Chiliwailer

On 10/12/2019 at 20:46, Chiliwailer said:

I’m in  

Only went out last year as I downsized my pedals for a Helix Stomp and cashed in - the irony. 

Was chuffed not to buy a bass in 2019, and ended the year very happy with just my StingRay Special HH. I thought 2020 would be the same. 

But actually 2020 was the year of correcting mistakes... I was seriously lucky to be able to buy back my Lull PJ4 and my Old Smoothie StingRay. The Lull was stupidly sold due to getting back a 66P i once owned (and then sold again) and the Smoothie as we really needed the cash in a minor crisis - that bass has sentimental value too so I’m really pleased i just got it back today. 

I also corrected the mistake of selling my Modulus Flea by getting another, and got a Bravewood Jazz. 

Definitely joining the 2021 abstinence thread with high hopes and financial motivation 😚

Really pleased to have bought back a bass I regretted selling to Mark - always a pleasure messaging and dealing with him.

Cheers Mark 👍

Photos added bump 

1 hour ago, Beedster said:

Agreed Dan, but should't the process be to start with the obvious issue, saddles, and work from there, as opposed to starting with one that is not obvious. OK saddles might be so high because the rod is too tight, but if it's not visibly the case, that's an assumption? 

I’m an old dog Chris - I always start with the rod so I know where I’m at  🤣

9 minutes ago, Beedster said:

OP says saddles are as high as they can go but no mention of relief issues, why would anyone start with truss rod in that situation? Might just be that previous owner, like me, mikes saddles high? 

Perhaps only in extreme cases where the rod is too tight. At least with the rod set, you’ll know if you need to shim the neck - though that can be fairly obvious anyway...

Lol, unlike both above I do truss, saddle and then nut. 

Doing the truss first stops you having to readjust the saddles. The nut last means you can have a second way to gauge how much you need to file (by pushing down the string at the 1st fret and seeing the ‘drop’ of the string). 

Each to their own of course 😃

Buy now, think later - nice 😁

Sure that‘ll be a a cracker 👍

That looks incredible. I really wasn’t keen on the CS P Bass that has this colour, but on the Jazz it looks perfect - loving the tasteful and well executed relicing too. 

Nice one for having the insight on this one 👍

1 hour ago, BreadBin said:

Weren't the OLP versions actually licensed copies?

Yeah, stood for Official Licensed Product. Great budget basses - but I think the only active one was the Levin 5 String. 

These should do the trick 

https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/strings-c1/string-sets-c865/classical-guitar-c288/daddario-ej27n-student-classical-normal-tension-3-4-size-guitar-strings-p22

Those guitars often come with a high nut and saddle, so if you’ve not checked that out already I’d do so ASAP. Hopefully the neck is ok too. 

Could always tune down half a step too, for less tension. 

I think the new Stingray Special basses have ticked the box regarding ‘improvements’ on the original. 

I still love the old Rays, but like my Lull P Bass has improved on Fender ergonomics, the Ray Special has upgraded the preamp, pup, hardware, ergonomics and weight - so quite a lot really. 

Regardless of model, only a Ray does a Ray IMO. 

Cor that’s a good score! Love that period 👍

Chromes have transformed my Ray, even though I stopped using them on P’s & J’s. Nice one. 
 

25 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Probably a wrong choice of words. I think you (I thought it was you anyway 😂) mentioned that it’s what some guitar shop employees may have done back in the day i.e. a little nudge to bring back in line. Apologies if it wasn’t you old chap x

Nah - it was just the big ego customers that needed a ‘little nudge to bring back in line’ 🤣

5 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

 I was advised that the long standing method of dealing with Fender’s that suffered from this was to give the neck a good whack and 99 times out of 100, everything would come back into line. I believe @Chiliwailer may have pointed this out. I didn’t actually do that. I took the strings and neck off and reassembled - problem solved. Same method, just less violent 😂

Lol, no, not me advising you to whack the neck! Try that with a late 70’s Fender and you’ll be on the wrong end of that fight... 😂

But taking it off and attempting to realign, yes 👍 

34 minutes ago, Beedster said:

OK, does anyone here speak Nordstrand, i think I need an interpreter

Must be the ‘potted for twenty minutes in a parrafin-beeswax mix’ effect... 🤪

Great colour 👍

This website is vey impressive https://www.guitar-list.com/logos/M

looks most like Marconi Lab - but it isn’t that (if it even is a M) 

1 minute ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Paging @AndyTravis & @Chiliwailer....

Not seen that before that I recall. Seeing the rest of the bass might help out the Jap experts on BC - it may be a generic bass with a distributors badging? That’s a long shot...

Sometimes if it was a bass I really liked, then because the money spent is later needed elsewhere and I couldn’t really afford it in the first place. 

Other times, just GAS shenanigans. 

I’d like to think that since last year my buying habits (guitar & bass) and financial situation has changed. Whereas before I kept going full circle, I now see bought as new keepers - aside from a Modulus FB4 I bought for fun recently, which may not last the distance tbh, but I always knew that when I got it. 

18 hours ago, GuyR said:

Will the Harrisons open a museum of counterfeit and stolen vintage guitars there?

Lol 😂 

7 hours ago, iamtheelvy said:

http://www.east-uk.com/pdf/jtone01.pdf
 

The east diagram has a Ground connection and a Cold/Ground connection.

I’ll go into more detail - the East diagram isn’t for a 3 wire HC pickup. So when I wired mine, I put the hot wire for each pickup into the designated terminal, and joined the other two wires to go into the other terminal, for each pickup.  

Then, the single ground terminal on the east (at the other end of the control plate) had the wire from the bridge and an extra one my control cavity had attached to a screw, for extra grounding (a vintage bass might have a control cavity plate, or some basses just the bridge wire).   

The key thing about that East diagram you linked is that the two terminals for the pickups, specifically state from pickups. So all pickup wires go there. 

Because the East terminals are really made for just one wire, you may want to join the two wires to a new single wire, and put that into the East terminal. At a push you can join the two and squeeze it in - though  t’s a bit tight and may create stress on the terminal. 

Good luck, if I recall correctly it’s more simple than it seems 👍

The ground, btw, is not from the pickups (I mean the ground input labelled on the East). 

15 minutes ago, iamtheelvy said:

Yeah, that’s the diagram that came with the pickups. Fine for a usual wiring setup, but doesn’t quite match the East wiring diagram for the J-Tone...

But isn’t the East just one connection for earth, and one for the signal? I’d put the earths together and off you go. (For each separate pickup).

2 hours ago, iamtheelvy said:

Decided to give the J-Tone a go (too many bells and whistles on the J-Retro for me...). Just a question about wiring - I’m pairing up with some Aguilar 4J-HC pickups which have 3 wires each - white, grey and black, and yellow, grey and black.

Am I right in assuming white/yellow is the hot signal, grey the cold and black needs to go to ground? 

I found a wiring diagram - shows two earths and one for signal. Hope that helps. 

Also, just to say I had a J-Tone with some Fralin HC pickups, unfortunately the J-Tone couldn’t handle the output and was clipping. I spoke to John East, he was baffled too. I had to sell it. Hopefully it’ll be better with the Aguilars.