PlungerModerno

OK - I have a Made in Japan P... From fender no less! (Yes I love it to bits )... Now for the measurements: -Nut inside (edge where fretboard begins*) to Pickup cover: 70 cm to the EA split pickup half cover - the edge nearest the neck. -Nut inside to center of pickup(s): 72.7cm / 72.8cm -Nut inside to Pickup cover: 75.5cm to DG split pickup half cover - the edge nearest the bridge. *To be 100% clear the nut inside is the lower nut edge in the image below: Hope this is of some use

That's just wrong. Could sound cool - but there was probably a neater way to get there!

[quote name='jonnythenotes' timestamp='1421594585' post='2663035'] To light a fire, or keep a fire burning, you need 3 things....fuel, heat and oxygen. take one or more away and.....no fire. To make a bass sound good, you need four things. A decent finger or plectrum technique, a bass that suits the style of music you are playing, a reasonable quality amp, and some decent speakers. This is ' the chain' in the order that it happens, and one must drive and support the one that follows it. Many folks think by having one or two of these four requirements they will get the sound they want, and many folks are disappointed that they fall short of this elusive sound. I spent 25 years buying the best gear I could afford at the time, but never really got there, as I was buying for example ' the amp ' without considering how it would sound with the rest of the gear In the overall mix of ' the four .' Buying without thinking things through, can often result in a bass player ending up with a fantastic rig (as individual component parts,) yet it sounds crap as they are not matched to each other. I would always suggest , start at the beginning by asking a few simple questions... Do I use or prefer finger or plectrum.....this has a huge effect on the sound you will create..... Is the bass I am using capable of creating the sound I want....? Not all basses can create that funky sound, and not all are good at bone crunching low end. Amp and cabs are more of a personal choice, but some amps will start to distort and grind at lower pre amp levels, so if mid to highs are what you want, Orange gear might not be the right choice, whereas TC or Markbass might do the trick. The last thing in the chain is the cab. A 15" speaker will rearrange you intestine, whereas 8 or 10 " speakers will take the top off a boiled egg at 100yds. 15s are fantastic at low to mids, and if you stick in a horn they sound brilliant, but they just can't 'snap' back as quick as an 8 or 10 can...... I am not being a know all, or a smart arse.....far from it, as I would not have taken 25 years and spent £1000's on gear I probably didn't need.. All I am trying to say is think thru, and ask advice before you flush your hard earned cash unnecessarily round the 'S' bend... [/quote] Interesting collection of thoughts - I agree with your views on "bottle-necking" in the chain - if the desired tone is a deep tone, and a pickup, preamp, amp, or a speaker driver is rolling off the lows you'll get nowhere near the desired tone. In short it only takes one weak point to let down the whole chain. Where I'm less on board is with the speaker cone ideas - with conventional construction drivers (regular drivers, not guitar or high-excursion ones) you can get a ballpark idea of speaker performance based on diameter - but some of similar sizes will have huge differences in performance at different frequencies . . . once you add in specialty drivers like sub drivers with huge excursion, guitar drivers that can distort a lot without failing, it becomes impossible to know a specific property of a driver or cab knowing only it's diameter. It'll be useful info when combined with things like a detailed datasheet on the driver and the cab dimensions! In all cases I think if it sounds right, it is right - hence if you can find a great 810 or 218 - or 412 - as long as it sounds the way you want (and you can move it!) - it's a good choice.

Hard to say - it could be maple, or a similar pale wood. From the upper horn pic it does look like a the cap wood has been sanded through - but it could be a little knot or other oddity often hidden with a solid colour finish. Cool project - with some work it should be an awesome guitar.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1421529533' post='2662431'] If it's clearly rocking on that one fret and not on the others then yes, it is that specific fret. Double check it's fully seated but, if so, just use your crowning file to bring the highspots down a touch. Andy [/quote] +1 - use a fret rocker - if you don't have a metal one a wooden or plastic one can work just fine (as long as the edges are straight!).

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1421435184' post='2661282'] Hmm, turns out I didn't quite get one of the frets level. It's the 17th or 18th fret. So, my options are to strip it down and do the fret levelling all over again or try and spot-level one fret. Any recommendations on which way to go? It's a 3-4 hour job to do the whole thing and I don't want to file the frets down too many times but neither do I want to mess up by doing a half-arsed job and trying to do just one fret! [/quote] Is it a high fret, a high area on a fret, or a couple of high frets / areas? It may also only appear under string tension... I'd try to just fret rock with and without string tension - then level a high fret carefully (without taking material from other crowns) until it passes the rocker test on all strings. Then a crown, polish, and done

Looking pretty - when it's finished it should look gorgeous...

Looks interesting - thanks! EDIT... Oh dear. He's doing some good work up to step #10... Surely most instrument makers know that the note or fundamental pitch a block of wood makes when struck or dropped is decided largely by volume and density? I know the blocks he was dropping were of differing sizes, and almost certainly varying masses. I'm... pretty sure he's misguided on a lot of the tonewood stuff too.

About the same. More for the Low B on a 5er - more like 2.5 mm, but never over 4 or 5 mm - It'd be hard to play.

Double sided tape + felt should work perfectly. As long as the finish underneath is in good nick - and is a hard polyurethane or polyester, i.e. not nitrocellulose - it should work great. Any art shop will probably have it. I used it to attach a pickguard for a couple of weeks when the holes didn't line up. Worked great, came off easy with a tiny bit of WD40. Also on topic to some extent is the one, the only, white falcon... wait - not that white falcon - this one: Has this on the reverse: which is cool, IMHO.

It is a unique piece - but I'd need to "feel" it to know how it plays. "What on earth!" is an understandable reaction to something quite different...

It's a blatantly weak piece of engineering... there's no way a simple "bent bit of tin" style bridge of ample proportions (a little thicker cast or milled style with grooves for the saddles) would not do better in a wide range of ways. Using a babicz bridge like on the EB bass would be a better idea, the three point design is adding complications that help in no way. That's my understanding. I've never had to live with one for any length of time.

When I hear a fretless bass solo'd - I tend to think of Jazz or Progressive Rock / Metal. Pop, Rock, and every other genre has had a little fretless in it's time - depends on how you use it. To much "mwah" may ruin a song that really just cries out for straightforward clean bass.

[quote name='GloopyJon' timestamp='1420800567' post='2653492'] Thanks for your comments, it's great to hear that people see some value in what I did. The whole point was to provide a different perspective from the CG publicity videos (which is what they are, despite their informal, matey presentation). Some of my samples were played with a pick and some were fingered. I tried playing some slap but I have done very little of it and I'm very bad at it, so it sounded appalling. [/quote] You're extremely welcome. The Chapman & Andertons should be happy with the good feedback. Good luck with the basses. That yamaha should cover a lot of the Jazz and Precision tones - while if you add a cheap preamp to the ML-B you could have all the active options from here to who knows where. Of course the line6 or another pedal could work just as well. . . Enjoy!

[quote name='Sean' timestamp='1420240667' post='2647197'] I got some '74s from Hot Rod for my J&D and they are absolutely fabulous and the service was spot on. The pickups are right up there with Aeros or Fralins and as a bonus they're British. I try to buy British wherever possible and practical; we need to support niche UK businesses that do great quality and offer good service. [/quote] Here here. Support the people that deserve it due to excellent work and service - and produce local product. I have far less options for affordable pickup makers in Ireland. I need to look into that. As it is I've tried [url="http://creamery-pickups.co.uk"]creamery-pickups.co.uk [/url]and they've a great rep. make a mean Jazz pickup. [quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1420242420' post='2647209'] Well I`ve not tried it in a band setting yet, but certainly at home use my impressions are very favourable. It`s doing exactly what I wanted so all good there. [/quote] Great stuff. I may need to try a thumper in the future.

As stainless steel is an iron rich alloy, I always assumed it was highly effected in a magnetic field. Turns out there are some types of SS alloy that are non-magnetic: [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stainless_steel#Electricity_and_magnetism"]https://en.wikipedia...y_and_magnetism[/url] I imagine most stainless steel strings use the magnetic type of SS - as then they will produce the "full" roundwound tone. If the wound wire is non-magnetic it would sound very different. As it is the nickle plated steels, pure nickle wraps, and SS wraps all sound roughly the same. I don't think I can prove this without buying a bunch of strings, getting a magnetic tipped screwdriver*, and pulling the strings apart. I have tried the fender nickel rounds (7150) - at least the light gauge version 100 - 40? I liked them, but they didn't keep their tone for very long. YMMV. * I have one of those somewhere...

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1420749861' post='2653081'] [url="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=678277962292480&set=pcb.678278022292474&type=1&theater"]https://www.facebook...&type=1[/url] Insanity! [/quote] Yowza. I can't help but call that grain "zingy"

Good stuff. Thanks for that. I find your playing more effective at showing the basses character than the Rob Chapman youtube channel demo here: [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0ANzYPhM6M"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0ANzYPhM6M[/url] Partly because you've got more playing time in, but you're playing simple basslines [i]WITH A PICK[/i]. I find it's crucial to demo the pick tone of a bass - especially one with "dark" pickups like humbuckers. Nice touch with the Yamaha - it reaffirmed what i already knew, I love split coil precision style pickups. All in all a straightforward and effective review - very good work. The talking part was a little long, but you did cover the entire instrument, covered some crucial points of confusion, and put your experience with the bass in a clear and concise manner. Bonus points for the adorable doggie!

[quote name='0175westwood29' timestamp='1420760169' post='2653265'] pretty much agree with lozz, the sd, just sound a bit fatter all round, but not muddy. went down the sd route as i cant atm justify the money to try the aguliar pups out and the nordstrand p bass pup is a bit to much money atm. found this video which shows the pickups well [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFasRbajFy4"]https://www.youtube....h?v=lFasRbajFy4[/url] andy [/quote] Thanks for the link - haven't had a careful listen to a quarter pounder in a while. All sounded nice but the Seymour Duncan Antiquity II won it to my ears. I have a set of creamery pickups in my MIM Jazz - made the bass come alive. I'm looking at getting a 60's P pickup in the next while - [url="http://www.creamery-pickups.co.uk/classic-65-precision-p-bass-pickups.html"]http://www.creamery-pickups.co.uk/classic-65-precision-p-bass-pickups.html[/url] We'll have to see what the wallet allows.

You can always have a standard truss rod nut fitted - if you need to remove a fair bit of material to re-thread the truss rod. As it Is, I'd try a tap - but you mightn't get far enough in - hence the special stu mac tool. You might be able to sharpen up the existing threads with a cut down standard tap - essentially making a tool like the one stu mac sells - how well it works depends on the skill of the person using it. The good news is that due to the truss rod using the wheel nut style adjustment - it's way more exposed than the typical "standard" nut type. Chances are it can be saved - but I'd take it to an experienced tech or luthier. What is the bass? If the truss rod needs replacing a new neck might be ideal.

Good choice - bone may not be ideal for all applications or players e.g. a vegan or someone who uses a bass tremolo constantly - But it's gonna work great in almost every situation it's put in.