ag42 Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 (edited) On 12/10/2018 at 19:13, 2x18 said: I have a Surf green one --Modded with Gotoh Tuners, DiMarzio Model J pickups, Fender vintage threaded bridge, Cts pots, P.I.O.. Cap. and LaBella Flats--Plays and sounds great! -- If you are ever in the Leeds area you are welcome to come and try it out and compare it with my 1973 sunburst Mustang or my Capri Orange P/J Mustang or my Red Fender Modern Player short scale Jazz to see which suits you! @2x18 I know this is an old post, but do you still remember what the type of Gotoh tuners were that you fitted to your bass? I see the Gotoh GB528 are roughly the right size, but any hints/tips on how well they fitted, were they a tight fit, anything you remember from fitting them! I have two of these little beasts, love them to bits and just want to make sure they have the best parts on them...and yes I've modded the hell out of them already!!! Edited May 18, 2020 by ag42 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 (edited) Well, I've joined the Jack & Danny club. Managed to score a green mini jazz for loose change and have played it for a couple of weeks now. I'm not a hugely demanding bassist. I have my preferences, but I'm fairly adaptable. Even so I found a couple of issues with this one, nothing major, and I judge it against similarly priced basses not something costing 10x the price. Good things first. Lovely finish, colour is a bit strong, some might say garish, but it's fine. Neck is straight and plays OK up to frets 15 - 16 then becomes too cramped to venture any further. The set up was non existent. Spoiled by Thomann, I was surprised at how far out it was in terms of intonation and neck relief. Not a difficult or time consuming fix but if you were a total beginner it would be very difficult to get a good sound out of it. Next problem was strings. Again the inevitable comparison is with Harley Benton. Like many bass players, I have long since discovered how good the Thomann brand strings are. These were flappy and listless, impossible to play cleanly on the lower frets of the E string. Again not a huge problem I have a few sets of round wounds kicking about so shortened a pack and presto problem solved. The tuners are tiny toy like versions of normal ones and feel a little flimsy as does the bridge. But both work so at thus price point nothing more or less than you'd expect. So a usable, striking little jazz with a couple of niggles. Not in the same league as some other affordable basses, but I imagine on a par with what most would expect. Edited September 10, 2020 by stewblack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ag42 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 I’ve had my two J&D mini jazz basses for almost a year now, and they’ve weirdly become my most played basses. One is fretted, one is fretless (fitted an ebony fingerboard meant for a guitar from StewMac, a project in itself!), both have Hipshot bridges (I love these, though putting them on a bass that costs less than the bridge might be a bit foolish...), CTS pots, GraphTech nuts, shielded cavities and TruOil’ed necks. The tuners were going to be replaced, but after I took them apart, sanded the underside of the gears flat up to a high grit count and screwed them down carefully, these things have been bulletproof - they seem to be better quality than the Sire tuners on my V3 (which stripped whilst DETUNING the low B!!!). I’m still on the original pickups, they sound more than fine to me (better than the Mikro 5-string I have, that I’m getting Bartolinis for). They’re both so comfortable to play, sound great (with the Hipshot bridges mounted just a bit further back and the fact they’re longer than the original, D’Addario EXL160S sets will fit with no wrapping issues), and are just so easy to play one finger per fret, so actually less tiring to play. If you’re after a cheap bass to mod the living daylights out of and try short scale basses, these are great for that and for little money. If you’re after a bass for your kids to play, it’s a good starting point (and you can nick it later for modding...). 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonBassAlpha Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 Dare I ask what the body is made from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ag42 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 They're supposed to be solid alder - my 'burst one when I took the neck of definitely had a little extra solid epoxy... But the paint hides a multitude of sins and I've put it out of my mind... 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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