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I like the simplicty of a P. I also like the idea of a G&L, but without all the switches and knobs. So I dropped an MFD humbucker in my Matt Freeman. I couldn't afford an L1000 so I made a P1000 It sounds similar to a P but has a little more grunt on tap if needed. I'm rather liking it.

If the bridge has a flat baseplate an idea for an experimental (and easy reversible) bodge would be to remove the metal saddles and replace them with simple floating block saddles (one for each string) made out of wood. Similar in shape to the pic below. These could then rest directly on a piezo strip. Alternatively an even simpler one-piece wooden saddle, trimmed to height and angled for intonation, just resting on the baseplate. Just a thought.

What is the bridge assembly in question, does it have any floating components? Just putting an under-saddle piezo strip under a regular screw-down bridge plate is unlikely to work very well. The piezo needs to be under string pressure but screwing it down will most likely choke it. Same goes for the neck pocket. Ideally it needs to be under some sort of floating element that's in direct contact with the strings (eg. nut or saddle). I guess i's possible that putting a UST in a shallow channel at the front edge of a baseplate (near the saddles) might generate some output but it might be quite weak and lacking in depth and detail.

An Allparts P neck with maple board costs around £300 - [url="http://www.allparts.uk.com/products/replacement-neck-for-p-bass-solid-maple-w-finish"]http://www.allparts....-maple-w-finish[/url] An unfinished neck (no lacquer) costs around £200 if you want to do your own oil/wax finish. There are cheaper no-name necks on ebay if you're prepared to take a punt on quality. I was recently looking around for a P body and neck for a project bass to test some different pickup configurations and ended up buying a used Squier Matt Freeman off gumtree for £250 which was a much more cost effective way of doing it. The MF neck has a 41/42mm nut and feels very much like a standard P to me. Possibly a little shallower front to back but not much in it. The MF is a very nice bass for the money if you decide to go down that route.

My Zon Legacy Elite fretless was, I have to admit, superb. For some reason I didn't really bond with it though, partly I think because I just prefer the feel of wood. I put this down to old age and approaching senility.

A sweepable mid-freq control (like the East Mid Sweep) or an ACG/East filter based-preamp may help you find the tone you're looking for. I've had both on my ACG fretless (at different times) and both offer much more flexibility and control over voicing the tone to your taste than a regular fixed 2 or 3-band eq. Particulary effective for fretless.

Seems a bit of a one sided discussion! To balance things up I prefer wood. Granted composite is more consistent, but a traditionally built bass with a fabulous neck is a rarer beast altogether and a thing of great joy. It's the vagiaries of natural materials combined with craftsmanship and a dash of serendipity that give instruments individuality and character. Graphite is just good engineering, every one identical, consistency rather than character. Any one can do that

I've often wondered myself. Identical apart from bridge, pickup and pickguard as far as I can see. The Musicmaster 2-saddle bridge is a bit of an irritation but the strat type guitar pickup on mine sounded remarkably good!

For ref, the centreline of a Stingray pup is 344mm from the 12th fret. Scaled down for a 30" neck this would be 303mm. Same measurement to centreline of a P pup is 295mm (or 260mm for a 30" neck)

"..what makes a sound musical - or not..." First you need to define what you mean by 'music', for example: - the expression of definite or abstract ideas and emotions using rhythm, melody, harmony and timbre/texture, sometimes in conjunction with words, using any source of sound including silence Any sound used in the above context can be considered musical (even silence) Any sound not used in the above context isn't IMO

Aha, that looks like them! Thanks discreet

Yes that old chestnut! I've searched around but having difficulty identifying these (see pics below): - roundwound (feel like nickel) - red silk at peg end - no silk at ball end - coloured coded ball ends Any ideas?

Beautiful, thank you

Template for standard Fender neck pocket with hole positions in attached pic in case that's of any use as a reference (taken from Warmoth site).

You can buy slotted metric grub screws from here but min quantity is a box of 200 - [url="http://www.avonstainlessfasteners.co.uk/misc-stainless/slotted-grub-screws-flat-point-m3-m10-a4-din551"]http://www.avonstainlessfasteners.co.uk/misc-stainless/slotted-grub-screws-flat-point-m3-m10-a4-din551[/url] There's a good chance that yours are imperial slotted screws anyway as most metric ones are hex. Here's a quick way to check. Vintage US Fender slotted screws have UNC 6-32 thread which is the same as the long saddle intonation screw. Try removing one of the intonation screws and see if it fits the height adjuster thread. If it does then it's likely the whole bridge assembly is imperial and the vintage slotted screws should work.

[url="http://www.bassplayer.com/gear/1164/tech-bench---mod-squad-potent-pot-mod/27204"]http://www.bassplaye...t-pot-mod/27204[/url] See fourth para 'cooking with pots' (not tried it myself)

How about one of these (the split coil one) - [url="http://g-l-online-store.myshopify.com/collections/pickups/products/mfd-sb-2-bass-pickups"]http://g-l-online-st...-2-bass-pickups[/url] I'm just about to put a G&L MFD humbucker in a P as a sort of homage to the L-1000 but wish I'd bought an MFD split-coil at the same time to try that as well. I can feel another visit to the G&L shop coming on ...

"... strap button on back of bass" I've just found that Dingwall do this with a flush mounted Dunlop strap pin on the back of the body.

I can't offer any advice (need some myself) but there are some good pointers here - [url="http://truefire.com/blog/guitar-lessons/10-bass-solo-tips-non-soloist/"]http://truefire.com/blog/guitar-lessons/10-bass-solo-tips-non-soloist/[/url]

Excellent!

This thread from the LR Baggs forum mentions this preamp - [url="http://www.lrbaggs.com/forum/showthread.php?132-Mystery-Baggs-preamp"]http://www.lrbaggs.com/forum/showthread.php?132-Mystery-Baggs-preamp[/url] It gives a contact at Baggs who might be able to help with the wiring connections - Bryan McManus (email: [email="bryan@lrbaggs"]bryan@lrbaggs[/email] Tel: 805-929-3545 ext 111) Maybe worth dropping him an email