Ray

Pickups without exposed pole pieces Markbass Black/gold hardware

The only time I play my Lakland Skyline 55-01 is when I decide I’m going to sell it, have a noodle on it, then decide I’m gonna keep it because it plays beautifully. This happens roughly once a week. 😆 It’s really well set up. The neck is amazing. I just have no use for an active 5.

Jeff Beck Some really great players on the local jazz scene are starting a Jeff Beck tribute band and asked me to join. I’m trying to learn everything by ear so I don’t have to rely on charts. I’m especially looking forward to playing this one…

Great idea! Thanks. Couldn’t find my countersink bit (typical!) but I managed to sort it with the reamer on my Swiss Army knife. Thankfully I didn’t need to take much off.

Hello, I'm in the process of fitting new Sprirocore Weichs to my new (to me) 1950s Hungarian 3/4 bass. It was all going swimmingly until I got to the E string. The tailpiece hole is too small for the ball end to rest tightly against the wood underneath. Can I simply make the hole bigger with a round file? Or is this a stupid idea? Any other suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance. Ray

Thanks, Paul. I thought as much. Saves me a job! 😃

There seems to be two main components to these contraptions - a wooden board and foam. Is the board necessary from an acoustic POV? Or is it just there to create a solid platform? I have a piece of very dense foam about 2” thick that I sometimes use under my bass cabs (2x Aguilar DB112s). It’s just the right size to fit between the feet of the cab. I’m wondering, if I glued a larger piece of carpeted plywood to it, so the cab’s feet sit on top of it, would it perform better sonically?

No, it was my basses, as unlikely as it seems!

Ah, okay. So the solder joints must’ve been dry all along and the heat made them fail. Gotcha! 😁

The solder didn’t melt. The heat caused ‘dry’ joints. Apparently this is quite common in Fender valve amps - the heat from the valves can make the solder joints dry. Maybe it’s down to poor quality solder and/or solder joints from Fender 🤷‍♂️

Tonight: Protect the Beat (I’m doing the sound so this doesn’t really count) Two gigs next week: Roy Ayers at Chinnery’s, Southend on Wednesday and Mulatu Astatke at KOKO on Thursday.

Update… both basses have been fixed! 😃 The heat had cooked the solder attaching the wires to the pick-ups. BTW, I took them into Strings Direct which is just a stones throw from where I work in Southend-On-Sea. Chris Ward (from The Bass Centre) has a work shop there that he works from one day per week. Highly recommended. Thanks for the input, guys. 😊

I'm taking them to my local tech tomorrow. Hopefully he'll be able to fix them.

That is odd! I've tried all sorts of leads into all sorts of amps and it's definitely the basses that have bust.

Would that kill the output too?

You’ve obviously never seen me use a soldering iron… 😝

Not a silly question. Yes, tried multiple leads through two different amps. 🤔

Yeah, both passive. I’ve moved them to the coolest room in the house. Fingers crossed 🤞

UPDATE: They are not completely dead. If I crank the volume on my amp to the max I can just about hear some signal coming through. Also, if I touch one of the pole pieces it buzzes loudly. This is the same on both basses.

I have a voltage tester but not a multimeter 😕

Plugged in my American Original P - nothing, dead as door nail. Tried my American Standard- same. My Jazz is fine though. All three basses are on the same rack stand in my music room which gets really hot, especially with this heat wave. They might have been in direct sunlight for a while too. I’ve opened them up and, although I’m no expert when it comes to electronics and wiring, everything looks intact. Anyone experienced anything similar?

I’ve been contemplating this pickup. I saw this post and immediately ordered one!

I have both pickups and would agree with this. They are in two different basses though so there will be other factors influencing the tone. 62 in an old American Standard and the 63 in an American Original.

Joe bought a jazz bass from me. Easy transaction. Great to deal with. Excellent communication. Thanks, Joe!

The bandleader would really prefer a regular full-time lineup with me depping only occasionally. I would prefer that too, TBH. I'll PM you the gig list anyway though if you're curious. See what you think.