So I just bought the Blu-Ray of Spock's Beard's performance of "Snow" in 2016 (amazing show, BTW), and watching Dave Meros got me to thinking about something. A few years back, Dave started using a Fender Jazz-style neck on his custom white Ed Roman-built, Rickenbacker-derived, 4-pickup bass, and I was wondering if anyone knew why he changed out the original neck on the instrument. Of course it still sounds amazing, but the pairing of the Rick-shaped body with a Jazz headstock and maple board is pretty different. Maybe Dave is a TBer and is willing to chime in?
I have the same concert on Blu-ray. Not too sure about his decision on building the bass, but Dave's playing and tone is stellar as usual...
Hi CGremlin - It's a whole new bass. I made the body myself and bought the neck on eBay. Full Contact Hardware bridge, Seymour Duncan Classic Stacks, Hipshot tuners, switchable stereo/mono output. Two pickups are where pre-75 Ric pickups go, the other two are approximately where Fender P/J pickups would go.
Thanks so much for the reply, Dave! Your "Meros Special" sounds great! I've got a 4-string counterfeit Chinese Jazz that I don't really play, and have been thinking about busting out the router and putting another pair of pickups in the Rickenbacker position with a switch to go between the two pairs. More or less exactly what your setup is, because I think it'd be awesome to have both tones on a single bass. If that works out well, I may do it on my 5-string Jazz as well.