Mornats

Gonna try and give this one a go! And yeah, I clicked on Dad's link several times before it clicked (pun intended)

You can ask them about it on their Facebook page too. https://www.facebook.com/laneyamplification?fref=ts Start off by simply stating the issue and asking if they can help rather than having a moan at them as others will be more likely to support you if you're seen as given the company a fair chance at resolving it.

That's looking stunning already, can't wait to see you do more to it.

I saw a jazz act play in Bristol last year where the keyboard player played the bass line and I would have sworn it was a very accomplished bass player playing it. It was very much in the style of the song you originally posted about.

I thought bass 1 had a more uncontrolled bottom end and bass 2 was tighter and more defined. So, looking at the specs of the basses they're both alder bodied and rosewood necks so they should be similar. Pickups in both should be of very good quality (as you upgraded the Squire). So I'd be tempted to say that the Squire is bass 1, having the less defined/controlled sound around the low-end. However, I'm a big fan of Squire's having recently bought an excellent VM jazz which is nice and bright - brighter than the US one I tried it against. So, my conclusion? It's close. I'd have guessed it was the same bass for most of it. But I'd go for bass 1 to be the Squire after all.

[sharedmedia=core:attachments:175148] Squire VM Jazz with upgraded KiOgon control plate and electronics and sporting Fender knobs.

I've just ordered a pair of JBXN jazz bass pickups for my Squire VM jazz. I'll post sound clips of before and after to go alongside the soundclips of my stock electronics vs. KiOgon electronics.

Out of the two it's my favourite too

[quote name='Evil Undead' timestamp='1413633270' post='2580348'] Following with interest [/quote] Ditto

As with any bass that all depends on how well they're set up. The Squire was well set up when I bought it but not all of them are. I've played a few of the Yammy's in a shop and bought mine second hand from here and they're very consistently set up. Actually, I've just measured mine with a cheapy tape measure (so not the most accurate but it can't be off by much if anything). Both are 3mm or just under on the E string at the 12th fret. My Overwater classic jazz is 2mm and gets that dug-in clang very nicely when you play moderate or hard. One thing I found with the Yammy is that you'll need to set it up when the weather changes in the summer and winter. The neck is thinner front to back than than jazz and seems more susceptible to moving with the temperature. I've only had this happen once and if you can set up your neck relief yourself without problem then you'll be fine. I'm not good at that stuff so I struggled but that was more down to me. If you're thinking of modding your bass (as you are with the pickups) then I'm finding it much easier to get parts for the Squire as a lot of Fender parts will fit.

Well, I happen to own both of those I've got a Squire VM Jazz (the red one) that I've just installed a KiOgon wiring loom in. I'll be upgrading the pickups soon so it'll be fairly like the one you're after really. I've had the jazz for a month and the Yammy for over a year. Both are superb to play and have really nice thin necks. As with most modern basses the first fret on the Yammy seems to be a further inch and a half away from my body than the jazz's. Most of my basses other than my Squire jazz are like that. So I find the jazz much easier to play. Soundwise, well the jazz has that traditional jazz sound that I find very versatile. The Yammy has a much more modern sound, more clinical. The humbuckers are very clean-sounding and whilst the jazz has single coils, they're not noisy at all but you get that single coil sound. In passive mode the Yammy sounds almost identical to its active mode. The output volumes are the same too which could be handy. The tone pot doesn't seem to offer the same tonal range as the jazz. It feels like it should go brigher but doesn't. In active mode you get the full suite of toys to play with. Well, you get bass mid and treble These give you a nice range of tonal variations. Scooping the mids out can be quite nice. It sounds very similar to the VPF filter on a MarkBass littlemark/combo actually. I would say both could suit any style of music and they do record well. My preference is actually for the jazz. I don't think it falls behind the Yammy in terms of versatility, even though it lacks the active eq. Plus it has the bonus of sounding like a traditional bass whereas you might be able to tell on a recording that the Yammy isn't a Fender-based bass. Happy to answer any specific questions about these two! It's a shame you're not close to Bristol as you could have popped round and a/b tested them.

Aye I don't think I can improve on that. I've got my clear scratchplate that I can use to swap designs around. If we're doing a Christmas gig for example it could have... er, I'll stop right there actually.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1414846764' post='2593893'] It's all in the fingers. [/quote] Yep, as Pinball said, whenever he plays my basses they sound like him playing them! They actually sound a lot like his own basses and less like mine. The difference is staggering actually. So yeah, there's a helluva lot in the fingers and playing style when it comes to tone.

I'm sure I saw them next to each other in the "view latest content" view so yeah, a nice little bit of synchronicity.

Ok so I couldn't resist a bit of a mod I want to try some new pickups in this so was recommended a KiOgon wiring loom to help with it. What I wasn't expecting was the improvement in sound from just having the new loom in there. Check out the thread about this upgrade over yonder: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/248196-help-a-newbie-change-pickups/"]http://basschat.co.u...change-pickups/[/url] Also, it now looks like this: [attachment=175148:10441092_10152380975731555_8478649244783291695_n.jpg] So rather than the silver Squire knobs it now has proper Fender knobs on it.

Righto, that was a really simple upgrade even for a noob like me Just a little snip of the wires, some careful stripping back of the coatings for the wires and it all went in really easily. So, I did a sample recording of the stock wiring and compared it with the wiring loom from KiOgon: I was a bit lazy and only did the test with the tone turned right up as this is how I usually play. https://soundcloud.com/mornats/jazz-bass-electronics-comparison [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]My thoughts are that the sound from KiOgon's wiring loom are clearer and much more defined, especially in the midrange with has extra clarity and cuts through a bit more. I think it sings a bit more. I tried it through my MarkBass and it sounds sweet. In comparison, the old set of electronics sound a bit muddy and ill-defined now.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]What do you guys think?[/font][/color]

For virtual instruments (which I'm a sucker for) I have:[list] [*]EZdrummer 2 (essential IMO) - I have an unhealthy amount of EZX addon packs, midi packs and third party midi grooves. [*]Komplete Elements (grab their free players for a starter). [*]Session Strings (nice arpeggiators but not as orchestral as Miroslav). [*]Miroslav Philharmonik (fantastic all round full-on orchestra - can quite often be picked up cheap or in a bundle). [*]SampleTank 2L (I prefer Kontakt for usability and sound but check out SampleTank 3 which is looking good, they do a free starter version too). [/list] For effects I actually get great results using the Rea effects in Reaper (my DAW and highly recommended). Otherwise I use:[list] [*]Guitar Rig 5 Pro - great for guitar sounds and some nice effect that I can use on other instruments. Little Reflektor (reverb) is particularly nice and I quite often use the stereo control and an LFO to bounce sounds around the stereo landscape. Quite limited for bass though. It suffers from the usual "here's 50 amps for guitar and one generic sh*tty bass amp" syndrome. [*]Ampeg SVX - got this dead cheap and has some much much nicer bass sounds than Guitar Rig. I do find myself recording the bass clean these days though but this is nice for some headphone jamming. [*]T-racks standard (again, as with the other IK Multimedia stuff (Ampeg, Miroslav, Sampletank) I got this cheap in a deal. It's a mastering plugin that I usually fail to use properly as I don't understand the clipper or limiter much and I prefer other eq and compressor plugins. Still, the compressor has a nice stereo enhancement effect but I could always get that elsewhere. [*]Supercharger - this is a rather nice compressor from Native Instruments. I got it for free but I'm considering upgrading it. It's got a nice warm sound that sweetens up our singer's vocals quite nicely without getting in the way and shouting about itself. [*]Izotope Nectar Elements - the cut down version of Nectar, a vocal processing suite. It's a bunch of presets mainly that never seem to do what I want but it was around £30 in a deal (I like my deals!). Some nice settings for fixing bad recordings though. [*]EzMix 2 Lite - again, a bunch of mixing presets that never seem to do what I want. I get better results by listening to the adivce of Graham from the Recording Revolution (look it up, it's great) where he says to balance your mix using the volume controls, then use only eq and compression to further balance the mix rather than looking to enhance the sound. That works much better for me than anything in EZMix. I've only just figured this out though but it's working on the one or two tracks I've remixed. [/list] That's mostly it. I've got a tonne of free plugins though. What I really want/need is a very good reverb plugin that can go from adding subtle mix-glueing to ethereal soundscapes but has a load of really nice room sounds and complete control over which frequencies get 'verbed. Free or cheap is my usual price range so any recommendations would be great! I did try a demo of a Waves plugin but it never authorised as the process was a complete pain the ass so I'll never buy any of those. I'm not a fan of the custom shop stuff from IK Multimedia where you get a few things for free (which is always nice actually) but then have to dodge around an interface full of stuff you don't own to try and find a preset that matches your current set of owned products. Their T-racks product is like this but thankfully my standard version stands alone from the custom shop one and their Amplitude guitar one does too. On one hand it's good that you can mix and match but they charge too much for individual components compared to the deals they do on the complete package sometimes. But then you've got a dropdown of 100 amps you don't own and you're trying to pick out one of the two that you do. It's bad usability to try and get a purchase out of frustrating someone IMO. But hey, you do get a couple of things for free so can't complain too much. I'm hoping someone does a deal on Ozone 5/6 as I do like it but it's a little pricey for how much I think I'd use it. £50 would be nice

Signed.

I'm just popping this pic here so I can attach it to a PM. This is the current wiring in my Squire VM jazz by the way. I'm just confirming how this will match up with the (much neater) arrangement in KiOgon's wiring loom. [attachment=175130:wiring.JPG]

Good idea I'm gonna try the original pickups with the wiring loom that arrived today so I'll snip them in a way where they'll fit the new loom but can be reconnected to the old one using those connecting blocks you mentoned Paul. I know which ones you mean.

The '68 one had some old manky strings on and mine had brand new steel elixirs on which accounted for a little/some/a lot/most/all of the differences. Can't say for sure unless I tried them both with the same strings on. In the end though I came away still thinking that my Squire was a top class bass that stands up there with USA Fenders. I know that I'm currently upgrading the electronics/pots and pickups but hey, that 68 jazz had upgraded pickups (SD quarterpounders)...

I was at an open mic last Sunday and got chatting to a bassist and anyway he goes and grabs his 1968 Fender jazz (used to belong to Geezer Butlet from Black Sabbath at one point although the owner - Alan - doesn't have any proof so just has to hope people believe him). So I'm playing an instrument that's 46 years old - 6 years older than my good self - and has seen a lot of gigging in those years. It has mojo as they say. This thing must be worth £2000-3000 maybe? Even without the Black Sabbath connection. So whilst I never before really appreciated the vintage Fenders I do have to say that this bass felt rather special in my hands. I still liked the sharper snappier sound of my Squire VM jazz (which - and don't lynch me - had similar playability, a touch nicer neck even) but there was something about this '68 jazz. I guess it was thinking about all the history it had and how it was made closer to the dawn of the electric bass than anything else I've played. Incidentally, the oldest bass I've owned is a 1988 Bass Collection SB320 fretless which was simply gorgeous and cost less than £300.

After chatting to John I've now ordered a complete replacement control plate and wiring loom with proper black jazz knobs Can't wait to try it out! John suggested trying out the loom with my existing pickups as it'll improve the sound just on its own. That's sage advice, try one thing at a time until I'm happy. Although a part of me does say it might be easier to lift out the entire set of pickups and control plate and fit a new set of pups and the new plate all in one go. No wire snipping and an easy route back if I wanted it (or decide to sell the bass and keep the new electronics). So, if I just try it with my old pickups and give them the snip (!!!) is it easy to reattach them to the old wiring loom later? I guess that would just be a little soldering job? John did say to ask him for any help but the answer here may help others in future

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1414696972' post='2592441'] All of which is entirely true. As I said above, we might know our Fenders (basses) but we know next to nothing about the workings of the musical instrument industry and Fender, the company which puts those basses in our hands. [/quote] Ah yes indeed, I see what you mean now. Whilst we're quite well-versed with their basses, we don't know what's going on behind the scenes.

[quote name='sbrag' timestamp='1414496836' post='2589789'] Glad you had a good bash and sorry I couldnt make it. Also sorry to hijak the thread but would anyone who went to this be interested in having the bass relay bass next. I'm trying to get it from me in Bristol to either Devon or Weymouth and you all seem in the right part of the world to help it on its way. PM me if you are interested. Cheers Steve [/quote] A bit of a bump for this but I really wanted to ask about the Retrovibe Zygote bass (this one http://www.probass.co.uk/Zygote-ZYRT.html) that David brought up. I was too ill to make it and would really have liked to try one as they look just fantastic. Any chance they're lightweight with a nice thin jazz-style neck?