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Yes, these later models have a quad coil pickup, but they don't have individual wires for each coil, you can only operate them in pairs. The stock switch does this: And the middle setting (parallel) blows IMO, hence the impending mod.

Some clips from our weekend gigs. Fri night Cambusnethan Club. http://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=25683119331329350&set=pcb.2256881974820337 http://www.facebook.com/100001739064740/videos/pcb.2256881974820337/736660958963532 http://www.facebook.com/100001739064740/videos/pcb.2256881974820337/1372059424701274 Sat night at the Dreadnought. http://www.facebook.com/100000315642844/videos/pcb.2257398474768687/1614815816554452 http://www.facebook.com/100000315642844/videos/pcb.2257398474768687/4324524834499098 http://www.facebook.com/100000315642844/videos/pcb.2257398474768687/3830380380600210 Dave

As I went down the road to the SE Bass Bash in November I stopped off en route to purchase a bass for the hell of it, a Cort Curbow. I had always been really intrigued about them, what with their use of man made materials and I always thought they looked pretty neat in some finishes. I spied one for sale, a sunburst one and figured "what the hell?" So, I like how it looks, and I like how it feels to play. Unfortunately, whilst sounding fine in headphones, it was utter garbage live with the band. Where are my mids? This thing is so scooped by default that they're barely noticeable. I had to crank the mids on the preamp AND crank them on the amp just to be audible, seriously, it just disappeared. Well, I picked it up for a tasty low price so I figured it was worth modding. I procured a Bartolini Classic Bass soapbar of the appropriate size and shape (MK4CBC) (thanks @Bass Direct) and someone on here sold me a Glockenklang 3 band preamp for a decent price (cheers @Fettsman) and got to work on the mods. Fitting the pickup was a piece of cake, the only thing of note I had to do was accomodate 2 screws on one side instead of one. Then I replaced the stupid "slap switch" (which scoops an already inherently scooped bass some more - WHY?) with a much more useful parallel/single/series switch and fed the pickup into that. However, fiting the preamp was another matter. This body is thin, and to compound the issue, the knobs are sunk into the top. There was no effing way that Glock was going to fit in there as supplied. I mean, I was modding it anyway - don't need a blend control on a single pickup bass after all. First problem - the body of the push pull volume control was just too tall, even if the shakeproof washer was eschewed. So out with the drill and the forstner bit to remove some material from the cavity to sink it down enough so the lid will go down... Just made it! Not a lot of material left, but this luthite stuff seems sturdy so I think it'll be OK. Then onto the main board, which was way too tall. So, to scheming. Thankfully, while the control cavity in the Curbow may be shallow, it is thankfully quite wide. Lots of dead space above where the bass pot would go... So to cut a long story short, I turned it through 90 degrees. The pot legs wouldn't bend enough while it was mounted, so I had to desolder the pot, bend little 90 degree nubs on the ends of the terminals then resolder it thus: >>>>> Did a test fit (the small board attached to the mid pot was able to be bent sufficiently with the pot in situ)... Yas, the lid closed. So I soldered up the rest of the wires... Cheeky little single connector block thing for the myriad ground wires I had to connect together... Great success! It now has mids when the preamp is flat! I took it to a subsequent band rehearsal and praise be, I was able to hear myself with the preamp set flat. MIssion accomplished! I hope you enjoyed this shaggy dog story and if you only take away one thing from this, is that it's usually true what they say - where there's a will, there's a way...

Whichever is the most convenient, I've found that there is a difference in sound between V/V/T and V/Blend/T, so I always leave mine as V/V/T. I really liked the passive tone on the John East J-Tone system, which can be had either way. Never really got on with the concentric Vol/Tone stacks. There's something missing from the sound there and they always sound too bright to me.

I came here to say exactly this! Always felt he rarely (never?) got the recognition he deserved as a slide guitarist.

Yep, I had the GV bass, super nice to play!

Sleeping On The Job — Gillan

Mmm, that could be a quick and easy job or it could be a lengthy nightmare. It will almost certainly look better stripped and oiled but as you say, it's not an interesting or even especially attractive grain, so the improvement might be marginal at best. I stripped an ash body a while back and used black tinted wax, which lifted the grain nicely, might work on this bass?

Three very good friends of mine have all toured on Keyboards with Chris at various times. They had nothing but great things to say about him and often spoke fondly about him as a musician and a human being. R.I.P.

What a looker. If you lived in this shire I'd offer to have a look but take it to a decent tech.

Nightshift - The Commodores

If you use super glue you can spend happy hours picking it off afterwards!

I got a Kramer 450b last year and despite the fact that it weighs a ton and it's not exactly the easiest thing to play I love it. What I don't love is the colour of the body (and the less said about the wooden inserts on the back of the neck, the better). I don't know if it was originally a kind of orangey-brown or if it has changed over the years but I suppose it is 'period corect' for the 70s - i.e. nasty. It also has quite a few little dings and chips, but nothing serious. It's a 4 piece walnut body and the pieces match pretty well but they're not all that interesting, figuring wise. In the neck pocket where it hasn't been varnished the wood looks quite pinky-red and I am thinking of stripping it down to the bare wood and seeing if I want to keep it that colour or, if not, staining it black. With the ebanol board and the aluminium I think it would look pretty good. Certainly better than what it is now. I am hardly an expert at woodworking (a couple of pieces of furniture rescued and revived is my lot) and I have no decent tools but I think I can manage a sand down and refinish if there's no spraying involved. That said, I have a solid history of underestimating the difficulties of just about everything so before I mess it up completely I thought it best to check if any of you far more experienced lovely people have any advice / top tips / recommendations.

Interesting! On the old ATK's it was parallel - north - north with a treble cut (and the center coil activated in both single coil settings as a phantom coil).

Great idea! Good luck.

I am afraid that I have not read the complete thread, so forgive me if I am repeating what someone else has said. For me, an expensive bass is one where the difference between what I paid for it and what I sell it for is painfully negative. Brand new G&L and US Music Man Sub (stripped, painted and fully installed with Bongo electrics), I am looking at you. Given the BC long term loan, sell it for what you paid for it scheme, most basses are kind of cost neutral in my way of measuring expensive.

I’m on board with ‘simple’ but I do like to ride the tone control from song to song.

I would live to play my AVII enough that the finish starts to wear off it. Aside from that I like rotating basses, especially to rehearsals. Took my Epiphone Embassy to a rehearsal for one band. They couldn't believe its looks or sound and asked e to play it at every gig...

Glad to be of service!

Quality thumbing there.

Awful miming. Great song though. Think the bass is Chris' though although I have a recollection that it was stolen.

Any correlation between Chris' hand movements and te vass sound appear entirely coincidental...