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[quote name='kurosawa' timestamp='1353365242' post='1874367'] They sound good. But many pickups sound good to their players. They're dead quiet. Not unique, but it can spoil you (and your sound man). When it rains, you won't get shocked if you kiss a mic while holding the strings. That last can be all-important, especially in a 220v country.[/quote] +1

Even though I have played bass since the summer of 1976, and own more equipment (all paid for from gigging over the years) than most folks, playing is my avocation rather than my vocation. I will never be in a position to "outplay" any of my equipment. That said, lesser equipment will always have niggles and compromises that will, in time, lead to frustration, and everyone knows it is lesser equipment. Keep the best equipment you own, and sell the others as necessary to raise cash. As your playing improves and you show up to gigs with a real American P-bass, you and your playing will always have that[i] je ne sais quoi[/i] that lends credibility. Bass playing is more attitude than faculty, and the confidence of good equipment will lend to that. Do I [i]need[/i] my custom fanned fret P-style bass? No. Not in the sense that I could probably get by with any less expensive bass, if I could figure out a way to keep my left hand and arm from cramping. But I saved my money and paid for it to be built so that it fits me, like a bespoke Savile Row suit, and I can play without being concerned about any niggles of fit, finish, tone, ergonomics, etc. I just play, and people actually pay me to play on weekends, and because I am comfortable with my instrument, I can focus more on the music, my bandmates, and the audience, and deliver their money's worth. Keep the USA P-bass.

What instrument and bridge and/or tailpiece combination? It may not be a silk issue, it may be a bridge issue. I don't know of any. As a matter of fact, except for Pyramid and GHS (Brite Flats) I don't know of any short scale flats. Maybe there is another solution?

It will sound almost identical to an early '50s P-bass. Since the coil is a tad wider, it will have a tad lower inductance, hence less midrange grind than a J pickup, and with a single pole piece per string, a little more attack on the articulation. Being a hair closer to the bridge in the J-neck position, it will have subtly more presence than an early '50's P-bass.

[quote name='jesuskno' timestamp='1353918527' post='1879593'] Would you advise any particular tube?Thanks![/quote] Unfortunately, it's been about twenty years since I purchased 6550's. About the same time all those years ago (cue the Harrison song) I sold my SVT bass head and had my Marshall 2203 USA market version guitar head rebiased for EL34's. Contact them and tell them your budget and sound/durability requirements and see what they recommend. Getting eight matched will not be easy, if possible at all, and very expensive. You might have to go with two sets of matched quads and be careful that you distribute them properly on either side of the push-pull circuit.

[url="http://thetubestore.com/6550types.html"]http://thetubestore.com/6550types.html[/url]

Low string action is a balance between strings, neck relief, proper intonation, and a good level fret job (with pickup adjustment way down the list). Have your luthier check all your frets for level, and then make sure the neck starts with the proper or recommended relief, then go from there a quarter turn to see what happens. With Fender-style necks, a little relief is expected; with Rickenbacker, straight is spec'd.

Yes, quality has slipped. But that does not mean high-quality tubes are extinct. Quite the contrary. NOS are still fairly plentiful, depending on the tube type. Some of the factories have also come up in quality. These two on-line stores test and review tubes, so if you're in the market, their review pages are a starting point for current quality tubes. [url="http://www.thetubestore.com"]http://www.thetubestore.com[/url] [url="http://www.tubedepot.com"]http://www.tubedepot.com[/url]

The "floppiness" of rounds is more a function of their gauge, since many are constructed in a similar manner. Try a 40-95 set, and if that's not pliant enough, then try 35-90 or thereabouts. D'Addario and Circle K publish their tension specs so you can see just how floppy the lighter strings get, and can choose a set with balanced or graduated tension. Again, since many strings are made in a similar manner, you can extrapolate within a kilo or so the tension of similar strings (nickels, steels, etc.) from company to company.

The headstock doesn't look like the decal was "scratched off" on purpose to me. It looks like authentic wear, possibly a gig-in-a-pub incident. Nice score. Since this was the end of the "CBS" era, there are those who might consider this is actually a better quality bass than the USA made instruments at that time.

[quote name='rednose200' timestamp='1353802171' post='1878672'] All good points made. However before you go butchering your P bass....[/quote] [quote name='JPJ' timestamp='1353698094' post='1877684']I'm currently assembling a bitsa fretless 'workhorse' bass....[/quote] The OP is building from scratch, not "butchering" anything. Sky's the limit. Open season. The only consideration is not spending more than a new P-J would cost, unless it's to get a custom feature or something bespoke to fit the OP's ergonomics or playing style better that will earn its keep in the long run.

The reason veneer strips the same thickness as the fret tang are used is for structural stability. There are those luthiers who, going the other way, actually cut their fret slots narrow so when all the frets are seated there is some natural backbow, taking stress off the truss rod. Without the veneer inserts in the fret tang slots, your neck is at risk of folding up like a pretzel, in spite of a good truss rod.

I'm with the OP. She could have asked him to help, and the bass would have been out of the way, two people would have caught the falling boxes, and everything would be fine. I've been there. Unfortunately, it's the stuff blues songs are made of.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1353625111' post='1876842'] Tom Bowlus's Bass Gear magazine, issue #9, page 56, Luthier's Roundtable has a relevant article. [url="http://btpub.boyd-printing.com/publication/?i=135014"]http://btpub.boyd-pr...ation/?i=135014[/url] It appears that alder IS mid range focused and wood CAN affect tone. So there you go.[/quote] Alder does have more midrange than the other popular wood for bass guitar bodies, swamp ash. But it has nowhere near the midrange that honduran mahogany has. So it's all relative. With all due respect to the luthiers in the article, Warmoth have made more bodies than all the guys in the article put together, and so I'm more inclined to go with their wood descriptions, as it is closer to my experience with the hundreds of guitars and basses I've played and worked on since 1975: [url="http://www.warmoth.com/Bass/Options/WoodDescriptions.aspx"]http://www.warmoth.c...scriptions.aspx[/url]

I have found that a J is very versatile to add to a P. I use a humbucking J, DiMarzio UltraJazz, on my custom fanned fret bass. I recommend an end-to-end coil humbucker J bridge pickup, like a DiMarzio UltraJazz or J model, or Aguilar, or Fralin noiseless so it doesn't all of a sudden hum when you adjust the pickups. A Seymour Duncan Vintage Stack or Fender Noiseless Jazz will also work, although I am not a fan of stack pickup designs, as to my ears they can get muddy on the fundamental. Moreover, I really don't pop-and-slap much, so I added a .01 capacitor inline from the hot lead of the J bridge pickup to the wiper on the volume control so that any phase, comb filtering, or impedance volume drop that can occur on a 2-pickup bass is eliminated. Oh -- where to mount the J pickup: the '60's position is centerlined at 1/16th of the scale length from the fingerboard edge of the nut, which is 34/16 = 2 1/8 inches from the nominal saddle position before string compensation, or 31 7/8 from the edge of the nut, and the '70's position is centerlined @ .40 inches closer to the bridge than that, so the entire pickup including the mounting flanges is underneath the pickup cover. Mine is between the two. [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/fender-jazzbass-75-bridge-pickup-position-326658/"]http://www.talkbass....osition-326658/[/url]

How long is the afterlength from bridge to tailpiece? Would a new tailgut that is slightly longer still keep the afterlength at least 1/6 the mensure at not too great a cost? Also, check the underside of the tailpiece. Some tailpieces have more than one anchor point, so if the tailpiece and tailgut are adjustable you might be able to put it in the bottom anchor holes instead of the middle anchor holes and get your length that way, if the tailpiece is so constructed.

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1353516300' post='1875519'] Actually its the feel I go for rather than the tone, that's why i keep taking them off. I really dont get flats although i enjoy playing them if that makes sense. [/quote] Try the Fender 9050CL 45-60-80-105 flats set. Feel and tone. They converted me from rounds.

It depends on the primary criteria. For recording, I'm going to choose tubes with the lowest noise, especially the input, and those with best subjective tone for the intermediate stages. I may even use a lower gain tube for clean and low noise and microphonics, like a 5751 or 12AY7 (think old tweed clean) instead. For road use, hopefully the crowd noise will cover what little extra noise is present in a durable tube. And so it goes. Be careful: some tubes, like the ElectroHarmonix, have a glass envelope that is larger diameter and may not fit in some tube sockets, especially if they have a noise cover.

[quote name='lowlandtrees' timestamp='1353606366' post='1876563'] Thanks for this. Apols.....I was of the impression that the low string was tuned to C..........thinking of getting a 5 string. I'm a tad old fashioned and think that bass ws meant to play low notes. The lower the better......bet that will upset some people lol. I can see that the nut thing could be an issue. Thanks again. [/quote] The main reason for multi-string basses is not the extension of range, whether low B, high C, or even 7-, 8-, or more string basses. The main purpose is faculty of playing, because it's easier to move laterally across the fingerboard instead of longitudinally up or down the fingerboard.

Alder is not "midrange focused." It is a very neutral wood. Swamp, or light ash, can have the "pop" or "scooped" tone. In the early '80's I had a '75 Jazz bass in light ash and it was great. Very responsive. Unfortunately, at the time, I lived in an area you couldn't get good repairs, so when a pickup died and the frets wore down, I had to get rid of it. I know where it is if I ever want to play it again. Today, there are good luthiers where I live, and if it were the same situation now, I'd refret it, get a new pickup from Fender, and keep playing. It sounded, felt and played great. I would usually go full on with the neck pickup and roll off the bridge pickup just slightly to get a really broad versatile tone.

Change the string and see if it is a bad string.

Wow! Aaron now winding pickups. 3rd generation! I'm getting old. Surely it hasn't been that long since I played a Dan Armstrong plexi guitar!

OK, when I set my large-screen to view @400%, I have a few observations: 1) The neck seems to be a real Fender neck with the "bullet" truss rod that has had the headstock shaved, but I can't tell anything about the model. It could be anything from a '70's P-neck to one of the more recent MIM, MIJ, or Squier necks that use the same truss rod. 2) The body seems to be an inexpensive copy plywood body that has been stripped and refinished. The P-J configuration may actually be original. If not, the woodworking is good quality. I actually like plywood bodies if they are light weight and overall resonant, because laminations tend to cancel resonances that cause dead spots. Remember: even Gibson ES175 and Epiphone Casino guitars are laminate (plywood) tops, so it's not that it is made of plywood, it is the quality of the plywood. 3) The D string slot seems to be there and the string simply dislodged out of the slot. There may be more damage to the nut that it won't stay in the slot, but that's at the limit of resolution and I can't say for sure. 4) The pickups may very well be DiMarzio P and J pickups. A good combination, because the J is an end-to-end coil humbucker that matches the P, and it seems to be wired V-V-T-jack, which is the easiest, most versatile combination for stage use. (less risk of grabbing the wrong knob in the middle of a set or a song). Comment: as with any project, make sure the overall cost of acquisition and time/labour factored in are reasonable. It's difficult to identify a project that needs just the right balance of time and money to be a good deal, and it is too easy to get a bucket of parts and overspend putting it back together when a reasonable used bass with a couple of personal modifications would actually be less expensive in the long run, be a better playing bass, and have better resale value.

Yes, RIC have announced on their factory forum a run of lefty basses: [url="http://www.rickenbacker.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15250"]http://www.rickenbacker.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15250[/url]

What gauges are you looking for? They seem to be inexpensive enough that you could purchase two or three different sets, assemble the gauges you desire out of each of the sets, and sell off the rest as singles. Or just contact Strings Direct directly and see if they will package a custom set for you, like bassstringsonline.com does in the USA.