Recent content by FretlessMainly

Late Summer, 1980; I'd been playing guitar for just over three years. Some friends came to me (senior year of HS) and said "we need you to play bass for Jesus Christ Superstar." "I don't play bass nor do I have a bass." "Not a problem; you can borrow mine and I know you can do this." "OK."...

McCartney's original bass part was played on a newly-acquired LH Fender Jazz bass, so your choice of a Jazz is good. It sounds to me like it's strung w/ rounds, but you can get away with flats. As for tone, start with both pickups maxed and then roll the neck pickup back by about 15-20%. You can...

I haven't made heavy use of it; its most logical fit is over a Dom7 chord, but I wouldn't just toss it into a tune like Satin Doll over the ii Vs. On the other hand, it might fit well with a jazz blues, such as Straight, No Chaser. That's already quirky enough to start with, so it can withstand...

Notwithstanding the tuning issues on Sweet Home Alabama, I'll echo the pinky issue. It should be among your most strong and important fingers. Any two-fret intervals (meaning a full step) should be index-pinky unless you're at 10th fret or above. The ring finger is probably the weakest (or most...

Let's try A7 C7 as an example and add in the b9, #9 (thereby dropping the 2) and the #11, so each chord is voiced as root, b9, #9, 3, #11, 5, 6, b7. All of these extensions are commonly used over V7 chords. We get: A Bb C C# D# E F# G C Db D# E F# G A Bb See where I'm going? The scales are...

Tone? Perhaps a small bit due to neck mass, but the main issue is string spacing. In that context, the size of the neck doesn't really change anything from an ergonomic perspective; rather, it keeps it more or less the same.

I can see how you'd say some form of 14, but there's a hitch at the end that leads me to believe it's 13 or 15. I get 15 from the title, but I can't make it work (15 is too long). I'm going with 13, but I wouldn't bet my house on it.

Manufacturing decisions like that are incomprehensible. It's almost as if they insisted that all decisions regarding fretless basses be made by someone who not only didn't play fretless, but also didn't even know what the word means. Thankfully, on my 2008 4003FL, they got the side dots right...

It doesn't look as if he has posted there in a few years. I didn't have Paul do the work; I bought the bass from a member who had hired Paul to do the work. No; Squire used Rotosound Rounds on that.

As long as we're doing this... December '72 refinished in Matte Amberglo by Paul Wilczynski: April '73 FL with the black plastic originally made by Paul for the Dec '72: 2008 4003FL in Midnight Blue with aftermarket black trim (Except for the TRC, which came from my 650D). Now fitted with...

Not to go too far astray in a Rickenbacker thread (although it is your thread), I added the ashtrays to both of my Jazz basses. The one in my avatar has a hand-painted silver and black PG and a 1976 fretless maple one-piece P-Bass neck. A true Frankenfender.

Yes; the sweet spot for me is bridge PU full and the neck PU backed off about 15-20%. This introduces some comb filtering (allegedly) and it sounds great. Basically, I just set both volumes to full, play an open D and then back off on the neck PU volume until I can hear the tone change and just...

See GilmourisGod's post just below yours. Basically, you have to move the neck into position before adjusting the rods. This video shows the procedure (my personal approach is to adjust the nuts no more than 1/4 turn at a time; it may take overnight to see where you get and add more adjustment...

http://www.rickenbacker.com/pdfs/manual.pdf