Awesomesauce. I picked up a couple of Fenders a few weeks ago, including a black MiM Standard Jazz Fretless. I, too appreciated the absence of speed bumps, but being an incurable fidget, I have opted to "Jaco" the fingerboard. The first try went OK, I kept going through to bare rosewood just at the nut. It occurred to me I was going through a lot of work if I ended up not liking it, so I polished up what I had, installed a bone nut, threw in a pair of Dimarzio model J's, and set it up with a set of .100 Daddarios. Huge improvement! Far more articulate, I could play legato, staccato, emulate a fretted electric or an upright, slap and pop, you name it.
Unfortunately, I had botched the nut. I was rebuliding my friend's '64 Mustang at the same time, and trimmed the bass nut way too short on the bass side, the E would pop out if downpicked healthily. Since I had to knock the nut out, and I knew the epoxy idea was a keeper, I opted to finish it properly. I ordered a 9.5 radius block from StewMac, and ground off the first try, retruing the board in the process. I finally got the surface right on Tuesday, but when finishing the new nut (which came out perfect) I slipped, and ground up the fingerboard with the edge of a file. Curses. Third time's the charm, hopefully.
Anyway, the other bass was a MiJ Aerodyne P Bass Special, which is also awesome. Based on reviews, I ordered a Badass II bridge, and a set of Bartolinis. The bridge wouldn't fit without tricky milling, and the Bartos weren't really an improvement, just different. The band loved the brightness of the stockers, so I put them back in.
So that's a long way to get around to: my SX bass upgrade! I have a SX P/J model, which plays great, intonates perfectly, sounded good, but not stellar. A spectacular bargain at $140 shipped. Since I now had a premium set of PJ pickups, and an upgrade bridge, my path was clear...
I pulled out the mini pots, and installed CTS 250k's. They didn't fit until I consulted Mr. Dremel. This was a bit scary, as the tone knob just barely hides under the pickguard. I tossed in the Bartos, checked my work n
my Microcube, and then threw on the Badass. Probably a good move, the base of the stock bridge is brass or bronze of something, the height adjustment screws for the saddles were eating through it. I brought the bass to the practice room to fire up
my SWR Basic Black, and damn, if the the Bartos didn't sound better in the SX than they did in the Aerodyne! While I spent about 150% of the cost of the bass on the upgrades, the result challenges the $750 Fender! It will come down to application: hi fi clarity vrs brutal low end response.
