Osiris

Dual lock is also available in a low profile version, I have some and with both sides joined together it's only a couple of mm deep, pedals certainly feel more stable than with traditional, thicker velcro. As others have said it's very strong if a little pricey. 

::wanders across stage to the guitarist(s)::

"You need to turn your wall of Marshalls up, nobody can hear you." 

2 hours ago, fretmeister said:

 

I'm still going to swap the pickup for an Aguilar 60s wind. The 'Berg pickup has a lot of lows and highs but not as much mids as a traditional P has and I have to EQ it quite a lot.

 

I found a similar thing with my Lionel too, although I always run an HPF to keep the lows in check and find that a little push around 250-300Hz usually worked for me, and then pulling the high end down a touch on the EQ. But in a moment of madness I tried fitting the flats that came with my JMJ (stock Fender long scale) to the 'Berg and it totally changed the sound and feel of the bass, I appreciate that this is probably stating the obvious, but to me it was a revelation as I am definitely not a flats guys, I've never been able to get on with the dull lifeless thud that the ones I'd previously tried gave. But I was pleasantly surprised by how much different there was in the bass responded, especially with the band, and I really appreciate the change in tone, more of a traditional tone with fuller mids but still with plenty of clarity. But I didn't care for the high tension of the Fender flats so I picked up a cheap set of D'Addario Chromes flats off the forum to try and now it sounds how I always wanted it to sound, it's still deep when you want it to be but requires less EQ'ing to get the sound that I want, kind of a traditional, passive vibe. From what I've read, the Chromes are pretty bright as far as flats go, they sound more like a worn in round wound, which is my usual tonal preference. Of course, this might not be the sound that you're looking for but it worked for me and might be worth a try before breaking out the soldering iron 

11 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Looking at this, think it will do it

 

https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/types-of-tools/wrenches/truss-rod-crank-for-tele/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=2023-06-gp&pref_currency=GBP&shipcalc=UK&gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwj_ajBhCqARIsAA37s0xRKkw8YSlzF4Nz4-hqFluZZpfX0Yvy8mPC343aBfSiehloyPX8G0kaAnHYEALw_wcB

I was about to post that very thing 😀 I have one and it's perfect for a JMJ, no need to take the neck off, just slot the end of the tool into the groove (nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean) and give it a turn and job done. The only place Google shopping is showing up as having UK stock is here but I'm pretty sure I paid a lot less than that for mine. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202652853522?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338268676&toolid=10044&customid=Cj0KCQjwj_ajBhCqARIsAA37s0zq8x-NFzPN-XXWuSmxjdgnpgkcUgrd7NU3Z_4k8tC1vj09OmOFW1UaAmzaEALw_wcB

10 minutes ago, dmc79 said:

So pretty much any long scale strings are fair game on a Mustang then?

In my experience, yes. My JMJ had gone from the stock Fender flats to some D'Addario rounds. Both long scale, no issues with tone or intonation, just take care when first fitting them, particularly the E string, but once fitted they've proven to be trouble free in my experience. 

2 hours ago, dmc79 said:

Thanks. I’ve read that the stock JMJ Fender flats are long scale (seems somewhat odd) & don’t look right wrapped around the E string post. 
 

I found a useful Mustang guide on TB with string, bag recommendations, etc. Seems it’s either flats or rounds. I have a topic on here asking about pressurewounds & half rounds, as I’m interested in that option for long scale. I can’t recall seeing anyone mention using those on Mustangs or shorties in general. I do know that GHS discontinued medium scale pressurewounds though.
 

It doesn’t look like there are many medium scale pressurewounds / half rounds out there, unless anyone uses the long scale equivalent. Anyone used pressurewounds / half rounds on a through body Mustang? 

 

 

 

I've played short scales exclusively for a few years now and have always strung them with long scale strings, mostly because I bought a job lot of strings when they were on offer years ago so I have a surplus to get through! I've never had any problems with using long scale strings on short scale basses, yes you end up with an extra turn around the machine head post and the E sting can sometimes look a bit dodgy as you usually end up with some of the fat part of the string wrapped around the post, but honestly it's not a problem, IME. That's 6 or 7 different basses with maybe a couple of string changes each. 

And as a JMJ owner, rounds all the way. Mine came with Fender flats fitted from the factory and it always felt a little subdued but once it was fitted with a set of rounds it really opened up the high end without getting abrasive or brittle, just more clarity and definition. It makes the JMJ more Precision like, you already have a subdued top end from being a short scale, why dull it more unless you want that 60's vibe? You can always back your tone off too!

I'd just like to say a big thank you to Ander for very graciously lending me a pedal to try out for a couple of days. What an absolute gent 😎

27 minutes ago, funkydoug said:

Does anyone else hear a click / artefact when big notes hit the LMB threshold?

I used to get that when digging in on hot passive pickups, but I’m now wondering if I’m imagining it! I do love all other aspects of these pedals.

No, I don't get that issue but I seem to think I've read somewhere of others having the same problem. My basses are all passive too but none have an excessively high output. 

This is my review of the HB Mustang after its gigging debut a few weeks ago.

27 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Other than playing them side by side at home, I haven’t compared the JMJ and Harley Benton Mustang-alike at significant volume or in a band situation. Last night, I decided that comparison should be made. At home, I really like the tone of the HB’s P pickup and have disconnected the J on the strength of it. Anyway, I started off with the HB last night and it was OK. Then, I plugged in the JMJ and it was so different, with much more bottom end and high end detail. To be fair, I was surprised at the difference and it was clear why the JMJ costs so much more. This highlights to me how much of a lottery buying new instruments can be. Even in store, you’re not likely to play at those volumes (well, some folk do, but not me) and you’re not going to have your band there. In short - the JMJ rules! No wonder the upgrade market enjoys such success; BiSonic in the HB - hmm 🤔.

Interesting reading. I also own both models and have played and gigged both, I did post my thoughts about the HB after gigging it for the first time, I'll try and find the post and copy it here. But in my experience, they both sounded very different as you said but I was highly impressed with how the HB sounded, and mine is still stock, no pickup changes or blend pot mods. The JMJ is your classic big, fat and punchy Precision sound and the HB is a much cleaner and clearer modern sounding bass, IMO, IME. One thing to ponder is the consistency between the models, I'd hope the custom shop pickup in the JMJ (Seymour Duncan?) are pretty much consistent in terms of tone. But the same may not be true of the cheaper HB, the pickups in mine sound great, IMO, a little mid shy for my tastes but with deep and clear lows without sounding bloated, and a clear high end that doesn't get shrill. Maybe it's personal taste, or maybe I just got a good one and you got a bit of a turd with regards to the pickups?

4 hours ago, fretmeister said:

I tried it on 2 boards. One with the good old PP+ and on the other a very silly money Gigrig Power Generator set up, with dedicated isolators.

Both the same.

It sounds like you were just unlucky, I'm currently on my third or fourth one - over the years I just keep coming back to it after assuming that something more expensive and exotic must be better, and ending up disappointed and invariably missing what the LMB does - and I've never had any noise issues like you described. That's running them on batteries, daisy chains and from a Truetone CS6. I've even got a cheap and cheerful GLX branded clone that I picked up on ebay for about a fiver, boxed and immaculate, that runs on a daisy chain at home and it also noise free. 

11 hours ago, martthebass said:

I’m thinking of a humbucker upgrade to this one. The tone on the stock is ok but I find it a bit weak against my Fallout and I occasionally swap about in a gig. Anyone any suggestions?

I'm sure I read about a simple mod that can be done to these to add a series/parallel switch, or a push/pull pot. Can't remember where I read it but it'll hopefully turn up from a Google search, but it was claimed it makes the pickup much bigger and more aggressive sounding if I remember correctly. 

It's be a quicker and cheaper upgrade if nothing else! 

1 hour ago, uk_lefty said:

I'd be interested in seeing your settings for each parameter. At the moment I'm using not far off the manual setting as a limiter which sounds great with my jazz bass but takes a lot of the best bits out the sound of my Stingray. I think I need to increase the room a bit to allow more of the natural bass sound and dynamics through so that the Stingray can still kick and punch but without overpowering everything else...

The trouble with sharing settings for compressors is that what works for me will almost certainly not work for you, moreso with compression than for any other pedal, unfortunately. There's too many variables to give a one size fits all answer even for a pedal as simple as the LMB-3. I can, however, give you some pointers but after that you'll have to figure out what works for you. For example, you mention a Stingray, which as far as I'm aware, is a pretty high output active bass whereas I prefer passive basses, which usually are lower output. This has a huge affect on the optimum threshold setting. 

First of all, make sure you understand what each control does. That's not meant to sound patronising or condescending in any way, but to get the best out of compression you really need to understand what each parameter does and how it impacts the signal and interacts with the other controls. Much of the misunderstanding that often gets said about compression is usually down to people not really understanding how to set them up properly. The most important control is the threshold, setting it too low and everything gets squashed leading to the compressors kill your dynamics argument. Too high a threshold and the signal gets through unchecked. I set my threshold so that the peaks are capped but the rest of the signal is untouched, that keeps things even but retains playing dynamics. Depending on the bass this can be anywhere between around 3-4 o'clock at the highest down to around 1 o'clock for my lowest output bass. The threshold control works backwards to what you might expect, when the control is fully clockwise you're adding the least amount of squash, and with the control fully anticlockwise you're crushing everything. 

The ratio controls how much squash is applied. The LMB-3 goes from 1:1 (no squash) to infinity:1 (where nothing gets past the threshold). I set mine around 10-11 o'clock~ish which feels like it's around 3:1 to 4:1~ish. For me this adds a pleasing punchy edge to the tone. 

The enhance control I tend to not bother with, or just add a touch for my darkest sounding bass. 

Volume to unity so as not to overload anything further downstream. 

Hope this helps, but as I mentioned earlier, you really need to understand what each parameter is doing to find your optimum setting.   

Just received a set of strings from Sean in a very quick and easy transaction. That's a big thumbs up from me 👍 

3 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

2nd JMJ Mustang bass incoming….

That's just greedy!

53 minutes ago, ezbass said:

A small update. After playing it quite a bit at home, in rehearsal and live, as much as the ability to blend in some bridge pickup is nice, I'm not sure that anyone would really notice it in the mix and that neck pickup is so nice on its own and way more pokey than the bridge, that the blend is somehow less. To this end, today, I disconnected the bridge pickup completely and have left the blend pot in as a volume control (it's a better quality pot than the original I think and the same value). It is instantly less noisy when you're not earthing it with your hands and I can just enjoy playing the neck pickup, which, unsurprisingly, roars like any P bass, but in a smaller, more quirky package. 

That's good to know, cheers corporal (I believe you've recently been promoted). It's a mod that I had initially considered, but my two main gigging basses are P pickup only configuration, albeit they're very different in terms of tone. So I really enjoy the tonal variation of the PJ pickups in the HB even though you can't blend between them. I just treat mine as having its own unique voice, but one that works with many different styles of music as it is. As you say, in the mix nobody is going to notice, which is also my conclusion based on lots of hours of use with my bands. 

9 minutes ago, dmckee said:

Everyone seems to love the JMJ, so I went and tried one in Merchant City in Glasgow. BUT, the neck dive was pretty bad. How normal is that? It strikes me that the geometry of the Mustang body (re strap button position in relation to the 12th fret) makes this more or less inevitable? Or am I wrong? I didn’t love the lack of body contours either I have to say. (I did really like the chunky neck though). 

 

I wanted to love it, but these things just put me off.  Is it possible to get a balanced (and body-contoured) Mustang 😃. Too much to hope for? Probably just not the bass for me…. 

I've not noticed any neck dive with mine and I've done plenty of gigs with it. But I do use a wide leather strap (around 100mm or 4" ) with suede backing which is very grippy and holds the bass in position. But I can't vouch for how it would balance with straps made from other materials. 

But I know what you mean about the lack of body contours but I find it comfortable and haven't had any issues playing it either seated or on a strap. For the record I have my strap length adjusted so that the bass sits in the same position when standing as when seated so it's sitting over my lower ribs. You may need to adjust your right hand position a touch due to the lack of a front contour but that only took me a couple of minutes to get used to. 

I've just googled the PJB ear box as I wasn't familiar with it, but it's two 2.5" drivers according to what I found so when you describe a wasp like buzz my first thought is that the compressor may be adding a gain boost that's pushing the drivers too hard so that they're distorting. Have you set the compressor - and the Noble - so that they're at unity, i.e. the same volume as when they're on and off? If you're using one or the other, or both, to boost the signal try backing off the volume to see if the buzz goes away.

The Cali76 is made with high quality components so hopefully hasn't developed a fault, my guess is that the tiny drivers in the ear box are struggling to reproduce sufficient low end at the volumes you want. Do you have any other speakers you can try swapping out for the PJB to help with the problem solving?

1 hour ago, ped said:

I’m getting tempted to get a JMJ as a backup for my 66. For keeping flats on. Now that the 66 has rounds I think they’re staying, it just growls and has so much punch, and with the pickups blended it has a really sweet J bass slap sound which I couldn’t believe came from this bass!

 

I think Gear4music sell the JMJ but not sure if you can order one in to try, or a couple, and choose the best.. would be nice to do that if poss. Sounds like they’re pretty consistent through although I gather there were some issues with incorrectly offset (or not) saddles early on, with some reporting their bridge being slightly off centre to compensate. 

The JMJ is a fantastic bass and more than justifies the hype it recieves. But as for flats, I felt that it sounded a little suffocated with the stock Fender flats, which from what I've read are pretty bright as far as flats go, but once it was strung with a set of rounds it really came to life. More detail and clarity as you'd expect but still with that short scale thump. Rounds also help accentuate that Precision-esque low mid thump too, IMO. 

16 hours ago, peteb said:

 

Allow me to explain.

 

Bass Direct are a small company that provide a pretty unique niche service to musicians in a challenging market, and I have used them quite a few times and always found them to be very helpful. However, if I knew nothing of BD or Basschat and was searching on the internet to see if I should use them or not and came across some of the posts here, I might get an unduly negative impression if those posts were to go unchallenged.

 

The thing is that they are not a big box mover with lots of staff and they are never going to manage their online operations as well as a company like Thomann. But Thomann, good as they are, are never going to give you the level of in-person service / advice that BD will, nor will they give you the opportunity to actually try out gear out before you buy. Every thing you say about BD you can probably say about Bass Gallery, who I think are great even if their website is even worse than the BD one!

 

Now I know that BD really don’t need me to champion them and they're doing OK despite a few negative posts on BC, but there’s not many of these types of small companies left in this country and we ought to appreciate them (or at least cut them some slack) while they are still in business…! 

 

All valid points. 

However, as this thread demonstrates, their customer service is extremely variable. It's more often than not faultless, but they do seem to make arguably more than their fair share of mistakes. But it's how those mistakes are rectified - or not - which is the divisive issue. My own experiences of visiting the shop many times have ranged from great to a trade deal that was incompletely managed and my repeated queries were met with apathy and not even a cursory attempt to put things right. That was a few years ago and I've not used them since. But prior to this I'd had many positive experiences visiting the shop and had made numerous purchases including 2 or 3 basses, an amp and several odds and sods. 

I don't think there's anyone posting on this thread who actively wants BD to fail, quite the opposite as we're all bass nerds after all. As you say, they're a niche specialist in an increasingly tough economic climate and a company that I once supported and spent a lot of money with. They're only human and they make mistakes, we all acknowledge that even if we don't like it. However, I just don't think their current customer service model is sustainable for the long term. 

17 minutes ago, krispn said:

Do try it with round wounds - It's a very versatile little bass (well as versatile as a P bass but you know what I mean). I punks up nicely with those rounds!

Absolutely, rounds all the way on the JMJ! It didn't sound too bad with the stock flats, and I say that as someone who doesn't really care fort flats, but once I fitted some rounds it really came to life, much more clarity and definition without being bright or shrill, and it still have those thumping lows. I'm not one for a Marcus Miller high end but it just sounded a little suffocated with flats, but rounds open it up to a more full range tone. 

17 hours ago, fretmeister said:

Get yourself a Lionel to go with it. Then you’ll have your P sound as well.

I also have both a JMJ and a Lionel and the JMJ out-Precisions the Sandberg by good distance, IMO. The JMJ does that big, fat classic Precision sound but I find the Lionel has its own voice, definitely Precision favoured but with its own thing going on too, there's an edge of that Stingray clarity but without the overpowering nasal mid-range thing that Ray's do. But the pickup is 10-15mm closer to the bridge on the Sandberg which probably accounts for much of the tonal difference. To get it to sound like a P I find I have to play just in front of the pickup but then I find the stings a bit too flappy, but that's still with the stock strings on which are a gauge or 2 lighter than my usual preference. I'll change them eventually which may well change the feel and tone of the bass. 

3 hours ago, TeatroLirico said:

Anyone played a Chowny SWB-1 Scott Whitley Signature Fretless?

I was looking around for a short scale fretless and this one popped up. Pretty decent price too.

 

https://chownybass.com/product/swb-1-scott-whitley-signature-fretless/

 

 

Not the fretless version but I did briefly own a fretted one. A very well made bass and the passive pickups were fantastic, very punchy and clear. However, the reason I very quickly moved it on was because of the way it hung on a strap, it puts the first fret in more or less the same place as a 34" scale bass which for me was a deal breaker as a wrist injury means that I can't play a 'normal' scale bass for more than a few minutes without cramping up. So despite it being a 30" scale, it plays and feels like a 34" scale bass when on a strap. 

7 minutes ago, dmckee said:

I also fancy a short scale fretless but you certainly don’t come across many. I’ve never tried one of these. I wonder how balanced they are, given how short that top horn is? 

I don't remember any balance issues with it but because of the issue above I didn't play it for more than a few minutes. Shame as it seemed to be an otherwise cracking bass.  

The LMB-3 is a great pedal and often overlooked but it's quite possibly my favourite compressor pedal I've ever used. I'm a bit of a compressor nerd and have been all around the houses with compressors having tried many pedals, analogue and digital, single and multi-band, cheap and cheerful to some boutique stuff. But I started with one of these years ago and realised around 3 years ago that I was trying to get everything else to recreate the punch that only the LMB-3 delivers, so when I had the opportunity to pick up a new one for a bargain price I grabbed it and have never looked back!

There's a sweet spot on the threshold where it keeps everything in check but when you dig in it adds a grin inducing punch that I could never get from any of the other units I tried, the Bus setting on the Darkglass Hype Luminal was the closest, but there's just something about the humble Boss that has seen off all the competition. 

I usually keep the Enhance control right down and only dial it in to around 8 o'clock for my darkest sounding bass. 

There's a little more information on this video, although not much but it also includes a brief bass demo too. I'd love to see a Bass the world video giving this a detailed run through 🤞