W1_Pro

I do have a spreadsheet...and most of them live at my work (we supply equipment for events) so I'm very fortunate there. The biggest problem I find when you have a slightly silly number of basses is what you do with the cases. They take up a lot of room!

I'd have kept it. Then again I've only ever sold one bass. An Aria PB500 Precise and I regret it to this day. I'm up to about ninety now. I know that folks have this 'it deserves to be played' thing going and I absolutely think that is a very cool way to deal with the issue of too many basses. However, for me, getting rid of a bass would be like selling one of the kids. Unthinkable.

Nice bass that there Mustang. I've been thinking about getting one. Such good value for money.

So originally, I had two shims in (Business cards, folded in three and held together with double sided). So quite a lot of shim. That angled the neck and got the action to an acceptable level, but it meant that at the end of the fretboard (the end at the body that is), the strings were completely bottomed out when I played anything above the 14th fret iirc. So I took one of the two shims out. That made the action higher and the issue with the strings bottoming out is still there, although maybe not quite as bad, but the bass is still effectively unplayable...

I attempted to reduce the shimmage (is that a word?) today and met with no success. I think its going to ned to have some material removed from the heel. This I plan to do by doing a little bit of gentle planning. I need to get a plane first though...the only one I have atm is a black and decker electic one and that will be much too brutal. Gentle touch needed, I fancy...

They are hard down Andy...chocking off accross the strings when I go above the 14th fret...

The action is now a respectable 3mm at the 12th. However the strings are bottoming out between the 22nd and 24th frets because of the shimming (which is still quite extreme). So I'm going to remove one of the shims and see where we land, but I think I might need to take a little bit of material off the heel of the neck.

The screws were from a kit I got off ebay. There were long neck fixing screws and shorter neck fixing screws, these are the shorter option. So when it was all back together the end of the neck sits a little bit proud of the body:

So, I had the neck clamped up all night and the bow seems better, if not entirely cured. This morning I decided to tackle the concealed fixings for the neck. I drilled a hole in the body using a 4mm bit and then the last cm into the heel of the neck, a 3mm. I then used a spare screw to thread the holes (in the neck) and make it easier to get the proper fixing in. Here's a pic

Having scoured YouTube last night, I think I know what to do.. I'm going to attempt to correct the bow today using heat and clamps. More news and pics anon.

Bloody hell. What a mess. They want the thick end of three hundred notes for that? It would be a cold day in hell before I parted with that much cheddar for a horlicks like this. Interestingly though, and speaking to Bassassins point about whether the high action (on mine) was a production defect or a subsequent development, this seems to have got it too, and it looks like they've attempted at least, to remediate the issue by lowereing the bridge. Maybe it was a dodgy batch?

As you can see, in theory, once its all back together, the cut should be pretty much invisible. I've done a test stringing (without drilling secondary fixings for the neck or doing any sanding as yet) and the action is much more sensible, however, there does seem to be a bow of about 1.2mm (at the 7th fret- the worst spot) in the neck. The 1.2mm is with the rod slack. Cranking the truss rod does not seem to make a difference. I seem to recall bow can be corrected using clamps and a rigid thing to clamp the neck too. Any ideas on the process folks?

So I've just got back after a rather splendid weekend in Alsace. The cheese and wine were, as ever, fantastic. Anyhow, thanks Andy, for all of the extra curricular activity. Excellent work. I have made the cut -I thought on balance that in the pickup rout might be best- some pics below..

Sorry if I misunderstood! No harm done. Its something I have had done (via a luthier) in the past so its obviously not so uncommon. Shimming the whole length of the neck will not alter the height of the action relative to the fingerboard I think, because its all one piece. All the shim will do is alter the height of the neck/ bridge block relative to the body wood, I think.