shoulderpet

Ok so I seem to have got the pickup dialed in now after a lot of farting about with the pickup heights and it actually sounds pretty decent now so that is good 👍

And the Wilkinson ceramic P pickup is junk, they used to make a decent ceramic pickup but they have moved to these newer "variguass" pickups for there ceramics.

Strange considering there alnico pickup is really good, I am waiting for the wiring harness to arrive but i wired it straight to the output jack and the string to string balance is terrible, lesson learnt I should have paid a few quid more and got there alnico pickup which is much, much better.

And, I managed to get the action at the nut sorted, now with the 3rd fret pressed there is just a sliver of a gap at the first fret for each of the strings, action at the 17th I'm not that picky about and as long as it is in Fender spec ballpark I am happy but action at the nut affects the playing feel far more imo, also swapped out the strings for some Rotos

I have a cheapy Wilkinson ceramic P pickup on the way that I will fit until I have the funds to upgrade to something a bit more flash. 

Oh and something I don't think my previous pictures showed very well was the bridge, I love these old school notched saddle bridges

They are good pickups, better than some of the big name ones I have used

£80 posted

6 minutes ago, mrbacco said:

nice job, I like the low low low action ... I am a fan of low action ... welcome to BBB club ! (Beginners Bass Builders) 🙂  

I wish that was low action, that photo is to show how the nut is cut too high, that is the action at the first fret with the 3td fret fretted, the action is ok lower down the neck but is way high at the first fret, I plan to get that sorted soon.

Now £85 posted, great price for great pickups

So, technically more me putting parts together than a build but first time I have done this, still a work in progress, I still need to add the pickup and wiring, the cream pickguard has to go(not a fan) also the nut height on the neck is on the high side so I need to lower that somewhat.

Neck and body, I added the tuners and string tree ages ago

Neck added to body

Bridge, pickguard and strings added

Nut is cut too high, I will need to address this, this is at the first fret with the 3rd fret fretted 

Dimarzio model j pickups for sale, now £80 posted, hard wired in series as per photos

5 minutes ago, Velarian said:

From my limited experience I would say there can be variations. I once bought a P-bass "style" body which was subtly different to a standard P bass and the pick guard was completely different. Knowing the origin of the body would help and, if it is already drilled does it have 13 or 10 holes (some 70s Fenders also have an extra screw hole in the middle of the plate between the pickup and neck heel)? Also, where the truss rod adjustment is could be different e.g. Mexican fenders are adjusted from the headstock so the pick guard doesn't have a cut out for the truss rod adjustment which US Fenders have at the neck heel.

 

For reference, I've just pulled out four spare P-Bass pick guards which I had lying around and laid them on top of each other. They're all 13 hole models without the truss rod notch and all the pickup holes, control holes and fixing screw holes lined up exactly. There very subtle differences to some of the curves or pointy bits but nothing which would materially affect the fit on a standard bass.

Thanks, the body has a cutout for neck heel truss rod adjustment, the pickguard has 9 holes but I dont think it is the original pickguard as there is no notch for the truss rod adjustment, I will have to take off the pickguard and see if there are any additional holes in the body.

2 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

Vary... Yep...

But as long as the existing screw holes get covered...

On a budget? - take a look at Aliexpress - some funky Colours, Swirls and Pearls... Also the pickup foam - with a little spring in... Wax Cloth Wire...

 

If you haven't got a Jack Socket yet, I rate the Pure-Tone Multi Contact.

Thanks, I am not really bothered about the existing screw holes as long as the pickguard physically fits the bass, quite happy to re-drill new ones

Hi all

I am going to be starting a build soon and by end of this week I should have most of the components to make the barebones of the build (I have the bass body, neck, neck plate, bridge should be arriving this week) however I have no idea what bass the body actually came from (pickguard is a 9 hole job and the bass is apparently from the 90s if that helps at all) so my options are a)pop the pickguard in the post and get someone to cut one based on the exisiting pickguard b)order one and hope it fits

I would love for option B to be a viable option as i am building on a bit of a budget at the moment

So my question is, I know Jazz bass pickguards can vary quite a lot and it can be a complete cr*pshoot as to whether a pickguard fits or not, are P basses the same or are the pickguards more universal in there measurements?  thanks

8 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

Just for round the neck pocket sides, maybe the back as well, the depth of the neck pocket...

piece like this do ya?.. 180mm x 25mm... 

PM me an address and i'll pop it in the post cardboard protected.

It's very brittle and thin... a dab of lemon oil may help, but might effect the glueing. I'd glue then trim.

Brilliant, I will PM you, thank you, hopefully will just be the sides that need it

Hi

I am soon starting a build and I have the neck already and waiting on delivery of the body, I found a used p bass body online and bought it as is an ash body and with the maple fretboard on the neck and the ash body it should hopefully be a nice bright sounding bass

However the neck pocket is a little bigger than the neck being fitted and there will be half a mm gap either side, what is the easiest most foolproof way of filling the gap?  Thanks

On 24/10/2023 at 10:24, tegs07 said:

I find my playing limited by my ineptitude and lack of discipline!

Me too 

Its not a solderless preamp is it?

On 22/10/2023 at 13:48, tauzero said:

 

How can I tell what the pickup sounds like with all that distortion over the top of it?

Ok, try the below video but basically an Epiphone Thunderbird https://youtu.be/EdI6EU-gYd8?si=ENCJpE81--hqrOFy

Hi

I have a Northwest P bass neck that I have been meaning to use for a P bass project that I am yet to start, anyway I was looking a P bass bodies and the cheapest option I can find that is (as far as I can tell) likely to be a fit without too much faffing around is the Northwest P bass body however for the same price I could get a Squier sonic precision bass and can keep the parts I like and swap out the parts I don't so I was wondering if anyone could confirm the width of the neck pocket/neck heel on the Squier sonic precision basses, thank you

For me this epitomises the term dark

https://youtu.be/yCd1vXsvkV4?si=HjmTdyQUaLG_SXHk

Kings of Leon charmer for anyone that doesn't want to click on the link

when I think of dark it brings to mind a tone with a slight bump in the low mids with naturally slightly rolled off (as opposed to the low pass filter effect of rolling off a tone control)sounding treble and low treble frequencies but without a loss of definition in the tone which for me is what makes it different to a muddy tone which has rolled off treble and no definition.

This is the first time I have ever seen anyone say that Hofner necks are chunky, I always found them pretty thin and found that they don't cope well with heavy strings for that reason

On 27/08/2023 at 23:36, shoulderpet said:

I have purchased the below off of eBay, was listed as Designed by Dimarzio jazz bass pickup, has anyone here any experience of these? Hopefully they are also wound like Dimarzio's as well as looking like them

And just to follow on from my post the pickup arrived, it is a single coil and not a split coil like the model j,

in terms of tone it seems a little darker than the Roswell bridge pickup it replaced but it is not drastically different as far a I can tell although with just replacing the bridge pickup it is more difficult to tell than if I replaced both pickups however one thing I will say is this pickup is loud, when I solo either pickup on this bass the bridge pickup is just as loud as the neck pickup.

Hi

I have recently brough a Harley benton JB-62 jazz bass which is a great bass but like pretty much every jazz bass I have ever played it has pretty uneven adjustment of volume when adjusting the volume of both pickups. 

To explain more on what I mean both pickups on is the classic scooped jazz bass tone, good tone but not always the best choice for cutting through, I generally like to have as much volume as possible so I always have one of the pickups on full and when I roll back the volume on either of the pickups the volume of the pickup I have rolled back seems to have a big drop in volume so for example if I start with both pickups on full and roll the neck pickup back a notch suddenly the tone is almost entirely bridge pickup, if I start with both pickups on full and roll back the bridge pickup a notch then the tone is almost entirely neck pickup. 

I have noticed this with every jazz bass I have ever played so I think it is a jazz bass quirk rather than anything actually wrong with the bass but I was wondering if there was anyway to get around this quirk to get better blend of the 2 volumes? I wonder if a Volume/Blend/Tone layout might be better for this than 2 volumes?  Thanks

I have purchased the below off of eBay, was listed as Designed by Dimarzio jazz bass pickup, has anyone here any experience of these? Hopefully they are also wound like Dimarzio's as well as looking like them

3 hours ago, EssexBuccaneer said:

Hi guys, 

 

I recently bought a Harley Benton 5 string stingray-like thingy and I’d like to change out the pup for something a bit better. Most likely a Seymour Duncan or suchlike.

 

My question is will the new pickup be held back by the existing (presumably budget) wiring/pots etc? i.e will the sound quality be held back by the weakest part of the electrical gubbins? 

The pots being cheap will have very little impact on the tone, you can upgrade them and they may last longer but I very much doubt you will notice an improvement in tone, the HB stingray clone is wired in parallel, you could add a series/parallel for more tonal options (assuming the stock pickup is a 4 wire pickup) a Duncan pickup will probably improve the tone a little.