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To realise the full woody organic magnificence of such a beautiful instrument in bass form, for me it would have to be fretless. Crafted wooden bridges with little or no adjustment work well in a fretless context. The bridge on my RA Mouse has zero adjustability and is tightly bonded into a recessed pocket in the body. The intonation is surprisingly true and the transference of string vibration has to be felt and heard to be believed. It genuinely feels alive. Options of piezo or mag (or both) would be good depending on what it's going to be used for. A piezo bridge gives a full range woody tone, and a mag pickup somewhere near the Stingray sweetspot gives that classic fretless singing tone. I have that configuration on my ACG and blending between the two changes the character and mood of the bass in a very effective and organic way. I think a bass version of the Naiad could be something quite special. I want one already.

Yes, just cut the wire that joins them and each half should then have two wires which are the hot/cold for each coil. Each half is a single coil pickup. You might get some single coil hum. If you do, try swapping the polarity of the wiring on one half.

Both parts of a P pickup will function as separate pickups so you could actually do that. Same for a split Mustang pickup, which may be better for narrower string spacing.

Removing the pole pieces would do the job, but whether you can do it without damaging the pickup depends on the construction of the bobbin. If it's a cheap one-piece plastic bobbin there's a good chance that the poles are inserted into a plastic 'hole' and, with a little encouragement, can be moved up or down (or removed completely). The video below demonstrates how to do this with a Strat pickup. At 7min 10sec he pulls one of the poles completely out. If the pickup has a more traditional construction (ie. separate top/bottom flatwork with the poles forming part of the structure) then messing with the poles will almost certainly damage the pickup. Interesting idea BTW!

Yes, that's what they did with the early '60 stack knob Jazz. They used a larger resistor value (220k!) but I'd experiment with much lower values and find the minimum value with the desired effect. The pots are log so backing off 10% equates to around 20-30% of pot value). The resistors would need to be wired as shown in the modded diagram below. I prefer to just set the vol controls manually as it's not really necessary to make any mods to get this effect and you still have the 100% tonal options as well.

If you back off each vol control just a touch (to around 90-95%) this decouples the pickups and eliminates the 'both full on' loading problem. Use this as your basic 'full on' setting instead of 100%. You'll also find that never going above the 90-95% point will give you much finer control for mixing the pickups. Overall output will drop slightly but that's easy to compensate for at the amp input gain end. Alternatively use an active blend!

It's a bit better than a dust cover but only has 10mm of padding and 600 denier fabric compared with 25mm and 1200 denier in the higher range F1225 bag. It's much the same spec as the old Urban short scale bag but with a simpler fold-over construction, probably cheaper to produce.

Andertons didn't show much interest in taking it as a stock item which shows how far down short scale bass users come on their list of priorities. It wouldn't surprise me if Fender do the same and stop at the cheap version. I hope to be proven wrong!

I picked up one of these yesterday from Andertons (had to order it, not a stock item) and it is indeed at the very bottom end of the scale in terms of protection. Adequate for my immediate needs but the next model up, or higher, would definitely be preferable.

If it's already baffled the experts then I'm not sure that my input will help - but here it is anyway! Sounds to me like a combination of earthing and shielding. Earthing because you can kill the noise by touching the knob (which presumably connects to earth via the pot/shaft), and shielding because the noise varies depending on the environment (proximity of lights, other electrical appliances, mains wiring/earthing variations etc). The noise gets less when you turn the blend to the bridge humbucker which suggests that the main component of the noise is down to single coil hum. This is 'normal' but might be improved by shielding the single coil pickup cavity (make sure that the shielding is also connected to ground). There was a 'click' when you touched the polepieces which suggests that the poles aren't grounded. Grounding the poles can help to reduce noise (and unwanted clicks and clunks). If the poles of the single coil are visible on the underside of the pickup you can ground them by running a strip of conductive adhesive foil across them and connecting this to ground. I noticed that when your finger briefly touched the bridge earth wire (and when you placed the bridge in the cavity) the noise didn't stop dead in the same way as when you touched the knob. If the bridge earth wire was properly connected to the earth of the output jack then touching it should have exactly the same effect as touching the knob. So it would be worth double checking the continuity of the bridge earth to the earth connection of the output jack. When playing the bass another thing to check is whether the noise varies depending on your position. If you turn round does the noise diminish or get louder? If it does then that suggests the noise is due to local sources of interference and poor shielding.

I've done the same as gary mac with good results. Make sure the surface you sand on is perfectly flat (I did it on a glass table top). The first thing to check is whether you have enough 'headroom' on the saddle to be able to remove enough to achieve the action you want. The saddle of the stock AEB10 in the pic below looks pretty low already, even though the action is quite high.

Just swap the red and yellow wires to the middle lugs over

Thomann have it listed as 'in stock within 4-5 weeks' - https://www.thomann.de/gb/fender_fbss_610_short_scale_bass_bag.htm

I contacted Fender UK and looks like the new short scale FBSS-610 gig bag is available imminently. See reply below: Cecilie (Fender Musical Instruments) Sep 28, 10:26 BST Hi Ian, The details are: # 0991521206 FBSS-610 SHRT SCL BASS GIG BAG It is currently out of stock, but it will hopefully be back by next week! Kind Regards, Cecilie - Customer Sales & Support Advisor

Thanks for that. I eventually had mine rewound by Alex Exley at projectguitarparts.co.uk (good job and very reasonable rates) but it's always useful to know of people with specialist knowledge of these things. Cheers

If you can't find one maybe you could scale up the pic of Fender Pure Vintage '58 pickguard below and make your own? The pickup cover screw holes are on the pickup centreline so they should be pretty straightforward. Tug bar is a little tricker but the lower screw hole is pretty much in line with the adjacent left pickguard screw which at least gives you a reference point.

Just measured mine which is 41.4mm or 1.63 inches (including the finish). Fender measurements would have been imperial so I think the nominal body thickness spec is probably 1 5/8" (1.625). There will likely be slight variations on this due to the hand work required in those days but 1 5/8" would be my starting point.

Not in the south-east, but Clive Brown in Ripon is a renowned master of sympathetic pre-CBS restoration. The body of my '57 Precision below was done by Clive (neck left untouched). I don't think he has a website but drop me a PM me if you'd like his contact details.

Surrey Amps specialise in Ampeg repairs if that's any help - http://www.surreyamps.co.uk/amplifier-repairs/guitar-amp-repairs/ampeg-repairs

Not exactly the same but these look quite similar - https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Rocker-Switch-240v-Mains-Red-on-off-Double-Pole-4-Pin-DPST/1460306375?iid=152578178551

Bought an old Hofner 185 from Niels. Bass arrived from Berlin very well packed and padded. Everything exactly as described. Over 50 years old, loads of mojo, super lightweight and plays exceptionally well. Makes me smile every time I pick it up! Many thanks Niels!

Great news that they're bringing out a new short scale bag, but it looks like it might be a bit of a sloppy fit. Very wide at the body end and why the diagonal chop at the top left when that's where the tuners stick out? Maybe the short scale version will be a bit more slimline and a snugger fit. More like the Urban bag lol!

I had a good hunt around for old stock (including Europe) but couldn't find any. A couple of websites are rather optimistically listing them as 'on order' but I think they're just a bit behind the times.

Ta for reply. Interesting idea about getting some made, I'll keep an eye on this post for updates. In the meantime the search continues, even though it's defeated us all so far! Cheers, Ian