randythoades

I use the Kent Armstrong and really like it. I have the Krivo too but find it a little harder to balance across the strings, sounds good though. I just use No More Nails tape to hold it onto the end of the fingerboard and then run the cable down (under a piece of tape) and fix the jack to the bottom of my bass to keep the cable out of the way.

As you say, horses for courses, and 50s style wiring adds a different (but nice) feel to the guitar: In both my strats, my tele and my Parkwood, I definitely notice the difference in changing the pots. Everything felt a little less muffled, as if a thin blanket had been lifted off the sound, an extra bit of clarity and sparkle, certainly controllability to be able to roll the pot back and take the harshness out of the tone. And changing the pickups with new wiring added just the extra sophistication, but I doubt an audience member will ever come over to you an say 'Hey man, your new pots sound awesome...' As with everything guitar based, little improvements will work but it is an overall sum of the parts (including the player) so a £3k les paul can sound pants into a £50 Gear 4 Music practice amp, whereas a 'budget' stock Epiphone can sound immense into a Marshall JCM stack.

SH73, most budget style guitars are wired using cheap components and capacitors so do benefit from being rewired to quality items. If you don't fancy doing it yourself then you can purchase ready made wiring looms (kits) from eBay or Axesrus.co.uk for instance that just need connecting to pickups and jack. It will take the quality of the electronics up to the level of the USA guitars. If you don't feel comfortable then your favourite guitar tech will do it in a short space of time and not charge too much. There doesn't seem much point in putting in high class pickups and then run them through cheap and nasty components, a bit like running your blueray surround sound movie through the speakers on your phone rather than your cinema system. You may find that the original pickups actually blossom with decent electronics or that you still want to change them. Either way it still a good idea if you think the guitar is a keeper.

Just to stir the cauldron a little... if it sounds brilliant, why the interest in changing the pickups? Not that I have any problem changing pickups but it is usually to address a perceived deficiency somewhere. An extra vote for Tonerider, they do some great sounding pickups. Before you change the pickups I would change the wiring loom for a decent replacement; it is cheaper to do and you may find the stock pickups really open up with higher quality pots and caps.

I really appreciate a good drummer (and really dislike a bad drummer or one that is too loud). I think you can get away with a mediocre bassist or guitarist (I am proof of that point) but I think you need good vocals and good drums, everything else just fits then instead of fights. I also like to help the poor drummer in and out of rehearsal but I am nervous of damaging anything, but even just the offer of help is appreciated I am sure. And we are meant to be a band and not just a bunch of individuals. I do like drummer jokes though, I am sorry, I just can't help it...

I love single coil guitars (mainly strats and teles) and they have so much more clarity than humbucker or split humbucker. There is nothing like the real thing, but if the split coil voicing does the job then why bother? The crowd won't know and you have another guitar to carry, set up and get levels right, and then swap from one to another. Or as someone else says, the G&L ASATs have got some great strong pickups that are very P90 like and could cover both roles. Don't know about anyone else but swapping from a Gibson scale to a Fender scale and back in a short space of time really confuses my fingers...

I use the volume knob all the time. I prefer the sound of the bass just pulled back a touch onto about 8 for the verses then click it up to max for a chorus. If you match that with a softer and more aggressive playing style then I find I get much better dynamics throughout the song. And one bass in particular is a little hot on output, so pulling it back a touch keeps it cleaner for appropriate songs or I can put it up to the top for a slight overdrive.

I quite like the old Marshall Valvestate! Wouldn't buy another though to be fair... I think it depends hugely on the player. Not bigging myself up here, but the previous guitarist in our band had both a SS Fender Ultimate Chorus and valve JCM Marshall DSL 2x12 and played a custom shop strat. Amps so far polarised to each other as you could hope to find. They both sounded complete pants in his hands. I borrowed his Marshall for an impromptu heavy rock session (Sabbath, Purple, Rainbow, Quo, Motorhead, Ozzy etc) as I have an AC15. I played my homebuilt Esquire through it and it sounded immense. Although have also borrowed of the Two Rock amps which everyone seems to rave about and couldn't get a good sound out of it and plugged in my backup amp (a SS Fender Frontman) and was so much happier!

I think it is an interesting question. I do gigs but infrequently, only 5-6 a year. As someone else posted, I don't particularly get anything from it really on an emotional level and just keep thinking of things I could be doing instead or that I feel like a prat with everyone looking at me. Or dreading the end where the drunks come up to you and tell you how they play and could have been big once, whilst you are trying to pack everything away. I don't mind it overall, am happy to do it as and when the occasion arises but I would prefer either to play / record at home for my own amusement, or rehearse with guys you can call friends making some good music to the best of your ability. It is more of a technical challenge to me. If I didn't gig I would be content playing songs I can't yet play or writing original material at home... but probably would tend to play guitar over bass for a lot of the time; I agree with other comments that bass tends to be a backing instrument and I don't find it that interesting to just noodle on.

Listing for a lovely looking bass but listed as Aria but I think it is actually the Washburn Vulture bass. A lot of dosh too but I haven't seen one before so assume it is not that common: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aria-Vulture-II-Bass-with-Redesigned-bridge-custom-wiring-w-HSC-/291867563179?hash=item43f4a994ab:g:RPkAAOSwRQlXd-Zl"]http://www.ebay.co.u...PkAAOSwRQlXd-Zl[/url]

Looks like a great price. I am really interested in these Italia basses for some reason (and the Torino model). I am not sure whether I would every use them but I like the idea of a semi/hollow bass that wasn't either an EB or Hofner clone.

Interesting. I may even have a go myself as a right handed player who has a left shoulder issue, I have thought that it would be handy to play the other way round and support the strap on the right shoulder instead. It would look cool too if you could teach yourself to play both ways, then if you needed to play fast 16th note fills you could use the stronger hand for picking and if you needed to be more precise on the fret hand then pick up the other bass and use the other hand. I am sure it would be an awful lot harder than I think.

Failed Guitarist here too. Pick playing, far too many notes, far too fast and far too loud. The way I figure, if you are constantly playing away from the root notes and adding melodic tension, then you can claim that whatever you just played wrongly as deliberate...

Agree with BigRedX, I am a fickle player, I chop and change instruments all the time because I get bored. I can get my P, my J and my violin bass to sound the same with a small adjustment to the EQ to fit in the mix. I think as someone else says, the strings and playing style (which are the same with all my basses) have a big effect. The only difference I find is with pickup output.... butthn I am partially deaf... And the same with the 6 string. I have and dozens of them, but to me, a squier strat sounds like a strat, a custom shop strat sounds like a strat. You may get a more refined playing experience but it sounds pretty much the same in the mix (with the same player of course).

That Headway EDB2 looks really interesting and looks just about small enough to put onto the tailpiece like the above pictures or maybe velcro'd to the back so I can still access it. A bit larger than my K&K but so much more functionality. I may go and have a look at one of those. StingrayPete -interested that the Plat Pro does add something to mag pickup. If I could get the mag to lose just a touch of 'electric' then I would be happy with one, and save myself a lot of aggravation in the process. I have the Krivo and it sounds very good, very similar to my Armstrong but still has the slight 'electric' feel to it. And it is massive in comparison and kept falling off in minutes despite the 'super strong velcro' it ships with. I used No More Nails tape in the end. I would happily still use it but the Armstrong is shaped to the profile of your fingerboard so is easier to get it to fit and is much lighter so doesn't fall off. The Krivo would be much better and I would be very happy if it had arms/cradle to screw onto the board like the Schaller does.

Maybe I have been a right plonker... Just looking up the actual spec of my K&K preamp online and it looks like it does actually have EQ on it already, albeit via some mini trim pots inside. I got mine off ebay with no instructions and thought it was just plug and play so haven't adjusted anything internally . If I can have a play around trying to nail down the gain and EQ trim pots I could do as StingrayPete suggests and run my cables inside the bass and purely use my existing preamp velcro'd to the bass and add a wireless for a cable free operation.

Hi Chris. Convenience only. I don't like all the cables and having to set them up every time. An outboard preamp still has the cables running the floor which is effectively what I have. And the Plat Pro Fishman is £200 and doesn't support 2 inputs, whereas on onboard preamp from acoustic guitar/bass is more like £50. And I would be attempting the work myself. But cost was a secondary thought to the convenience. I suppose I could set up an wire up a pedal board type arrangement with everything fixed on which would make I a bit easier to set up. If there is an alternative outboard that does accept both inputs and offers easy EQ that I can operate from the bass then I would be very interested.

Would the Fishman Stage preamp work with the mag pickup too rather than the Plat pro? If I went just mag then I just do as StingrayPete suggests and mount that onto the bass and have preamp an EQ to hand.

I will have a look tonight though, I am liking that as an idea

Hi Pete The Duo preamp is about 11cm by about 9 cm by about 4cm deep. It would work as a Velcro actually but probably not under the fingerboard. And I liked the idea of having EQ to hand. I also discounted because of then running the cable again. But I like your idea of wireless. I could Velcro both, one on the underside of each bout with a cable round the back of the bass

Thanks Pete I really like the idea of a wireless system actually and would definitely be interested in that but I wouldn't have the option of lending the pickups. Does the Fishman add anything to the mag pickup? Whilst I love the abilities of the mag pickup, it sounds a bit close to the sound of an electric fretless. I do like 20% of the piezo blended in, although I am sure that no one out front would have any clue. If the Fishman does impart something then that old well be an option, a much simpler setup and use the Fishman as a floor tuner etc over to one side. I don't often play both electric and DB I tend to use either one or the other so have separate amps for them.

Hi TPJ, I hadn't seen that but have looked at similar. As far as I understand it with my limited knowledge is that the piezo is a completely different impedence than the magnetic so wouldn't be compatible on inputs I was looking at trying to blend the two similar to the way I do with the dual channel K&K preamp. There are several acoustic guitar preamps which offer the mix of piezo / undersaddle in puts and soundhole magnetic pickups so thought this may be a good option. And generally cheap to buy too at sub £100. I am just lazy I think, so would prefer to wire it once then forget abut it and just plug and play at rehearsal/gig without the effort of all the wires everywhere. I don't mind cutting the bass so much as I could sell it as an 'upgrade' to a rockabilly boy looking to do the same.Would probably cut it on the underside of the upper bout, drill small holes for piezo and mag wires to get inside and put a jack socket on the bottom by endpin. Or if I can find a functional external preamp that was small enough I could position it in a similar place and run wires in the same way.

Hi guys and girls I currently run both an Armstrong magnetic pickup and a K&K Bassmax into the K&K Duo preamp, into my floor tuner and then into my amp (probably 80 / 20 magnetic). Would it be feasible (or wise) to install an onboard preamp (probably acoustic guitar one) with a blender onto my bass cutting a lovely big hole in the side? I figure it would give me the preamp function as regards impedence, have all the cables inside, add a handy tuner and onboard volume/EQ and output to a single jack socket rather than having cables and things stuck to my bass. I realise that I would also need to change the connectors and drill holes in my bass. It is a nice but cheapish Thomann slimline bass (ply) and we play at significant volume (rockabilly, jump blues, but not slap). Hence the use of mag pickup. Or, is there a small external (but able to be stuck to bass) preamp which could offer the same without the carpentry?

I have had the Blackstar HT5 and it is WAY too loud for home use. I have tried a couple of the smaller valve amps and can't get them to sound good until they are really cooking (which I think is the idea) but far too loud for practice. The Blackstar HT1 is really good, I have tried a friends one and it is much more suitable But I would suggest not getting a valve one but one of the smaller modelling ones, the small Mustang one if you like the sounds but not the volume, or the Blackstar FLY series or the VOX VX (I use a Vox VX1 for home use)

Tried running my existing setup through an ABY box at the weekend, one output into my Zoom effects pedal with a tweed type fender amp model with a touch of drive and delay, the other output into my regular acoustic preamp then both into PA but panned hard left and right. Not quite the sound I was after,I still think that I will get an archtop like the Godin 5th Ave or Ibanez Artcore (thanks dlloyd for suggestions) but perfectly acceptable and far better for my purpose. Might even try a touch of octave to fatten the electric sound bit more. I shall see how the band take it.