I've got my Jazz back

[GreeneKing]

I've had a bit of a bass journey over the past couple of years. After 20 plus years of bass playing, owning and fettling the whole band shenanigans finally drove me to selling my rig, several basses and a host of other gear. I was just left with my ACGs and Rita my Sterling. They haven't been touched for over a year. I'd completely lost interest.

Brilliantly, I'm at it again but with a better practice routine and I'm working on the basics as opposed to learning songs from tabs. I'm enjoying myself more than ever.

Back to this story. I was hankering for a Jazz. Back to basics again. I bought a lovely 2008 MIM Jazz from Nick Carey on here. Its playability ranked with the best I've used (speaks the man who's owned over 100 basses). The fretwork has had a professional dress and setup and it shows. I am a serial tinkerer. I fitted upgraded electrics (still passive) and saw some overwound neodynium pickups that I thought might add something. They were great, looked lovely, well made and they sounded very punchy.

Therein lies the rub. The bass was perfectly setup and I had to raise the saddles a whole turn to a turn and a half to stop fret buzz as the neo magnets were so powerful that they were bending the strings towards the board. I told myself that this was okay but yesterday I thought, no, I'm putting the old pups back in.

With exactly the same setup I lowered the saddles by the same amount I'd raised them and normal service is resumed. My Jazz is back and it actually sounds bloody wonderful. I don't know if the pickups I've put back in are originals but they are very good.

Lesson learnt.