Does anyone know what the specs are on the Mockingbird Plus 5 string are?
Mainly looking for the general stuff:
String spacing at the bridge.
Width at the nut.
Neck thickness at the 1st and 12th frets.
Radius.
I can't find much of anything about these online so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
TF
I have one and made some quick measurements (I don't have calipers so these are probably not exact, but close). String spacing is 16.5mm at the bridge. Neck width at the nut is 1-3/4 inches. Neck thickness is about 13/16 at the nut and 7/8 at the 12th fret, very shallow, and the radius is very flat but I don't have a way to measure it. I think that spec is available online and should be around 13-15 inches.
I bought my Ghost Black Plus 5 as a B stock last June. I got it for $280, $70 off the street price. It had almost unnoticeable scratches around the neck screws, the only cosmetic defect I could find, so I was very happy about that. However, it took a lot more work to set up than my super cheap SX jazz, so I was glad I didn't pay full price and might not have been willing to put in the work if I had paid $350. (I don't know if some of these setup issues were part of the B stock designation but I don't think so.) The strings were too high even with the saddles bottomed out so I had to file most of them. (I've never shimmed up a neck and didn't want to learn how!) The B string saddle didn't have enough travel away from the pickups to intonate properly but I was able to reverse that saddle to get the contact point with the string in the right spot. That required some more filing on that saddle to make an angled groove for the string. The foam that serves as a spring to push the pickups up toward the strings was compressed flat in some spots so I had to supplement that with extra foam to get the pickups to stay up. The stock tuners felt grindy rather than smooth--I suppose they would have worked OK and maybe gotten more smooth with use but I had some Gotoh tuners that I swapped in. Finally, these basses neck dive more than any I've ever played, so I moved the strap button from behind the upper horn to the tip of the horn (and I used straplocks which stick up a bit more than a regular button). With a suede strap, it still wants to dive but is passable.
That sounds like a lot of complaining but actually this is my favorite bass now. I just needed to dial in those details and it plays well for me. I can slap on it better than my SX jazz with 18mm spacing--go figure. I like the tone better than my USA Peavey Cirrus but that's mostly because I prefer passive basses these days. So the Mock gets most of my playing time over the SX or Peavey.
If you want to buy one of these, they're discontinued and I think there is only ONE new one for sale online in the U.S. Cheers, Bob
