shoulderpet

I brought covers for my p bass and I thought I would get used to the one covering the pickup but I just couldn't and it impacted my playing so the pickup cover came off and the bridge one stayed on

Hi Am looking at picking a cheap jazz bass and I can easily afford a Harley Benton, looking on the Thomann website they have the JB-20 which appears to be there Squier affinity clone and for a bit more they have the JB-75 which is basically a Vintage modified clone, does anyone have experience of these? Is it worth paying the extra for the JB-75? Thanks JB-20 JB-75

Am after brightening up the tone on my P bass, have put some brighter strings on there but after a little more, am wondering what my best bet is for this , no load tone pot or TBX tone pot ? Thanks

Oh yes, I remember a gig that I went to, great gig but soundwise not great and the bass drum read eq'd with so much low end that every time the drummer hit the bass drum you couldn't tell if it was the bass or the drums that you were hearing

I disagree, I know there are some musicians who think that bass should be felt and not heard but honestly I dont understand that mentality at all Honestly I think the bass should be felt less and heard more, I have been to a lot of gigs where the bass was eq'd with bowel loosening amounts of low end and zero clarity, unfortunately that seems to be the trend now

Yes and at that price there is no excuse, on a £200 Squier I could possibly overlook it but not on a bass costing thousands

That bridge cover not covering the bridge pickup would bug me

As long as they are able to magnetise the pole pieces it should not make any difference, the most important thing is the wind, I would test the dc resistance with a multimeter and as long as it is in the 30k range or close you should be all good

wow that is awesome, I have been thinking about getting a cheap P bass and doing something similar but the cost has always put me off

Having purchased a number of £500 basses and returned pretty much all of them I would agree with this but with the caveat that the QC improvements are generally very small, As someone who has pretty much exclusively played cheap basses, I decided recently to get some decent basses but to set my limit at £500ish, for £500 you should be able to get a decent bass... right? First one I ordered, initially I thought maybe it was just the particular model of bass that felt cheap, then I purchased more basses around this price point and I started to see a pattern, with the exception of the Fender pj Mustang bass they all felt like £200-£300 basses that someone had slapped a £500 price tag on. In summary, if I ever feel the need to buy what I consider a 'decent' bass I will look around the £700-£800 mark (assuming I am buying new), the improvements in the £500 range compared to basses in the £200 range are minimal considering the price difference.

Apologies, I did mean to, this is the track [YouTube]https://youtu.be/hgjXP_eS2R4

A bit of fret buzz can be a good thing, helps the bass cut through Take a listen to this isolated bass track of Red hot chilli peppers Blood sugar sex magic album, the isolated track doesn't sound great but on the album that bees in a tin can buzziness is the special sauce that makes the bass sound great on the albums mix

Oh yeah I mean the cost difference is minimal but as you say it is about perceived value more than anything else and people perceive ceramic to be inferior but the magnet is just one part of the pickup, same with cloth wires on pickups, pickup makers will state cloth wires as a selling point but they actually make no real difference at all

Cool, yes with cheaper basses some can be really good, that Kay actually sounds really nice, would love a Westone Thunder, also really gives you a nice buzz knowing that the bass that you paid peanuts for is a really nice bass

Haha, not heard of Kimbara or Melody, I know Kay are usually junk though but Hohner are actually often fairly playable

That's true although I think at this price point I think it's safe to assume it will be ceramic

My tone is generally very aggressive so I haven't used that pickup in a while but when I used it I was immediately reminded of Mike Mills from REM's P bass tone(not there earlier stuff when he used the ric), that kind of full,warm low mid focused tone

Yeah I think if the pickup in there is a Wilkinson it will probably be there cheaper ceramic pickup which is not a bad pickup, I have tried the ceramic and the alnico versions and the ceramic is more aggressive than the alnico version (when I tried the ceramic one I found it had really snarly mids) but it doesnt have that low mid punch that the alnico one does

Very nice, lovely finish, looks much nicer than the Encore I owned a while back, if you want to upgrade the pickups and dont want to spend too much on it WIlkinsons Alnico P bass pickup (the slightly more expensive one) is a really nice sounding pickup that is just as nice as the more expensive offerings from Seymour duncan etc

Thanks, looks like it's a 50s P bass

Ok so some follow up thoughts on this bass now I have had it for a bit, still very impressed but thought I would post a follow up, also I initially thought this was a Vintera but I suspect it might be a classic 50's Pros: Construction is top notch, no issues with the build on this at all Looks, this bass is a stunner for sure, also nice to have a maple fretboard and a gloss neck instead of the satin finish that I dislike in modern basses Action, the action on this is low and it plays like a dream Neck, a lot of P basses now have 40 or 41mm nut width, this is around 45mm which is lovely and chunky Tuners, I know some people may not give a stuff about the tuners but a lot of cheaper Fenders have really sloppy tuners, these are perfect, I have counted the teeth on the gears but I suspect that these are 25:1 ration, no slop in these at all Tone, I swapped out the pickup on mine because I wanted a more rock tone but the stock pickup in this is great and it sounds great accoustically Cons: Heel access truss rod, I mean come on Fender what the hell, I even took the pickguard off and check if the access to the truss rod was any better but it wasn't so if you are changing the strings and you go heavier then you will need to take off the neck to adjust the truss rod, check the relief and then repeat if you got the adjustment wrong the first time, could Fender have not routed the body with a rout to get to the truss rod? Anodized pickguard, this something that I love and hate in equal measures, it does look awesome but I took the pickguard off to swap out the pickups and ended up cutting my finger open on the edges of the pickguard, yowzers!!! I then found that Fender had cut the pickguard dimensions super tight and it took about 4 attempts before the pickguard actually went back on properly, it was actually easier fitting the pickups than putting the pickguard back on

Once the Artec arrives try it and if its a keeper then check if the Epiphone pickup cover fits it so that you have a spare if needed and if it does then maybe spray paint the Epiphone pickup cover, if it looks crap then you still have a spare cover anyway, if it looks good then great

I have to admit, unless you get a pickup that is radically different like something super hot then most of them are pretty similar, the Seymour Duncan SPB-2 is noticeably different from most P pickups. I also think that the strings you use will bring out the character of the pickup, if you use flats then there is less harmonic content so changing the pickup will affect the tone a lot less than if you are using rounds.

I like light gauge strings (on long scale basses at least), my P bass came fitted with TI Jazz flats and has the dreaded heel access truss rod so just as well, taking the neck off to adjust it? Not bloody likely