ikay

Some say yes, some say no. With the J turned compleely down though there's still an extra 250k vol pot in the circuit. This sits in parallel with the 250k P vol pot which changes the load on the P pickup which in turn will affect the tone to some degree (it will sound a little less bright). You could insert a mini switch to isolate the J vol pot when not using the J pup which would leave the P au naturel.

Hmm, getting cheaper by the day! Provenance is ebay so best avoided I guess. The neck and body serials match and look authentic to me but clearly something not right. Maybe the neck is shot

I have a 30" Prosebass headless with removable neck that I cart all over the place, abroad on holiday etc. Always have it to hand at home as well for working stuff out on. It's probably the bass I play most often! For travelling in the UK it's perfect, fits in a small headless gig bag and just chuck it in the car or whatever. When flying I break it down and put it in my suitcase which to be honest is a bit of a pain. It's 90cm long which is just too big to squeeze in my case. At 5.5lbs it also eats up the weight allowance (the chunky bridge tuner unit weighs well over a pound by itself). Overall though a short scale headless of some sort is a great solution. If I was to build another one I'd use lightweight monorail bridge/tuners and just have a lipstick rather than a humbucker. Or better still piezo bridge pieces instead of a mag pup. Anything to keep the weight down. I'd also consider going down to 28" scale but depends what you want to do with it (I don't gig with mine). I've also tried a ukelele but the neck was just too miniature for me. I like the look of the Sinsonido but the 34" scale neck/body unit was a bit too long for what I was after. [url="http://s1090.photobucket.com/user/iankay/media/Stuff/IMG_3014.jpg.html"][/url]

Needs a bit of work but the essential bits (body and neck) appear to be present and correct. [url="https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/vintage-late-70-s-fender-precision-bass-sunburst-maple-neck/1144818225"]https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/vintage-late-70-s-fender-precision-bass-sunburst-maple-neck/1144818225[/url]

- [url="http://www.scott-whitley.com/swb-1-standard/"]http://www.scott-whitley.com/swb-1-standard/[/url]

I use an East MPM-01 buffer ([url="http://www.east-uk.com/index.php/bass/piezo-magnetic-mixer/mpm-01.html"]http://www.east-uk.c...xer/mpm-01.html[/url]) to combine the mag and piezo in my ACG. The MPM-01 has two channels, piezo goes in one side and mag in the other. There are trim pots to balance the piezo/mag levels. Two separate buffered outputs then go to a blend knob and then into an East SPM-02 3-band preamp. The blend sweeping between piezo and mag works particularly well. Wide open and airy at the piezo end to focused and punchy at the mag end with all points in between. I've only got a single mag pup but I'm sure this setup could be adapted to work with dual mags.

Jack's Instrument Services in Manchester make custom pickguards and should be able to replicate your original guard - [url="http://www.jacksinstrumentservices.com/custom-scratchplate-cutting.html"]http://www.jacksinst...te-cutting.html[/url]

I think the shrinkwrap is mainly there to prevent any rattling between the two rods

Hmm, here's a post from 2009 abut something similar... http://basschat.co.uk/topic/64764-muddy-tone-on-e-string-on-mia-p-bass/

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1447846562' post='2910857'] One standout feature of the J-Retro is that it can fit the battery under the control plate ... I'm not sure how many (if any) of the other pre's mentioned here can offer the same? [/quote] The Audere JZ3 allows this as well, just drops in to a standard J cavity along with battery and with no mods. It also has an led which indicates when the battery needs changing

Single coil pups will add hum not hiss so sounds like the preamp. Later versions of the Mk1 had SC soapbars with a dummy coil. Does it hiss with the eq set flat or only when boosting the highs? There are output level and eq adjustment controls inside the control cavity, might be worth having a play with these to see if it makes any difference, if you haven't already.

Acoustic volume on my Mouse is about the same as a regular solid body. I had an RT Ren 5 which was somewhat louder, due to being fully hollow. My old Hofner Senator, also fully hollow, was a little bit louder than the Ren. Strings also make a difference, LaBella nylons are pretty quiet acoustically for example. If your practicing to a backing track of some sort, even at very low volume all of these would really need some sort of amplification.

The Audere JZ3 is also very good and worth considering - [url="https://www.audereaudio.com/Pro_JZ3.htm"]https://www.audereau...com/Pro_JZ3.htm[/url]

"...Beautiful L1000 on eBay UK at the moment.." Yes, this popped up while I was putting together my P1000, I've been watching it for some time! Very early one with slot screws for the pole pieces before they switched to hex. Board is rosewood I think. Really nice example from the look of it.

[Does it still sound like a p bass when running off a single coil?] Yes, in single coil it sounds like an early 50s P, in parallel very close to a split coil P (perhaps a little tighter due to the non-staggered poles), series gives a bit more heft and grunt but it's still very 'P-like'. It retains the essential characteristics of a P, all very no-nonsense, just plug it in and go.

Just bought a Hipshot d-tuner from Paul, pleasure to deal with, good comms, quick delivery, many thanks!

Are there any other Fender MIM models with that shaped headstock? Not sure where the neck would come from if it's not a kosher Mick Dirnt.

It has a series/parallel/coil split switch and a regular tone control with a .33 cap. I may experiment with the wunkay tone circuit as a next step but for the moment I'm plenty happy with it as it is . (sorry if this is a bit off topic)

The Squier fretless has an ebonol fingerboard with plastic/mylar fret markers that are just cut in to the surface. I had one some time ago which had the same problem. Very slight undulation in the board where the markers were, just enough to be annoying. I didn't notice it when I bought it but tried a few others afterwards and they all had it to some degree. It's a basic design flaw of using plastic fret markers.