untune

Hi folks

Many thanks for the comments, sorry I didn't get back to this sooner - it just so happened they announced it the same day I've come down to stay with my mate in Cornwall for the weekend, so been on the road all day!

As requested by John! The pic is attached - had to steal it off FB as I've only got my laptop with me and the original pic is on my comp back oop North The idea was to make it look as though I was living the dream... actually took the pic in my dads shed and used a little guitar practice amp (that I ripped the cloth off and made a grille for, complete with added actylic paint rust and holes) for comedic effect.. the costume was made from bits I bought on the cheap and modified last year from charity shop finds etc.. my brother-in-law's 30th was 80's themed and I decided to go as a Vince Neil/Steel Panther inspired glam rocker and thought it might be a good idea to recycle the costume for the photo I also managed to break my rather expensive camera when I accidentlaly knocked it over with the cable remote plugged in.... landed right on the jack and forced it in, won't focus on a half press anymore...

But yeah, I've never won anything and it was a massive shock, especially since I've always wanted an Ashdown and this will be my first 'proper' amp - I've been stuck with a crappy little Fender practice amp for the last 2 years because I couldn't afford anything better!

Really hoping that my good fortune drags out a bit longer because I've got a really promising second interview for a job next Friday

DV247 were running a compo with an Ashdown 330 Touring 210H up for grabs, and I just won it! Well chuffed!

Cheers for that ikay, much appreciated! That's the right look (minus the rust) but he doesn't make it clear how he 'dulls' things - whether he dunks them in acid or he uses some kind of abrasive method?

Hi all

Not doing a relic job here, but I have nickel tuners on my bass (which look slightly dulled, as I'd like it) but the rest of my hardware is chrome. Example - the string tree right next to the machine heads is a typical chrome job and looks new and shiny compared to the nice satin looking nickel.

Same with my bridge (Gotoh 203 - can't afford the nickel version at the moment, and besides, they seem to be hard to get hold of over here anyway) strap locks and '51 Precision style control plate (probably an import and therefore chrome...)

I'm aware that only nickel will age naturally and it seems that most chemicals wont really have much effect on chrome, does anyone know a way I can get the current hardware to match the look of the nickel? Without replacing it all of course...

Cheers

My mate just got himself a lovely Tokai Les Paul

Yeah, isn't it the inductance that's more important than resistance?

A lot of ebay sellers are just importing cheap pickups to sell on, they don't really care so much about what's inside them. I asked a seller last week if a certain pickup had a bar or pole pieces under hte chrome cover and he had no idea. To his credit he did contact the manufacturer to confirm that they were bars but he guessed that they were pole pieces before I insisted that he found out before I considered making a purchase. Naturally, if I was importing pickups I'd want to know every last detail about what goes into their construction! As for these Stellah ones, they look cheap and I'm sure there are much better ones out there for not much more.

I had this same problem - do you know what your spacing needs to be?

My bass has EB-3 style pickups and I bought a high mass hipshot style one (see my thread in the technical issues forum) from axesrus, and it solved the spacing problem I had but it's a bit too high to get a decent action from without some kind of modification.

Your best option otherwise would be a Schaller with those roller saddles that you can shift left and right, I tihnk they come up cheap on ebay. Like me though you might be limited because the baseplate dimensions and screw holes always seem to cause problems depending what has been on there before

I cower at the mention of the truss rod but I might give it a go.

However the bridge is still clearly much too high. From the looks of it, it should be recessed into the body a bit but I'm not sure I want to do that kindof surgery and would rather adjust the bridge or at least keep things reversible!

My problem is that this *is* the replacement bridge... nothing else will work really. It took me a while to track something down that would be big enough to cover the existing holes made by the daft Korean high mass offering and still look tidy. This bass I believe is cursed - the strings/pickups never lined up, I can't sell it, the G snapped on a fresh set of strings, then last night when I was putting them back on the nut broke. I just can't win, whatever I try, and it's driving me mad, it has cost me more than I might ever get back for it, I just want to play it

Hi all

Just bought a new bridge to fix a string spacing problem. It went on fine and appears to have sorted it out to some degree, the outer strings could probably be a mm closer in ideally but it's far better than it was.

Anyways, this bridge was the only one with 54mm string spacing that would also cover the holes from the old high mass Fender style bridge that was on previously (that had 60mm spacing and was too much). The problem is the new one is a Hipshot styled one that uses block saddles.

[url="http://www.axesrus.com/Hardware/BassBridges/BB007/BB0074StringFront.jpg"]http://www.axesrus.com/Hardware/BassBridges/BB007/BB0074StringFront.jpg[/url]

So this one has a chunky baseplate and chunky saddles that can't be lowered - and they sit much higher than the old ones. The distance between the bottom of the baseplate/top of the body to the top of the saddle is about 19mm and there's also no curvature to the strings. I measured the same on another bass with a Gotoh 203 and that distance is about 13mm. There seems to be a good 7mm gap between fretboard and strings at the 12th fret. That needs to drop drastically - but what are the options? I was thinking either try grinding 5mm off the bottom of each saddle, not sure if that would work. Could try a dremel to deepen the string grooves... or I could try a neck shim, although I don't think a little bit of card will make 5mm disappear (then again I've never tried it, I don't know how drastic the change is). Any ideas?

Cheers

I had no idea they would until reading this thread, so I'll get in touch later! Cheers guys

I've always used Rotosound rounds, just a shame that the most expensive set (flats) that I got, although they felt and sounded great - the G snapped before I'd even really played them, so I still have the other three practically unused sat on one of my basses

Thanks for the replies

Apparently the pups I want to use, although having a bar magnet, have a span of 50mm. The bridge I'll be using will have a string span of 54mm. I doubt that by the time the strings have gone from the saddle to the bridge pickup they will have moved inwards a whole 2mm + on each side... will it make a lot of difference to the sound if the bar is a little bit too short? I'm not sure how much 'give' a bar magnet has in terms of the magnetic field... The problem I have is already down to the outer strings sounding weak and quiet so I'd like to make sure that this would fix the problem...

Cheers

+1 for the Mighty Mite jazz neck, I love mine The one I've got is rosewood and tinted

Just a curiosity so I can explore another avenue with some modding... I'm looking at a straight swap for a bass mini humbucker (like you'd find near the bridge of a Gibson/Epi EB-3) for a guitar mini humbucker (rail/blade - no pole piece alignment issues) or a firebird pickup. The new pup being round about 8k resistance. Would it work, and would the low end response be acceptable - ie does the bass repsonse rely on the strings, or the winding/wire gauge, or the amplification?

Cheers

Boooomp... £150 + postage

It sounds to me like an artifact that could be caused by dithering. Does it sound like this in the mix BEFORE you exported the mixed down track (as an mp3 I assume)?

Also, what settings are you using to transfer from tape to digital? I'd say use 48kHz/24bit at least, to be on the safe side

Thanks for the comments everyone, much appreciated

As for the tone, I think it's on the single coil setting for this one, courtesy of a custom pickup and a PIO cap I bought from a fellow basschatter

Hi folks,

Almost posted this last night, watched it again and realised how crap it was and chickened out... but where does that get you? So I decided to post it up.

This is the first thing I've ever recorded myself playing on video and naturally, something I can play (almost) flawlessly on my own isn't so easy when people are either watching me or I'm aware I'm being recorded... anyways, I did this in one take and noticed lots of glaring mistakes and timing problems on repeated watching back, but that's how you improve I suppose

This is Wednesday, the 'Telemaster' bass I built last year, the thread is probably dead and buried somewhere by now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA2iAOqmTiQ

Comments and crits welcome!

2012 Bump...

Bump...

Bump... offers welcome.

Sigh/bump...

I'm thinking that too, though it's been so long since I looked into the subject I can't remember the specifics of the Gibson spacing - I think it's 55mm at the bridge? There were some quite cheap high mass options on ebay that had narrower spacings that might fit the bill.

Yes that's right, Alan Entwistle designed - although I seem to remember hearing these were made in Korea. They don't seem to be available anymore either. It looks to me like they come from the same factory as 'Hutchins' instruments, I seem to remember them doing some strikingly similar models a while ago.

Hi all,

Thought I'd see if there was any interest in this again as finances are looking bleak and I'm struggling to find a job. Had some interest in it not too long ago but they never got back to me, so thought I'd put it out there and see if anyone else fancied it.

I got this a couple of years back but it's only been out of the case a handful of times. It's a butterscotch Telecaster style body (basswood if I remember correctly), with EB-3 style Entwistle pickups and a neck that's closer to precision than jazz.

The inherent problem with it is that the Fender-style high mass bridge has the strings spaced at 19mm or 20mm, whereas the pickups are made to a Gibson spec which uses a narrower spacing. As a result, the A and D alignment is fine, but the E and G (much more at the bridge than the neck) are not directly over the pole pieces resulting in them sounding slightly quieter. To fix this it's a case of either swapping for a Gibson-spec bridge or swapping the pickups. A bridge with adjustable saddles would probably sort the problem - looking at ebay there are also a lot more bridge options with different spacings than when I last checked, making me think perhaps there's a cheap solution there. However, I have neither the desire nor the money to invest in this any more than I have done.

I do, however, have a '51 Fender precision pickup that I purchased from the Bass Doc on here and a bridge jazz pickup (untested - came from an 80s luthier-built bass AFAIK) that I was going to sort the problem out with, but tbh I'd rather have it out of my way. I'd be willing to put those with it for a bit extra if anyone wanted to take the surgery on as a project.

Needs a set of strings now (or a flatwound G) as the one that was on it snapped a couple of weeks ago when I was swapping it onto another bass to test it with a flatwound. I'm annoyed enough at the fact that those strings cost 25 quid and didn't even get played.

I've attached one pic, as I couldn't find the others and don't feel upto taking any more at the moment. Will do more if anyone requests them.

Tweed style hardcase, which has never left the room, is included. Looking for about [b]£160 + postage[/b] but I'm aware the likelihood of this selling is beyond slim. Would be willing to trade - want a black jazz or the parts to build one, plus offers of whatever you might have going will be considered - drop me a PM.

Cheers