Found out one of my bosses was an old beer-joint bass player like me (cool!). He's still got the itch, and recently bought a M-I-Cali Jazz. Brought the BigRedBass in to the office for him to see (he was stunned), and he remarked he wished his new Jazz played that easily. So I offered to adjust his axe. He brought it in and I took it home and set his action/re-strung on a day off.
Well . . . they're not completely 'noiseless' pickups! But it was pretty well made for 'off the rack', nothing just jumped out at me QC-wise.
But it was so strange as I hadn't had a four around the house forever, and of course Jazzes have a very slim neck, which made it seem even more 'four-ish'.
It basically just needed the once-over most usually need after they come home from the store.
It did seem wierd having to adjust each saddle at a time, hoping the nut was correct as it couldn't be adjusted. At least the truss rod came out at the head instead of the pickguard. Geez, I'm spoiled. But it was immediately aggravating to realize this brand new bass $STILL$ needed a better shielding job, and ultimately, stack pickups, to be completely quiet.
Apples and oranges for sure. But it played like butter when I gave it back to him, he was tickled. But in the back of my mind it dawned on me that there's zillions of players just like him that just don't know any better. What a shame.
J o e y
