LeftyJ

Neck pickup is possibly fine, but the wiring is a mess. Could be a short circuit at the volume knob, given the messy solder blobs there, and I think I see a damaged wire coming from one of the pickups at the top, near the wiring channel to the pickup routs? If it's just that you're looking at an easy fix to get it back to working condition while keeping everything stock. These are very much all the original Status electronics that it's had since new

Bit of a fanboy here too*. That's awesome! I've always been intrigued by the Grooveline, they look very well thought out and hugely comfortable. * Most have been sold but I have owned 3 MC924's, an RS924, an ST924, a first year SR800LE (1987), 3 ATK's, 4 RG's and recently picked up an ORM-1.

That koa top is beautiful! That's also a very nicely grained fingerboard they selected for this one. Congrats!

I would like that M/J a whole lot better without that godawful pickguard. Took me years before I could appreciate it on an actual MM, but on a J-style body it just looks unforgivably out of place.

I have owned: P-style: Originally thought these weren't for me, because I never liked having just one single pickup and I thought the passive controls were limiting. Came back from that idea and now happily play a shortscale Sandberg Lionel; J-style: Owned a few Jazz Bass-style basses. I love my MIJ Fender 75RI dearly and the range of tones I can get from that simple configuration is vast. PJ: Owned several, both active and passive and with normal and reverse P pickups. Didn't like them at first, and still think many of these have bridge pickups that are too weak to match up to the splitcoil, but I love their versatility and punch. Had a G&L SB-2 with just two volumes and no tone control and it opened my eyes (and ears!) to the idea of using the bridge pickup as your "tone control" to the P pickup. Rickenbacker 4003: not for me. Ergonomics were weird, tone was either too woolly (with the neck pickup engaged) or too gnarly (with mostly the bridge pickup on). Love the tones some people get from them, but it didn't work for me. MM: owned a few Ibanez ATK's and one actual MM Stingray 5. Liked them for a while but eventually started missing a neck pickup on them. Sold all of them. J/MM: owned two active Carvin LB75's and a passive Carvin B4 with that config. Expected they would solve the issue I had with single MM-basses, but to me they were utterly boring and dull basses with zero character. Have yet to try a more traditional approach like a Sandberg California TM. Semi-hollow: had an Italia Torino shortscale with a mudbucker close to the neck and a humbucker at the bridge (like on a Gibson EB-3). Had a lot of fun with it but in the end it was too boomy for me. Headless / graphite: have two Status S2 Classics (and had a wooden Hohner B2A for a while) and love them. Have never owned and would love to try: Dual-P: Having a P in the neck and another P at the bridge seems like a powerful and versatile combo, and solves the issue of PJ-basses where the J bridge pickup is just not loud enough to be useful on its own. Dual-MM: Would be interesting to have classic MM tones and a second MM bucker at the neck, the way Music Man builds their HH basses. Would also be interested in the Sandberg approach (one in the P position and one at the bridge) or the Warwick approach (both centered around the MM sweetspot rather than one actually IN the sweetspot). Zon: I have a craving for a Zon Sonus 5-string. They were one of THE metal basses of the 1990s, I used to see them with many big artists back then and I have always been intrigued. Fanned frets: would love to give a Dingwall a go. I feel like their Combustion series is priced prohibitively high for a Chinese-made bass, but as a lefty it's all there is. Might try a used Ibanez EHB1005 at one point when one comes by at a good price. Have owned but would like to give a second chance: High-end / active / neck-through / fancy woods: had a Human Base when I was still very much a beginner and didn't get along with the electronics (two Bartolini humbuckers and active 2-band) and missed having a low B. Foolishly sold. Would love to have a go on a Smith or Fodera once. I fear I might actually like them though... Fretless: Had a Sandberg Bullet 5 fretless, couldn't get it to sound the way I had in my mind, couldn't get it to cut through a mix. Tried a set of Tomastik jazz flats, that only worsened it AND they felt like rubber bands to me. Am convinced that was all totally on me, and not the bass. Should have kept it and tried some other strings, I just wasn't ready for it then.

Thickest string is at the top when played lefty on the guitars @Happy Jack posted, so it would appear only the decal is mirrorred and everything else is 100% lefty.

I have, but the picture I posted is very much real, and not mirrorred It's a 1997 Fender Jimi Hendrix Tribute Strat and it is genuinely a lefty guitar for righties. The rear of the headstock is normal, except for the upside-down serial number.

Fender did this on their 1990s USA Hendrix Tribute Strat. Which is a pretty faithful 1968 lefty Strat replica, with the upper strap button on the wrong side so righties can pretend to be Jimi. Of course, Fender being Fender, ironically there was no ACTUAL lefty 1968 Strat reissue available for actual lefties at the time

I don't have one particular dream bass, as my taste and needs vary a lot. For the band I'm with I already have my perfect bass: my Status S2 Classic takes downtuning like no other and still sounds crisp and tight when tuned down a full step to ADGCF. It also feels great to play and I feel it looks great too (if a little tiny when played by someone my size). At home I play my shortscales the most, which are totally different little beasts. Deep down inside, I think I'm mostly a Jazz Bass person though - but more modern and high-end. If money was no objection, I would ask Sander de Gier to build me a Bebop 5 (maybe a Glenn Gaddum jr signature, with its slightly scaled-down body) in a cool metallic finish over alder, with a plain maple neck with a matching headstock and the most wildly grained ziricote fingerboard he could find, with white bindings and MOP dots rather than blocks as to not obscure too much of that lovely fingerboard wood from view. I would go with Lollar pickups and Sander's proprietary passive electronics with variable De Gier / Vanderkley FatBoost.

Looks stunning, and I think the luthier did a steller job getting the dimensions of the heel that tight without having the body at hand to work with! I get that he was an original luthier for Washburn at the time and knows these basses like the back of his hand, but I still think that's incredible without having your actual body to work from. I'm with @Richard R, I would trust the luthier

Three of these are no longer in my possession, but I still included them because I love these pictures so much - especially the glamour shot of the ATK's Ibanez MC924: the left one is a 1983 model which I still own. The right one is a 1981 that I have since traded for an Atelier Z Baby Z-4J. I liked it a lot, but it was prohibitively heavy and had quite a chunky and wide neck so it got little playtime. The 1983 is from my year of birth (but just a month younger than me) and has sentimental value, but doesn't get played much either. I could never bring myself to sell that one though! 1996 Ibanez ATK300 and 1998 ATK305, both made in Japan. I don't own either of these anymore, I sold the 4-string many years ago and sold the 5-string two years ago. Lovely basses, solid workhorses, and very big and heavy. I kinda miss the 4-string, it was stellar. The 5-string sounded slightly harsher and not quite as warm and full-bodied, maybe due to the more rigid neck (because there was simply more wood). 2002 Warwick Streamer LX5 (nirvana black gloss) and 2001 Warwick Streamer LX (burgundy red gloss). The 5-string was my main bass for several years, until my headless Status S2 Classic 5-string replaced it. My duo of Status S2 Classic bolt-ons. The 5-string is my main axe ever since its arrival. It looks all black in this picture, but it's actually more of an anthracite metallic finish. The 4-string is VERY white up close, which contrasts beautifully with the VERY black phenolic fingerboard and the (now aged white) epoxy Roman numerals.

That pickup looks absolutely terrifying! Beautiful bass, turned out great. Still a fairly plain workhorse as a 51P should be, but in a very elegant way

I've got one that I got as a gift, but I've never used it. Thanks for the reminder, I really should!

The adjustable slugs are plain iron, so they can be prone to rust. That said, on my G&L ASAT Special and the two MFD-equipped older guitars I've owned prior I didn't have any problems.

I have a varied collection, but my absolute number one is my 1980s MIJ Squier E-series Strat. It's had its pickups replaced with a DiMarzio Pro Track (SC-sized humbucker) in the bridge and two Blue Velvet singlecoils in the other two positions. It is closely rivalled by my Music Man Silhouette Special and G&L ASAT Special. I much favour Fenderlike guitars. I do however also own more Gibsonesque guitars: I have a Cort MGM-1 Matt "Guitar" Murphy signature (he of Blues Brothers fame, among many more) and a Tokai ES-60 semi-hollowbody, and a beast of a Carvin 7-string DC-727. And just last week I picked up an Ibanez ORM-1 Omar Rodriguez Lopez signature model which is a lot of fun in its shortscale goodness and single-pickup simplicity. I have another MIJ Squier Strat (Silver Series) but that's on a semi-permanent loan to my brother in law. And my first guitar, a Chinese Squier Affinity Strat from 1999, is sitting idly in a case. But that cheap Strat, that I paid just €175 for before the mods I made, is my undisputed number one, and has been for the last 15 years. This was before the mods:

I also never considered myself a P person. I've always favoured basses with two pickups, and love warm Jazz Bass tones and more modern active basses with soapbars, whether they be singlecoils or humbuckers. I've owned PJ-basses before, varying from Fender-like (Ibanez RS924, G&L SB-2) to more modern active basses with the P-pickup reversed (Ibanez SR800LE, Warwick Streamer LX) but never used the splitcoil on its own. I briefly owned a Fender MIJ '57 P reissue but absolutely hated it. Now I have a Sandberg Lionel shortscale P, which I bought based on looks (and being a shortscale) mostly, and you just can't argue with the authority of a P with flats. It just sounds so good! Totally wasn't expecting I would like it this much.

I love their straps, I must have about 8 of them! I was first referred to them by someone I bought a used bass from, who had two beautiful double-stitched Italia straps. Oddly I've never seen that feature offered on their site! But yes, their tactics are "special". Most of their deals are for returning customers only, once they have your email address you'll get almost weekly emails with discounts varying between "buy one, get one free", "free shipping on all orders", "order two, get a free all-black leather-backed 2.5 inch wide strap" or a combination of those. I guess I'm living proof their tactics work - on some gullible people But they're great. Very high quality leather, well-made, and beautifully even dyes. I've had one black glove leather-backed strap that would leave black stains on my white shirt when I would sweat excessively during warm gigs, but I've never had that problem with any of their other straps so I think it's an exception.

Fascinating! Properly weird, in a great way.

bam pad retrofit set for case – Thomann UK Might not be ideal for a gigbag, but should be good for hardshell cases. The end of the headstock should never be the thing that keeps a bass from moving around in its case. It's the body that should be held snugly in place. You need to avoid unnecessary stress on the headstock at all cost, especially with the infamous Gibson (and similar) necks with their ridiculously large truss rod access holes. Pads like these can be great, but the description doesn't mention if they're adhesive with sticky tape or with Velcro. If you need to be able to change it around for different instruments, the latter would be ideal but sticky tape... not so much. I would assume they're similar to the removable pads in their (expensive!) guitar cases.

I've been looking at these with keen interest, but when they released the second iteration their stock of lefty models flew out in less than a day

Close: the Polish luthier Nexus (previously located in Belgium, but now back in Poland) has made fretless basses with granite fingerboards!

Agreed! Modular, easy to manufacture in large quantities (on a simple production line, with no need for actual skilled luthiers), hugely ergonomic and super comfortable to play, timeless design, and really easy to adjust and modify to the player's preference. And those timeless tones! I've had many guitars, but I always come back to my trusty Squier E-series Strat because it just fits me like a glove. I've had USA-made G&L's, Music Mans (Men?), several high-end Japanese guitars, and they all owe a lot to the classic Fender designs but none of them has managed to keep me away from my Strat for long. It just works!

Oh! Is that a 1954 LP Custom reissue? That's gorgeous, and those neck pickups are quite unique.

Their normal strings are readily available? I have a few sets of double ball end strings on order direct from Status for my headless basses and have been waiting since january. They have taken little effort to keep me up to date either. Whenever I emailed or called them Dawn has been great, but I never get updates from them without asking. I hope this won't be a recurring problem, or I'll need to stock up or switch to another manufacturer - or single ball strings, with the clamps at the headstock end. Do Status single ball strings have the same taper wound ends as their double ball strings? I would hate to have to readjust my bridge for different strings and then readjust back for their double ball strings when they become available again.