Some laurel boards can be great, but often the squier models seem to pick super grey wood that needs a ton of conditioning to look any darker. The mini p-bass and the CV mustangs have this problem pretty bad.
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Cool, gotcha yep the Laurel board on the late Squier 60's I just grabbed was pretty grey and dry looking out of the box, I used Gerlitz fretboard conditioner, it only took a tiny amount of this product to hydrate, darken and pull out the grain, my first IL board but dig it after treatment.
I'm hesitant to post this since I played horribly and made really stupid mistakes because I was trying to look up at the congregation vs. staring at my sheet music iPad which cause me to space out in a spot or two and completely botch my "new" rhythm I transcribed for "Glory to God". You can FF to the song portions.
But those of you wanting to hear what the Squier CV 60s P sounds like through a Noble DI and a Cali 76, straight out of the box, see below. I picked this bass up Saturday evening, and played it Sunday morning. I had planned on donating this to the Church for Youth Music Ministry...but I like it too much, so now for the donation it's between this and the Squier 50s CV P I picked up last year during the one of the holiday sales.
But those of you wanting to hear what the Squier CV 60s P sounds like through a Noble DI and a Cali 76, straight out of the box, see below. I picked this bass up Saturday evening, and played it Sunday morning. I had planned on donating this to the Church for Youth Music Ministry...but I like it too much, so now for the donation it's between this and the Squier 50s CV P I picked up last year during the one of the holiday sales.
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I disagree. No car is delivered with an empty gas tank, and between the time the factory puts strings on a instrument and that it is sold to you, the neck can be warped. Remember that a 4-string bass neck takes 170+/- Kg of tension with all 4 strings tuned to EADG on most 45-105 sets. It can destroy a neck before you even own the bass.
It is UNACCEPTABLE. period
High frets? Try againMight want to apply another coat. It's looking grey again on the high frets
1) Guess dealers provide better service in France because I have most definitely been delivered cars that needed fuel.
2) Have you ever received any bass with a neck that was destroyed when you received because the truss rod wasn't fully adjusted and the strings were loosened? I'm not talking theory here I'm talking reality because I have not.
3) If it's unacceptable to you it's your right to complain to the seller or return it. It wasn't to me. I just took out my tools and did what I needed to put it in order. I'd always be more than willing to do that anytime I can buy an instrument for half off list price.
Good for you, corporations are happy that you are willing to accept products that weren't even "finished/assembled" correctly before being sold. Thanks to these behaviour, they are all (giant tech companies & many others) screwing us all over.
Haven't had a chance to make use of it just yet in a gig or rehearsal context, but while my CV70s J was in for a small repair (the neck somehow got dinged while on tour last week), I had a series/parallel push-pull wired in. It's not a sound I expect I'll make use of too often, but it'll be nice to have that option when needed. Especially if I'm not bringing any pedals to a show, it'll be nice for those moments when the bass needs to be just a bit more up front. Anybody else making use of one?
I have three parts-basses wired that way; a '70s-style J/J Jazz, a '60s-style P/J Jazz and a single humbucker, coil-split Fender Dimension (pictured below). Personally, I really dig the "secret second bass inside" capability it offers!
That being said, I'm not a gigging player, so I don't know how well it would go over in a band sitch. Who knows? Maybe someday I'll wire up all my passive basses that way.
Thank you, sir!
I'm very pleased with the results, especially since I went in blind on several fronts while curating and assembling the parts. All deets are here;
With all due respect. There are those who blame and there are those who actively seek solutions and find them. I fall under the second category. In this case I bought a bass at a wholesale price shipped much like it might have been to any Fender dealer where they would do a final inspection and setup. That's the way many dealers are set up with Fender to operate. Sweetwater Music for one.
I just did on my own what one of Sweetwater's techs would've done had I paid retail and bought the bass through them. I save around $240, took an hour of my own time, and did the job myself. Getting $240 an hour for MY time as a guitar tech must make me the highest paid one out there don't ya' think?
With all due respect. There are those who blame and there are those who actively seek solutions and find them. I fall under the second category. In this case I bought a bass at a wholesale price shipped much like it might have been to any Fender dealer where they would do a final inspection and setup. That's the way many dealers are set up with Fender to operate. Sweetwater Music for one.
I just did on my own what one of Sweetwater's techs would've done had I paid retail and bought the bass through them. I save around $240, took an hour of my own time, and did the job myself. Getting $240 an hour for MY time as a guitar tech must make me the highest paid one out there don't ya' think?
I can see both sides of the argument here. The basses shouldn't be arriving in that sorry state, but it's also a pretty simple task to go about sorting it out. That said, this perspective is definitely the glass-half-full one, haha
With all due respect. There are those who blame and there are those who actively seek solutions and find them. I fall under the second category. In this case I bought a bass at a wholesale price shipped much like it might have been to any Fender dealer where they would do a final inspection and setup. That's the way many dealers are set up with Fender to operate. Sweetwater Music for one.
I just did on my own what one of Sweetwater's techs would've done had I paid retail and bought the bass through them. I save around $240, took an hour of my own time, and did the job myself. Getting $240 an hour for MY time as a guitar tech must make me the highest paid one out there don't ya' think?
I'd sort it out myself if for no other reason than that it would be cheaper to do that than to buy the gas I'd burn to return it.
Poorly dressed fret ends is an issue I agree but also one those of us who purchased the bass for $240 were well compensated for. Even if we took it to a tech and paid for an hours worth of his time we still come out ahead. But a loosened truss rod and strings? IME that's the way an instrument should actually ship. Less risk of damage.
What our Franco member isn't mentioning relative to the truss rod is that the string were also significantly de-tuned so as not to exert any undue pressure on the neck but possibly just enough to see to it the neck didn't go into a back bow. All that part needed was to adjust the truss rod and bring the strings to pitch and set intonation all of which is part of a typical setup.
As players we should all be able to do at least that much I'd think.
If not and we want it playing like a champ right out of the box perhaps we should buy from a local dealer who always delivers new basses that are fully set up to his customers preference and pay for it in the pricing. Fender sold these instruments at wholesale prices and they came in that condition ready for dealer or shop set up.
Less risk of damage? If a bass/neck/trussrod breaks during shipping because it was tightening, well I have bad news for the lifetime of that instrument/neck/trussrod.
If maybe your strings were detuned, maybe it is because the bass was shipped with strings tuned but no trussrod and your brand new neck arrived twisted already, so the strings lost tension?
But that's just what "Franco member" thinks, who cares
I'm always happy when I see bickering about the dumbest things, because it's an indicator of a lack of real problems to worry about.
I seriously doubt that ANYONE's Labor Day jazz bass arrived as crumby as mine did. But after just a little setup TLC, and a busted tuner that Fender made right, my bass is great! I paid $239. I feel I got more than my money's worth, even despite the issues.
But here is the part that makes ALL OF IT a non issue: YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY ONE. Buy something else. Anything else. A Fodera. A Fender Custom Shop. Quit bass and play a tuba instead!!! We have plenty of choices.
I seriously doubt that ANYONE's Labor Day jazz bass arrived as crumby as mine did. But after just a little setup TLC, and a busted tuner that Fender made right, my bass is great! I paid $239. I feel I got more than my money's worth, even despite the issues.
But here is the part that makes ALL OF IT a non issue: YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY ONE. Buy something else. Anything else. A Fodera. A Fender Custom Shop. Quit bass and play a tuba instead!!! We have plenty of choices.
Seems to me like part of the argument here lies in the "price to expectation ratio". When I buy a Squier/Rogue/entry level Ibanez or Yamaha, I'm not expecting it to be at the quality level of fit/finish/setup/refinement/components as a USA Fender/EBMM/Kiesel/high end Yamaha or Ibanez etc. Why do I feel that way? Because I'm simply not paying for the same level. There SHOULD be tangible and measurable differences across price points, IMO. However, in this day and age with modern assembly processes and CNC, that gap has shrunk compared to inexpensive instruments of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and probably the 90s. I don't expect perfection at entry level price points. I am thankful and pleasantly surprised when an instrument exceeds my expectations, even if a little TLC and DIY work is needed to get it where I like. Different strokes for different folks, right? 
