Andy 40's JBA-4

[wazkelly]

Good choice Andy and on mine the upgrades done later were a new bridge from Real Parts to give a bit more fore & aft adjustment plus the Entwistle PUP's which required a small amount of chisel work to help make the Bridge PUP fit plus also filing and sanding out the scratch plate so that the neck one would fit. Pretty standard stuff but as I said easy enough to do later. Just installed the bone nut 10 days ago too and also another easy job. Agree with Woks about the tuners and when I find a spare $50 might order some from Real Parts.

Obviously all electronic upgrades such as pots & orange drop caps were done up front. Quite a versatile kit that allows for all sorts of upgrades and modifications.

Can't wait to see what you do with it.

Cheers Waz

[Andy40]

Wow guys. thanks heaps for the input. Seems I have a fair bit to learn about bass kits. Good to see there is a wealth of knowledge out there.

Waz, how much of a difference did the bone nut make?

[Hobastard]

I reckon a Bone but is a Must. My prebuilt has a placky one and it is the weak point of the Bass, with open notes sounding dull in comparison with fretted notes.

[wazkelly]

Waz, how much of a difference did the bone nut make?

Hi Andy, don't know as I slopped a bit more finish on the fret board to seal in the block markers at the same time and it should be ready to polish up this weekend. Will let you know Sunday night. Need to do a bit more practicing too before doing another sound demo video and promise to work on a better camera angle this time.

[wazkelly]

I reckon a Bone but is a Must. My prebuilt has a placky one and it is the weak point of the Bass, with open notes sounding dull in comparison with fretted notes.

Tend to agree but always fascinated that some big name brands come standard with plastic nuts yet still sound quite decent with Fender & Rickenbacker being most obvious ones I can recall. Maybe Chinese plastic nuts are just more at the rubbish end of things? In a few days I will have tried out the DB PBG bone nut replacement and anticipate it will have better sustain and brighter sounding open notes.

[ozzbike]

Wow guys. thanks heaps for the input. Seems I have a fair bit to learn about bass kits. Good to see there is a wealth of knowledge out there.

Waz, how much of a difference did the bone nut make?

I differ a little from the many. I like TUSQ by graphtech. It is a synthetic material including teflon....very sloppy for bends and the strings do not grab in the nut slots at all.

[gavinturner]

Congrats on the JBA kit Andy. I loved building mine and I know you will too. Lots of us trying our hand at learning the low end!

cheers,
Gav.

[Hobastard]

Tend to agree but always fascinated that some big name brands come standard with plastic nuts yet still sound quite decent with Fender & Rickenbacker being most obvious ones I can recall. Maybe Chinese plastic nuts are just more at the rubbish end of things? In a few days I will have tried out the DB PBG bone nut replacement and anticipate it will have better sustain and brighter sounding open notes.

Totally agree.

Plastics ain't Plastics....

I replaced the Nut on my 70's Jazz Bass with a Brass one, (had to make 'em yourself in those days) pretty quickly, but the Ibanez still has it's original one.

[Andy40]

Cool. okay, happy with the bone nut decision. all of my 6 stings have been vastly improved by a bone nut.

Now the bridge you say? Would you replace the pups or the bridge if you could only choose one?

[andrewdosborne]

Personally I'd go for pup and electronics upgrade over bridge

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