I've finally finished off the fretwork Fender started. Essentially I had to clean lacquer off the sides and ends of the frets, round the fret ends over, ensure the crown of each fret was established and then polish out to a higher standard than Fender do. I also replaced the nut as the slot spacing seemed a bit arbitrary and I had a buzz from the A string behind the nut that couldn't be tamed, even after filing the slot, ramping and flaring the back of the slot, setting the witness point and making sure there was maximum break angle over the nut by getting the string right down the A string post.
Oddly both the third neck bolt and the anchor in the neck it secures into were very loose on this bass. I've used the micro adjuster setup to try and 'shim' the neck. It's a cool idea but it results in some scary creaking noises! Traditional four-bolt setups do seem to be a bit more stable?
Finally, I'm struggling to get the neck arrow straight. I'm wary of over-tightening the bullet adjuster and crushing wood under the string nut or torquing the bullet off the end of the rod . It feels very stiff, but I still have a bit of relief in the neck. I can live with it, but prefer a neck that could be dialled into a backbow so that I know I'm not using all the available tension on the rod just to achieve a usable setup and that a flat neck is achievable somewhere along the full excursion of the trussrod, rather than when it is squeaked 100% tight.
I've taken the bass to two rehearsals with an acoustic folk band. It is making me simplify bass lines and hang onto root notes, as the notes take time to bloom. Fast playing becomes a bit of a 'woof'! This bass sounds amazing with a pick, but the low end bloom when you play fingerstyle is really nice. Solid fundamental!
