SparkBird

Bren , hang on , am i missing something ? In the series/parallel diagram there is only one output , there are no vol pots or dual between the pickups and series switch . So he could only have a series switch , master vol and no control over individual pickup volumes . In the jazz diagram he can blend pickups but , if he has the series switch before the dual ... well he can't blend as there is only one output from the series switch to the blend and he can't put series after blend because theres only one output from the blend . I think he's maybe obliged to have two volumes between picks and series switch isn't he ? and i'm not even sure he can do that . No .... Its been a long day i'm tired ,maybe i'm missing something obvious , but i've no time tonight, i can't force my poor head round this instantly, i have to eat and go play so ... what do you think ?

Graham, yeh i guessed they'd be 500k makes more sense . You don't need cermet . To keep the knobs , you need to know the diametre of the hole the pot shaft goes into . Or pack them or drill if they turn out to be too small/big . But best get it right one , no ? You need to know the length of the shaft , cos too short would be a proper bugger . You need to know the diameter of the pot case to make sure theres space for whtever you buy . 16mm or 24mm normally . Finally i'll send you a link for how to wire it up , its simple really. IF you have problem i can help . Do you really want blend instead of two volumes (I'll have to think about that too tired right now) .,two vols is more versatlie anyway but..... Anyway if you do , you need a dual 500k 'blend' pot . i'll get to where you can buy it all later , depending on what you want to do. And a cheaper option than the fender S-1 ( i don't know off hand if they are available as 500k ) is the master vol push pull or easier still , at least for me , is a push on , push off ( not S1). i'll get to where you can buy it all later depending ....

I might be abvle to help you Graham but first ; As i remember the emgs in the Jack were passive but with an active circuit .Thats suggested in the diagram as well because there is no battery power to the pickups. The more common 'expensive' EMGs are just about the only active pickup opn the market , that is they have a preamp inside each pickup . An active tone bass or guitar is almost always a passive pickup with an active tone circuit , not the same thing . Anyway if they are passive then the pots will probably be 250k or 500k , I'll guess 500k . I need to know that , have a look, it should be marked somewhere on the pots . Once i know that i'll tell you the available options that i know of .

Check the resisitor too while you're in there . I'd do a search for GE-7B schematic , i would imagine any boss pedal schem that works as yours does will do , that'll give you the values and be gentle with that soldering iron ;-).

[quote name='Greggo' timestamp='1381439869' post='2239283'] Stupid question but how exactly does a truss rod work in the sense that tightening it bends the rod upwards? Is it the pressure of the nut against the rod that forces it to bend upwards? [/quote] Its not a stupid question , its a good question . Ther are several different styles of truss rod . some have one rod , some have two . Fender to my knowledge nearly always has one , but there have been to be some exceptions i think . Fender guitar bass truss rod action :- imagine the guitar is lying on the table fret side up, squat down chin on the table and look at the neck from the side , eg head left, butt end right. If you had x ray eyes you'd see the trussrod ends lying a little under the nut and similarly just under the board at the butt end and running between these two points curved, down between those two ends to within a few mm's from the back of the neck . Its lowest/deepest point being under the 7th fret . So now when you tighten the screw nut ( which can't go in , its blocked off), the rod is pulled into the screw nut , but because the rods fixed at the other end and can't move the rod tries to straighten up . That pushes/straightens up the rod at bottom of the curve under the 7th fret and pulls the neck at the headstock back wards or down towards the table . Loosen the nut and the strings will normally pull the neck forward or upwards away from the table . A little secret why fenders have the butt end hump or slope is because, well i'm convinced at least (i'd be happy for someone to con vince me otherwise), is because all the string pressure acts as a lever on the neck , so the most leverage is at the point where the neck gets thicker (more rigid) +-13th fret and joins the body [b][u]BUT[/u][/b] , the truss rod doesn't really have thet much influence there, so it allows the neck to bend around the 13th causing that hump/slope up from the 12th to the last fret . Thats why to sight/read the neck you'll nearly always read " press string down at frets 1 and 12 and look for a little gap a round 7 " becuse 1 to 12 is the area the truss rod will have the most markable effect , what comes after that you're stuck with . It is possible to over tighten the truss to have a hump at the 7th fret ,back bow and a s**t load of buzzing in the first few frets to the 7th. But if you pressed the strings down at the 1st and last frets you could still see a gap at the seventh because of the slope up at the butt end lifting the strings up off the frets . Confused ? sorry its complicated to explain ..... i don't think i'll ever do it again , i need a beer. Anyway; hence the modern two rod design which more evenly applies pressure along the length of the neck , but thats another story .

The only time i've not been able to fix something is when the owner didn't want to pay. At worst when a head is off in pieces and blathered with epoxy in a botched diy repair i've cut it off just after the nut , taken the board off and jointed a new head on under the board area, before putting the board back on , not cheap , but noone had to chuck it in the bin . Sometimes when someone owns a 'cheap' guitar and he wants a cheap repair . Unfortunately guitar's value doesn't dictate how long the job takes . If its a straight forward job it should n't cost too much . I honestly believe the best advice you could give him is ,not to keep opening and closing the joint to have look , he''l just end up making it more difficult to repair and he should to take it to a luthier for a quote before buying the glue , he might be pleasantly surprised at the cost of the repair . Tbh if he had woodworking experience i don't think he'd be asking for glue advice .

TRy this to try tones out quickly. Get several cap values . disconnect the cap , noting where it connected . Attach (solder or even crocodile clip) a cable to each of points noted A/B several different values .1 to .015 to find the one you like . There really isn't a right one, only ones you do or don't like . I would disagree with the that the material the cap is made of doesn't make a difference to the sound , i can hear it in blind tests in amps and guitars, never tried it on bass though . But i've got to admit whole the thing is cork sniffing , you end up peering up your own arse . Even on a guitar i only hear the difference straining my ears in a dark room (which is silly really) or the studio . Trying values is a valuable excercise though . Oh and on the 'vintage' 'replica' pio caps , watch out , a lot are vintage in appearence only , not inside .

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1381596035' post='2241224'] I've got a quarter sawn Warmoth neck which has graphite stiffeners in it. But I'm glad I paid the up-charge for the added snake oil. [/quote] Yeh you're right why not ? i wouldn't say its snake oil its an insurance which helps . I prefer graphite in all my necks btw for all the reasons you give .

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1381595380' post='2241216'] May I ask, how does refretting a neck affect its' rigidity? Surely the rigidity of the actual wood is unchanged ? Am I missing something here ( quite possible) ? [/quote] You're right of course that the rigidity of the wood that doesn't have frets in it is unchanged . I don't know how to explain simply , so I'll put it this way ; A bass is built by someone somewhere , the fret tang was well matched to the fret slots ie not to tight and not too loose , the woods are being helpful by nto twisting or whatever , the neck is straight and bows a little/perfectly (assuming you want bow ) under string tension to form the curve and action you want , hardly any fret levelling to do and of it goes . Then one day it needs a refret and the new fret tangs are not well matched to the slots and theres a miniscule amount of room in there in every slot . String it up, the strings pull the neck forward to where it was before the refret and find a little more room for manouvre so they keep pulling the neck forward until the room is gone . Now you've got a neck with more bow than before the refret , so its got to be less rigid . In an extreme case it can't be straightened out enough to get a good action without curves and buzzes and in my opinion this loss of rigidity will change the response of the instrument . For me when refretting a neck i know if i get this rigidity issue right i will maintain or very often improve the definition of notes . Might sound like a load a blah blah BS , but i've done it so many times now that i'm happy to call it a fact for me personally . The many things that make an instrument exceptional are in the last i dunno 2%? of its variables hard to measure or prove thats what makes it seem so 'mojo' ... how i hate mojo . BTW Theres a technique called compression fretting with which you gently force a slightly too wide tang into a slot to render it more rigid . This is useful for necks that are for whatever reason have curves 'hills and valleys' along their length or a badly bowed and you don't want to or can't take any wood off the board to straighten it , ie a 60's veneer board fender . Conversely a neck with a bad back bow might be refretted 'loosely' to alow to come forward a little at certain points along its length . I'm not saying things have to be done this way or not , you'd be amazed by how many different ways luthiers approach this ... all that matters is , it works and is maintainable the next time it has surgery .

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1381584610' post='2240977'] Not at all it's refreshing to hear from experience rather than repeated rhetoric. [/quote] Well thanks , i want be helpful , not a knowitall knobend . BTW [font=tahoma, geneva, sans-serif], lmao -- "The worst thing about quotes found on the internet is you never really know if they are true or not." - Jimi Hendrix [/font]

Oh and if wood wants to move it doesn't ask itself " am i allowed, am i QS" it just goes " wahoo i'm going this way buddy boy" One of the three worst bowed necks i've ever seen was a single piece QS on a name brand .

Hi , I've been building , not every day, basses and guitars for 34 years , doesn't mean i know everything or i think i know everything. As i've, erm , progressed in years i see more variables and complexion in eveything .... but .... My experiences lead me to believe that its rigidity that counts , not whether its QS or FS , but yes Qs would normally be more rigid but , not necessarily ... What i mean by that is wood grows on trees and even within one plank there can be more or less rigid sections . What am i blabbing about ? 2 jazz basses, both mine so i know them, one 64 with a great rigid and straight neck and one 69/70 with a badly refretted neck which made it too flexible and left it a little bowed . The 69 bass lacked definition in the all important low and low mid frequencies . The 64 particularly well defined low and low mids tone . Swapped the necks over , the poorly defined tone followed the neck . Reshot the 69 fretboard and refretted it , now its nicely rigid with a vastly improved tone . So i'm not comparing two same spce QS and FS necks. Well ok but thats not that easy, the vast majority of bolt ons are FS , really i've hardly seen any QS boltons . Qs or part Qs necks are usually multi laminate . So if you took a thick enough plank of decent quality eg maple you could cut two necks from it, one QS and one FS . The QS might very well be more rigid than the FS , might not , nature is fickle like that. And then using one body and pickup to A/B them ; i think some of us might hear a tonal difference , most likely in the definition department, it might even be glaring , but i doubt one neck wouldn necessarily sound 'better' that the other just different . That would just bring me back to my point about rigidty and definition in the lower register . Finally something i'm sure about , even when you get a set of the woods ideal, perfect in every way to build the instrument with the tone your looking for . Nature can has the last word , it might not turn out as good as you expected. Luthiers use experience to choose , but in the end its just [u]more or less educated guess work[/u] . Most won't tell you that , you'll get all the blah blah about how he does this or that and the wood is this and that, but there are good and bad surpises all the time . All he's really doing is greatly lessening the possibilty of a bad instrument , great ones are a bonus. That goes even more so for electric instruments because , there is no soundboard and bracing to tweek as there is with an acoustic . So unless i'm missing the point , to answer to your question " However I'm interested to know if anyone has achieved a firm and proven opinion? " I doubt it very much doubt it . Everything you'll evey read or be told can be turned on its head by a bass that has all the wrong woods and sounds great , just listen and trust your ears , in my experience thats all that counts . Good luck . sorry does that read a little condescending ? not meant to be just trying to be helpful , i'm not much of a writer .

Haha , why did it take soo long ???? Erm whats a barefeced 69'er ? I had a V4b with an old Hiwat 4 x 12 cab about five years ago for a about a year , but had a brainstorm cos i had too much gear ( guitars nd amps too), so i sold it , dumb ,dumb dumb .

I'm about the same age as you Thumper and maybe i've followed a vaguely similar route . Early on at 15 years old a Selmer TnB 50w you remember them ? (lovely little amp) paid a pair of old Levis and £10 for it haha , Marshall 100w, then Hiwatt , both with 4X12 cabs ,great thumping sounds but the cabs couldn't take the punishment and then a marshal 2X15 worst thing i ever owned i still hate 15's . So on to Yamaha 500w power amp (very heavy) and PB-1 good parametrics and in 1992 ish SWR SM400 and 2 4X10's Golliaths , still using them . Now want to go back to 100W valve head V4B or something because i still love the FAT valve sound . My point, there was a time when i wanted to play everything from Bootsy , to Jaco, to Marcus Miller and the newer hybrid amps could cover that with whistles and bells , but now i just want Thump again , with defintion , but thump . Been using my 63 Pbass with flats and even rolling the treble off on the bass, even guitarists are loving the sound . Am i getting old , or coming to my senses ?