Perfectly valid.
I prefer the washer than the strap pivoting too freely and being floppy/twisty. To each their own. When I had the lockers my strap was constantly twisting when I picked it up and put it on, which is a really minor annoyance but one that goes away with the washers.
And if you only have one or two basses it’s not a big lift.
I do agree that some method of locking is needed so whatever your preferred method is, lock the strap because the do come off on their own.
These are my #2 fave and are really close to Fralins in tone and quality IMO. Can’t go wrong with either, but I just love the support Fralin gives. @JerryP - if you call them and talk about what bass you are putting them in and what tone you want they can help customize. Great folks.
Thanks John!
Fralin and Novak are the only companies where I have talked with the owner - Lindy and Curtis respectively. Both great choices, you won’t be sorry
New metronome (turns out the one I’ve had since high school 30 years ago no longer works…), new strap, and Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. And some cheap candy.
This has an acoustic pickup which can be run solo or blended with the electric pickups… chambered body…I’m a fan I’ve spent hours and hours on this over the last couple of days
I can’t wait to hear these…I modify all my guitars but I’ve been leaving the basses alone…I need to see what I’m missing out on
Decided the neck bothered me enough to spend the time redoing it. Did some sanding, using boiled linseed oil for the finish. There’s a great couple of videos on the old YouTube by highline guitars that I’m mostly following. I couldn’t find Japan driers so I skipped that step. Did the final wet sand with 3000 grit today. I’m pretty happy with the way the neck turned out. It is a little lighter than I wanted, probably due to me sanding it down to 2000 grit before applying the finish. Seems to be much improved over original. Should putting on hardware in a few days.
Well, I started looking at putting in the tuners for this project. Unfortunately, the holes from the old tuner screws dont line up with the new ones. But they are close enough to the new ones that drilling new holes will be a problem. So, what’s the go to method for filling the previous holes. Anybody have any suggestions?
Well it depends on how close, but tooth pick, wood glue usually do the job. If you worry about the aesthetic then matching wood putty color.
Thanks, that’s what I was thinking, the holes will be covered up by the new tuners, so I’m not worried about aesthetics.
It’s ok for the most part. I don’t bother to create more unnecessary fix/ holes to my 1982 MusicMan Sabre neck I just install the new tuners and leave it.
Yeah, my issue is that the tuners I bought are close but not exact, I’m afraid when I drill new holes, I’ll end up expanding some of the existing holes and the new screws won’t hold. I’m wishing I would have bought a totally different kind of tuner, but too late for that.
@Al1885, you’ve still got stock tuners on your Cutlass, right?
I do on mine. They work fine and I don’t have any neck dive.
Oh yes I do. They are great. I don’t mind the weight. Love the classic look.
More of a serious “maintenance day” than upgrading; seasons change ant it was time to do a serious tune-up on my BB.
The biggest issue is now that the air has dried out (4 months ago it was 95+% humidity, now it’s like 30-40%) the thing badly needed a neck adjustment and some fret finishing work. This is common in places where there’s big swings in humidity.
Only a couple frets needed end dressing; that was fast. However, as can happen, there were four high frets now that needed attention. Tapping with a fretting hammer fixed two of them; one more needed a little filing and crowning. The last one was seriously high, and required more than a little filing and crowning work.
Once done, I polished all the frets with two grits of DIY fret buffers (better known as super high grit ladies’ nail buffing files; StewMac sells them too but it’s cheaper to just buy what my wife does). After that I polished the fretboard with them too, to buff out any of the marks from filing. This works super well.
Finally, I cleaned the fretboard with a couple coats of lemon oil,wiped it down, and then conditioned it with boiled linseed oil, and once dry I threw on some new NYXL’s and did a normal setup.
Plays awesome now, got the action under 2mm and no buzz at any fret from picking. Taking care of problem frets is always such a satisfying maintenance task.
End result:
Long day at work yesterday and last pm. Came home and needed some therapy in the form of assembly. Got it all together today. Plugged the previous tuner holes with toothpicks and glue. This was my first time replacing tuners. The new pickguard fit perfectly. GZR’s sound great. I did refinish the neck and it really plays nicely. I do wish the finished would have come out a little darker, but it will age. Also, I have a couple of frets I need to work on, but it’s close to perfect(at least as close as I can get it).
Seeking input on upgrade or new bass…
I’m coming up on one year in my bass journey. I bought a pre-owned Squier Classic Vibe Jazz bass last year to learn if this was a passing interest or an ongoing pursuit. Def found it’s the latter. Enjoying more each day.
With that in mind I’m looking at upgrade options for my one year mark.
I’m going to try a number basses to listen, and my early research has me interested in dual coil (humbucker) vs my current single coil set up. (Btw… Why aren’t single coils called hummers? 
).
I’ve not played an active bass and thinking passive probably better for the moment… easier to maintain, less stuff to break.
Other option is just upgrading my Squier with better components.
Aside from playing instruments to hear how they sound, I would value thoughts on what to consider beyond this.
I’m open to spending $500-$1000 to find something I really love. The Squier is actually very nice for what I paid. Little heavy but it’s got that first bass sentiment going for it. On the other hand always fun to look at the toys 
.
Music wise, my taste is widely varied so something that is flexible in adapting to multiple genres will be helpful
Thx in advance.
If you want to try a completely different style of pickups I would look at a second bass rather than upgrading the CV. However that said, the CV can become a much nicer bass simply by replacing the pickups and potentially the bridge and tuning machines.
There are split coil (P-style) pickups in the J pickup format as well that do cancel noice. There’s also a few dual coil J pickups but I would recommend going for a more standard humbucker on a new bass instead if you’re going for a humbucker tone and not a more beefy J tone.
I would strongly advise against modding this bass to take standard humbuckers or P pickups; keep it a J, it’s what it’s good at. Instead look to a new bass as a second instrument for those.
