adamg67

You’re making me want to try a trim pot on my last switchable humbucker (quad coil Nordy BigSplitMan), I’ll have to have a look at what values work. Sorry,back to to the topic...

I’m getting a bit more confident with passive wiring, but I still just need a bit of BC backup to make sure I’m looking at this right before I get the soldering Iron out. I’ve got a Maruszczyk Hellwood which is basically, electronically, a passive VVT Jazz. It has Haussel pickups which are usually described as a bit vintagey which makes sense to me and is why I like them, they make me feel like I can go DI with nothing else and it will sound good. It’s a good old BC purchase, lovely bass but the seller did tell me that the electronics had all been swapped out (the origanal electronics were included as well). Originally it had 500k volume x 2 and tone pots, and these have all been swapped for 250k CTS pots. It has a neat little cap holder and those little square swappable capacitors, so tone wise I’ve got a 250k pot and can swap between 0.01, 0.022 and 0.047 caps, and can also leave the capacitor out to see what what the pickup is like “raw”, which is handy. I’ve tried a few things and found this: The setup it came with, 250k pot and 0.047 cap, loses too much high and high mid for me. Too bassy for what I’m after this bass for. With the 0.022 cap, it’s still not there, same effect of too bassy just not to the same degree. With the 0.01 cap it’s a lot more like it, nice tone with more mids but just a bit too honky. With no cap, so no tone circuit, it’s nice, more like what I’m after, but when I flick between that and the 0.01 cap I like both and almost want something in between. So based on that, and the fact that I’ve got a stash of bits including some DiMarzio push/pull pots, I’m thinking of switching the tone circuit for a 500k pot plus the nice swappable cap thing, with the push/pull wired up for direct out, ie tone circuit bypass. So, I know the direct switch will give me the same tone I’m getting now with an open circuit, and I want that as an option. I’m hoping the 500k pot will then give a different tone again, along the same lines as the 250k pot + 0.01 but with more mid highs and highs, and a less honky frequency bump. I’ll have the different caps to play with to get that. Am I thinking along the right lines, with the 500k pot meaning I lose less highs than I am with the 250k one? And the tone with the cap still in there will give less of a high cut, but still with a bit of a “tone cap bump”.

I’ve had series / single / parallel in plenty of guitars and a few basses and obviously there is a level difference, but that doesn’t make it pointless. Yeah, you can’t switch between series / parallel live, but you can when recording and you can choose one or the other for a set / gig / session. I can’t see the point in having a ‘bucker and *not* having the option to choose between 3 different tones (well, 2 and a half, parallel and single are usually pretty similar).

I always thought of open tunings being for chords - they're designed to give you a chord from just open strings (or capo'd or with a slide). On bass, the notes of a triad being on the same fret isn't that big a help is it?

I'm amazed it took so long as well. Although, it's fair enough that everyone assumed I wouldn't need help with that.

As mentioned elsewhere, I recently added a Nordstrand BigSplitMan 5 to my Maruszczyk Jake, I already had an NP5 in there (but actually swapped it out for the same thing but with custom narrow pole spacing, which the BigSplitMan has as well). The BigSplitMan is essentially two Nordstrand Big Split pickups (the Big Single done split coil for hum cancelling) somehow squashed into a humbucker sized package. I had to take a little bit of wood out of the bottom of the pickup cavity as it's quite a deep pickup. With the series / single / parallel switch fitted - there's not much point having this pickup without one IMO - you get two tones for the price of one at the bridge position. The bass is a Maruszczyk Jake 5A with Thomastik flats and a Delano preamp, recorded warts-and-all dry, Di through a Radial JDI and nothing else done, no compression no amp no cab. All you're really hearing are the strings, the pickup and of course the ebony fingerboard and whatever tonewood it is (Alder I think) . Recorded like that you also get the benefit of the pole piece height matching the fretboard radius, nice even volume across the strings. I slapped some drums on and noodled some keys just to give it some context, but left the bass up so it can be heard. First minute is "single", so half the humbucker which is the Big Single sound. Second minute is the full pickup in series, so a series humbucker made of two Big Singles (well, Big Splits in this case). So jumping between the first and second halves gives an alright comparison.

After going through lots of Alps, Alpha and Bourns pots, I've grabbed a Bourns that is very similar, just with a plastic shaft, we'll see how that goes.

That's what I'll do now as well, given that I know that one works and the other one doesn't

I should have thought of looking at the images, I'm wondering / hoping if it's actually an Alps Alpine as they might be easier to get https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/potentiometers/7293505/ The metal top part looks the same as well. If not then yeah, the nearest Bourns is a good call.

You're not looking at the page I'm talking about, like I said in the OP It's under "My Activity Streams" / "Content I Posted". Sorted newest first, also as said in my OP. See below. No "Nordstrand NP5... " post in sight:

Not sure how that could be? The problem might only happen when logged in as me, but as a software dev with 20+ years experience on web tech I can't imagine how anything between the BC servers and my eyes would remove one post out of a complete page?

I've got a Darkglass pedal with a nasty scratchy blend pot, as far as I can tell from a bit of searching it's not unheard of with their stuff (saw another Vintage Ultra v2 for sale on ebay with a scratchy master volume, which is the same pot). I tried contacting them but was completely ignored, which also seems like it's quite common if a pedal is out of warranty - I didn't expect it fixed, was just after help sourcing the right part. So I'm down to identifying it myself. It's a B100k opt but since it's on a PCB I really need to get something as close to exactly the same as possible. The pot is stamped "1849B104" bit that doesn't bring anything back with a Google search, or on RS, Farnell or Mouser. It looks like this: Code: Anybody recognise that?

I've had this a few times, and have a current example so thought it might be worth posting here. Posts sometimes disappear from my "Content I started" list, which is confusing as once I've started a topic, I would have said I'd always started it. At the moment I have two things for sale in Accessories & Other Musically Related Items For Sale: https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/447556-nordstrand-np5-split-coil-p-pickup-5-string-standard-spacing-price-drop-£80/?tab=comments#comment-4414538 https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/447594-delano-split-coil-p-quad-coil-humbucker-pair/?tab=comments#comment-4415267 But only the second one appears in "Content I Started" (Windows 10 PC, Chrome browser). No filters, newest first, the two topics were started about the same time. I dont start that many topics so it's not like there are pages and pages to look through, it should be on the first page easily. I did edit the one that's missing for a price drop. Both were appearing a week or so ago (probably before the edit on the missing one). As I say, I've noticed this several times before, I use that feature to find things and bump them when I've got stuff for sale.

This is partly what straplocks are for (the ones like Schaller where you can easily take them off). I never do the the bass over the head thing, just release the strap lock at the bridge end of the bass and put it back on it's stand. Putting it back on again just means a flick of the strap over the shoulder and clipping it back on. The headstock never goes above my head level. Also, because even with that I am a clumsy sod, I just bought a "soft core aged" Sandberg 48, with one of the attractions being I can put the odd ding in it without worrying

Glad it's not just me, I can't get on with gold hardware at all. I passed on a load of nice Ibanez BTB basses when I was looking for one a while ago because they all had gold hardware. I've got two Ibanezes with a darker colour chrome hardware which I like, not sure what Ibanez call that, Schaller do straplocks that colour and call it "Ruthenium" but I'm pretty sure that's not what they're made out of.

Aidan bought some strings from me, all quick and easy, a pleasure to deal with, thumbs up from me! 👍

+1 for a second hand Sandberg, what about a Forty Eight? (I'm biased, got one recently and I love it).

🤮

However much we know it's just stuff, and however much we know there are more important things in life, that still really sucks.

I havn't had time for one of these for a while now, but thought what the hell, I'll see what I can bash together, and ended up quite liking it. So here it is, all slightly less then one and a half minutes of it. For the voting page: I just looked at the pic and played what I saw, chanelling the Datsuns (the band, I mean) to get there: Adrenalin, speed, everything blasting along full throttle until... mechanical failure. Nothing very technical about this one, bolted together and messed about with a nice Groove Monkee beat, then thrashed around on my Ibanez RGIB6 baritone until I had a riff I like, double tracked that with the (I dont' deserve it) PRS Custom 24, pounded out the bass on my newly acquired Sandberg Forty Eight and then a bit of lead with the PRS again. Amplitube for all the guitar noises, very quick mix with some Maserati plugins thrown in to try and un-muddy it a bit.

My Forty Eight was very well packed, the only dodgy bit was nothing to with Mark, it was TNT leaving it propped against my front door without bothering to check if anyone was in. Quick knock and off he trotted. Sorry, that should have gone on one of the (well deserved) courier-bashing threads.

I wasn't near enough to do it in person, so I sent some decent pics and we agreed the deal, and then I sent the bass down, and then Mark sent the new bass up. Sending the bass via UPS was the nerve wracking bit, I packed it extra properly, checked their small print and paid for the extra insurance and then crossed my fingers until it got there. I was happy to do it that way with Classic and Cool based on their reputation.