Doctor J

Try tapping both sides of the bridge pickup with a screwdriver or something metal.

They're expoxied. And there's no way you'll get through it without destroying the pickup... I've tried It sounds like your bridge pickup has a dead coil. When you put the switch into series it has to run through the dead coil and your sound disappears. When you run through parallel one coil gets through but I'll bet if you play it you'll notice either your E or G string is much, much quieter.

I've never played anything even remotely close to as being as skinny as my SR1300

Put the neck in the pocket, see how tight it is. Put on your two outer strings to make sure the neck is aligned correctly - you don't have to tighten them (or even use strings for that matter, some twine will do), you just want a straight line from the bridge to the nut to see the path of the strings. Once the neck is aligned use the neck attachment screws through the holes in the body to mark the butt of the neck then - very importantly - [b]drill pilot holes in the neck[/b] for the screws. You risk cracking the neck if you just force the screws in. It's simple enough to do but, if you get it wrong, it can be hard to undo and reset.

Ah, the JAN II strikes again. Yes, the nut will stay on with just the force of the strings. Prepare to buy a JAN III though. It's easy enough to fit and a vastly superior design.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1326297542' post='1495102'] Do you actually need more? [/quote] No, but imagine it coming from the guitarist

Sweet! A mate of mine picked up a similar vintage SG1000, he's bringing it over this weekend, can't wait to try it out. They are amazing guitars.

[quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1326294368' post='1495047'] Remove most of his drums and go back to basics. Snare, hi-hat, bass drum and couple of cymbals - its all you need to lay a groove. [/quote] Imagine your guitarist told you all you needed was one string to lay a groove The big question is does the 'drummer' recognise it's a problem? If not, you need to have a chat. My last drummer always used to speed up and just shrugged it off as one of those things that happens with adrenaline puming and so we always sped up, every song. I would suggest finding a decent drum teacher, if the 'drummer' is willing to work on it, someone with experience in training someone to play steadily to a tempo. Playing to a metronome is diffferent for a drummer in that they're in time if they generally can't hear the click, which is something which takes a while to get used to. Hearing tips and tricks from another drummer might be easier to take in than it coming from a bassist or guitarist. But your drummer has to be open to tackling it. If not, find another.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1326290778' post='1494971'] [b]How Did You Train Your Drummer?[/b] OK... A 'friend' of mine is in a 'band', and their 'drummer' is a lovely chap, turns up on time, learns the material, is technically proficient and has a very nice expensive new kit and transport. But he can't keep time. Not even for eight consecutive bars. He's all over the shop. Now the 'band' my 'friend' is in cannot afford the services of a pro drummer and would not want to go down this road particularly, but they are beginning to realise that they can't do their jobs to the best of their ability or even enjoy what they are doing if the drummer is unable to perform the most basic function that is required of him. The bass player in particular is sick of having to play the role of timekeeper and being made to look like a **** at gigs, when as is known, a halfway decent drummer makes all the difference. My friend's question is this: Have you had this problem, and what did you do about it? Can you train a drummer like you can train dogs, kids and spouses, i.e. by using a reward system? Or what? Thank you for reading... my 'friend' and his 'band' are very grateful to you! [/quote]Take it to drumchat. We don't talk about other instruments here.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1326289007' post='1494937'] So you wouldn't be interested in my theory that Fender cornered the market and stockpiled special Precisionwood and Jazzwood throughout the 60's, culled from non-renewable sources high above the Orinoco river? This is why Leo Fender was assassinated in 1963, of course. He discovered that Marilyn Monro had been sharing her favours with both President Kennedy and a Jazzwood tree from the wrong side of the creek. The cover-up required a CIA agent to impersonate Leo for years afterwards, leading to some truly bizarre designs for basses, but nobody noticed. [/quote] All I heard was that Leo discovered mojonium and tried to keep it all for himself, see?

Slightly off topic, but I just want to say how much I love you all for this rational and reasoned discussion. While reading the last couple of posts I imagined the same points being made on talkbass and how much fun that would invariably be Thank you

[quote name='Jerry_B' timestamp='1326279983' post='1494764'] At the end of the day I still think that pickups are the key (and then the amp and cab), and everything else is down to look and feel. [/quote] This is it. If you imagine three basses - ash bodies, maple necks, rosewood fretboards. One is a Precision, one is a Jazz and one is a Stingray. Chances are you can imagine what each sounds like, how different each one sounds. The only real difference is the electronics yet each sounds entirely different, despite being largely the same. Of course, people will tell you that every piece of wood is different and that one piece of ash might not sound like another piece of ash, so there you go

[quote name='bpbpbp' timestamp='1326274584' post='1494658'] Thanks for all the replies folks. The previous owner was Richard Jones from the Stereophonics, around the time of Cigarettes & Alcohol. I have had it valued at £750 which seems about right to me and in keeping with comments here. Time to put her on Ebay! [/quote] Do you mean Performance And Cocktails?

[quote name='TRBboy' timestamp='1326153580' post='1493202'] I wouldn't have thought it would be too difficult to return it to standard. You'd just need to get an MM 'bucker and a standard pickguard, both of which you might be able to find s/h I guess. I would've thought it would be worth more like that but who knows? [/quote]You'd need a MM preamp aswell, given that it's likely a VVT, or some pickup selection installed.

Maple darken the sound? How dare you not hear with your eyes!!! Witch!!!

Funnily enough, it turns out this tune dates from 1977 when it was called Down In Flames.

I have a a couple of 5s but I find myself happier on 4s. If I was playing in a Metal band and needed a low B I'd be looking at how much I needed the G string. A lot of Metal bands I've seen, where the bassist has a 5 string, I'd say 5% or less actually need the G string. Get a 4 and tune it down if you can.

I've got a set of webstrings on a J bass and they're horrible. They were dull coming out of the packet and I cannot wait to put a set of Elixirs on in their place. I get at least a year out of a set of Elixirs and I like bright strings so I don't see them as that expensive in the long run.

I thought this was going to be another jazz/soul thread but then that would probably be DeFunk'd. Nice Tobias, why'd you delete the info after getting an answer?

I did a lot of work on a SB-80 a few years back which is similar enough to what you have. That you're experiencing trouble with the electrics is a worry. In my experience the pickups sound great but fail easily. They're humbuckers, the coil runs the full length of the pickups but there are pole pieces only under the E and A strings on one coil, the other coil only has poles for the D and G strings. The two switches run each pickups as serial and parallel. If you're finding that you're losing sound by switching to serial, a dead coil is most likely your problem. If you tap on the pickup covers with a screwdriver in parallel mode you should be able to find out if one side of the pickup is dead pretty easily. Aaron Armstrong (son of Kent) makes replacement pickups (working originals are nearly impossible to find second hand) but, in my experience, they sound nothing like the original Aria pickups. The Aria pickup is bright and punchy, the Armstrong pickup much darker sounding. I ended up trading a working Aria pickup for another Armstrong pickup just to have a pair which sounded alike and would work with each other. The other guy also had a failed Aria pickup and had bought an Armstrong replacement.

[quote name='Prime_BASS' timestamp='1326107470' post='1492263'] By that estimation, I can freely begin a song by clapping aginst the strings, not playing any notes because it builds tension. Even as a bassist I find majority of solo acts incredibly dull and boring. It's all meaningless dribble to me, especially if the piece is over 2:30 and has more muted percusive "technique" than notes which only serves as sub-defuge, to distract us from the fact its devoid of feeling because it's all just for money. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blind to the fact that he or others arn't good. It just astounds me that people find that kind of dribble "amazing". I must be one of few people who find it boring, pointless and condescending of those who can't perform that fast, or like clicking their own strings for groove and feeling but because they don't have a back catalogue of achievements are frowned upon. This is of course my own opinion, I was just interested in why people like that clicking nonesense. [/quote]As Michael Jackson said, you are not alone. It's hard to defend that kind of solo w***ery because once you stop listening with your eyes and hear them as compositions, as pieces of music, they're usually pretty vapid and highlight the unsuitabilty of the instrument to the task. The clacking of string off fret isn't one which really tugs at my emotional side and it baffles me why people invest their time in trying to write something sensitive and with feeling and then decide that the best medium to convey this is metal bouncing off metal. It's a demonstration of co-ordination, nothing more. I see them as something like an annoying child singing I'm A Little Teapot, looking for your gushing approval when you're thinking that they should learn something useful instead like using the potty. I've a lot of time for Wooten, I've an album he plays on with Greg Howe and Dennis Chambers and it's great stuff, great playing, but this solo clacka clacka thing does my head in too.

Having made a typo recently while visiting the site I can confirm asschat is also available if that interests ye?

Just sounds like the P pickup with the action low enough so it starts to choke when he really digs in.

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1326022832' post='1491060'] My Fylde electric. Not many of these about: Roger Bucknell reckons fewer than 30 were made. This one has very early EMG pickups (before they were officially called EMG), the bridge one has two sets of coils, one humbucking and one single coil set. [/quote]Wow! Has anyone ever played it? It looks untouched. Very nice!

Is it a black art? Not really, it just involves a bit of effort so most people just ignore it. If you have a Warwick, it's not a black art at all. If you have something which insists on archaic design, then it involves a bit of sanding/filing which most people just don't want to do. Personally, I like my nut action to be low like a zero fret, that's what I aim for.