hooky_lowdown

All four of those basses listed are decent. None stand head and shoulders above any other. My advice would be to choose one which you like the look of the best. I really like Vintage icon basses, the best bang for buck of those listed imho. With the icon bass some of the worn patches look a little naff, the wood is too bright/new looking, if you use some 800 grit sandpaper and lightly go over those area's, then use some medium brown wood stain, the darker look to the wood looks sooooooo much better and authentic! 😎

@MSL Pro do the flatwounds have silk wraps at both ends? If so, what colour are they?

Very true. Saw Ride a few times in the 90s, then watched Andy Bell play with Hurricane #1 and Oasis.

The bassist Joyce does guitar lessons these days (among other things), she's teaching my niece.

Do you have tracking info? When you say "chased", did you call them? If you sent an email, was it to a 'no reply' email address?

Different brands of capacitor's will have little effect on your tone. A different value (say going from 0.047 to 0.022 will have a bigger impact). If you want a smoother tonal range you need a paper-in-oil (PIO) cap. You bagged yourself a bargain with the tmb30, these are well regarded. Short scales are great, I have a short scale arriving today. With short scales you need a heavier guage of string than you'd have on a full scale as the tension of the strings are less. So if you like the E on full scale at say 100, on a short scale you'll need a 105 to get a similar tension. Fellow Liverpool fan here, so happy to help. 😀

If the neck is too chunky for you try a '62 reissue (either US or Japanese), a flatter neck, super easy to play and awesome sounding pickups! 👍

Overrated: Iggy Pop, Genesis, Pink Floyd. Underrated: Scarce (reminds me of Pixies with female bassist) and Fortune Drive.

What strings are on your ss? I bet it sounds huge with the geezers through your orange amp. Very cool 😎

I'm a little confused, it sounds like you want a clean/bright tone (strong high end) but thumpy (strong low end) at the same time. The fender vintage pickups will do the latter but not really the former. Most people make the mistake of changing pickups when they want to change their tone or sound. Changing the type of strings you use will have a bigger impact, then different pickup. Steel roundwounds with the fender vintage pickup is you best choice for the sound you want as far as I understand. I think the best pickup for you would be the Kent Armstrong vintage hot. Changing the pots from 250k to 500k will give a cleaner/brighter tone, but you will lose some of the thump. Likewise, if you change the cap from the stock 0.047 to a guitar 0.022 you'll again get a cleaner/brighter tone, but you will lose a lot of the thump.

Fender pickups with be a direct fit, the wires will be black and white, make a note where each goes. You don't need to change the cap. If you are not comfortable soldering the new pickup to the pots, there is an alternative method, where you can cut both wires between the old pickups and the pots. Then carefully expose the copper wire, do the same with the new pickups (don't cut this wire though!), twist the two black copper wires together, do the same with the white ones, then wrap electrical tape around the wires to protect the connection, and this will work to connect the new pickup to the pots, and everything should work fine. What are you trying to achieve by changing the stock pickups with these new Fender vintage ones?

Big Joan fan, grew up listening to her. Happy days. 😀

The violin basses are difficult to get fully intonated because of the floating bridge, and it does one sound. A P bass is the cornerstone of the recorded bass sound. You should get a Vintage V4 reissued P bass, you'll get a very good quality bass, with very good vintage bass tone, for very little money. https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Vintage-V4-Reissued-Bass-MN-Vintage-White/S6K

Vintage v940 fretless or if you're into Jaco the Vintage icon fretless.

Both of those are very decent basses, as is the squier jaguar short scale.

You just need to remove the current magnets, I used a sharp scalpel and carefully cut through the glue holding the magnet to the pickup. Then I used medium viscosity superglue to stick the neo magnets to the pickup.

I've done this. Neo magnets are not that cheap, but do have a huge impact on output. Before you do anything, what sound do you want, vintage, modern (hifi)? You may be able to get something decent for little money used. It may even be cheaper to buy used rather than to convert.

@Maude how heavy is your tmb30?

Just spoke to relatives who live in the opposite end of the country, they said they've had no postal issues. Your sweeping statement that the royal mail are struggling seems incorrect to me. You seem to have been unlucky.

Seen the postman everyday this week, received post everyday this week. Don't see royal mail (as a collective) struggling. Seems fine to me.

I said STOP it. That is a beauty! I feel a '51 is pretty much imminent.

Damn you guys. Stop posting pics of 51's - you're not helping my GAS. I miss that big, fat, warm single coil tone. 😫

The only courier service ever to lose a bass I sold was Hermes. Now I know where it ended up!!!! 😥

Sold four basses last week, used ParcelForce, all delivered next day around UK. Also had a royal mail delivery this morning for an item purchased a couple days ago. Seems fine to me. 👍