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I have an Ultrajazz in the bridge position of my custom fanned fret bass. Great pickup. Clarity. Punch. Drive. No noise. I think you will really enjoy them. This should be in the instructions that accompany the pickups when you receive them: [url="http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/default/files/diagrams/ModelJ.pdf"]http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/default/files/diagrams/ModelJ.pdf[/url]

[quote name='iconic' timestamp='1355582652' post='1900192'] [size=4]If anyone need further proof e-mail them, them being 'Tokai 1947 Japan' directly:- [url="http://www.tokaijapan.com/"]http://www.tokaijapan.com/[/url] it seems a number of people do, ask when & where they made Rockinbetters...[b]usual answer is they have nothing to do with Rockinbetter & Tokai UK[/b]??? (insert Tokai something) or what ever they care to call themselves currently. It's private UK company with no connection bar the word Tokai, so yes it is a Tokai Rockinbetter, only not the Tokai you are thinking of, confusing isn't it?[/size][/quote] That's so they won't get sued for trademark infringement, which RIC zealously pursues.

Doesn't this bass have Seymour Duncan Basslines pickups? If so, contact them for advice on repair/replacment.

[quote name='Pete1967' timestamp='1355407540' post='1898004'] No direct experience, but if it's a clean, clampable break then I'd be tempted to give it a shot with the polyurethane Gorilla Glue [url="http://uk.gorillaglu...rilla-glue.html"]http://uk.gorillaglu...rilla-glue.html[/url] [/quote] I disagree. Gorilla glue is water-activated and tends to expand. This will make a mess of the guitar. [quote name='KiOgon' timestamp='1355404783' post='1897925']A decent 2 part epoxy like Araldite should fix it, if it's a clean break the paint line may not be too bad![/quote] Being that the body is a synthetic instead of a wood product, I'm inclined to agree in this instance that epoxy would be more similar to the luthite. I wouldn't bother with quick-set epoxy, just a good general grade of overnight 2 part, and make sure the seams are clean before leaving it clamped up to dry.

You have to decide on the system you want and go for it all at once. I pretty much had to bite the bullet and got a Carvin MB-12 combo, Fishman Full Circle, and fdeck preamp/high pass/buffer all at the same time a few months after getting my double bass and getting it set up. But it was worth it because I've gigged continuously since then a couple of years ago, and it has more than paid for itself, even as a weekend warrior/avocational player. Here and on the TalkBass forums, you will find a lot of discussion about the various pickups, preamps, heads/combos/speaker cabs available and how they all work together so you can start planning your budget and a system to match.

Actually, DiMarzio makes end-to-end coil J-bass pickups in their J and Ultrajazz models. I'm not sure, but I think their Area 51 models are the same construction. Seymour Duncan makes stacks. Fralin, Aguilar and Bartolini make end-to-end models. Joe Barden makes rails J pickups. I'm sure there are others out there. With all of these models, dummy coil technology and wiring is obsolete.

I have a Triad. Why are you replacing the 15 speaker? If the voice coil is blown, and that's the reason you're replacing the 15, that is a problem. If the voice coil is intact, you can measure the DC resistance of the coil and derive its impedance: for example, if the voice coil measures @ 2.8 to 3.5 ohms or so, it's a 4-ohm nominal impedance speaker. Also, this blog link has a pdf (about half way down) of the circuit in one of the postings, which indicates the 15 is hard wired full range. That would also indicate that the 15 is also probably a 4-ohm driver. [url="http://music-electronics-forum.com/t18691/"]http://music-electronics-forum.com/t18691/[/url] Unfortunately, it's not quite as simple as simply picking a 4-ohm driver. The power rating and the compliance for the size and porting of the cabinet are also important.

Trying to "re-saw" out the plastic fillers is rarely successful, without making a mess of things, leaving traces, having to "fill" nicks in the fingerboard, and such. And the cost of having someone do it just to refill the slots with rosewood or ebony filler strips approaches the cost of a new neck. So if you like the way the bass feels and sounds overall, your best bet is to either live with it or purchase a new fretless neck that does not have markers or fret lines.

Have you contacted Fishman directly about a replacement?

I've been trying for two years to get a Fender flat 105 single and can't. I think the closest string in construction and tone that is available as a single string is a GHS Precision Flatwound.

The Beatles. Full Stop. #1 final answer. Yes, George & John may have played a couple of tracks on bass here and there in the studio, but that was later on, from the White Album sessions onward, and especially when Macca wanted to play guitar or piano on a track. But the thread is "as a band," not any particular individual track. And no, Macca was not the original bass player, either. (I'm going to take flak for this next comment) Stu Sutcliffe was only in the band because he was John's best friend. But after Stu died and Pete Best was replaced by Ringo, the Beatles would not have been the Beatles without Macca on bass, and in spite of each of them "leaving" at any given point and coming back, the Beatles were no more after Macca made his famous announcement 10 April 1970. This is proven by the subsequent solo albums, where one or more would play on any particular album by one of the others, but not all of them together.

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1354631129' post='1888385'] How do you damp the strings when you need to?[/quote] The way Leo originally did: a block of foam rubber. After that, a combination of right and left hand techniques on where I rest the fingers on the strings (I don't use a pick). But you have a point. When I started playing with the jazz/dance band I currently play with a few years ago, the band sounded great, but really didn't "swing" like it should or could. It was me. The bass had too much sustain and drive. So I resorted to the other solution for such situations: I purchased a double bass to go with my electric basses, including the custom, my Rickenbacker 4002, and my Miraphone tuba.

The Duncan Designed neck pickup to go with the HB-103 (the Asian version of their "Distortion" pickup) is the HB-101, which is the Asian version of their '59 neck pickup.

Well, yes, in that case, a bridge change is in order. I am probably a little more overkill than the rest of the forum I would drill out the old mounting screws to the next size larger, acquire a hardwood dowel, and glue in dowels and shave them flush to the top in case the old bridge did need to be remounted for any reason. Sounds like an interesting preamp. I'm sure the bass will sound great when you're done.

I have modded guitars since 1975, when (much to the dismay of my Mum, of course) I took apart my first department store electric guitar to see why it worked (Yes, I was able to put it back together. I still have it, and I still play it occasionally). I've gone from that to my own tinkering with all kinds of pickups and other hardware layouts, rewiring, setting up and rewiring friends' instruments, to designing my own custom fanned fret P-style bass that is my #1 instrument. Fretting: be careful of fretting. That requires special tools, training and experience, so even I leave fretting and fret repair and maintenance to my good luthier friends. But everything else is more or less standard woodworking or electronics techniques, or a combination thereof. Why do you want to switch the bridge? Unless there is something wrong with the current bridge, say inherent instability of the bridge or not enough travel for the intonation screws, or you desire a completely different string-to-string spacing, in some ways even the most elemental Fender-style plate-stamped four-saddle bridge is fine (assuming it is actually of steel and not an inferior metal), and actually colours the tone less than some of the "high tech" bridges out there. And as set forth above, you save yourself a significant amount of work. On my custom bass I actually have a reproduction '60's style "bolt-stock" bridge (a copy of the cheapest one Fender ever made), altered to fit the fanning, and it has the most sustain and broadest tone of any bridge I have ever played on a bass, albeit also modified for string-through-body (but that's a whole 'nuther kettle o' fish). I do differ from most folks on bridge placement. To make sure there is enough room for the E string to intonate, I tend to place a bridge so that the G string intonates with the saddle almost at the front end of the intonation screw. The downside to this is the farther out the screw, the less the break angle of the string over the saddle, and so there is a limit as to what is practical as far as downforce over the saddle for stability and tone (avoiding twang). Conversely, if the bridge plate is mounted too far forward, there will be excessive break angle over the E string saddle, causing its own intonation issues and weakening of the E string core. Electronics are easy. Everyone makes pickups and preamps to fit Fender-standard routings. All the player has to do is pick the desired flavor. A good pencil-style iron, rosin-core solder of the approved alloy for your area (used to be 60% lead / 40% tin, but some places in the world have legislated otherwise), and a lot of patience and care, and the electronics are done. If this is a 4-string bass, then the traditional placements of the traditional pickups for all the traditional models of electric bass usually give the best tone for a given particular style and placement of pickups, as their placements were determined by trial-and-error when these basses were in R&D all those years ago by their respective companies. For a 5-string bass, I have found the best placement for pickups is for a neck pickup to be in proportionally the same postion as the D-G segment of a P pickup and the bridge pickup where the '70's J bridge position is. This gives, to my ears, the best balance of fundamental and overtones to make sure the B string speaks well, that there is still enough "heft" in the tone to support the band, and still has "solo" contrast to the bridge pickup. Other mods: with Schaller, Hipshot and Gotoh lightweight variants available, neck dive can be eliminated. Hence, there is no reason for a player to burden himself with the heavy traditional Fender-style tuners. None. Full stop.

On my custom fanned fret P-style bass, I do not have a cover over the pickup. But I do keep the bridge cover on for a couple of reasons: 1) hide the bridge (hey, I can't just let go of all of my secrets!) and 2) that little bit of weight helps keep the bass balanced, and 3) I think it looks good.

Congrats. Mr. JH has invested heavily in QC in the past few years, and all the current instruments produced by RIC are the best they've ever been, and only getting better. Re: price - just do what I do - gig enough to pay for it. Your wife will understand. Mine does - I was in three bands when we got married; I'm in three bands still, all these years later. The bands have changed over the years, but the gig money makes the weekends worth it.

[quote name='Stacker' timestamp='1354201274' post='1883500'] Yes but can't the pole still be adjusted somehow? If not, then could it have become demagnetised? [/quote] On these basses (assuming original pickups) they have what have come to be called, "Button Top" high gain pickups. The bobbin is two small slabs of fibreglass, and the polepieces are glued in, with the bottom of the polepieces contacting a proprietary compound ceramic magnet. There is a small possibility that the pole isn't seated all the way to the end of the bobbin and is not making contact with the magnet. If changing the A string doesn't fix it, then one way to determine this is to flip the pickup around to see if the lower volume follows to the D string, as the pole pieces are in an arc to match the fingerboard radius, and the relative volume should be the same. I've never heard of a D string being down on volume.

As the saying goes, "Stay tuned for further developments...."

[quote name='risingson' timestamp='1354151629' post='1882917'] Too many threads on whether or not body wood makes a difference, that's not I'm sure what the OP had in mind. It's getting boring. Personally I think I hear a difference in body woods, although what do I know! I prefer ash bodied jazz basses, they do seem to have a bit less of a low-mid that you get with alder IMEO (in my ears's opinion). Prefer alder in P-Basses. I've owned both and both are great.[/quote] Your ears are right on. OP - if weight is the primary issue, then you have to play the bass in question, as I've played ash that was heavy and light, and alder that is heavy and light. OK - I live about a half hour from Conklin basses, and I used to hang out there with my own projects. "Heft." No, lightweight ash has a dip in the midrange. Moderate weight alder with a rosewood fingerboard and a pickup that is stock specs to 5% overwound with the traditional circuit of 250kohm pots and a .047 tone capacitor, along with a standard Fender-style plate bridge, will get you heft. Since you're going the "build" route, use lightweight tuners, such as Hipshot, as they will save about 1/4 kilo in weight overall compared to the traditional large Fender-style tuners. That will help as much as anything.

Stacker - the OP's bass is old enough that it doesn't have adjustable pole pieces.

In the early '80's I had a fairly light ash '75 J-bass. Sounded great. The only reason I sold it was because a pickup died and the frets were worn, and at that time there was no competent luthier where I live that could fix either. Now there is, now it has been, and I know who owns it if I ever want to play it again. It is his #1 bass. More about wood and tone: [url="http://www.warmoth.com/bass/Options/WoodDescriptions.aspx"]http://www.warmoth.c...scriptions.aspx[/url]

Patience, grasshopper.

[quote name='Matt P' timestamp='1352752326' post='1867073']Have you thought about a Sandberg? the California vs is available in natural gloss or matt and the general opinion is that they're incredible basses.[/quote] Yes, but they won't sound like a P bass: 1) the ash is the wrong kind of ash and won't have the "pop" or "scooped" tone that USA "swamp" ash has, nor the evenness of alder, the primary P-bass wood from 1957, the introduction of the classic split pickup; 2) the pickups have one pole piece per string, which will lend to too much transient articulation attack, instead of the round P-bass tone that Leo changed from one polepiece per string to two with the original split-P pickup (albeit to save the transients from causing speaker damage, but I digress...); 3) P basses are passive, not active, which also lends to a rounder sound from the electronic loading of the hi-Z pickup and circuit. Yes, even Fender now makes active P-basses, but they are usually models with an added J-pickup and geared towards the "contemporary" player.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1353029371' post='1870835'] Because paying for nothing is a waste of money, and money is a finite resource for most people. It is a very real thing, as the exchange medium to purchase an item to perform a function, you can pay for function, or you can pay for exclusivity from a marketing strategy, with the corresponding reflection on which you rate more of your music or your image.[/quote] I remember hearing a lecture of something similar to that in economics class at university decades ago. I would dare to say that in the case of Rickenbacker, the function markets itself, and the demand/supply curve orders itself accordingly. Mr. JH of RIC is a master of balancing supply with demand to keep the price up where it is, so new instruments do not seem that much more expensive than good used instruments. The bottom line is that the quality of the instrument and its inimitable tone are what drive the market in this instance. The variance is that unlike a lot of products, the marketing is done as much by the respective consumers, both the owners/players and the audience, as the company itself.