Post by mrdes on Apr 16, 2016 19:01:44 GMT
Picked up a Jack and Danny PJ Bass during the week second hand. First impression is that the hardware and build quality are quite poor compared to the Harley Bentons. The fretts are terrible and probably why it cost just 40 euro. Fret 3, 5, & 7 were so high the action was set up at about half an inch from the fret board. The frets appear to be the wrong profile for the radius of the finger board. I removed fret 5 with minimal help from my pocket knife and it looks like its a regular guitar fret if that makes sense. It would only grip at the very ends and not at all in the middle as if the slot is too wide. I tried to reset it and to straighten the fret wire but in the end I just filed it down to get the bass playing. The bridge is in the wrong place and needs to be moved away from the neck. I replaced the pickup toggle switch with a second volume pot so it has a vol for each pickup and a master tone. The tuners are complete sh1t. Worst I've ever seen. Ever!
But the neck is lovely in the hand bad frets aside. A really nice jazz style neck not at all like I was expecting and truth be told the reason I bought it.
I don't think much of the pickups but for the price point they are very acceptable and will be replaced along with the bridge, tuners electronics and quite possibly the frets. Not mad on the fake tort pickguard so may replace that with a brass one. On the bright side the truss rod works and I plan on trying my hand at a relic job as the bass has some scratches on it already and I just wanted a beater to bring to work from time to time and hadn't got a p bass.
The neck shape really is quite nice and the body is also good with a nice neck joint but the pickups arnt centred and the bridge is in the wrong place and the grub screws are neither metric nor imperial.
Any ideas about the frets should I just bite the bullet and replace them? I did momentarily consider making it fretless but where's the point in an imprecise precision?
I'll try and get some pics up soon.
But the neck is lovely in the hand bad frets aside. A really nice jazz style neck not at all like I was expecting and truth be told the reason I bought it.
I don't think much of the pickups but for the price point they are very acceptable and will be replaced along with the bridge, tuners electronics and quite possibly the frets. Not mad on the fake tort pickguard so may replace that with a brass one. On the bright side the truss rod works and I plan on trying my hand at a relic job as the bass has some scratches on it already and I just wanted a beater to bring to work from time to time and hadn't got a p bass.
The neck shape really is quite nice and the body is also good with a nice neck joint but the pickups arnt centred and the bridge is in the wrong place and the grub screws are neither metric nor imperial.
Any ideas about the frets should I just bite the bullet and replace them? I did momentarily consider making it fretless but where's the point in an imprecise precision?
I'll try and get some pics up soon.