Hello everyone
I think my issues with my hands has been quite well documented by now, and I've really struggled to find the bass that's the most comfortable for me, and sounds great too. Well - I finally found it about three years ago when I wandered into a guitar shop and found this little Squier jaguar short scale bass for less than £200 - grabbed it straightaway and have been playing it ever since.
I replaced the pickups within a few weeks to Dimarzio model P & J's but have never been 100% happy with it for a couple of reasons:
It didn't come factory shielded (!) so it hums like mad
It's very neck heavy
The bridge has a bit of a rattle that I've never been able to solve
The tuning isn't very stable, partly due to the tuners but also something else, see below
The E string is always very slightly deader than the rest of the strings
The frets weren't terribly level from the factory
And finally, and most importantly, I can't go a week without adjusting the truss rod as the neck is always on the move, and now the rod is getting stiff and creaky.
Following a suggestion from a fellow talkbasser, a wonderful British luthier called Jon Shuker is going to be making me a replacement neck and doing a few mods at the same time. I've been familiar with (dr00ling over) his work for a few years, and finally the need and opportunity came up, along with being told that he does this kind of thing as well as full custom builds, which I didn't know about before!
So here's the spec and a before picture. I've paid my deposit and the bass is on its way to him by courier as I type, and he expects that I'll have it back well before Xmas which is fantastic. Merry Xmas to me!
Keeping 30" scale
Matching the nut and heel width and neck profile
9.5" radius
20 stainless steel frets
Carbon graphite support rods
Maple neck
20.5mm deep at first fret, 22.5mm at 12th
Satin laquer
Rosewood board (I asked for the darkest in colour, Jon has some lovely 50 year old Indian rosewood that he's going to use)
6mm face dots
2mm side dots
Dual action truss rod
Brass nut
Schallers BM Lite tuners
Gotoh 201 bridge
Proper shielding and wiring job (I can't solder so there *may* be electrical tape holding the wires together. Ok there is.)
Keeping the dimarzio pickups in there
I'm so incredibly excited!!!!! Jon said he is going to update me along the way so watch this space, and I'll also post when it's back
Here's the before
I think my issues with my hands has been quite well documented by now, and I've really struggled to find the bass that's the most comfortable for me, and sounds great too. Well - I finally found it about three years ago when I wandered into a guitar shop and found this little Squier jaguar short scale bass for less than £200 - grabbed it straightaway and have been playing it ever since.
I replaced the pickups within a few weeks to Dimarzio model P & J's but have never been 100% happy with it for a couple of reasons:
It didn't come factory shielded (!) so it hums like mad
It's very neck heavy
The bridge has a bit of a rattle that I've never been able to solve
The tuning isn't very stable, partly due to the tuners but also something else, see below
The E string is always very slightly deader than the rest of the strings
The frets weren't terribly level from the factory
And finally, and most importantly, I can't go a week without adjusting the truss rod as the neck is always on the move, and now the rod is getting stiff and creaky.
Following a suggestion from a fellow talkbasser, a wonderful British luthier called Jon Shuker is going to be making me a replacement neck and doing a few mods at the same time. I've been familiar with (dr00ling over) his work for a few years, and finally the need and opportunity came up, along with being told that he does this kind of thing as well as full custom builds, which I didn't know about before!
So here's the spec and a before picture. I've paid my deposit and the bass is on its way to him by courier as I type, and he expects that I'll have it back well before Xmas which is fantastic. Merry Xmas to me!
Keeping 30" scale
Matching the nut and heel width and neck profile
9.5" radius
20 stainless steel frets
Carbon graphite support rods
Maple neck
20.5mm deep at first fret, 22.5mm at 12th
Satin laquer
Rosewood board (I asked for the darkest in colour, Jon has some lovely 50 year old Indian rosewood that he's going to use)
6mm face dots
2mm side dots
Dual action truss rod
Brass nut
Schallers BM Lite tuners
Gotoh 201 bridge
Proper shielding and wiring job (I can't solder so there *may* be electrical tape holding the wires together. Ok there is.)
Keeping the dimarzio pickups in there
I'm so incredibly excited!!!!! Jon said he is going to update me along the way so watch this space, and I'll also post when it's back
Here's the before
