Hey folks, just got my Fender Precision Bass back from 3rd Coast Guitar Service in Chicago. It's a 2008 MIA Precision which I decided to swap out with a Status neck and pickup. The maple neck my Precision came with started doing the pretzel act a little while ago so it had to go.
Despite the fact that the 3rd Coast guys completely ignored the written instructions I taped onto the body of the bass for my preferred setup (shim and low action... how ****ing hard is that?), I'm still very happy. I have to do a full setup tomorrow and I'll get it alot closer to playable because the strings are an inch off the fretboard right now. Well, not that high, but still pretty damn high. I don't think they even got the radius right when setting the string height...
If you want something done, you gotta do it yourself.
Anyway, there is a somewhat noticable difference in tone between the maple and the graphite neck, but mostly when it's not plugged into an amp. The Status neck sounds kind of (I hate using words this way) plastic-y when I'm just playing acoustic. But plugged into my amp, there is just a little bit more rich upper harmonic content than with the maple neck. I play percussively and when tapping I definitely get that crystal-clear piano-like tone with the graphite neck. I got that with the maple neck but there is a touch more, uh, "detail" with the Status neck. It had brand-new Rotosound stainless steel roundwounds on it, which I'm sure helped.
I'm gonna go on record and say the the Status neck does not significantly affect the tone of the bass. The pickup sounds a little hotter but I still have to adjust the pickup height, because...well, read on.
Lucky me, when I got the bass back, I noticed that the E and A string pickup looked really crooked. I never noticed it with the stock Fender pup but the Status pup is just a little bigger, so it stood out more, especially because it didn't really fit into the pickup cutout in the pickguard. I take the pickguard off and remove the pickup, and lo and behold, Fender screwed the two pup screwholes off center. I had to fill and re-drill them in order to actually get the pickups centered and even with each other and able to fit comfortably in the pickup cutout in the pickguard. Everything's fine now but I'm more certain than ever that I will NEVER buy anything Fender again.
I'll try to get pictures up tomorrow and maybe a little more in-depth review once I get the setup right.
Despite the fact that the 3rd Coast guys completely ignored the written instructions I taped onto the body of the bass for my preferred setup (shim and low action... how ****ing hard is that?), I'm still very happy. I have to do a full setup tomorrow and I'll get it alot closer to playable because the strings are an inch off the fretboard right now. Well, not that high, but still pretty damn high. I don't think they even got the radius right when setting the string height...
If you want something done, you gotta do it yourself.Anyway, there is a somewhat noticable difference in tone between the maple and the graphite neck, but mostly when it's not plugged into an amp. The Status neck sounds kind of (I hate using words this way) plastic-y when I'm just playing acoustic. But plugged into my amp, there is just a little bit more rich upper harmonic content than with the maple neck. I play percussively and when tapping I definitely get that crystal-clear piano-like tone with the graphite neck. I got that with the maple neck but there is a touch more, uh, "detail" with the Status neck. It had brand-new Rotosound stainless steel roundwounds on it, which I'm sure helped.
I'm gonna go on record and say the the Status neck does not significantly affect the tone of the bass. The pickup sounds a little hotter but I still have to adjust the pickup height, because...well, read on.
Lucky me, when I got the bass back, I noticed that the E and A string pickup looked really crooked. I never noticed it with the stock Fender pup but the Status pup is just a little bigger, so it stood out more, especially because it didn't really fit into the pickup cutout in the pickguard. I take the pickguard off and remove the pickup, and lo and behold, Fender screwed the two pup screwholes off center. I had to fill and re-drill them in order to actually get the pickups centered and even with each other and able to fit comfortably in the pickup cutout in the pickguard. Everything's fine now but I'm more certain than ever that I will NEVER buy anything Fender again.
I'll try to get pictures up tomorrow and maybe a little more in-depth review once I get the setup right.
