Hello all
Resurrecting an old thread here, but I picked a JC up from Krispn before Christmas, who got it from Tredders, who had himself got it from Buff, so nothing like keeping it in the family!
While I would agree these aren't the most ergonomic basses out there compared to some available these days, I have to say you get a hell of a lot of bang for your buck.
My observations so far:
i) The nut on this bass was poorly cut - way too high - so I reprofiled it to make it play more comfortably in first position. Much faster and effortless to play now, especially combined with a tweak of the truss rod to straighten the neck and a drop of the action at the bridge.
ii) Flats are definitely the way to go! I've got La Bella 760FS on mine and they sound fantastic!
iii) The pickup in this bass is a gem, and the impedance selector works really well (although the quality of the hardware on the bass is pretty meh overall...) when you combine it with the tone control. It's not a bass to turn volume and tone to 10 and just play, you really need to experiment to see what sounds good.
iv) The Hipshot Supertone bridge upgrade solves neck dive totally. I'm only using a 2.5" wide strap and the bass balances perfectly.
Cheers all
Gareth