NancyJohnson

17 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

We all know front-people see themselves as the be all and end all of the band. 
 

So my question: do you treat them differently to other band members? Are your comments and criticisms tempered by the knowledge that they are likely to be more sensitive than the average musician? Or do you treat everyone the same?

Christ.

From recent experience, singer wasn't really a musician in the true sense and that made things a tad difficult.  Tried to treat him as an equal musically but genuinely believe that he found it difficult to take in things we were trying to convey, so he became less of an equal in a musical sense.  He didn't really seem to be interested in anything that wasn't part of his agenda or his vision.  He effectively lost his whole band (including me) over a five/six week period.

With my old band we were encouraged to 'dress smart'.  It's odd when you actually receive a PowerPoint presentation about band image before you've even played a note with them.  While - as my wife says - I might scrub up well, I do not have model proportions; I'm 6'4" and suffer my mother's English Rose thighs and arrse...no amount of grooming is going to turn me into George Clooney.  I bought a nicely tailored black jacket before the first gig and was sweating so much in it while we played that it became restrictive and I could barely move move my arms, so that didn't get worn again.

I'm way happier gigging in black trousers (I hate blue jeans, but am OK with black jeans), hi-tops and a t-shirt/Cubavera.

14 hours ago, PaulThePlug said:

Nice... 2 tone pots and maybe 2 cap values...

Have a look at Rick v's Les Paul wiring...

Maybe the Artec QTP 1, with a conventional tone, or 2?

Because this is a bass that's not so important in the scheme of things, I don't mind throwing a little money/time at it in the spirit of exploration.  Wiring it VT/VT > switch > output jack, should give me different tonal characteristics/properties than going the V/V/T route and applying a singular tone over both pickups.  (I have five holes in the front of the bass so I figure I can just fill them up with knobs, why not?).

I need to go through my box of spares.  I know I have some .047 caps.  Not sure whether I have any CTS 250K pots.

I have an 80s Ibanez Roadster project.  Twin pickup model (P/J); if you're familiar with the model you'll recall it originally carried an active circuit - which was long gone when I bought the bass - it currently looks like this:

At present, each pickup is wired into a volume pot, then into a selector switch (predominantly so I could just isolate the P-pickup), but at some point I want to wire a tone pot into the circuit.

I'm wondering whether I might get something different tonally if I wire each pickup to its own tone pot, then into the selector, then out to the output jack. 

More Rickenbacker stylee than Jazz bass.

Opinions?

3 hours ago, pn_day said:

I've used Warman Twin Loco (hot rails style) pickups in a recent upgrade of an old Hohner B2AFL (fretless). The original EMG Select soap bars were very muddy. The twin rails have much more clarity, even when wired in series.

 

I haven't used his P or J pickups, but would now consider it - particularly based on other positive comments. 

I've got a P/J in the Ibanez.  It's got very basic wiring, each pickup goes through a volume pot, then into a pickup selector switch.  No tone controls.  Sounds fine.

Arturia Minilab 3?

Been using Josi's pickups for yonks and currently have them in an old Ibanez Roadster project and I have a P94 in the neck position of an Epiphone Phantomatic (this had a P94 in the bridge, but I pulled it out as I wanted something hotter).  Have used his zebra humbuckers in another project.

If I needed to replace any pickups, I honestly wouldn't hesitate in going to Josi as a first port of call.  

Happy is a little divisive.  I'm never 100% happy with my kit, right now let's just say I'm content.

I have a Darkglass AO900 and a pair of DG 1x12s; I don't tend to stray off the settings I have dialled in.  It's loud enough, lightweight, portable.  I have seven basses that do everything I want them to do.  Four active, three passive.  I'm as happy with the most expensive one as I am with the cheapest (c.£5.5K difference); they're all as gnarly as each other.

Zero GAS.

6 hours ago, bassbiscuits said:

I literally have no idea what these ramps are - what are they used for?

 

Excuse my ignorance in these matters.

They're used for extracting £££ from bassists that believe hype and nonsensical add-on products.

Think of all those bassists out there that use(d) their fingers.  Did Geddy Lee use a ramp?  Mick Karn?  Entwistle?  Bruce?  Flea?  Jamerson?  Kaye?  Jaco?  

My old band regularly gigged in and around London with a band of younglings called Dronningen...there's a couple of people here who tried out for them.

They'd carry everything on these little trollies and use public transport, guitars and amps, bits of drumkits, etc; they carry the absolute minimum.  Whether this would work for them if they were playing in the middle of Herefordshire is debatable, but in London it's doable.

It's not a thing, no.  Well, it might be if you have some kind of affliction where your hands are the size of a red crab, but no, it's not a thing.

People!  Please stop screwing needless/useless/nonsensical 'upgrades' onto your basses. 

Bass player #1; "Leo got it right!"

Bass player #2; "What this bass needs is a ramp, a scrunchy thing around the nut, a  drop-D tuner and a @Stub Mandrel Tone Shim."

It was kind of refreshing that Music Man just made instruments and didn't really see the necessity to move (so much) into the whole vintage reissue market.

The market prices for 70s Stingrays us more than a bit erratic; just look at Reverb, there's a few chancers selling at £6k and above but nobody is biting.  There's quite a few sold at £1.8k-£3k, which is quite a broad range.

These new models are $3.2k (so read that as £3.2k+ over here); why would anyone consider forking over that kind of money when it's feasible - if you bide your time - to get an original 70s model for less £££?

On 04/11/2023 at 13:03, Stub Mandrel said:

I'm launching a range of laser-cut 'tone cards' made from a wide selection of carefully chosen boutique materials from 1990s Amex Gold Cards to original 1960s Kelloggs Cornflake packets. By choosing the correct shim your bass will immediately benefit form greater spaciousness and reactivity. It's possible to achieve longetivity and vibrance shifts so any quality bass can have its tone transformed to anything from a Hofner violin bass with 50 year old flats to an Aerodyne with gold plated  strings, just by a careful choice of tone card.

 

Our patented QR neck clamp allows between song tone card changes with no retuning and minimal interference to access beyond the 12th fret.

 

The irony here is that there would actually be someone who would buy these if they were available to purchase.  By someone, I actually mean, lots of people.

Time to fire up the computer and set up a Kickstarter campaign.  😂

If you've read enough if my posts, you'll know my stance on swapping out pickups, especially if they're actually functioning without issue.

At this point, I suppose it's worth looking at the bass itself; I'll try and be the voice of reason here as we all suffer this affliction of throwing £££ at 'upgrades'.  The Q4s are selling on the used market at (Reverb) £200-400, which actually surprised me.

Until I saw what they're selling for, I was going to suggest sticking a John East Uni-Pre 4 in it, but at £220 well, you can do the maths.  If you went the upgrade path and sold the old/original pickups, you're still going to be potentially £100 (or more) out of pocket.  (Do the maths, again.)

End of the day, you've pretty much made a decision here.  Me, I'd be thinking, 'Do I love this bass enough to throw a bunch of money at it to make it something it's not and understand I'm never going to make any of that money back if I decide to sell it on because I'm still not happy?'

The Lekato is fine.  Easy everything really, charging, size, range and so on.  Unaffected by active/passive/shim material.

39 minutes ago, itu said:

Do you think that changing the screws from mild steel to acid proof or brass would make any difference? After all the sound will use the bolts, too, to transfer the sound from neck to body and backwards. The key thing here is tight connection.

 

Come on, I really would worry about say, climate over a credit card shim. 

Screws made of lard are my favourite.

1 minute ago, Doctor J said:

My favourite shim was made from a Callan Veterinary Hospital business card. They closed a few years ago, sadly, so now I use Aldi AAA battery packaging. I haven't checked to see if the AA card has different tonal properties, but some day I might. As for Lidl, let's not open that can of worms.

Aah, Callan.  Heard nothing but good about their business cards.  I believe Likkle Sickly Kitteh cards might be an apt replacement.

Seriously now, it honestly makes zero difference what a shim is made of.  I've shimmed basses a few times (before I knew how to set up a bass properly) and have used a playing card, breakfast cereal box, perspex, old credit card etc.

There's this perceived thing about sustain.  Let's address this first.  How long do you let your notes ring out for?  Ten seconds?  20?  For the love of god, forget about sustain.  I have no idea what music you play, but if you're doing anything where your tempo is less than say two beats a minute, you're not going to notice anything, if at all.  

Tone.  Ack.  Are you a solo bass player, treading the boards alone?  Probably not.  Any (perceived) change of tone from your choice of shim material will be net zero; you'll want to hear something and will convince yourself things are different, but they won't be.  If you're in a band, any (perceived) nuances in tone will be lost completely.  If you're playing live, seriously, nobody in the audience cares about your hardwood shim or whether you're apparently getting more whump/ponk/whatever.

17 hours ago, 0175westwood29 said:

Where would tone come into that ? 

Tone?  From your hands, bonny lad.

Not that anyone is remotely interested, but I have tomorrow off, we've cracked open a rather nice bottle of red and are listening to Max Richter's reinterpretation of The Four Seasons.  Both versions.

It's freaking superb.

Meh, meh and meh.

Feasible that you just got lucky and the wood is doing the job of keeping the neck straightish without the truss rod being cranked.  

Buy which one you want.  

Industry standard?  Bwahaha.  No.  Nothing matters any more.