I am constantly amazed at the how good some of the crappy stuff is and how crappy some of the good stuff is. You would think that, pricy as they are, Hipshot and SD would have fantastic quality control...and yet.

I have been thinking about this in regards to my Frankenbass, which has recently gotten some upgrades. It began life as a cheap, Chinese Jazz clone (Essex or SX). I decided I really wanted it to e a P-J, and I bought a new pickguard (scratchplate ;-) from #$@%^! Warmoth. Warmoth Jazz pickguards, as it turns out, do not fit any known jazz control plate. &^%#$! Warmoth, unlike your UK shop, could not care less, so I spent more time modifying the pickguard than anything else in the mod, including routing a new pickup cavity and installing the pickups. For the mod, I retired the perfectly good, but oddly shaped control plate that was original, and bought two others... A Fender American Standard, and a Kmise. Amazingly, the cheap Kmise turned out to be the higher quality control plate. Thicker, and better chromed.

Other mods I have thought about for the Frankenjazz are upgraded tuners and bridge....but...the bass stays in tune just fine and the cheap Chinese tuners are smooth as snot on a door knob (there's a new metaphor for ya ;-) The bridge is a cheap fender-stamped metal knock-off...but it's intunated, the strings are the right hight and the bass has good sustain... So actually these work just great.

The exception, BTW, to the rule has been the EMG Geezer Butler PJ set that I put in it. They came in a beautiful package--like a fine watch. They look just great. They had all the right parts, and installed super easily. First time in a long time I have gotten a name brand item that was exactly as advertised...