Woodinblack

So I was missing all the bit about the preamp. Simple way to follow what is going on, I am guessing the electronics are in the back and the bass is together with the strings on? if you ignore the preamp (take the battery out), ground the outside of a jack plug plugged into an amp (remember to turn it down), so the outside barrel touches ground, you should be able to touch the tip to where the red wire connects on the blend and get the sound of the bass. If you don't get that there is nothing you are going to get from the preamp. Judging by the look of that kit, I assume it has everything you need once you get past the input. Also when you say yours has a long barrel jack - was it active before this as there are a lot of barrel jacks you get that have 3 pins but aren't trs sockets (confused myself with that one before). It has to be a TRS socket or the switching wont work (on the plus side it will be always on, so at least it will work for a bit)!

Well, thats ok, although if you have another pickup (unless it is the same type wired the same) it will be out of phase.. I was confused as you showed that Warman pickup diagram, which show that green and red were one side, which you shorted together and black and white were the other phase which were also shorted, whereas the other diagram seems to show kent armstrong which have different wiring. So what pickups are they? I assume not those warman. Have you buzzed out and made sure there is a connection between white and (one of green or red) and then (one of green or red) and black? Also you should be able to buzz out between the Red output and the earth on that bass and have a value with the knob fully towards that pickup which is 1 / (1/(resistance of pot) + 1/(total resistance of your pickup))

You are right:

you did, if only I had waited before ordering!

It says in the pickup description "Black is pre - soldered to earth wire". Black is the earth, white is the output. If you tie the white to earth you have shorted out the whole pickup, you wont' get anything at all. Seemed odd when you said black was output, black is almost always earthed.

Pretty close to the Bass VI tuning

Ooh thanks, I will get some of those then

Needs to be something like this - assuming if that wire is earth, and the red wire is out.

OK, now I was going to try to get some flats, but they are so expensive. Normally I don't mind but every experience I have had with flats has had me running back to rounds. But I thought this probably is something it would work with, so maybe some chromes would work? But the wrong side of £40 or having to shop with Amazon, nether of which I am particularly keen on. Seems if you get long scale they are cheap, but am I right in thinking I need medium? I suppose i have my last set of 5 string chromes, maybe I can just trim those down.

I didn't even know that Paul Simon played the bass!

Yes. A blend pot is effectively two volumes in reverse

They are not linear pots, they are log, and they have always been. you won't find a 690 resistor, as it's not a series value, you will find a 680 though which is what you need. I almost certainly have one if you want one

2.5k log pots would be the right ones to use, so I suspect as they sent you that value (which would be unusual in any other bass) it is the correct type. There is a capacitor and resistor wired directly across the terminals of the volume, I assume if you replaced the pot these are back in place?

Certainly possible, I am guessing there isn't a big enough market of people who think it is a problem. I kind of like the offset thing, especially on an offset bass Or you could get a 6 string P pickup and just have it sticking out at the end, would that be better?

Hardly! Take off and nuke the site from orbit, its the only way to be sure.

Hang out outside for a few minutes and listen to see if they are playing wonderwall!

Its just the Dog and Ducks near Ubits area, all the other ones are fine!

I like it quite a lot. The strings are a bit looser than I would like, it is head heavy as hell, the neck is quite thick, the knobs and controls are cheap (so cheap that the tone control wiring actually came off the pot), the J hums a bit with any interference. But apart from all that, it sounds great, its fun to play I kind of like the look, it is solidly built (wiring aside) and it costs next to nothing! of all that, I will replace the pots and knobs, and it would be nice if something could be done about the neck dive, but the rest isn't an issue

Well, about a year after ordering one and cancelling it as it was going to take a long time, I hadn't got round to reordering. In fact I wasn't going to reorder as I got a 5 string Talman short scale bass, so all taken. Then a surf green one popped up locally for £250, new condition. I thought about offering less, but I didn't. Then a week later it went to 225, so what the hell, so yesterday I went there and picked it up. It really is as new, it had the stickers and the tag on the neck and not a mark on it. I have had older looking new ones (so new my wife made me look in up as she was convinced it was nicked, but he was a guitarist). Played it a fair bit last night, its a fun thing, plays well. It doesn't have some of the loose ends that I have read about in places, like the bad neck heel. The only real complaint is that the pickup seems a bit microphonic. I have a feeling something like flats would be good for it, and of course a perloid pickguard!

Makes sense.

Thats what I like to hear!

So for your enjoyment you go into a pub to play songs you don't like for people, or is this a job? Because if that was my only option then I would just get together with some mates and play songs I wanted and do free gigs without charging. What I find increadable is that according to this thread, where several posters live apparently even though we have had 70 years of Pop music charts, which must be many thousands of songs, there aren't 30 songs people can find to play that people would enjoy without playing oasis. Strangely, my band, and the band before it, and the band we are putting together at the moment (the last two not by my choice) manage to fit into this most rare 'don't play any oasis numbers' niche. And somehow we get invited back month after month. I am so glad I don't live in your areas where bands are only allowed in if they are playing certain songs. Luckily in my area, the cover bands can all do different popular songs, so have some kind of individuality. I am sure some of them do oasis (well, they must, there is an oasis tribute band around here) although I can only think of one that I have seen that did. I guess this is a very niche area.

Yes, thats whats good. So we tend to put a ska twist on things, so we do Timber (pitbul / ke$ha), but do it as a ska song. Our brown eyed girls that we do is also ska'd. I don't mind playing anything if it is fun to do

In my last group, the guitarist would do a couple of his own acoustic songs as the start to the second half, so we would sit it out until it was over