Thanks all! I really like the new slim profile neck - nothing drastic but enough to make it extra comfortable.
line6man: I originally wanted it to be a stacker. I have several basses with that setup and I like it. howecer, Nordstrand recommends 250K pots for volume and treble. Stacked pots with a double 250k are only just starting to show up and I didn't care for the product - looked too flimsy for my taste. After talking it over with my tech I decided to split the stacks and go with standard CTS. He told me he had a way to minimize the interaction of the tone controls vs a traditional stacker setup. That's not my forte so I'll have to take a look to see what he actually did, but after using it on a couple of gigs I can vouch for it. The volumes of course interact very noticeably, more so than on a standard single coil. Though these are singles they're not like the sparkly standard J pickups I'm used to. Lots of beefy low mids and bottom end - it sits in the mix with clarity and authority. BTW, I'm using .043 caps per Nordy too.
I can see why a lot of folks use these pickups with a pre - for the extended upper range. I started with DR flats on this bass and just switched out to Pro Steels. I'm going to use it this weekend outdoors so I'll be able to juice it some, but I can already tell from my practice amp it doesn't need the girth of flats - it's already in there. It'll stay passive V-T for now - there's plenty of room in there to go active later.
Wyliee: My last Warmoth was a full size J too. I'm just used to the size/mass of a regular Jazz. I have a carved top Dinky P and it's great, but I'm fairly large and the smaller bodies only emphasize that. :laughing7:
NonsenseTele: I'm with you on that. Unfortunately that's an aspect beyond our control. My Dinky P has a P/MM setup - the Fralin P is shiny black and the SD MM is like these. There's nothing for it. :-\
And finally elfro89: I too love the look of natural and I already have a number of basses that fit that bill admirably. I never had a CAR and I've been wanting one for a long time. the finish on this is flawless and it finally scratched my itch!