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Should be NBD, but...


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On arriving home yesterday with a rather expensive acquisition, I gave it a close inspection and found that the truss rod adjustment nut is buried inside its aperture by about 5mm. The action and relief are okay at the moment so no immediate adjustment is needed. I haven't attempted to adjust the truss rod so I don't know whether it functions. I would normally use a StewMac truss rod crank (see below) on this type of bass, but I don't think it would even fit in this one.

 

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Should I be worried about this? Should I be thinking about taking it back? — and if so is this a valid reason to ask for a refund?

 

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Edited by Jean-Luc Pickguard
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I wouldn't be overly concerned if the action is good for you. At some stage you may want to put a washer behind the trussrod nut to space it out a bit more and I've seen a number of older basses where this has been done. 
 

It might be worth taking the neck off just to see if there is any movement on the truss rod though, just in case you do ever want to/need to adjust the relief. 

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1 hour ago, pineweasel said:

Isn’t this quite common with old Fenders? You’re expected to remove the neck to adjust the truss rod. 

I'm more concerned about what has caused it to be so deep in the hole - eg compression of the wood  at the end and it if might break down further in time. In my experience chromes or similar strings on a mustang or musicmaster wouldn't normally pull enough relief into the neck for the truss rod to require being tightened to any great extent to counteract it.

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Yep, I’d have the neck off, and just try a couple of adjustments in either direction to be sure the truss rod works ok. It looks alright to me, I’ve seen worse. Just make sure it isn’t ragged up tight with no further adjustment available.

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I was able to give the truss rod a tweak to decrease the relief using my stewmac tool (without taking the neck off) and it didn't feel any different to a normal truss rod, so I think it is probably okay functionally, however I just don't know enough about what is inside the neck causing the ajustment nut to be recessed so much.

 

My main reason to return the bass was actually that it was listed as a 1971 mustang, but the serial number indicated that it was not quite that old, and there were other clues to back this up. I believe this was a genuine mistake, and the shop owner did seem genuinely concerned that I had been let down, so I won't name the shop publicly. It is a terrific bass otherwise — certainly on a par with my perfectly set-up twin JMJ mustangs, but with a lighter swamp ash body and some good-looking genuine mojo.

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Alright then — https://reverb.com/uk/item/63044138-fender-mustang-bass-1971 (the price was lower in the shop)

 

When I was there yesterday a couple of chaps came in, one looking very much like Matt Berry. He saw the mustang sitting in its open case and said "That is a thing of beauty" In a perfectly modulated rich baritone voice. I told him about the bass and he expressed that he'd be more interested in a 1974 one so I showed him where they have a similar '74 mustang hanging on the wall. And that is how I met Matt Berry.

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41 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

Alright then — https://reverb.com/uk/item/63044138-fender-mustang-bass-1971 (the price was lower in the shop)

 

When I was there yesterday a couple of chaps came in, one looking very much like Matt Berry. He saw the mustang sitting in its open case and said "That is a thing of beauty" In a perfectly modulated rich baritone voice. I told him about the bass and he expressed that he'd be more interested in a 1974 one so I showed him where they have a similar '74 mustang hanging on the wall. And that is how I met Matt Berry.

 

Yes, I can hear you Clem Fandango.

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1 hour ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

Alright then — https://reverb.com/uk/item/63044138-fender-mustang-bass-1971 (the price was lower in the shop)

 

When I was there yesterday a couple of chaps came in, one looking very much like Matt Berry. He saw the mustang sitting in its open case and said "That is a thing of beauty" In a perfectly modulated rich baritone voice. I told him about the bass and he expressed that he'd be more interested in a 1974 one so I showed him where they have a similar '74 mustang hanging on the wall. And that is how I met Matt Berry.

 

Ah wow amazing! I wonder why the preference for a '74, not sure what changed between 71-74. Good to know Matt is a mustang fan though, all the best people are :)

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I thought it would be a YoB thing which was later confirmed by wikipedia — where his birth date is stated as 2 May 1974, So yesterday was his birthday. He wasn't specifically looking for a mustang — I think he tried a jazz later. But I agree the best people are mustang fans.

Edited by Jean-Luc Pickguard
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1 hour ago, Hellzero said:

The neck plate serial number indicates 1976 not 1971!

 

Yep - that's what I said when I took it back, and they agreed to refund once what I said was confirmed.

 

I mentioned the sunken truss rod issue also, but only in passing as the wrong date was my reason to decide to return it.

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