kodiakblair

A decent set up + strings. Get the nut slots checked then have the neck adjusted. Get the action and intonation bang on. Have the pickup heights set properly. It's all well and good bolting bits on but unless the bass is set to it's best potential are the bolted on bits an upgrade ? Also helps if you know why you want certain bolt on bits, what they do and will there be an impact. Light weight tuning pegs are a favourite, folk routinely throw them on to counter 'neck dive'. Thing is 4 in line pegheads are prone to dead spots which are related to peghead mass; light weight tuners change the mass and you might find the dead spot has moved to someplace more noticeable. Trying another strap or adjusting the length can fixed 'neck dive', will be cheaper and have no effect on peghead mass. Before looking at new pickups, borrow an EQ (graphic or para). Play with the frequencies, boost some/cut others; it'll make more of a difference than any pickup swap.

Having not played my old Wilson Saffire for years I now feel quite guilty 😄

Do you remember what you were running them through ?

Couple of weeks back I sacked my 4 lipstick P-bass idea for a 51 slab body piezo build. Both had been kicking around my head for years so I'd been grabbing potential bits as/when I saw them 🙂 Those 4 & 5 string bridges you mentioned are still being made, WSC offshoot 'Partsland' distribute them. Trouble is they are bloody expensive now. B&Ch over in Czech Rep have then for €116 or €130 for 5 string 🙁 USA eBay seller "Guitar Madness" have 2 versions for a more sensible £68 and £78 but there's £17 delivery, search for "Chrome Bass Piezo Bridge Made in Korea". I was lucky enough to buy the 4 string version from BassChat's ads section so it might be an idea to run a 'wanted' ad. Will be keeping my fingers crossed you get sorted as it'll be nice having somebody to bounce experiences off. I've the bridge hooked up to a Shadow preamp ATM but it's not working out too well, roll on Monday when the Artec MT-2 gets delivered.

No idea what is in my Modern Player but I'm well chuffed with them 🙂 Might go as far as replace the Lakland Chi-Sonic in the TeleBass with the spare Wide Range in the pickup drawer, after all that was the reason for buying it 😄

Doubt these are the correct terms. I refer to the black block for string height as the 'saddle block', the housing it sits in as the 'slide' and the whole thing as a 'mono saddle' 👍

We are 🙂 New science still has to deal with all the myths, legends and old wives' tales folk cling to regards pickups; new/old Science has a hard task 😃

Bloody hell, where did the photos spring from ;was just text when I replied Monday night 😁

The fishing weight trick is great. It's quick, cheap, easy to do and reversible yet every day there's folk on TB proudly announcing they just gave Hipshot $170 😆

@neepheid If you'd like it just say, I'd be happy to pass it on 👍

@Cheeto726 A lot of the bad press comes from guilt, folk's hearts want an £1800 bass but the wallet only stretches to £80 😕 Instead of just accepting they have a fairly decent bass for little money they go looking for supposed faults. It's almost like blaming the bass will absolve their purchasing power. I've owned several Harley Bentons and been happy enough with them stock, actually prefer PB-50 necks to the one on my Paisley Fender.

My mate in Kenya owns the Harley Benton, he's never complained about neck dive but then he always plays sitting down 😀 He did hate the 3 point bridge though, that bad he stuck it in a box and shipped it the 4,000 miles to Scotland where its lived in my spares box ever since. Claudio also ditched the pickups and preamp, his HB is now passive pots and sports Warman mini humbuckers 👍

Can't help but that's a pretty sweet looking bass Shawn, no 3 point bridge to contend with either 🙂 Here has the peghead shape swayed you, it's very familiar 😃 I've had 2 G4M basses in the last couple of years and no complaints. Their LA Select ash body P-bass I got for £20 but it was the denim burst that really impressed me. Indulge yourself pal, only live once 👍

Could have saved myself hundreds but I'm a victim of "shiny/new" 😀

You slacken them so you can slide the saddle back/forth for intonation, then tighten them up when done. To get lower/raise action you slacken these screws then use the two on the top. If you need to go lower you can file a bit off the bottom. You can also do the same with the sides to slightly adjust string spacing as the grub screw holds it block in postion.

I was reading a CuNiFe pickup thread just yesterday, on Gretsch Talk. First post was interesting as the fella pasted an email he'd got from Curtis Novak regarding magnets. "Hi Don, I use threaded rod magnets and the alloy I use is FeCrCo. The thing is an old pal of mine who was an engineer at Gibson, and was pals with Seth said that Fender had contracted with Seth to design a humbucker, that would compete with Gibson's but still sound like Fender's sound. Their whole goal was to have a humbucker, with adjustable pole pieces that still sounded like a Fender pickup with AlNiCo magnets. They choose CuNiFe, NOT b/c it had any mystical sonic properties, but rather b/c it sounded closest to AlNiCo AND could be machined into a screw. In my former life I spent 16 years working at one of our National Laboratories, and was pals and worked with a number world renowned metallurgists, and physicists. They all confirmed that in a sensor such as a guitar pickup, there is NO special sonic characteristic that the alloy CuniFe would have over AlNiCo, or FeCrCo other than their grade strength, and their orientation to the coil. All 3 alloys being equal in strength, shape and orientation to the coil would give the same sonic results. Outside of factual data there is much hype that starts putting this pickup in the same category as the Loch Ness Monster, and Bigfoot designed to create an artificial fervor and demand for it and to attempt justify an astronomical price. In my personal experience working both in high level research science and my many years with pickups, I have seen when people get way too wrapped up in their data, assumptions, goals, desires, and their egos. In the end they are only researching and accepting results that confirm their desires. They tend to lose focus and get way off track of their original goal and with pickups they start listening with their eyes, and stop using their ears. Glad you like them. Curtis" After my experiences with different single coils I'm of much the same mind as Mr Novak 👍

When the OP posed his question I searched through what Sweetwiter and Guitar Center were offering in the $1k to $4k range. Only thing which remotely interested me was an original 60's Mosrite but there's no way they get $1.6k from me for it so I'd thank the wife for the kind thought and indulgence then tell her to look at holidays instead 🙂 The GAS is weak in this one 😃

It must be 30 years since I read a magazine on any subject, never gave taking out a subscription a thought either. Never bothered with Reddit but I do check in here/TalkBass/Bassic.de/OnlyBass on a daily basis. Nor am I one for bass gear videos.

Have you access to a graphic or para EQ gizmo ? That'll get you much closer to what you want than swapping a pickup. Doing a quick count, I've had quite a few 51 single coils, 3 from Duncan, 3 from Herrick, 3 from Bloodstone, 3 from Martin Harmer, Wilkinson, Roswell, no-name from China, Jess Loueiro and a couple of others. Had them in single, split and stacked 51 footprint. Magnets ranged from Alnico 2 & 5, ceramic, neodymium and alnico5/neodymium mix. Wire counts going from 6.7k ohm to 29.9k ohm. Tested in the same bass, none of them have made earth shattering differences from each other. Some are a wee bit louder, split/stacked are a bit polite, big slugs a wee bit slow on attack (bloody hard to describe.); all very subtle and the character of your bass will remain the same. Before plugging in a soldering iron, play around with pickup height, play around with you amp settings and borrow an EQ pedal 👍

Inside he's doing cartwheels thinking about all the repeat business he'll see. CuNiFe might be hard enough to make threaded machine screws from but it's crap at holding a charge, every 10 year or so they'll want zapped back up to full strength.

That's asking too much 😀

Aye, there's always a way though it's not always a great idea . One laddie's experience sticks in my memory. Buys his ( buzzword brand name, please click 'like' ) Duncan QP. Finds it doesn't fit so trims the flatwork rather than risk messing up the body. Installs it then realises it sounds crap 🤣 Never did hear if he found a buyer for his modded Quarter Pounder.

If I didn't already own several 51 type basses I'd snag one of those myself. There's a fair few folk in various TalkBass "51/Tele bass" threads have the Squiers and none of them were complaining 😎 A couple of the "buy to mod" crowd ventured in to say they'd bought Duncan QPs, only to discover they don't fit. Serves them right for having such poor taste in pickups 🤣

Certainly is 🙂

This is a lovely bass and I'm thrilled to own it 🙂 While nowhere near as pretty it's this £80 Harley Benton which gets played. The Benton neck is far more comfortable than the Fender's and it sounds better too, thanks to that brilliant (discontinued) Wilkinson single coil 🙂 Apart from changing the strings for TI flats this PB-50 remains as it was when Thomann shipped it, April 2014 😎