemZ170291702055QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item170291702055&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1298%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MusicMan-USA-America...A1%7C240%3A1318[/url]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='372340' date='Jan 6 2009, 07:28 PM']Well, I'd recommend [b]not[/b] going on RickResource or the official Rick board looking for approval & compliments, like a lad who'd built himself a rather sexy 4005 copy did! He was told in no uncertain terms to smash it & burn it - a course of action soundly endorsed & recommended by Kommandant Hall himself, who was of the opinion it would inevitably end up being sold as a genuine Rickenbacker anyway. Jon.[/quote] Heh! It borders on paranoia there, I know I did some initial research thru the threads there a year ago. Some guy got trashed and flamed for just asking the dimensions of a 4001. If he'd only bothered looking on the next pages where the bass models and specs are, all the info he needed was already up on the website. Why are they such a paranoid bunch? How many strat/Tele/Les Paul/P-bass/Jazz-bass/PRS copy body/neck/headstock shapes are out there in legitimate guitar building businesses without the original owners getting all uptight about this homage to a great design classic?

Can't we go for the one in your avatar?

[quote name='nick' post='360755' date='Dec 22 2008, 10:19 AM']Regarding Pick-ups, you could try Kent Armstrong 'toasters' , cheaper than Barts & Seymour Duncans, and probably more authentic sounding. From here [url="http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/product/Replacement_%22Toaster%22_Pickup_Front_SRK1F"]WD Music[/url] Not tried them myself, may do in the near future, but a good review on Finnbass by Oxblood [url="http://www.finnbass.com/showthread.php?t=3728"]Toaster Pickup review[/url][/quote] Thanks - these may be what I'm searching for...how about the bridge pup - they have nothing of the authentic ric 4001/4003 bridge pup look?

It'll get a damned good sandpapering if I get hold of it. Current bid £720 - reserve not met.

I think the Rickenbacker musical empire is safe from my garage-based whittlings! Hell, the name's not even the same.

Well here it is, the start of a new build project, another home built 4001 clone, the RickenBaker - see it's for Owen Baker, our singer's son. See what we did there with the name? Hah. The plan is a natural maple finish, white binding, pickups and bridge to be determined - maybe hipshot bridge if we have trouble sourcing a ric-type (which we are...). Here's the initial full-scale plan drawn up. Next the wood sourcing and shopping for hardware. Fun fun fun

Thx, I know Alan from TalkBass forum, will drop them a line.

Jeez, have you seen this one? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MusicMan-Stingray-5-String-3EQ-Piezo-Custom-Finish_W0QQitemZ250348037483QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item25"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MusicMan-Stingray-5-..._CV?hash=item25[/url] 0348037483&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1298%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318 "Custom" paint job - looks like someone tried to go for a distressed look with a couple of tins of Halford spray paint. If my kids ever did that to one of my basses I'd lock them in their rooms for a month. Oh my god what was he thinking of?

Lets hope for a return to those heady days of summer. I have bad Stingray gas but I can't afford much over £500.