99mustang

Hi everyone, I've read a lot of the previous threads on this kind of problem, and tried most of the various fixes. All to no avail. I have a Squire pbass, which I have modified as follows :- Badass II bridge, mirror scratch plate, Seymour Duncan SBP 3 pickups, new tone and volume pots, ( the old ones were really noisy), Rotosound Steve Harris flat wound strings. Played through a Zoom BFX-708 pedal and Peavey TKO115 amp. The bass hums unless you touch a metal part. This hum gets louder as you increase the tone control. Only the hums volume alters, not the sound of the hum. If you touch one of the magnets on the SPB 3's without touching another metal part the hum goes very loud. When you touch it there is a noticeable click. The pups are wired exactly to the diagram supplied by Seymour Duncan. The bridge wire has a small ring terminal on the end that has one of the bridge holding screws passing through it. There is no cavity shielding as such and there is no shielding on the scratch plate. Played without the zoom pedal makes no difference to the hum, and without the bass connected, the amp is quiet. There are no dimmer switches in the house, and it makes same buzz/hum in any room. I am not in a position to be able to start spending loads taking It to a luthier, don't even know of one near Blackpool. So somehow I need to fix it myself. So I hope someone can add something to this and help me out. Thanks in advance everyone. John.

I am trying to record myself playing and have the EFX Send plugged into the MIC socket. All was well up till few days ago. Had to unplug things and now there is a horrible noise when i turn on the amp if its conected to the pc sound card. It sounds like a 2 stroke engine at full tilt. Pull the lead from the amp and all is fine. Anyone any ideas as to the problem? Cheers in advance. John.

[quote name='simon1964' timestamp='1329226604' post='1539088'] The Ibanez ATK and SR series are fantastic basses for the money. They feel very different - the SR has a very thin neck, the ATK is much chunkier. But in terms of value for money both ranges are very haerd to beat. IMO the SR500 is just about the best new bass you can buy under £500. And you can often pick them up used on here for £350ish. [/quote] I can vouch for that, I have had an SR600 for just over a year, and it plays and feels wonderful. I can't fault it.

[quote name='4000' timestamp='1329057598' post='1536548'] If I drove, this would be my choice too. This or an AC Cobra. You can keep all the other fancy stuff. [/quote] Gets my vote as well, good choice

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1328978160' post='1535585'] Don't ask me? I think it's probably because it's a classic design. There's probably a thousand other basses out there made by other manufacturers which are better in many ways but you don't fantasise about driving through the Swiss Alps in a Honda NSX you fantasise about driving through the Swiss Alps in a Ferrari. [/quote] I don't, I fantasise about driving through the Swiss Alps in a 1968 Ford Mustang

[quote name='thepurpleblob' timestamp='1328311502' post='1525543'] Who? Anyway, get a 5 string?? EDIT: Youtube... is that a GIRL??? Dear me [/quote] Arch Enemy dear boy and yes she is a girl, and a rather hot one too IMO

Yeah thanks Jam, I looked around fo rthe Newtones, but could not find any, but the DR DDT strings seem fairly reasonable. Cheers!

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1328293962' post='1525185'] Newtone strings will make you a standard set for drop c (im using them and they're great) you would be able to tune up though [/quote] Hmmm, very interesting

Hope this is in the right section, I decided to learn to play "We will rise" by Arch Enemy. The songs calls for drop C tuning. Well the strings were so loose and floppy it was hard to play without loads of clangs and bangs as the strings hit the frets. To combat this, would I have to goto heavier guage strings? I looked on the Ibanez website at the bassist signature model and it comes with factory drop C tuning. But no mention of string guage. Thoughts anyone? Cheers, John.

That's mint, pmsl. I want a mirror finish for mine

From your term "tools", I take it you mean there's a little more to it than just drilling out the holes?

The machine heads on my squier affinity are the closed back design, little oblong covers over the gearing. Question, will the standard open gear style tuners fit without major mods to the headstock? Sorry if this been asked before. Cheers, John.

[quote name='deepbass5' timestamp='1324419058' post='1474129'] That is quite usual, most manufacturers just stick the bare wire under the bridge, even my schack and Shuker were the same. I have even had to rub the black painted bridges back to brass to get a ground. what I do is make sure the wire is clean and I bend it over and solder the loop this creates a larger surface area and the solder also gives it some depth, I then re position it away from the original indentation having cleaned the underside of the bridge, bolt it back down. [/quote] Really? I find that quite a shock. I would have expected some kind of eye terminal or a soldered tag. Seems a bit hit and miss for something that is so important to how the thing works.

I fitted my new Badass II to my Squier the other day, and noticed that the earth wire is just trapped between the underside of the bridge and the body. [attachment=95637:Badass II.jpg] The old bridge had pressed the earth wire into the body making a poor connection. Has anyone any idea how to make a better more permanent connection? Cheers. John.

Wonder if it's as slight as my SR600? That's very light. well to me it is compared to my Pbass. John.

This is just my opinion, but here goes. When I was looking to buy my first quality bass, I looked at a few different make and models. I tried the Squiers, the Ibanez, the Fender Mex and US. I found that to my ears there was a certain price point that sounded good. The Fender Mex and US sounded them same. I could not tell the difference. Only the price tag differed. The Squier and the Fender sounded very similar, but the Fender had more definition and refinement to its tone. Then I played the Ibanez, it was lighter than Fender, thinner neck and sounded different. I liked the tone just as much as the Fender, the build looked just as good, and it was less than half the price of the Fender US. So I think what I am trying to say is that yes Fender basses are good. But for what you pay for them, I do not believe they are any better than othe makes costing less. As for my Ibanez, I've had it a year now. It plays as good if not better than when it was new, apart from extremely slight intonation adjustment has had no adjustment needed and does what I need of a bass right now. I love it and am so glad I chose it over a Fender. But............ Fender were the first, they are [b][u]The[/u][/b] rock bass. Would I buy one if I had the money, hell yes.

Hmm, not wanting to buy one, just curious about how it works. Quite happy with my PeaveyTKO115, which cost me all of £40 Thanks for the info. John.

How does amp modeling work? Might seem a silly question, but if you modelled one type of amp and play it through your own amp, won't the real amp colour the sound of the modelled amp? John?

Wellcome dude, glad you have had a result there. My daughter had all her and grand kids had all their presents stolen from a locked garage last week. Scumbags are everywhere, to damned lazy to find a job and work for a living. Good luck fella! John.

I will probably be using this paint [url="http://www.specialistpaints.com/image_uploads/large/Royal_Blue_Flake_2.jpg"]http://www.specialistpaints.com/image_uploads/large/Royal_Blue_Flake_2.jpg[/url] With a number of coats of 2k laquer over the top. Will probably just prep the current top coat and see how it goes. If It does go pear shaped I can always strip it back further. As for the truss rod, now I'm in a quandry with two staunchly opposing views, hmmmm.

The Squier is quite new, no wear at all. Bought it from a charity shop few months back. Looks like some bought it for a son or daughter who gave up playing very quickly, not a mark on it. Truss rod moves freely, had to set it when I got it. The intonation was out. Just out of interest, would I be best stripping the body to bare wood or just prep the current black to accept new paint. The paint i'm looking at suggests a black undercoat so it would save a lot of time plus money by painting over current finish. Cheers. John. Ps, my Badass Bass II arrived from the States last Friday, sexy piece of kit

I am about to start my little project on my Squier Pbass and will be removing the neck so the body can be painted. The neck may be off for some time. Would it be better to release the tension in the truss rod until it's refitted or leave it as it is? Cheers, John.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1323377817' post='1462805'] The strings shouldn't be touching the pole pieces. Play more lightly or lower your pickup. [/quote] Think I'll lower the pups, and the nail varnish thing sounds good. But I do love to dig into that E string Cheers all.