thegummy

I just saw a photo of the rosewood Classic Vibe and it looks the same as the Pino Palladino; think I'm going to cry that these aren't available anymore!

I recently bought a Jazz with a maple fretboard because I liked the look of the maple. I'm not huge on the feel of it though so now I'm after a Precision I want to go Rosewood. The Classic Vibe with rosewood is sadly discontinued so it looks like the only options in the 350-550 price range are Mexican Standards but I've read a lot of people saying they can be quite poor quality compared to Classic Vibes and are overpriced for what they are. The Nate Mendel looks good but is too expensive for me. Anyone know of any other options in that price range for a good quality P with a rosewood fretboard?

I've discovered a problem. The neck pickup is a lot lower at the treble side than the bass so I unscrewed it thinking it would be an easy adjustment to find that the foam it sits on is actually damaged:

[quote name='jezzaboy' timestamp='1465736949' post='3070601'] Here is a pic. [attachment=221358:SAM_0886.JPG] [/quote] Looks good!

Seems that the tort ones are where it could be worth buying a proper one... shame because that's the one I'm considering lol

You can tread on eggshells to avoid getting a single scratch on your £1200 Fender. Or pay more than double that to have one that's already had the hell scratched out it deliberately lol

[quote name='jezzaboy' timestamp='1465498339' post='3068835'] I just bought one for my Nate Mendel P bass from these guys after someone on here recommended them. Decent quality and a perfect fit. [url="http://www.northwestguitars.co.uk/precision-bass-scratchplate-pickguard-for-fender-p-bass/"]http://www.northwest...-fender-p-bass/[/url] [/quote] What colour did you get for your Mendel? Any pics?

Thanks for the replies. So I take it the Fender ones are essentially just a cutout sheet of plastic with nothing special? Do the cheap ones have the tinfoil on the back like the proper ones? Makes me wonder, if they're charging that much markup on a cutout sheet of plastic, how much of the price of their guitars is nothing more than markup because people will pay for the brand?

What's the difference between the scratchplates you can get on eBay for a tenner and the Fender ones that cost 50 quid? There's always going to be markup for Fender branded vs. generic but with such a huge difference I'm wondering if there's some fundamental difference?

Looks almost identical to my guitar except mine has a tremolo bridge and strat style selector. Good choice!

My guitar has humbuckers with a coil split so can get reasonably similar tones to a strat's neck and bridge settings but I'm going to actually buy a strat for positions 2 and 4 because they have such a nice sound that you can't get from any other guitar (because it's 2 pickups together that are really close to each other so gives a distinct tone). So those 2 give a darker/brighter version of that tone respectively, bridge gives very bright tone, neck gives a nice open warm tone that you'd expect. Not quite sure about the middle by itself; not sure what people use that for but the other 4 are definitely useful.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1464480349' post='3059806'] Thanks for the clarification; that looks to be just fine and dandy. No, you'll not need a dedicated bass amp, but be a little bit cautious in the volume levels used. Hifi gear is not as tolerant as gigging stuff when subjected to extreme playing conditions. At 'normal' domestic volume, it should be fine. That's pretty decent gear; t'would be shame to abuse it. Enjoy. [/quote] Volume level won't be a problem unfortunately, have to be courteous of neighbours. One day when I win the lottery I'll build myself a big house up the hills in the middle of nowhere and play so loud I get through around the room with the sound waves lol

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1464477754' post='3059801'] You may need to be a bit more specific in how you intend to do this. Could you indicate which amp you're using, which monitors and which sub you're looking at..? Usually, they'd need to be some sort of filtration in the chain, so that the sub gets the low frequencies only. Is this part of the plan..? Simply coupling a sub, along with the present speakers, may not be at all good for the amp. More detail, please..? [/quote] The monitors are active KRK RP6 (built-in amps) and the subwoofer would be the matching one. It would all be set up properly with the subwoofer feeding the audio above the cutoff to the 6-inch speakers. Just to clarify, I'm not using a bass amp of any kind either currently or in this hypothetical setup. The bass goes into an audio interface which then feeds the active monitors.

I hope this is the right forum, I couldn't see one that looked more appropriate. Has anyone experienced playing their bass through a system with subwoofer as opposed to an amp? At the moment I'm playing the bass through a couple of 6" studio monitors and it sounds okay but to get a heavier low end I'm thinking about getting an actual bass amp. Then I thought maybe if I add a subwoofer to the speakers (a matching studio monitor one rather than a home entertainment one) it would produce the lows just as well as a bass amp would. Any thoughts?

[quote name='Grahambythesea' timestamp='1464083966' post='3056355'] Like the tricolour sunburst, not so wild about the headstock shape. Assuming those pickups are single coils, do they suffer from hum interference from some types of lights like many Fenders? [/quote] They hum when the two volume pots aren't at the same level

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1463987648' post='3055458'] Seems like this method would dampen the outside strings more than the inside strings. [/quote] I got some felt from a little haberdashery stall and this is exactly what it did. So I tried just rolling up the felt and putting it under the strings but I didn't like that sound either. Think I'm maybe doing it wrong. I'll try one of the other methods.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1463835414' post='3054448'] Pic broken! [/quote] Sorry what does that mean?

For a while I was planning on getting a Yamaha BB424 as it is highly recommended on the internet. Couple of things made me change my mind though; I wasn't able to actually play one anywhere as nowhere local had them in stock and also the unorthodox pickups that would limit upgrading in the future. Then I saw this Schecter Diamond J in an end-of-line sale from £500 to £300. It's made at the World Musical Instruments factory in Korea; same place as my PRS guitar and which has a great reputation for quality instruments. Also, although it's superficial, I do love the maple neck look! Very happy with it, I like the thin neck. Unusually flat neck radius but seems fine. One weird thing is that the tone knob is a push-pull and came with a label on it saying to pull for coil split/push for humbucking but the pickups aren't humbuckers, they're single coil. Turns out the push-pull is a phase switch that I can barely hear any difference with and the label was wrong lol.

Thanks for the replies. I'll see what they have at the haberdashery for felt. Might try out some of the other tips though, see which I prefer. Cheers!

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1463767437' post='3053976'] You can do the same thing with a bit of washing up sponge or similar. Lots of photos here: [url="https://www.talkbass.com/threads/carol-kayes-method-of-muting-open-strings-with-felt.701308/"]https://www.talkbass...th-felt.701308/[/url] [/quote] Thanks for the reply. Do you think that would have the same effect as the felt taped over the top? She says to use foam under the strings if you finger but if you only ever pick then felt over the top. That made me think there was benefit to using the felt over the top.

I want to try taping a piece of felt over the strings as a mute a la Carol Kaye. Does anyone know what type of felt to use? And where I could buy a small amount of it in Britain?

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1459494699' post='3017036'] Can't agree. There are a million shades of white. Get the wrong shade it looks awful. [/quote] Definitely. When I mentioned white, it has to be the slightly off-white like "Olympic White" rather than the bright clean white that's available on the Mexican Standards

White P-Bass with tortoise pickguard and maple neck is the ultimate in beauty IMO

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1456612374' post='2990851'] Isn't this kind of name transfer the same as when you "Hoover" the floor with your vacuum cleaner, or ask a friend to pass the "sellotape", or cover a cut with a "band-aid". Most folk see this as free advertising. I guess it iss possible that you could refer to your Dyson vacuum cleaner as a Dyson vacuum cleaner copy, if you want to be accurate about it? [/quote] Definitely but it is interesting that it didn't happen with guitars, only basses.

Yamaha Pacifica The CV Tele is supposed to be great but don't know if you'd find it in your price range