Follow-up on the Squier 40th Anniversary Vintage Edition Jazz Bass: FOILED AGAIN! 

Just a bit more follow-up on the follow-up. I've been using this bass as my main rehearsal/gigging bass for a couple of months now (although, granted, I haven't been as active this summer as in recent years), and I absolutely love it. I'm especially pleased with the characteristic bridge pickup "snarl" which is better than I got on the American Ultra! I only have one complaint: the 10th and 11th frets are slightly raised on the G string side, so I am getting a bit of fret buzz. I want to try to reseat them, but I know with my lack of luthier skills, my ham-fisted attempt to fix them would probably make them worse. It's not noticeable when played through an amp, but I can hear (and feel) the buzzing on the fretboard itself. The crazy thing is, for once I like this instrument too much not to try to tinker (and probably screw it up) myself! I'm going to leave it alone for the moment, but I have a luthier friend (and fellow RU-vidr) I may call on for assistance. Watch for that in a future video!

I've been playing over 40 years and I've owned many Fenders in my day. My 1st Squier was purchased in 2007 from the Indonesian factory and I've been buying Indonesian Squiers ever since. Its a No Brainer for me. Cheers my friend and thanks for sharing, peace. 😊

Thanks for posting this

You guys sound great !

My son played the chicken last year in his jazz band at school. Was a challenge for most of them but they did an awesome job. You guys sound great and glad the Squier is doing well. For the savings, doing a little bit up upgrades including new pickups is still significantly less than and American. While my son has an American fender (not the ultra), he still plays much less expensive basses like his 5 string Marcus Miller Sire bass. Sire is making gorgeous guitars and basses these days. Think I mentioned in your other video that my son is building a custom bass from an older Squier p bass where the neck was not repairable. He just finished the first stage of sanding the original pain to be able to pain over it. But I’m going to make sure he looks to add some shielding like you did here as his has none either. Plus, we had two areas routed out for two additional pickups so now there will be more electronics in there that can cause issues. So thank you for posting this. Much appreciated!

Your band is great!!!

Love the band.

Talking about the patience and misplacing things... geez man, I'm a member of the same club. Great video!

Good to know. I bought the sunburst version and so far I love it, but I haven’t pulled it apart yet. I’m a guitar player mainly and got it just to have a bass around to plunk on or for when friends come over because it was such a great deal. I’ll invest in a roll of copper tape. Thanks!!!

Cool band!

awesome videos!

A couple of additional thoughts: 1. Cost? The 1” X 50’ roll of copper foil was about $7 on Amazon. 2. I could possibly improve the isolation of the neck pickup further by applying some of the foil to the back of the pickguard around the pickup opening. That will be quick and easy, so I’ll probably do it if I notice any lingering issues.

Great vid.

I have 2 of the 40th Gold editions in the ruby red finish. Absolutely love these basses but they aren’t perfect. The neck had to be sanded because it had as much gloss as a basketball court. I changed the stock pickups to Dimarzio Area J pickup. I can’t stress enough about how many compliments I get on the look and sound of the bass. The best thing of all is that since I bought the basses used off Reverb, the total cost of 2 basses with mods still cost me less than $1000.

That tortoise shell pick guard looks so much better than the gold anodized one

I own the sunburst version of this very bass and I'm delighted with it. Quality is fabulous for the money! Thankfully the anodised guard on mine is black, so no need to swap out. I also own a Dakota red P bass from the same range. That is also a great bass, same great quality and I adore the satin finish! Superb instruments 👌

I like the historic gold anodized pick guard, and many will want to buy that from you if you sell it.

I installed Dimarzio dp 123 pickups and 500 k pots which the manufacture recomends beung they are humbuckers. I had to ream out the volune holes alittle but what a differnce.

The new DiMarzio Sixties J pickups are fantastic. They will probably cost more than what you paid for the bass, but they are dead quiet, even in the most hum-inducing environments.

I just got a squier pbass. Fun to play but it is noisy amd suspected they cheaped out on noise cancelling

copper looked great with the color- make a copper pickguard!?

Limelight at 4:53 hasn't gone unnoticed! 🤟

Just a couple of comments I am assuming someone raised already: Add copper tape to the back of the pickguard, which MUST have positive contact with the cavities tape, if possible add a stripe of copper tape in the flat are near a screw to ensure the contact,. same should be done with the control cavity / plate. As a belt and suspenders idea, drop a bit of solder to connect all the cooper pieces in the cavities, to ensure good conductivity. You can also use small screws and a ground wire to connect all cavities to the pot grround.

did this bass have any humming problems for you at all i just bought it from guitar center on the 27th and once i got it home and plugged it in i was brought with an awful humming/buzzig that doesn’t go away no matter what i do to the controls

Why not try the American Professional II? To me those seem more Ultra than the Ultra.

No shielding is super typical of most import basses.

Am I wrong or is there no ‘before and after’ to judge the effect of all your work?

What is the approximate weight of the bass please?

All that work putting the foil tape and didn't soldered a ground wire to them is a watse of time.

I’d look on Reverb for an American standard jazz bass. I bought one several years ago and have had to perform relatively few adjustments on it. You can hear it on my channel.

Needs a green doctor's surgery mask

why the mask??

Whats up with the mask?