When nothing goes according to the ideas/pictures in your head

Hello there, a bit of a sad story with my last parts bass project!

I had a Squier CV2 Jazz Bass body, 70s in natural finish over soft maple wood, and a Squier CV1 Precision Bass neck, 70s style with aged tint and black blocks and inlays.

I recently acquired a Fender MIM FSR 70s Jazz Bass body in natural finish over ash wood with a slight aged tint so I wanted to transfert the neck from the Squier body to the Fender one, but... here's what happened.

So, first of all I got that ash body all "naked" : no bridge, no pickup, no control plate, no pots, no neck plate, no screws, not even strap attachments!

I had a MIM bridge laying around, all also Fender Original JB pickups with white covers (the old 1962 reproduction that Fender used to install on Geddy Lee MIJ, 62 reissue and some CS models, as well as a control plate with knobs coming from a MIM Deluxe Jazz Bass: CTS pots, orange drop and dented shafts (very weird for CTS pots), and some pickguards (2 white pearled one).

I ordered on my favourite guitar parts website: strap attachments, pickguard screws, neck plate with screws, and white JB knobs. I installed all of that and was ready to solder the pickups on the pots...



First frustration of the day : that brand new soldering iron doesn't get hot enough to melt the tin. I can't solder anything. Life goes on, I have several basses to play with. Let's try to install the rest of the components and transfer the neck, shall we?



With the pickguard and white buttons/knobs... me likey! even though I would have hoped to ride that bass body naked... the hole for the CNC machine is a disgrace, so. Let's wear a robe instead!



I liked the discrete F logo. Doesn't say Fender. I don't wanna pass something for being Fender that isn't really Fender, even though Fender made that BODY, but the whole contraption has several elements that aren't "Fender".



Okay now, time to transfer the neck. Can you see the tint difference between the Squier maple body and the Fender ash body? Will it be a match between the Fender body and the Squier neck, tint-wise?



"Mehhhh"... came to my mind. To the least. First of all, the neck and body tint are different. The phone camera doesn't show the real contrast but the body is way "paler" than the neck that got a saturated aged poly finish. And black blocks and binding with white pickguard, pickup covers and knobs? No.



Rosewood neck with white dots? Yes... but that neck belongs to another bass, so lt's give it back.



Black pickguard instead of the white pearled one? Still a big no to me...



My phone is really inconsistant with colour grading, but that shot fairly shows the tint difference between the neck and the body. And again, I can't seem to like the white hardware with black block inlays & binding. I like when it's either all black or all white. Don't talk to me about "colourism"

I guess I'm too picky?? To be continued

 

I'm pretty sure the hole is just there so that MIM made bodies cannot be "resold" as MIA ones! I'm looking for a way to hide it... I was thinking about puting a small decorating objectif inside of it and then using a clear pickguard!

Sadly that neck is already attached to a body

 

I listened to you, my man:

 

Thank you for the kind comments, folks!

From an entire Squier Vintage Modified 77 Jazz Bass that was listed for a decent price. I took the neck and sold the rest in less than 2 hours!

Well, I think the neck is slighty warped in the middle of the neck... Maybe a fret job could help. But for 125 EUR (140 USD), I couldn't get any better neck to fit the looks and neck joint/pocket

 

I'm flattered! I wish it had the TV LOGO style like the Squier CV 70 Jazz Bass has, but then it wouldn't have the pearloid block inlays! Thanks man