shoulderpet

You would be surprised how much tension a bass string can take, when I was younger and more prone to abusing my body and my instruments I played a Fender musicmaster bass with a 130-65 set of Rotosounds tuned to standard EADG tuning, I wouldn't dare to use such heavy strings nowadays

Rotosound swingbass 90-35 set

The only issue I have with Hofners is that the short scale and super narrow string spacing means that if you play one as your main bass of you switch to a Fender or anything else with standard 19mm spacing (pretty much 99% of current production basses) it will feel huge by comparison, this is the main reason I don't play mine more often.

They are Ceramic, I think that and that they are wound to around 8k rather than the standard 10-11k probably does it

And have received the Warman p pickup and fitted it, it was between that, a Dimarzio model p and a Dimarzio split p but I chose the Warman over the Dimarzio because the Dimarzio p pickups are known to be a little shy in the treble frequencies. Anyway, fitted it and I like it a lot so far, this is not a dull,thumpy SPB1 type of pickup(I detest the SPB1 btw) this seems to have a very full range sound, almost like a single coil in a split p format (still not quite as bright as a single coil but the highs don't rapidly drop off like most p pickups), works well with the Ultra jazz in the bridge position too.

Just an update on this, I have ordered a Warman p pickup, I recently had my p bass routed for a bridge pickup and wanted something that would give that scoopy typical pj tone so I went with an ultra jazz (which sounds great btw), I was looking at p pickups and wanted something modern sounding as a lot of p pickups have a tonne of bass and low mids and not much top end, the Warman being described as full range, clean and modern sounding and being inexpensive seems like a good choice .

Hi Anyone here used EMG Phz p pickups? I am after a p pickup that is less low mid and low end focused and a bit more on the higher treble frequencies EMG active pickups are known for this kind of tone but there seems to be a shortage of info on there passive Phz line of pickups, wondering how these sound. , Thanks

That's fair enough, if you don't feel you need to then obviously don't ...... That being said I think that most people with jazz bass pickups if they measured the distance between the underside of each set of pole pieces and the corresponding strings would be surprised to see how much different the A and D pole pieces are compared to the E and G. I have noticed this on a number of basses with jazz bass pickups and it is due to the fingerboard radius, with P pickups you don't get this issue as you can tilt each half of the P pickup.

Ok so I ended up taking out the bridge pickup (pj bass) and pushing up the pole pieces. Is a cheap jazz bass pickup (Wilkinson) so I figured if I ruin the pickup it is cheap to replace, pushed the A and D pole pieces up and then wired up the bridge pickup only, all good, sound from each string so I didn't damage the coil, checked distance between the strings and the pole pieces and much, much better. I could have just brought a model j pickup with the adjustable pole pieces but then you lose that single coil brightness and the slight mid scoop of both pickups on full, the Wilkinson seems to be a nice sounding pickup anyway.

The only way to find out is to contact the seller and arrange to go and play it, if it really does play as well and with as low action as he claims then I would say it's worth it(a fret dress is around £120 in my neck of the woods)

I'm seriously considering (very, very carefully) removing the pole pieces of a ceramic pickup and replacing them with these https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/3011374009 I have many times pushed pole pieces up on a pickup to get them closer to the strings so I know it can be done if you are very careful with it

Thanks however I have brought entwistles before and though the pole pieces looked adjustable they were firmly glued in place, I think they are meant to be adjustable but quality control at that price point means it's a crapshoot, still might be worth me trying, at that price if I break it in the process its not really a big deal

I had a similar thing happen, I went to a jam night with a friend and we told the house band what song we were playing which was in the key of A and they started playing it in E, I started playing along and it sounded horrendous, figured it out eventually but those first 30 seconds were rough.

Some of this is spot on Clique-y-ness - yes is often an issue fear of people not getting a fair 'turn' - yes this is often an issue, the house band often has there "favourite" jammers that they allow to play for several songs whilst everyone else just gets a couple of songs fear of too much 'widdling' - Yep song selection be too cliched - Yep

Hi Are there any jazz bass pickups with adjustable pole pieces? Other than model j that is, I like that bright, slightly scoopy sound of both pickups on full so don't want to change that with a mid heavy pickup like the model j but am struggling to find any other pickups with adjustable pole pieces, thanks

Yeah Labellas are like bridge cables, I remember a while back somehow someone managed to get tension data for the 760fl set which is meant to be there light tension set and the tension was around 185ibs or so, not exactly light tension, can only imagine how much tension the heavier sets are. They are also stiff in addition to being high tension, it is this stiffness imo that causes them to snap if you try and string them through body

Do they feel stiff? If so then they are probably Rotosounds.

Rotosound swingbass nickel, sounds like a strange suggestion but they start out very bright but I then found within about 2 weeks they practically sounded like flats, people think the stainless steel ones die quickly but the stainless ones last as long as any string for me, the nickel ones die very, very quickly

No idea but I love the look of those threaded saddles

I'm with you 100% on this, is a great album. Loads of good songs on this album- Aeroplane, my friends, coffee shop, walkabout, falling into grace

No but thanks for reminding me, I must give it a try

Wow, doesn't help that they follow it up with the most spinal tap sounding song, Kiss are a strange band, maybe he was inspired by this https://youtu.be/uN3JKXTj7gw

The funny thing about Flea for me is that I like the Chilli peppers and I think he is a great bass player, some great bass parts, a great ear for melody and some great melodic parts, he is a better player than I could ever hope to be but for some reason whilst I recognise all of this, for some reason his bass playing just doesn't really do it for me.

Newtone are great strings, much nicer than any of the big players strings that I have used, only downside with them is they dont publish tension specs which is not a big deal to some people but if I have my setup dialed I tend to try and match the tension with whatever strings I use when I change strings so that I dont have to do the whole eighth of a turn on the truss rod, wait, turn some more, repeat etc, especially as my main bass has the truss rod at the heel end so I have to take the whole neck off to adjust it.