Patrick Francis

More on the Nate Mendel - I bought one in 2020, returned it because it had a kink in the neck at the 12th fret - sometimes called a Ski Jump. I loved everything about the bass except the colour red - and of course the Ski Jump. Then last year I bought a NM neck from the Stratosphere in N.H. with the same Ski jump. For some reason I didn't return it. I laboured through fixing it. (nice bass necks are so rare in Canada) I had to come up to speed on fret sanding above the 16th fret and creating a fallaway. I also heat clamped it. Due to my inexperience in this area I had to do both (Frets lowered, and heat clamping) SEVERAL Times. The user "Turnaround" on Talkbass is incredibly knowledgeable in this area. Now I'd say it's as good as a vintage radius neck can be, and it's become my Number One. Since having read three or four more posts about the ski jump on the NM's, I'm thinking this is a concern. I wouldn't buy one sight unseen.

Does anyone know what the truss rod Hex key size is for the S1000?. There are countless restoration posts... but the actual size eludes me. I have bags of hex keys but the cavity isn't very deep/long and requires a "Shorty".

I can now confirm the neck pickup does work. I replaced the shanky black and white leads. When I reassembled everything still a no go. Everything is so old and brittle that even gentle investigation seems to be causing more issues. I don’t have the skill to clean up this preamp. From what I understand the stacked volume knob comes from the UK. I’ll wait for the EMG’s.

True, after looking at another repair of one of these where the owner was looking for the stacked volume pot which had died, it occurred to me the pickup might be fine. It’s really hard to poke around in this without causing more damage. If I can’t sort it out I’ll install the EMG’s but keep all of this intact for a later date. If I recall the Status pickups have a fairly unique aggressive tone. I noticed the tone knob has a centre notch, when I thought that would be the blend knob(?) And the volume does spin the wrong way. I don’t think the white pickup wire going into the channel is broken, just the insulation scared up by a soldering iron (I’ll try replacing it today). Here are a couple more messy forensic photos…

I found one in Hamilton Ontario (Facebook Marketplace in an acoustic instrument group) for $459 Can. I’ve been looking for one for years. Even found it in Black. It’s seen some damage though, looks as though the tone knob was bashed into the body with a bit of a failed cosmetic repair. The volume knob runs the opposite way, and the neck pickup is dead. It’s also 9 pounds 6 ounces! Everything else is fine. I have some replacement EMG’s arriving next week.