Pup slightly out of alignment. Should i be worried?

[dave_bass5]

Cheers guys.
The shop is picking it up on Monday. I'm still not sure what's going to happen but I expect I'll go for a refund as I know they don't have any more in stock and I don't want to hang about.

Now then, while I like the MIA I'm pretty certain I'm not going to take another gamble on one, not unless I can try it first. I might see if the gallery has one at the right price but if not then I'm going to have a re think.
I'm tempted to have a look for a lakland JO4 bit that's just an idea.
I want to keep passive so haven't looked at Sadowsky, even though I know they are fantastic basses.
I may even just go for a highway-one and save some money.

More updates when I have them. I'm on holiday right now so that's why the bass can't go back until next week.

Ian. I also feel that if the pickguard fits then maybe it's not the neck pup but the bridge pup that's out. Especially now ice seen how off it can be. When I get back I'm going to try and figure out exactly which one is out.

Edited August 17, 2010 by dave_bass5

[ikay]

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='928142' date='Aug 17 2010, 10:49 PM']Ian. I also feel that if the pickguard fits then maybe it's not the neck pup but the bridge pup that's out. Especially now ice seen how off it can be. When I get back I'm going to try and figure out exactly which one is out.[/quote]

Hmm, if the bridge pup needs to be nudged left rather than the neck pup being nudged right that suggests that bridge is also a bit off. If you run a straight edge from either side of the neck towards the bridge that should show up where the misalignment is. Be very interested to know what you find...

[attachment=56969:Fender_Jazz.jpg]

[Musicman20]

Jees, I must be lucky. Ive sent my pics to Dave so he can show the shop. My Jazz is pretty damn spot on, in fact its the second thing I checked (tight neck join first). Ive not seen one bass in my life where it is PERFECT, but Dave's Jazz is really off the mark. Mine is virtually spot on, and you CAN move the string spacing if you want it different. I can see on Dave's that isnt an option.

This is definitely putting me off buying a new American Standard Jazz. In fact, Ive decided im going with something different. Ive been lucky with my Fenders and sent back ones since that didnt cut the QC checks I do. No more now, thats it. Ill stick to the decent ones I have and try something else.

I contacted Lakland after the problems I had and they are working things out for me so I get a great new one thats been checked. So we shall see what I go for.

I agree the Sadowsky basses are nice. Im really tempted to just go for it and order a Metro, but the price is worrying me. £1700 for a Jazz is a LOT.

Edited August 18, 2010 by Musicman20

[dave_bass5]

Just a quick monday update.
The MIA is going back and im giving up on them.
Ive asked the shop to send me a Highway-one out instead (and a refund for the difference).
Ive now had three MIA's from this shop and while its not their fault im now running out of colour options. Im happy to spend a lot less and take whatever i can but im going to want my exact choice for £960 and they dont have any more in stock.


Its like ive gone around in a complete circle this year as i started out with my old HW1 as my only bass for a while, now ill be using the new one as my only gigging bass.

[Linus27]

Really bad news about your basses Dave. Quite shocking also. My MIA Fender precision plays superb but I'm not very good at looking at QC issues. If it plays nice, feels nice and sounds nice then I am happy. Maybe I should pay more attention to build quality in the future.

Edited August 24, 2010 by Linus27

[dave_bass5]

Thanks Michael.
To be honest it took me a week to even notice it. Im not sure if tone was effected or not but i expected more for £960.

The Black one has just gone back so hopefully the replacement bass (HW-one) will work out. And if it does, it leaves me wondering what i would have gained (other than a shiny finish and a maple neck) by spending £400 more on a MIA.

[dave_bass5]

Well it looks like this saga might be coming to a close.

The Highway-one just turned up and i must say its seems much better put together.

Pups are where they should be, routing if fine, no gaps under any frets and it seems a bit lighter than the MIA (i will weigh it on our postage scales today, just for reference). The neck pocket is also spot no but so were the MIA's.
The finish if good although there are one or two very, very light surface scratches. Im not in the slightest bothered about this as after the first gig im sure it will have a few more.
I loved the shiny finish on the MIA but i do like this flat back finish as well. It looks very rock and roll.

Ive not plugged it in yet, and the action is a bit high due partly to too much relief but thats all easily sorted.

So, its been a trying 4 weeks but i think i got there. And considering my original budget was £500 im very happy to have only just gone over that, rather than double it.
This all started because i was a bit unhappy with my CVJ and wanted a MIM 70's classic, mainly for the blocked neck, but due to these MIA issues ive been forced to play it more and im back in love with it, although the HW is going to be my main bass from now on (fingers crossed)

Cheers for reading and letting me share my experience.

Oh, and a big thumbs up to Reidys (especially John and Paul), the shop thats been dealing with all this. These guys have had to put up with me sending 3 MIA's back and not once did they try and get out of it, they have paid all the postage both ways and been very helpful.

I will definitely use them again and will be my first port of call for my next bass.

Funny thing. I started this year playing my vastly under used HW1, then got rid of it and had my first experience with a MM (Sub, and then Ray34), first time with a maple necked Jazz but i expect ill go out playing a HW-one (i know, there is still time to go through a few more basses before NYE)

Edited August 27, 2010 by dave_bass5

[Linus27]

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='937980' date='Aug 27 2010, 12:01 PM']Well it looks like this saga might be coming to a close.

The Highway-one just turned up and i must say its seems much better put together.

Pups are where they should be, routing if fine, no gaps under any frets and it seems a bit lighter than the MIA (i will weigh it on our postage scales today, just for reference). The neck pocket is also spot no but so were the MIA's.
The finish if good although there are one or two very, very light surface scratches. Im not in the slightest bothered about this as after the first gig im sure it will have a few more.
I loved the shiny finish on the MIA but i do like this flat back finish as well. It looks very rock and roll.

Ive not plugged it in yet, and the action is a bit high due partly to too much relief but thats all easily sorted.

So, its been a trying 4 weeks but i think i got there. And considering my original budget was £500 im very happy to have only just gone over that, rather than double it.
This all started because i was a bit unhappy with my CVJ and wanted a MIM 70's classic, mainly for the blocked neck, but due to these MIA issues ive been forced to play it more and im back in love with it, although the HW is going to be my main bass from now on (fingers crossed)

Cheers for reading and letting me share my experience.

Oh, and a big thumbs up to Reidys (especially John and Paul), the shop thats been dealing with all this. These guys have had to put up with me sending 3 MIA's back and not once did they try and get out of it, they have paid all the postage both ways and been very helpful.

I will definitely use them again and will be my first port of call for my next bass.

Funny thing. I started this year playing my vastly under used HW1, then got rid of it and had my first experience with a MM (Sub, and then Ray34), first time with a maple necked Jazz but i expect ill go out playing a HW-one (i know, there is still time to go through a few more basses before NYE)[/quote]

Pictures?????????????????

[dave_bass5]

Pics tonight. ill take a couple as it came but hoping my black PG will fit so ill get some of those as well. I might even put a tort on it if ti fits. I had one of these on my old black HW-one P and it looked pretty good.
I do think this bass looks more robust than the MIA. The lack of gloss might help but ti looks very road worthy.

Jazz basses eh? who'd have thought i would go back to these after the past few years of not liking them.

Then again, im already thinking of a P body for this neck, but thats next year sometime.

Oh, and another coincidence. I was also using my Behringer BDI21 last NYE. After not using ti for a while and getting a Sadowsky DI recently im now getting rid of that and going back to the BD21 (hopefully a BDDI).
so, in effect i had my ideal tone last NYE and its taken me money and 7 months to realise that.

Edited August 27, 2010 by dave_bass5

[Linus27]

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='938012' date='Aug 27 2010, 12:29 PM']Pics tonight. ill take a couple as it came but hoping my black PG will fit so ill get some of those as well. I might even put a tort on it if ti fits. I had one of these on my old black HW-one P and it looked pretty good.
I do think this bass looks more robust than the MIA. The lack of gloss might help but ti looks very road worthy.

Jazz basses eh? who'd have thought i would go back to these after the past few years of not liking them.

Then again, im already thinking of a P body for this neck, but thats next year sometime.

Oh, and another coincidence. I was also using my Behringer BDI21 last NYE. After not using ti for a while and getting a Sadowsky DI recently im now getting rid of that and going back to the BD21 (hopefully a BDDI).
so, in effect i had my ideal tone last NYE and its taken me money and 7 months to realise that.[/quote]

I've gone back to a Precision after all these years and loving it. I also play my Stingray lots. In fact the only Jazz I have is being made a fretless

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='Linus27' post='938020' date='Aug 27 2010, 12:39 PM']I've gone back to a Precision after all these years and loving it. I also play my Stingray lots. In fact the only Jazz I have is being made a fretless [/quote]

I will definitely go back to P next year but not sure if i will give up the Jazz. The plan has always been to get a good jazz with a nice neck, and hang on to the neck for any other basses that come along.
This is what i did before.
Hopefully ill get a Allparts P body after Christmas and take my time to put a P together. A Fralin or thumper will be on the cards, as will a Gotoh 201 i expect. All in it should cost less than £400.
I can then use my CV Jazz neck (probably wont get a de fret now) to go on the HW-one jazz.

Any news on your neck?

[dave_bass5]

Well, i guess i spoke to soon.

Ive tried to adjust the trussrod and i cant. Using the tool that came with the bass its slipping in the nut. Im going to try a better allen key when i get home but im a bit worried about this.
I would prefer to fix this myself rather than send the bass back. Im sure i can. My main worry is stripping the nut and not being able to do any adjustments.

Im going to try and find a new trussrod nut, just in case i mess this one up. Ive seen the sticky about fixing a maxed out truss rod so might give that ago, the only problem is i dont have many tools so cant alter any nuts i already have.
Anyone know the dimensions of a nut that will fit?

[dave_bass5]

Well I think I have it sussed. I took the pick guard off and used a proper Allen key. Problem solved for now.
Seems like the tool wasn't going in properly.

The big issue still remains, what pick guard to put on. Black looks great but so does the tort off my CVJ.
I'll up some pics of each later. I'm just waiting for the neck to settle down before I put a PG on.

[dave_bass5]

Right'o.

I've managed to get the neck pretty flat and have a nice low action. There is quite a bit of fret buzz up at the last few frets (body end) but as i have no right being there ill leave it as it is.
I also shimmed the neck. I intend to put a set of Fender 8250's on and the E has a tapper. The saddle is pretty close to as low as it will go already so i guess i would have to do this anyway. I also like to see an even string height around the 12th fret so shimming works well.

Sooo, im happy for now. The neck pup is ever so slightly out but thats cool, its much better than the MIA's. First gig tomorrow and im quite looking forward to it. I think ill put the Wizards in during the week but for now ill leave the stock pups in.

Its funny how each jazz bass sounds quite a bit different form the others. I would say this i a bit closer to my DJ5 than the MIA but that could well be down to the stings.

Ive settled on a black PG, mainly because it fits better than the tort but thought i would post a shot of each. The PG is a MIA but i have a proper HW-one PG on its way.

Cheers.









And finally........

Edited August 27, 2010 by dave_bass5

[Musicman20]

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='938012' date='Aug 27 2010, 12:29 PM']Pics tonight. ill take a couple as it came but hoping my black PG will fit so ill get some of those as well. I might even put a tort on it if ti fits. I had one of these on my old black HW-one P and it looked pretty good.
I do think this bass looks more robust than the MIA. The lack of gloss might help but ti looks very road worthy.

Jazz basses eh? who'd have thought i would go back to these after the past few years of not liking them.

Then again, im already thinking of a P body for this neck, but thats next year sometime.

Oh, and another coincidence. I was also using my Behringer BDI21 last NYE. After not using ti for a while and getting a Sadowsky DI recently im now getting rid of that and going back to the BD21 (hopefully a BDDI).
so, in effect i had my ideal tone last NYE and its taken me money and 7 months to realise that.[/quote]

Ive tried new things and gone back to what I know! Seems to happen quite a lot on here. Thank god youve not lost a lot of money realising it.

[dave_bass5]

Cheers Gareth.
A MIA in the future is not out of the question, i really loved the look of the 3TSB/maple and want one again but for now, i have a good workhorse bass and money left over to put towards a Canon 60D ;-)

[stinson]

Looks sweet with the black pg. I must be getting old though because Im really starting to like a white pg on black

[dave_bass5]

Funny enough so am i. when i put the white PG back on the black MIA i felt it looked quite nice.
The white PG that came on the HW seems to be a slightly off white and looks nicer than the normal shiny white PGs that come on most basses IMO.

[stinson]

Mine came with white back in 87, I got simms to make me a black one so I swap them every now and then, a cheap gas fix!

[Linus27]

For 20 years I played my black Jazz with rosewood board with no pickguard as I hated the white one. In the last year or so I have put the white one on and think it looks cool. It has to be an age thing. I'm getting a fretless neck made for it so I might get a black pickguard made as your Jazz look great with one.

[dave_bass5]

I had simms make the one on my old DJ5 and very nice it was to.
I did get a quote from them to make me a MIA one but they wanted £45. I felt that was a bit much so got mine from WD music for £15.
I do have a HW one specific coming from WDM for £19. The MIA one fits but its out very slightly by the control plate.

Michael, i would be quite happy with the white one on mine, and will probably swap them around when the mood takes me but for now i think im trying to re create the look i had with my DJ5. I like the black mad max sort of look and the flat black finish makes it look more rugged IMO.

Ive been messing about a bit more with the set up and while it plays well i still cant get rid of the severe fret buzz at the body end. The last two frets are fine but its the two before them, on all strings that the problem. Still, i wont be playing any of those notes so ill live with it for now and maybe get a pro set up done at some point. It might be raised frets or something to do with the shim.