brensabre79

Looking at this I think your best bet will be to shim the neck. The gap between the two middle mutes should line up with the pickguard screw immediately in front of it and looking at the latest picture it seems that is the case Put a thin sliver of wood veneer (or business card) where the top of the neck (the side facing you when you're playing) meets the upper horn of the body and see if it shifts it enough. Ideally this should be sanded down to a very thin wedge shape so it is thicker at one end (the end nearest the headstock)... I'll reiterate that I personally would not just loosen the screws and give it a crack. Take the neck screws almost completely out so it moves with ease, put the shim in the gap and put the screws back in.

Yep, thats neck relief - see above! Did you get the string positioning sorted?

The 70s spacing pickup solo'd is quite nasal sounding, I always blend in a bit of NPU just to give it some bottom end. With both pickups on full, the difference isn't that great. I'm not sure if you'll get two J pickups in a MM case though. Can't you just coil tap the MM pickup?

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1360769031' post='1976171'] Could he not wind you something to fit in the existing covers? [/quote] And if he can't there is bound to be someone who can! You could also try this guy, Mike, at [url="http://www.geminipickups.co.uk/"]gemini[/url] pickups. He makes a Ric style mini humbucker and does repairs too so both angles covered. He's really helpful.

Hi Shippo, Its a difficult question to answer for any bass as its a very personal thing is the setup. Not sure what truss rod to fret height is either.. do you mean the relief of the neck? (i.e the bow) if so, the idea is to have the neck almost straight, but with a slight bow upwards so that when you put a finger on the 1st fret, and a finger on the last fret at the same time, there's a little gap between the string and the 12th fret. the size of the gap is largely personal, but if there's no gap you'll get alot of buzz - if there is a large gap it will make the action of the bass very high. I have about .5mm releif on my MM neck (measured at 12th fret) Nut action height should be slightly more than the height of the first fret (to avoid buzz). Bridge action height (a very personal thing) I have mine set about 3mm measured at the 12th fret - but some people have less, some have more. I'm a pretty heavy player and i like a high action for the tone. I have to say, out of all my maple neck basses the Sabre does seem the most prone to string buzz, even after a complete refret and a set-up by a highly respected luthier it can buzz a bit if i play it hard. i hope that helps a bit...?

I can recommend the [url="http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/replacement-toaster-pickup-front-2687-p.asp"]Kent Armstrong[/url] 'toaster' style pickups for guitar and bass. Mini Humbucker size and pretty reasonably priced. I think with most mini-humbuckers you might have to do a bit of work for them to fit, but you have nice big pickup surrounds there to hide it Alternatively, you could get in touch with [url="http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/"]Bareknuckle[/url] or [url="http://www.wizardpickups.co.uk/"]Wizard pickups[/url] and get the originals re-wound and wax-potted. Then you'll keep the original pickups, they will sound great and won't be microphonic. Also probably cheaper than replacement.

+1 NS10s were originally supposed to be HiFi speakers! The tweeters are incredibly brittle sounding - so much so that it was commonplace to stick a couple of sheets of toilet paper over them to reduce ear fatigue when mixing. They were so awful that they were used in studios as a typical example of one of the worst hiFi systems someone could possibly listen to the record on! Which ironically lead to their success. This was back in the day when people would only listen to music on a HiFi, Walkmans with their crappy headphones didn't exist, and mp3 players with their even worse in ear types were the stuff of tomorrows world. But as every old school engineer will tell you, if you can get a mix to sound good on those it will sound brilliant everywhere else! These days however, people are listening to music on much, much worse speakers, so unfortunately the NS10s in my studio have been replaced with some generic PC speakers (they light up when music is played through them and everything!)

Hey Steve, I've made about 4 basses from bits with a few basic tools. The last one I sold as they guy who now has it borrowed it for a session and basically said "you're not getting it back, how much do you want?" If you've built from scratch on the course, I don't think you'll have any trouble assembling a flat pack bass from Warmoth etc. The ones I've built have all been from broken up Fenders. Including my 70s Jazz, which took me over a year to get all the bits for! The only thing to watch is that it can cost you more to do it this way (even with allparts etc.) and what you're left with is a Fender copy with no name, that's harder to sell.

I think a lot of it is in the mid-range. If you listen to a Beatles record - or anything as well produced from that era, the bass is really forward in the mix, because the speakers of the time were not very efficient down there. Fast forward to the 80s and compare spectral analysis, there's chuff all bass in there, but lots of treble! Nowadays, the loudness war rages on, and in terms of getting a loud mix its all about separation. Listen to the bass drum on Led Zep II, its more a low mid drum compared to the subsonic boom that's reproduced these days. Same with the bass guitar, DI is more common, equipment generally can handle it. And by lowering the frequency of these instruments, there's more space in the low-mid of the mix - it gives a more open, bigger sound and makes maximising the volume much easier. Multi-band compression also plays a big part in this, it's not all in the mix. HiFi and even LowFi speakers are still used in the top studios and mastering suites. But the focus on Mps sales has lead to even more compensation in the mix, everything is bought using a computer, which have the worst speakers. most people have laptops these days and the crappy little speakers just can't put out the frequencies. Cue more compression. When I was producing and engineering dance/pop back in the 90s, it was all about pushing the bass into the midrange to get out of the way of the kick drum - that way you get a louder, more open mix. It seems that things have gone to extremes these days. Fortunately I make chill out music now so I don't have to worry about trends like this. I just make sure it sounds sweet on a half decent speaker and master at -14dB

I meant the preamp on your amp

I think its the bridge. It may even be just the wrong saddles (have they been replaced with Fender ones or something?). BUT I would get it looked at in the flesh by someone who knows what they are doing - i.e. a luthier. It can be rectified easily, but on a bass of this vintage it's best to make sure. I would be extra careful with loosening your neck on a 3 bolt personally. They are a weak design (mine's the same) hence Fender and MM moved back to 4 bolts soon afterwards. They can be prone to a bit of movement too, especially if you have the micro-tilt at full chat.

No worries, you could keep an eye on eBay too. Although most of the people parting out Fenders are in the US still.

[quote name='Dr M' timestamp='1360607296' post='1973291'] I would imagine the pickup locations are also a factor in this. The two separate pickups would mean you're picking up two distinct areas of string vibration, neither of which matches the precision pickup 'sweet spot'. [/quote] I think the "sweet spot" thing is a bit of a myth to be honest, the sweet spot changes when you fret a note as you shorten the string length. OK if you put Jazz pickups in series next to a Precision its not going to sound exactly the same. But the sound of the two jazz pickups in series is MORE Precision like than in parallel. More mids, more thump, less brightness. I was trying to describe the sound using references that anybody can relate to. If you want your Jazz bass to sound exactly like a Precision, then swap the neck pickup for a P unit. But I do get quite a Precisiony sound from mine (70s spacing and quite middly custom wound pickups though). Milty, I think that the benefits you will reep from adding a MM pickup in between the two jazz pickups are outweighed by the cost and hassle of doing it. I think you'll get roughly the same sort of sound by blending the two Jazz pickups, turning your preamp up and EQing a little. But thats just my opinion, don't let me put you off experimenting!

http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/

HB stuff can be a bit up and down, basically most of it is licenced or overstock technology from other companies... they don't actually make anything themselves. For example, they did a compact bass amp not too long ago that was nearly identical to the Ibanez Promethean. It was made in the same factory, by the same people. but it was missing the Ibanez specific features (like vintage modelling. There was also a Roland bass cube clone on there for a while too, minus the Roland COSM of course. But essentially it was a Bass Cube with the HB logo on it.

Although my first question would be why do they not have a Pro DI out in the first place? For the prices Markbass amps go for I would expect it to be included!

Record a bit of your bass playing, clean, and straight into the desk (no amp, or anything). Play it back through the head and record the result. Then make the change, and play the original recording through it again, all settings the same and you can analyze the results. Some people just play the same bassline twice, but then the inconsistencies in the two performances make analysis harder.

[quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1360528281' post='1971904'] I've seen this done to good effect [/quote] +1 wire wool, and sanding cloths also work.

I've got this on my main Jazz, Fender did it for a while (its called an S-1 switch) it's definitely better as an option as opposed to a permanent thing, it makes the bass a bit louder, a bit fuller but a bit darker sounding - no fizzy top end if you know what I mean. But it comes in handy when you want a small level boost, or if you want to make your Jazz sound like a Precision

Poly or Nitro should go over OK. As for keeping it satin... Don't polish it so much? I'm just refinishing a strat in satin nitro over poly, it really doesn't need much polishing to be honest.

Bonkers innit, I think it stems from the fact that when people go to see a band at a pub, they are having a good time, and drinking, they see a good band all smiling and looking like they are having fun (even if they are not!) and think they band are out to enjoy themselves just like they are. But the thing is, the best bands don't look like they are working at all! Now the thought of paying someone £1,000 to come down the pub with you and have a laugh for a couple of hours sounds totally unreasonable doesn't it? Similarly for designers, photographers etc. people don't realise or value the skill and time involved at all. I'm actually a designer, and I do a bit of photography too. I've lost count of the amount of times a friend asks me to do stuff for them for free, wedding invitations being the primary one. "I was going to do it myself in WordArt, but you're better at it than me" or "Well, you've always got your camera with you anyway haven't you, so what difference does it make if you take a few photos?"

I tried amp stands, they all tilt the cab though, not great with the rack and car stereo on top (or on the floor in bits down the back after a few minutes). Keyboard stands work ok but they can make everything a bit too high up (especially with a vertical 2x12). Personally, I wouldn't trust a £3.99 plastic crate from Lidl with £1200 worth of amp and cab - maybe I'm an idiot, but there it is.

Have you got it sorted with the MM pickup then Milty?

Yeah £700 is about right for what you're doing, weddings are usually a bit more. We often get people who think a band costs about £200 for the night. I put it to them like this: [b]Try getting 5 plumbers to drive 20 miles on a Friday or Saturday night and work for 4-6 hours each until beyond midnight. Whatever they quote you, we'll charge half![/b]

Well, some hum does not pass a QC test in my view. But if you're happy that the preamp is fine then the issue is the pickup. If there's no sound with the current wiring configuration, try swapping one from each pair over, e.g. the black and white just to make sure we're not just shorting the pickup out... So White&Red + / Green&Black -