Mod_Machine

[attachment=69252:P1020595.jpg]
This was the bass before purchase- pics are what i bought it on and a (thankfully accurate and honest) description from seller on basschat. However as the old saying goes 'you get what you pay for'!


The following were the main areas of concern/initial concentration (body wise)

1. Headstock missing tuner (one also bent)
[attachment=69257:P1020596.jpg]

2.damage to underneath corner
[attachment=69258:P1020598.jpg]

3.damage to side corner near strap pin
[attachment=69259:P1020600.jpg]

However he overall plan is as follows
1.strip, fill holes/dinks and repaint in classic 'butterscotch' cream.
2.replace knobs for metal tele style
3.replace all machine heads
4.replace chrome bridge 'cover' for larger version and fit matching string/pickup cover
5.replace jack socket
6.replace 1 (maybe 2 pickups) as one of the small poles was missing from bridge pickupbut any new item would be hidden by pick up cover to maintain period 'flavour'
7.strip and revarnish neck and headstock
8.re-string and set playable action and intonation.

Easy.
But then nothing really ever goes to plan and so if all else fails i have a good bit of firewood or a nice blunt instrument for hitting myself with for wasting money.

Although this project is not being done for re-sale and can therefore allow me with some freedom in what i purchase i have set a limit of £60 to get it up to giggable condition!

Hello,
This is my first rebuild/project and i have no previous experience of anything similar and have no friends who have attempted to restore an old instrument which can be used as a reference point. I am therefore been guided pretty much from one book, the internet and of course this sites friendly members!

The aim of this rebuild is for me to get a better idea of the instrument i actually play and a better understanding of how to upkeep the 'real' bass i have been gigging and recording with (Ibanez Jetking). The hope is to be able to get it back to a condition where it at least offers me a back up should i have a problem with the jetking i cant quickly get sorted.

Even though i have heard nothing other than how horrendous the Jedson telecaster bass is, and even though i know they are approx 35 years old, dont hold their tuning particualrly well AND are pretty much seen as the worst of some of the jap imports i have been totally swayed by the fact its such a rip off of the telecaster shape (my fav of the guitars at the moment). I love all the over the top chrome pickups and strange bridge. the fact that its small scale also means that although my little girl is only 11 months - when she does finally get big enough to want to learn to play - i have something small enough to give her and even more (cheesy i know) it will be something i built with her in mind.

I started lookign for a jedson about christmas and though looked at a few (which im sure you can imagine were in varying states of decay) i settled on one sold through this site by a very good member. Everything was exactly as described, and the seller was very honest and fair so not unhappy!

Photos to follow!

Hi,

Im doing my first resto/project bass with several aims.

Its not a big deluxe thing, just a Jedson Tele style bass, but does represent my first attempt and therefore much of my knowledge is being gathered through reading relevant literature and experience (ie repaint) is coming from other areas of my life (vespa, classic mini ownership)

I was wondering if anyone is interested in me going through the process as i go, even though pretty much heralded as pieces of jap tripe that dont stay in tune?
It would certainly help me out as when i encounter probs it gives some context and im sure there will be lots of input from people stopping me from making usual mistakes.

If so where do i stick it?!!

Mod

Nowt wrong with my jet king (other than i find the back of the neck a little soft)

Sounds good and recorded with it, but concious ive been gigging solidly with it for 18 months, and rehearsing 4 hrs a week etc and have no back up.

Think i kinda just fancy something a little different (although havent seen anyone else gigging a jet king and always get asked about it - in fact the guitarist has just emailed me to say someone has commented on it on youtube!)

I thinks it possibly the same way women think about handbags - would be good to have a choice dependant on mood, approach and outfit!

Oh...i thought that might be the case......(unhappy round yellow head face thing)

Probably best to keep looking at the Italia range then - at least usuable but still with that old 70s japcrap look!

.....now where is that picture of the marranelo and mondial for comparison purposes!

Yep came accross it a couple of days ago. Gutted as really good price and (unsurprisingly sold!)

The link attached in that thread is also great as the very first pic is the cream jedson i want - just dont know why!

There is currently a cream one on ebay which is pick up only from east london and although it has no bids its starting price is £51 ...but i cant say im too impressed as description states 'not a giggin bass' and although i can appreciate some wear and tear in 30+ years the person selling hasnt even bothered to sit the low e string correctly in its saddle on the bridge for the photos so £50+ and then travel to and from london even by train is another £20 and it stops looking so great for what is basically a very old jap starter model!

Its just not the kind of thing i ever thought i would aspire to but think that cream one looks the nuts!

Although i started out on a humble Epiphone EB-0 the band i joined got signed pretty quick and i popped the bridge within a few weeks of giggin!
I got it rebuilt, kept it as my backup (but never touched it!) and got the Ibanez Jetking mainly because it had a retro look that even now people still ask about but originally was trying one of the Indie rickies.
Thing is i gave the back up away (i dont think it was worth that much anyway!) and although i love my jetking its had a rough 18 months and im taken with the idea of a cream Italia Mondial and then moving my jet king to back up.
Problem is just had a baby and cant really afford a brand new one at around £350 (so if anyone out there selling second hand let me know
BUT as you can tell i seem to be taken more with the looks of the bass rather than weighting, speed or particular sound (although i actually found the EB-0 to 'booming)

So while trawling the internet looking for second hand italia mondial ive come across the cream Jedson telecaster bass copies and now seem really taken with the idea of a £50 quid piece of japcrap that i can nurture slowly to some sort of health....Thing is i KNOW from reading reviews all over the place that these things are electronically tempremental, NOT collectable in the slightest and probably not gig appropriate!

So whats wrong with me..why do i want one and are they really so terrible-or are they a good building block for someone who wants a 70's style bass that would provide a board to learn some basic bass maintanance skills on?

I want! Bit on the expensive side for me-anyone know any good, well priced copies?

That's pretty much it? I saw the vid last night and only got a quick glimpse of the bass being played by Noel. Im not even an oasis fan so not after that particular sound- just wonder what bass it was and cant find the info on google. Any help much appreciated!

Cheers
Mod_Machine

Ok chill! You had a couple of bad experiences, we didnt!

I never meant to imply anyone else who has played there is a 'newbie to the gigging' scene or that their opinion is wrong - purely felt it an important comment to make about us and us alone.

Im sorry you have had such a wretched time playing at Water rats, and that your pay was also so poor though im sure you will agree that there are plenty of bands out there who would play the venue for free just for the experience and if it was that bad the first time - why return? or even accept to do an extended slot?

The opinion i have given was purely meant to try and balance out the negative reviews the place seems to have got as in my experience us musicians appear to be more than happy to highlight the bad but rarely acknowledge the good.

Hello,
Wow - thats alot of bad feedback about the place!

We played there in December suppoorting The Maybes? on their album support tour.

I agree with several things.....
1. ts cold
2.Its toilets resemble THAT scene from Trainspotting
3.Told we were one of four bands - got there and we were one of seven - but we retained out place in the line up.

HOWEVER.....

The sound onstage (and for the crowd) was fantastic, the crowd were amazing, the photos from the night were brilliant due to the lighting rig and the atmosphere was genius-was one of our best gigs (til we played the redstripe regional final last week)!

HOWEVER (part2)
we did bring our own amps (a 100w marshall for the guitarist and a 200w ashdown for me) for on stage and it does make all the difference.
We promoted it in our local area - thus guarnateeing we had a relatively good sized crowd additional to anything else brought in by the other bands/promoters
DONT expect to get paid much!!!!

Although only recently signed, as individuals we are not aa bunch of 'newbies' to the giggin scene either so im pretty sure our 'good experience' wasnt down to lack of a good basis for comparison!

We (kilto take) have just finished our EP for Medical Records and play at Bedford Esquires on Friday 30th January as part of the Red Stripe Music Awards.

Havent been properly gigging for nearly a month (we headlined Club NME hitchin last week but that was more like fun than a gig!) due to mixing and members illness so this is a nice warm up before support slots for Sergeant and Red Light Company.

Visit www.myspace.com/kiltotake to listen to the EP, and if you like what you hear come and show your love on friday where the label will be throwing out a few 'limited' edition versions.

many thanks

Mod

Ok,
Has anyone played with the Behringer bsy600 base synth pedal. From what ive been told its a direct copy of the Boss SYB5 but with a bit better tracking - the reason i ask is it offers the op of holding the synth sound using your foot and being able to play over it with your unaffected bass tone.
Again im after some of those retro dance new wave synthesizer sounds (as un bass like as you can get) for intro's and to fill up air in middle eights, outros etc.
For those that have heard the firts track off Bloc Partys new album 'intimacy' i really like the buzzsaw style effect on his guitar and although not after anything exactly like that, i defo want somethin to provide those slightly different old skool dance sounds...but also on a budget as may only ever use it a couple of times, and without it always being so over the top it sounds like an alien regurgitating a half eaten Chicken vindaloo.

Looking for something to give some retro 80s style synth, and experimental dance (ish) noises/ sounds that can be used for intros, middle eights etc.

If that makes any sense!!!

Im referring to Bass specific pedals (always!)

Cool cheers - ive only been able to find the subdecay for about £120 which if i was spending that much i would go for the electro harmonix micro synth at a few pounds more as love electro harmonix gear. Plus previous probs with ordering direct from america mean ill only do it through a UK co.

What about the DIGITECH SYNTH WAH?

Hello,
any experiences of this Ibanez syth pedal - or am i better with the digitech synth wah (is wah constant?).
Some people rate the really cheap Behringer Bass synth bsy600 - others despise it.
Please dont recommend the Akai deep impact, or e/h micro synth as wish for something half decent but less than £100!

Ahh....i see.
The limitations i encounter are more likely to be self imposed - im brand new to this whole bass effects thing, as per some of my other threads and originally hoping to get the desired 'thickening up' from my Hartke Bass attack pedal - but unfortunately the distortion you get from that, though warm, is really not enough and because of the fact that each foot switch builds on the last i couldnt switch it on and off without the volume going all over the place.
Like you say at £50 it sounds like good value - and i didnt even pay near that including postage and packaging (i was owed a favour due to a delivery fault by a reputable company - god bless em!) so even i only ever use it for one song live - ill be happy!

[i]who knows, this could be a green muff reissue after all![/i]

??? excuse my stupidity...but what do you mean?

Hi,
Ive just ordered one of these, should be with me next week if im lucky!
The reviews ive read for it say that it the best of the 'big muffs' for the bass and terrific value for money however if you already own one of the previous muffs it doesnt show of an improvement/change to warrant buying this one.

It should prove ideal for me though. For example we did a gig last night at Esquires in Bedford supportign Capital and thought it would be a good venue to try out using some distortion on the verse of one of our songs to thicken it up a bit and then go back to my standard bass sound for the bridge and chorus - these are more intricate bass riffs and runs so thicken up the song well anyway, but the verse was so simple it just lost something.
Although it worked really well i was using a Danelectro retro guitar fuzz box and the only way we were able to get enough bass on the fuzz box without ruining the sound when back in standard was to have the engineer wack up the volume each time the dist pedal was on (top marks to emily at esquires for doing this) It worked but obviously not ideal, and something the big muff shoud overcome well from what ive read.

Ill let everyone know what i think once i use it (shoud be next thursday as headlining the luton summer festival that night so a perfect opportunity to try it out before we hit the studio)

There you go...does anyone use any guitar fuzz/overdrive pedals for their bass?
If not what are the reasons for it?

I only ask as interested and use a danelectro vintage overdrive pedal with my ibanez jet king every now and then-HOWEVER only at really low volume on a practice amp when bored.

I also have the hartke bass attack pedal which allows you to lob the 'tube emulator' up to a distortion level...but looses a lot of clarity when ive done it in reheasal spaces, where as the guiitar dist pedal seems to keep that more defined trebly sound.

what about everyone else experiences with using guitar effects pedals with their bass?

its definately getting there!
Kilto take had only played 8 gigs when we were asked to sign to the management company. We currently have the contract for them and are only just going over that.
Things a moving pretty quick for us as in the space of a month we have gone from playing as a support band, to having our music on local radio, then on national radio, then headlining the bbc gig, with the band we were previously supporting opening the event, to being offered a management deal, and now the record deal aswell. mayhem!

Its true...i appear to be one of a rare thing....an appreciated bass player!

As we were headlining the bbc gig last nite, i showed up early and played around a bit with the eq settings, shape setting etc before the rest of the band arrive for sound check. I finally got something that was the happiest ive been..ever! I backed the compression back to about 5 (been playing with it at 10 coz i thought it just made the amp louder!!!???)
It was commented on by people how much more clarity the bass had during some of my runs so i was well chuffed.
We had an absolute killer gig too which topped off the night and someone even got some vid footage on a mobile of a new song. I played it back this morning through my stereo and was happy even with the clarity on that even though only on a mobile! Of course i was also running into the PA through the Hartke Di pedal so the sound engineer in the venue had done an absolutely sterling job.
The record label who want to sign us were there as well and are desperate to get us in a studio ASAP so all in all a good night!

Cheers for all the help - good idea about the pc.....will also give that a go.

Mod

Cheers, will try later.
Dlloyd : Its for live with the band(kilto take). Its difficult to get a true representation of the sound at home because once i wack up the master volume the whole sound seems to change.
Ill try a few things out tonight during the sound check as the band are headlining the BBC introducing....beds,herts and bucks tonight, especially as i will be using the amp more as a kick back bass monitor.

And the scratchy sound is the string, fingers,nail scraping etc. Ill back off the compression and see what occurs.

Sweet - you guys truly are the don...you have no idea how much help this is proving.
Ok assuming i now have a more mid range sound (which i have), in order to provide it a little bite im having to use the second channel. This means that the 'shape' knob comes into play..Not too bad as i can use this on top of the eq settings to indivdulize my sound a little. although any hiss is easily removed with one of the EQ sliders, can anyone advise which sliders i use and in which way to remove some of the snap and scratch i seem to be picking up - the amp compression is set at about 8 - is this impacting on it, and am i thus better getting a compression pedal and ignoring the one 'in amp'?