Beedster

Which is kinda what i what my bass amps to do

It's funny, but there was another thread a while back on which i mentioned that the guy in question hadn't replied to my emails, and when everyone else came on and said 'He always replies to mine" it made me even more angry! I wonder if shops realise this

Absolutely, universal crapness is acceptable, it’s when you feel you’ve been singled out for targeted crapness that it’s really annoying

And if we're talking the equivalence of CS versus US fretless Jazzes, we should probably give a nod to the 90's MIJs which were the equal of both

I've seen worse alignment so if it plays and sounds OK I personally would be OK with it, assuming that is I had checked what the underside of the pickguard is hiding first! I suspect @Doctor J is right and, strange as it seems, someone might have messed with alignment to fit the pickguard, it's an easy fix if so however

Interesting bass the relic, I had a real love/hate thing with it. I take your point re the PUPs, but I guess the Custom Shop set out to engineer them as close as possible to what they believed the PUPs in Jaco's bass were like at 'that' stage of his playing/recording, when I guess they were far from new! Before I bought it i did a lot of reading around the instrument and I recall a post on TB in which the author said that people who thought it was a bad bass didn't understand what a good bass was!!!! Not sure I agree, but if I had the money and there was a used one at a decent price I'd buy it, the body relicing was a bit obvious but the neck was a joy to play and whether the PUPs were or were not as good as those in other instruments, it still sounded lovely (as you proved Phil). I've a set of Wizard '64s in my fretless Jazz and I feel they're a similar thing, they don't have the obvious refinement or immediacy of more contemporary voiced PUPs, but there's something rather nice about them all the same. But you're certainly right about little difference between CS and factory sometimes

Always good to hear a happy ending

I've always felt that this was the beauty of Fenders, especially the Precision, and part of why players, producers and engineers love them so much. Like a decent hire car, they're predictable, reliable, have no unexpected quirks, and most do the same thing the same way. Pick up a Wal or some of EBMM's more esoteric models and you're talking a very different kettle of fish. You make a bass 'feel' by playing it, just like you make a car your own by driving it

Hey mate, many thanks, that's exactly why I asked as I've been thinking about those PUPs for a while, if you had a moment could you add your thoughts on the sound to this thread (I don't want to divert this one any further). Cheers. Chris

It was the CS Relic, yet another of those basses I wish I still had, although a bass that, once Phil had played it, I realised was one that I wasn;t quite making the most of

Ha ha, my neighbours have put up with worse trust me. Thanks for the comment Phil, my kids felt the same, IIRC you also correctly identified that Katie, my youngest, has the correct temperament for drumming

With apologies for the thread derail, how does that bass compare to a Jazz Bass tone wise?

Hey Phil, hope all’s well mate, my daughters still remember your visit

Yep

It’s been on eBay for ages, guess it’s a problem to collect for most at present. Weighs a ton as well. I’d still love it

I think it’s all the other stuff ?

All I can say to that is that I’d guess there’s more to perceived tension than is represented in the tension figures (or that the figures are wrong) because they’ve always felt very low tension to me

There must be soundclips on the Mesa site, and if not on Talkbass?

It was a compliment, it moves very fluidly and effortlessly. By comparison my left hand looks like a primary school robot project. Rhythm Stick is a relatively easy track to play mechanically but a very hard track to play musically, your version was very much the latter, great playing