mcnach

Yeah, I would have been very confused "but, but... it sounds just like it did before!" The pickup I returned arrived with the seller on Saturday. Today I got a notification from eBay: it looks like the seller has re-advertised it, still advertised as 30 kOhm and showing pictures with 4 conductors etc, definitely not looking like the pickup I was sent :shrug: If you want an Artec mudbucker... probably best if you don't buy from 'eastensound2018'

It definitely isn't. Now that I've seen the stock pickup in my bass I can confirm it's the same pickup that they sent me. I guess the seller just bought a few to sell on and copied the description based on what he thought he had. He didn't contest, I just printed the return label and will be posted tomorrow. Meanwhile I ordered another Artec from a different place, but it's going to take 3-4 weeks. I have to say that since I put a set of nylon tapewounds it sounds a lot better.

Not happy. My multimeter had ran out of batteries, and I only just managed to get today the MN21 type it requires. I checked the pickup and it's 1.2 KOhm, not 29-30 as advertised. To cut the story short, I received exactly the same pickup it's already on the Epiphone: - slightly narrower polepiece spacing than the Artec should be, and identical to the stock one down to the marks on the magnets. - 2 magnets rather than 4 (it may not make much difference, but it's evidence of it not being the pickup advertised - 2 wires rather than 4 (I don't really care as I will only use series, but... again it looks like the stock pickup) - no sticker with the model number, which the Artecs have It's going back.

Artec pickup arrived! It has two bar magnets, I thought there were four? At least they seem to be mounted in the correct orientation. The stock pickup sounded alright on Sunday. We recorded a couple of demo tracks. It was not exactly the sound I expect from a 'mudbucker', but having never owned one I am not sure how far my expectations are from reality. It sounded nice. The nylon tapes really suit this bass. I'll give the Artec pickup a go at the weekend. After I vinyl wrap the cover too.

Got a wee recording session later today (just a demo of a song we're writing) and I am going to use this bass for it. Even without a 'proper' mudbucker [*] this bass sounds pretty nice and deep with the nylon tapewounds. I don't love it at volume, but it doesn't sound bad while recording. It does a reasonable old school reggae noise. [*] This is what the stock pickup looks like. It's the right kind of design, just nowhere near as hotly wound as a proper mudbucker.

I had some matt black vinyl that is suitable for wrapping... so I thought I'd have a go wrapping the pickup cover. It's not perfect, but it only took a few minutes and I learnt a few things in the process, so I'll do the same to the Artec and it'll look a bit better. But even my first attempt is passable (I think!)

I don't have the Artec pickup but I've got eveything else that I wanted to play with. 1) Replaced tuners with a set of ultralites, and chose the smaller clover tuners which I think look better in a short scale bass, and removes a bit more weight. 2) Replaced bridge with a Hipshot. 3) D'Addario black nylon tapewounds. The bass balances pretty well now, no neck dive. The Hipshot bridge allows you to widen the spacing between strings a little bit. Not as much as I would have liked, as there's still space on the fretboard, but that little bit makes it a little nicer to play for my liking. It was nice to lose the original very thin roundwounds, the black nylons suit this bass very well. I had to widen the nut slots a tiny bit, a few minutes and a bit of care with a nut file and that was it. I kept the electronics original so far, as I want to wait until I get the new pickup... but simply putting on a set of tapes improved the sound significantly. Anyway, no soundclips but here are a couple of pictures. It'd look a bit better if the pickup cover were black but hey...

I like them, they can get reasonably bright with the tone control wide open, brighter than your typical flats, but when you roll off treble they get into a more 'classic flats' type of sound. From that point of view I find them more versatile than standard flats (perhaps because these aren't really flats). They have a great low midrange growl that I love. Longevity? I play fingerstyle most of the time, and I've had these strings for around 4 years now I think. I haven't noticed any significant change in sound and they're still in good condition. They're not on the basses that I play the most, but I do use them regularly. They are very flexible, very compliant, more than anything else 've ever used. You may need to loosen up the truss rod a bit and they may feel a bit strange at first. A bit plasticky. It's just the first impression, I found them easy to get used to. They are super easy to bend, so if you like adding a few bends and vibrato these strings will make it very easy. I do like them. edit: I could have just replied "what @Sibob said"

I have the coppers on a Jazz and on a Precision. No problems with nut/bridge. Prior to that I was using 45-105 sets of roundwounds.

Really??? I only noticed it 3-4 months ago! I suppose when you make mistakes as rarely as I do, ahem, one doesn't often need that function... yes, that's my coat, why?

I was going to reply "doh! the edit option has long gone!" but as you are someone who generally makes sense (thank you for teh £5 by the way ) I checked more carefully... and I "doh!" myself instead. When did it move to the three dots on the top right??? It seems I'm less observant than I thought

Most songs are not designed to show case bass technique and ability, so I guess those bassists probably can play other styles and more technical stuff too.

Got any other reply?

Nah, remember "I'm with you"? Raindance Maggie was the first single. Ugh. Fortunately the album had a couple of decent songs that were a lot better.

* bending the contacts in the socket. This not being able to edit posts even right after posting is a little silly... edit: well, doh! so I can still edit!

Putting in a good quality socket will be even better! If you're ok soldering, then that would be my plan: bend the contacts for now, order a replacement socket and install in the future, to ensure no more issues for years and years.

I'd just fix it myself and avoid the hassle of returning etc, if you like the bass apart from that issue. You can probably fix it by bending the contacts in teh jack the socket a little, so that they press tightly against the jack. On a Bass VI it'll take you two minutes.

Even when setting the quality to 'high' or 'very high'? I can hear some artifacts on standard but once you go for higher quality stream or download I find it perfectly adequate for most situations. There's a big difference between "not lossless" and "sucks"

I don't know how their algorithm is tweaked, but it's worked really really well for me and discovered many cool little known bands that way (Spotify). It was a bit stinky poo initially as my tastes are a bit... eclectic, but once I had been using it for a while it seems to work. It's one of my favourite things about Spotify. I'm intrigued by Tidal but apart from the share given to artists being a bit higher (still nothing to call home about unless you have millions of streams) I'm not sure it offeres anything worth my switching over.

They're definitely a bit of an acquired taste, I suppose. I could not imagine having one of those as my only bass.

At that price I'd have two, please!

Still waiting for the Artec pickup. Meanwhile I decided to get crazy and also get a replacement bridge (wider spacing) and light tuners to hopefully make it balance a little better. In black. Definitely not my best investment in terms of £££ but you only live once and I'm really liking the short scale vibe. I've loved the SG design since I first started interested in guitars. My brother's first guitar was an SG, so I didn't have to buy one 😛 and for many years I kept wanting an EB-0/3. Sometimes it doesn't have to make financial sense! Capacitors and new pots arrived, as did a set of D'Addario black nylon tapewounds. New bridge is here. Tuners arrive tomorrow. Of course, this weekend I'm too busy to do anything about it, typical

I don't think it'll be Imperial for Japanese instruments, so it's likely a 4mm key if the 5mm is too big.

Yeah, I saw on TalkBass that quite a few people had teh same issue. It seems to be a bit of a lottery. Hopefully they'd have fixed that by now. The good news is that it seems pretty easy to repair. It's a shame there aren't many other options, and the ones that are there are crazy expensive. I tried the bass, stock, at volume... and that pickup has to go. Playing relatively quietly at home it was not amazing but I could make it work. However as soon as the volume goes up... there's something strange with the bottom end, it just sounds anemic. Artec pickup will take a couple of weeks to arrive, 'though. I hope it is better than the stock one.