So the Jazz bass is great. The electronics are good, it’s got that bitey, growly sound, heavy on the upper mids, that the Jazz basses are known for. And I think there’s no denying that it looks quite sexy in all black thanks to the aftermarket pick guard I put on.
But it doesn’t play quite right. I measure the B string height at 8/64s at the 12th fret. It should be more like 5 or 6. I set the neck relief at about 16 thou, but I bottomed out the B and the G saddles trying to bring the string height down. I think it needs a neck shim.
A neck shim is a thin piece of material that you place in the neck pocket of a bolt-on-neck guitar, the purpose of which is to change the geometry enough so that you can raise the bridge saddles up off the deck to achieve the string height you want, rather than needing to lower them more than they can go.
I kinda know how to do this. We’ll see.
In the meantime, holy moly. I picked up the Warwick for comparison. I was so stunned that I had to start measuring. I nit picked this thing to death for a few weeks. And now I measure five 64s string height at the B string and around four 64s for the others. No buzz. So. Good. And to think what a disaster this thing was when I got it!
If I had to do a gig right now there’s no question which ax I would reach for. Warwick all day long.