LeftyJ

In 2000 I was just getting into metal, and this was the first ever album I bought that turned out to feature death grunts. I had never heard anything other like it and was blown away. It's still a fantastic record today, it was the first of four Opeth albums with Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree as a producer (and guest vocalist). It got me into Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson's solo recordings too, and the excellent album Steven Wilson and Opeth's frontman Mikael Akerfeldt made together as Storm Corrosion.

Cool '54 Precision style bass by Regenerate Guitar Works in Seattle. The builder, Rod Banach, was on leftybassist.com for a long time: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Regenerate-Bass-Guitar-Left-Handed/324492836805 Didn't this belong to @leftybassman392 at some point? I think you had one of two Regenerates?

Not really! The gold label MEC pickups are active, and require 9V at all times to work. The push-pull only bypasses the tone controls. I'll keep you in mind, but don't count on it! Ever since I got it it's all I've been playing and it's awesome

Porn!

Back in the early days of Status, every model had its own range of serial numbers. So 154 is not a unique number, there can be several out there: a Series 2, an S2000, you name it. Impossible to tell from just the serial

Vanden Plas at Bospop in 2000 or 2001. They played a fairly small tent, and it was wickedly, painfully loud! The ringing in my ears lasted for 3 days. I didn't stick around for the entire set.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Left-Handed-Sandberg-Classic-Bass/184676623495?hash=item2aff95a487:g:UYgAAOSwfeJgM-jr There you go Odd indeed!

The Eagles of Death Metal

A new nut should only affect the tone of the open strings though If the overall tone of the bass has changed for the better to your ears (in the other positions too, as you're describing), it's more likely the Chromes are just starting to wear in. Or it might even be just being reunited with it after it sat with your luthier for a couple of days

Since the ends are clamped behind the nut / zero fret, you can just cut any kind of string to size

I have a few from some bloke named Jim Dunlop. Can't remember the gig or what band he's in

The pickup positions Leo Fender chose are actually very carefully thought out, they're exactly at harmonic knots of the open strings. They don't call it the sweet spot for nothing

I owned a Human Base from the late 80s for a while that was made for a bass store in Frankfurt that doesn't exist anymore called Mr.Bassman. They sold basses under their own name that were made by Clover and Human Base. Mine was the No Sweat model, which looks a lot like the current Base X model. It was through-neck, with big Bartolini soapbars and a lovely rosewood top. I wish I still had it, but it didn't suit me at the time. It was super comfortable and easy to play, but I couldn't fine a tone that worked for my band at the time. It looked almost identical to this one, but lefty:

And passive. Steve Wishnevsky will rather sell you an external "Wishbox" (a wooden case with a passive varitone) than build a tone control into a bass, let alone active electronics

The strings of your SR800 are on funny at the headstock end Can't you keep them both? They're goint to be very different in every way. The SR has about the thinnest and fastest neck you can find, the Fernandes will be a fair bit wider at the nut and thicker along the entire length. The Fernandes will likely be a lot heavier. It's fully passive, so will sound different and the controls are much simpler (2x volume, 1x tone?). I would definitely try first, or keep the SR around until you're sure the Fernandes suits you better if you have to pick just one.

I don't think Ibanez use it for the truss rod, but for additional stabilizing rods (the same way many manufacturers use carbon rods these days).

Here's an interesting read: https://unicornbass.se/site/m-total-neck-recovery/ This luthier describes the neck as very poorly and crudely made, with a very old-tech compression truss rod with so much excess glue in the thread that it just gets stuck when turning.

Roadster, not Musician

And I love these for keeping my frets shiny and smooth! They really are a treat. It's a lot of work, but I've had great results and it really improves playability if your frets were dull.

I've always been intrigued by that wide pickup spacing, but have never heard one. They look nice, both the Dean and the Cort.

If it is anything like my Streamers, the push-pull pot bypasses the active tone controls but does not switch the bass to fully passive, because the active MEC pickups require 9V at all times. A wire from each pickups runs to the preamp board to provide the power. If your bass turns quiet when you pull out the volume knob, I'm guessing it may cut the power to the pickups? What pickup and control configuration is in your Fortress? PJ with push-pull volume, pickup pan and two-band EQ?

From the looks of it, yes You could always send Seymour Duncan an email just to be sure, they seem pretty helpful.

Martin Lopez, formerly of Opeth and now in SOEN.

Looks a lot better! I thought that V body was much too compact for it to balance well. Looking at other V-models and Jackson Rhoads models, they appear much longer to me. I like your new design!

Yep, the pickups aren't powered through the signal wiring, there's always a separate Plus (the red wire) and the Minus will be the ground. This is a wiring diagram for the STC-3A, but with soap bars. In this example they're regular two-conductor, so wiring will be the same as your PJ-set. As you can see the red power wires of the pickups join the one from the preamp towards the battery: