adriansmith247

The current spacing is 17mm and is at the limit of the roller adjustment on the bridge. It is very easy to play When I got the bass over 25 years ago the previous owner had stripped the body and painted it purple. With purple paint and varnish! I stripped it and finished with a dark oak furniture varnish. On reflection that wasn’t the best idea but it was cheap and it looks ok. I wanted it to look like a Wal bass. I think a pro finish would make all the difference to this bass as I think it is a real classic and probably sought after. Sunburst could be the way to go but I am not sure. Still debating it

Just that he had never noticed any reduction in volume on the E. Get the string adjusted over the pickup and adjust the pu height until everything sounds good. To be honest, I have only been using the bass for unamplified noodling for years, only taking to gigs when I could squeeze it in somewhere. I mostly play double bass. The strings I had on there sounded great apart from the low E, which I didn't really realise for some reason. Also, I was trying to set this bass up with 19mm spacing, which was too wide Now I am debating getting the body refinished by Doug, which would improve the looks a lot.

I have been in touch with Doug Wilkes. He confirmed that the bass is all original and suggested a few thing to help with the setup. Here it is with original Schaller pickup and TI flats fitted. Sounds and plays beautifully now

@rmorris - what strings? a basic question that I thought would not be an issue. I just did a quick search on another popular bass forum and have found that the Pyramid Gold flats are known to have a dead sounding E string. This may explain a few things, and certainly won't be helping. I'll pop on an old set of TI Flats to see what happens

Moon bass alpha - it is a passive bass with a coil tap switch and an additional piezoelectric pickup. Nice range of tones

rmorris. Thanks for the feedback. I have tried a few string types over the years. These are Pyramid flats. They are old, so a new set may improve things. The volume difference is only minor and I am getting good results by moving the string over the pole piece more. The metal bits are pretty cool looking I think. I have never, and would never slap this bass, but I assume that is their purpose. There is also a piezo pu underneath the heal of the neck to help with the percussive sound. A lovely bass all round. I don't think it is meant to be thwacked, so playing it softly seems to work really well. Lots of mwahhh! I have just refitted the original Schaller pickup and the overall output level is huge in comparison to the Shadow. This is one powerful pickup Bassbod, thanks for the pu tip. I may try one of those MM pickups at some point if one comes up. The roller bridge adjustment is useful, although I am now getting less than 19mm spacing. It works out but I may try a wider pickup in future, if I don't have to hack around too much to fit it. Moving the string over does make a difference, as does plucking downwards with my thumb.