JimD

Bought Steve's Dean Evo XM bass from him today. Plenty of good communication beforehand and he drove out to meet me halfway too, which was very decent of him. I can recommend buying from Steve - top chap!

Scuba Demon! As soon as I saw this thread in the index I thought about the silicon thing as I remembered an article from something like International Musician where he mentioned filling the bass with silicon and the interviewer didn't know if he meant active controls (like silicon chips I guess) or not. Quite a thing to see you mentioning the same thing and great to finally unravel a strange mystery like that! Great post! Jim D

Note that in parallel you can use either the bridge or neck pickup, or both. In series, you can only use both, as the output of one is connected into the input of the other. You only get the "series" sound with them both on. So if, like me, you own a bass with "jazz" type pickups, but only play through the front one, it won't make any difference at all

Great set of links EvilLordJuju! Got to put this link in to Mike Watt's "Hootpage" for anyone that didn't see it in an earlier EB-ish thread [url="http://hootpage.com/hoot_gallery-thudstaffs.html"]http://hootpage.com/hoot_gallery-thudstaffs.html[/url] you can see his customised EB-type basses on there. As Henry pointed out in that earlier thread in the Minutemen and Firehose he played a precision with EMGs, but has moved EB-wise in the last few years whilst playing with the Stooges and other groups. Tone-wise I have been listening to Black Sea by XTC recently (the big hits off that were Generals and Majors and Sgt Rock) as Colin Moulding plays an Epiphone Newport on there which has the same pickup as an original Gibson.

If you are into SG-type basses, check out Mike Watt's basses in his "Thud Staff" section. [url="http://hootpage.com"]http://hootpage.com[/url] He's done various customisations and tweaks to the different models he has had over the years. Watt was the bassist in The Minutemen and Firehose and has been bassing for J.Mascis and Iggy and the Stooges for some years.

Hello Bought a Danelectro Fab Chorus off shaundixon666 last week. Great price, sent quickly, packaged well, good communication, even included a battery so I could get stomping straight away. Can't want more than that! Nice one. Jim D

It looks like it was screenprinted - which is paint/ink squeezed out into a very thin layer through a stencil. It's cost effective for industrial/mass production processes but totally overkill for restoring a single instrument. If you've a very steady hand you can paint it yourself, but if you are not used to painting you may find lots of frustration in getting the right brush and paint for the plastic (trust me, I'm a fine art graduate ). One thought though; if you know anyone who is into painting miniature figures, like the Games Workshop "dungeons and dragons" figures, you might see if they could help. That takes a degree of skill and determination and you might luck out if you can find the right person. I went to my local GW to look at the paints for a computer modding project I was considering and the staff there are very gregarious and had me explaining the whole concept to them in the end (and all I wanted to do was look at the paints!). I expect if I'd needed something painting they'd have known if there was an enthusiast who could help me.

Hi there Bought Tim's SYB-3 from him last week. Great communication, transaction was smooth, pedal sent quickly without fuss, exactly as described. Good one. Jim D

Great interview, thanks for posting that. As a self-taught non-reader who relies on my own way of working around the instrument it's good to know I'm not alone in sometimes not understanding conventional instructions from band members! Even better to know that players of Mick's calibre find their own way too. And what calibre - [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SagT216S_m0&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SagT216S_m0...feature=related[/url] As for this - [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35trBS-LWok&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35trBS-LWok...feature=related[/url] how cool were the whole band full stop, but in particular check out Mick, grooving away in his shades.

I did, and it was sooo good. You might be able to see the pics I took on Flickr if this URL works [url="http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=dolby&w=39526605%40N00"]http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=dolby&w=39526605%40N00[/url] Of-interest-to-bassists-that-night were Matthew Seligman (TD bassist in the 80's), Martin Mcaloon from Prefab Sprout, and Trevor Horn, but when Darren did the sequenced bassline from Hyperactive on his Status it was really "something-to-see". [quote name='RhysP' post='870758' date='Jun 18 2010, 01:22 PM']Did you go to the Union Chapel "Flat Earth" gig? I'd love to have gone but it would have meant a stop-over & I couldn't get the following day off work.[/quote]

There's a schism for me here between working basses and nice-to-have/project basses (NTH/PB). As a regular player in a band I'm happy with my Westone Superheadless (apart from the noisy pickups - see [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=91295"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=91295[/url] if you haven't already read it). However, I'd love a Stingray as a working bass (NTH), but then why not get an OLP and hot-rod the electronics (PB)? I'd also like an Ibanez ATK (NTH), but it would have to be black with a maple fretboard. These come with a white scratchplate but when I said black I mean black so the SC would have to be changed to black which moves it into PB territory... After seeing Darren from the Pirate Twins playing a Status Series II with Thomas Dolby earlier in the year I'd definately love one of them as a working bass (check out Darren's Status collection at the bottom of this page - [url="http://www.the-pirate-twins.co.uk/blog_archive1.html)"]http://www.the-pirate-twins.co.uk/blog_archive1.html)[/url]. But then he's got some Kingbasses too - definately NTH (though mine would have to be the graphite-faced one...dream on JimD...). Then there's the short-scale Gibson SG-style basses, but that's because of Mike Watt (http://hootpage.com/hoot_gallery-thudstaffs.html) so they'd have to be tweaked and therefore become project basses. Because they're projects it would seem wrong to carve up a Gibbo so an Epiphone would do... The daft thing about all of this is that I have a project ready and waiting (bought a Kent Armstrong bassbucker for £8 a few years back, then got a Hohner Arbor "Precision" to put it in, but, typically I want a black scratchplate and a "Jazz" neck for it) and as you can see from here [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=91295"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=91295[/url] I need to sort out my main bass as a priority! But does that stop me dreaming up new projects or thinking about finding the cash for NTH basses...does it funk... (goes off to start new Basschat thread called "Do you lack focus and drive?")

Hi Luke Yep, all the joints and circuit are okay - it's much more related to being near noisy stuff. As I mentioned, when I wander close to the stacks to adjust my amp it gets really loud! BassBod, when you say "heavy" do you mean "'eavy" like...heavy metal, or the actual bass was heavy? If it was the latter, were the KA's a significant contributing factor to the weight?!

[quote name='Bassassin' post='865032' date='Jun 12 2010, 11:25 AM']Is yours red/black like the pics? Jon.[/quote] Yes, it's just like it. If I do replace the electronics I won't be throwing them out, so it could be restored in future times. But at the moment it's really frustrating being so buzzy, especially when I know from the B2A how quiet a bass could be. I see on the Schaller website that you are correct about the JBX being the humbuckers...lucky I didn't buy some JB6s already! HBdeluxe - are the Select J's noiseless when used singly as well as together?

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='864414' date='Jun 11 2010, 03:20 PM']Is it shielded out? I found it worked really well and saved me the expence of new pups.[/quote] I think it has the old graphite-paint-in-the-cavities thing going on, but I'm not 100% sure; I'll take a look after my next gig. It almost certainly isn't copper shielded like that, and I probably should look into that, so thanks for the idea!

Hello there My main bass is one of these... [url="http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2009/12/westone-x900tpr-super-headless-bass.html"]http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2009/12/weston...dless-bass.html[/url] ...and as you can see it has jazz style pickups. Unfortunately they are really noisy; I thought they were humbuckers as one of the switches on it gives a sound on each pickup akin to series/parallel (i.e. quieter and brighter in "parallel" mode) but since joining a very loud rock band and playing at volume I'm not convinced they are humbuckers. The bass is very noisy when plugged in and not being played and if I wander near to my amp or either of the guitarist's amps there's a lot of buzz. It does have an active circuit but I don't use it; I don't even keep batteries in it. The bass plays great and sounds great apart from that confounded buzzaroo! By comparison my Hohner B2A is nearly silent; you have to go and seek out the hum with that one! So...I'd like to upgrade the pickups. The logical choice for me would be EMGs, but the Westone pickups are identical in size and the wiring is different to a standard Jazz bass (master volume, active tone, passive tone and three way switch plus the aforementioned odd "series/parallel" switch), so the standard EMG J set would not be optimum. I'm looking into if I can fit two EMG LJ "long Jazz" pickups in there but I'm not sure about the wiring as each single EMG LJ comes with a volume and tone prewired, so I'd end up with two volumes, two tones and a lot of confusion as to how to get it working right... The other choice so far is two passive Schaller JB6 bridge units. The only problem I have here, and it's very subjective, is the Schallers have polepieces and the original Westones do not. I'd like to keep flat black pickups, even though the bottom line for all this is sound. So, any suggestions for noiseless Jazz pickups or similar experiences? Knowing how good the B2A sounds I'd go for two EMG Select jazz pickups but I can't find out if the individual units are humbuckers - I play mostly the front pickup alone, so a pair of RW/RP jazz pickups would not work for me as "both on" is not my preferred tone in the current outfit I play in! Jim D

My B2A is great and anything under £200 is a bargain as far as I am concerned. They're great for having within arm's reach of the sofa for a quick noodle-along to TV themes, and look pretty stylish in the living room too. They're wonderful for travelling with and sound bloody great, though I only ever have everything on full. The little EMG selects are very well behaved and don't buzz. My brother has the Jack which is identical except it has a body and a really smoov neck joint, because there isn't one; it just blends!