Hi all. Another update and a question or two.
I've gigged the bass a few times and played it at a ton of jams with a bunch of other musical styles. While the bass sounds great solo I can't seem to get it to sit right in the mix for anything but a wooly blues/roots tone. That's fine, but I've got other basses that work well there too AND have the versatility to cover a wider range of tones. I have a few circuit boards for MusicMan style 2-band preamps and I'm thinking of building one up to try these pickups with the pre.
Regarding the neck issues, as I've been working through string options I've realized that while the truss rod is coping well with tension changes up to about the 15th fret, I can't seem to get rid of a hump that starts in the teens. I don't see evidence of any damage, cracking, or repairs in the area, so I'm assuming that the neck has just "settled". As the frets seem original, very worn, and far smaller than I'm used to playing I'm thinking of defretting, leveling the fingerboard, and refretting with larger wire.
That's where my questions come. What is the original fingerboard radius? It feels comfortable to me so I'd like to return to that same radius. Next, what was the original wire size used on these basses? I'd like taller than what I have now(super worn state!), but if the original wire size is close to what I'm used to I'd rather go original than experiment with other profiles. Finally, does any of this sound like I'm working around a problem that might be better solved in another way?
Thanks in advance!