Newer (07-08?) Mexican Fender Users

[secretface]

I had a few questions about the newer Fender Basses coming out of Mexico. I recently put togather a parts bass P/J and the body and neck both have '08 dates on them. The neck pocket route in the body looked typical in its finish except for one thing. It looked like it was re-routed after finishing by like a hand held dremmel tool. Just along the bottom edge as to give the pocket a tilt. Is this like a poor mans micro-tilt feature? I think it was interfering with the neck sitting flush in there when fully assembled. The other thing I noticed was a small screw in the body route for the pickups and wiring under the pickguard. I disregarded it when installing my Quarter-Pounders. Well I guess its used for a ground since they didnt fully cover the cavity with that black insulating spray like my older basses. I took a guess and sodered a wire to it and to the back of my volume pot. It then went from the noisiest pickups to the quietest I ever owned. Im thinking of trying a screw ground addition to all my other basses to see if it helps the noise ratio. I just wanted to see if this neck routing and ground screw were standard or did I get stuck with some wierd parts? Ive never seen these techniques in any bass Ive taken apart in the past.