only4

I recently acquired a Jedson sg style twin pickup bass as a project. I was informed that only one pickup was working when I bought it.

I’ve just fixed the pickup, but was wondering if the capacitor that’s on the selector switch is original or just put there to give a bit of tonal variation by the person who connected the one working pickup to the central switch position. Any ideas?

6 hours ago, thundachopz said:

What strings?

They are labella black nylon tapes. I’ve owned this bass for around 5 years and it was strung with these when I bought it and to be honestly I changed them as soon as I got home for rounds as they were what I was used to. Around a year ago I realised that I’d kept them so decided to give them a go and boy was that a smart move, they are so much better than I ever imagined, nice feel and very articulate sound. I have them on a couple of my other basses now.

Can’t say enough good things about Spector basses.

My Bergantino B-amp has a built in variable hpf, it’s adjustable between 30hz & 80hz in 2db increments 👍

Quite enjoyed that, I’m a big fan of Neil Finn and i love watching Mick drumming. 

I saw them at their Manchester arena show a couple of years ago and had mixed feelings but I think this injection of new members may just reinvigorate the band

1 hour ago, Pea Turgh said:

I am a little sceptical of expensive cables - is there a scientific explanation as to how their metal conducts a signal better than other manufacturers?

I think that their cables contain more conductium than cheaper brands...

21 hours ago, bassmayhem said:

They are Vovox Sonorus; the best cable I've found out there so far. Vovox won't even call them cables: "Klangleiter" is the term used.  
They really do difference; they let EVERYTHING through. We had a cable shootout a few years ago, with a lot of different cables: everything from crap to expensive. "Is there any REALLY expensive cable here?" was a question asked. I offered my 20 ft Sonorus for a test. The test leader connected it and started to laugh in a very bullying way. "IT BUZZES!!!" All the crowd laughed, until I said: "It is your shitty P-bass that buzzes, but noone can hear it with all those lousy cables you use." Well, the guys with lousy cables chose to believe their cheap cables were better. None of my basses buzz through my cables. Never and ever. And - your fingers won't smell like old rubber... things when you have rolled them after a gig...  

Thanks for the confirmation, I’ve had my eye them for a while. I think it’s time to take the plunge 😉

14 minutes ago, bassmayhem said:

My two (or three) new kind of midget setups:

Acoustic Image with AccuGroove Tri112L, and Vanderkley Spartan with the same AccuGroove Tri112L...

Well, three setups, I use the AI alone too...
I also use the Spartan with my big TKS 2126 cabs...

Nice setups, what lead are you using in the photos?

I’ve found it to be a bit feast or famine, who ever you need at the time is never around, you’ll probably find a good drummer when you really  need a guitarist!

If you can’t reach down the side with the nut blutacked to the end of a stick, then filing your new holes square is the way to go, it’s only allie so shouldn’t be an issue.

All totally my own fault, but since changing back to cabs with tweeters (Berg HT112’s) from a BF SuperTwin, I now realise that I’ve probably let some decent basses & heads  pass through my fingers unnecessarily!

Purchased a lovely book from Cliff.

Simple transaction, prompt delivery and the book was exactly as advertised.

Trade with confidence.

Cheers

I know it’s neither of the pickups you mentioned but The Creamery do a classic 74 P bass pickup which could be closest to your original?

https://www.creamery-pickups.co.uk/custom-handwound-pickups-from-the-creamery/scatterwound-bass-pickups.html#P-BASSSOLO14

1 hour ago, Skybone said:

Not too keen on the new one piece strap button / screw arrangement.

To be fair that's a good point, if it doesn't go in straight the first time its fitted then there is no wiggle room to pull the strap button flat.

I’m using a set of the new S locks and they are much improved in my mind, their using the same old idea but have refined the whole thing and on a side note the new packaging is lovely.

The threaded section is much longer so it will accommodate a thicker strap and the knurled wheel instead of a nut is a nice touch that works well, there’s also a little grub screw that you can nip up to lock the wheel in position.

One thing I did notice is that the locking pin is now angled so you can pop the strap onto the bass without having to pull the release nob and finally the annoying rattle they used to make has now gone. 

Well done Schaller 👍

Just purchased a Tech21 XXL from Theo.

Very smooth deal, great coms and prompt delivery.

Deal with confidence 👍

Purchases a set of Hotrod pickups from Jamie, the communication was spot on and delivery was prompt, pickups were exactly as advertised.

Deal with confidence 

Mark

8 hours ago, Si600 said:

@only4 We had a further look last night.  Very interesting if you find that sort of thing interesting!  The casting with the hole in that you pointed out screws onto the end of the quill.  If you take the depth-stop off you can remove it completely.  What it reveals is the underside of the lower spindle ball race, fortunately semi caged otherwise we'd have been cleaning and regreasing the bearing after finding all the balls that had dropped out!

The No1 Morse taper is part of the spindle, there's a collar on it that loads the internal face of the bearing but it's, as far as we could see, all one piece.  Certainly it was going to get messy taking any more bits off.

It's a shame, the extra 100mm would have been useful, but it's a solid machine with no runout even at full extension, so for £150 I'm happy with it.

Thanks for the update, yours definitely sounds a little different to mine. 

If you really need the extra height from time to time you could always swing the table out of the way and drill from the base? 

They are a great machine as you say.

1 hour ago, Bridgehouse said:

Pick one of our best U.K. pickup winders and ask them to do you one which will match what a 78 P would have had - most guys will have done enough rewinds to do a really good copy.

I can supply recommendations if that would help.

Thanks for the suggestion, I noticed that Creamery pickups near me in Manchester do a 74 P bass pickup that I’m looking into.

I went out for a breath of fresh air at lunchtime yesterday and ended up coming back to work with a 1978 P bass! 

Overall condition isn’t too bad but at some point it’s had an active EMG pickup fitted which I’m not too keen on and the original didn’t come with it, so my question is what’s the closest available pickup to the one it would have originally come with from new?

Or any other suggestions would be welcome.

Ok, I’ve done a quick picture to help explain.

If it’s the same as mine you put a tommy bar into the hole marked with the white arrow and wind the ring down onto the top of the chuck. Once it’s in contact you can force the chuck off the Jacobs taper by continuing to unscrew the ring, some considerable force is needed.

I’m assuming that where I have the chuck you will have the morse taper adapter which may come off in the same way?

12 minutes ago, Si600 said:

I've been told that the extension is a longer spindle, not a removable lump unfortunately.

Ok, on closer inspection this is an Elliott Progress bench drill and this model has a threaded ring that you use to remove the chuck and it needs a tommy bar to remove. I have one of these drills at work but have never seen another chuck to fit it so the modification to yours means that you can use morse taper drills etc so actually it’s not a bad thing.

On 18/07/2018 at 11:21, Si600 said:

Yes I do, I'll pop round the revered elders at some point and make one. 

That will only get the chuck out of the spindle.  The literature I have read on t'internet about these suggests that the spindle has a MT2 taper, which then has an extension with a Jacobs taper to take a Jacobs chuck in it.  You can see the hole to get the chuck out, but the part with the hole is also supposed to come out.

If you wind the chuck down a bit you should normally see another drift slot to allow the removal of the extension piece.

I bought the download version and enjoyed every minute of it 👍

2 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

Although perhaps not so much of an issue as redaction skills. 

Good job I’m an engineer and not a newspaper editor 😉