ezbass

Ooh, a lipstick p/up in the bridge! Too much?

Copperhead Road - Steve Earle

Iron Man - Sabbath

Too... much... goodness... I need to lie down after so much funk and tone. Thanks for posting @ped, I’m going to be sharing this.

Over The Hills And Far Away - Led Zep

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams

Sweet Like Chocolate - Shanks & Bigfoot

Today, I had a good old play of the JMJ, using my pedalboard in front of my Yamaha headphone amp. All my long scale basses (passive) love my, always on, Sadowsky SBP2 pre amp, it sprinkles ‘fairy dust’ on the tone and just makes it, er... ‘more’. This feeds my octave and chorus boxes, then my VTDI for a little dirt (eq set to render a flat response against the character control) and then into my MXR compressor. However, the Mustang doesn’t react in the same way to the SBP2, it makes it too bottom heavy and detracts from the great, inherent tone; hmm. This got me thinking, what if I used the VTDI less as a dirt box and use it to make the Mustang more cutting by pushing the mid control (apparently centred @1khz) for a more, bridge centric, J like tone? Hello Mr Honky! Suddenly, the Mustang becomes more of an all rounder and my other basses start to get worried (don’t worry, guys, Daddy still loves you - today 😉). But the experimentation doesn’t stop there, what happens if I now use the SBP2 as well? Ah ha! The normal Mustang tone returns, but now accompanied by the previously mentioned ‘fairy dust’. Oh, happy day! Now, this is of course using a headphone amp and it might all be a different story through my Phil Jones rig (sadly in storage, 500 miles away) but given that setup’s pretty flat, uncoloured response, I think it’ll be the same. This means, that my idea of potentially adding a bridge p/up may well be moot. It really does seem that only having one pickup with, by comparison, limited tonal options (even compared to P basses), makes you think more and become more inventive. I’ve seen this phenomena with single pickup guitars (yeah, I said guitars, what of it? Oh, no! I’ve stirred up the natives, where’s my tin hat and hiding hole? 😂) and I think it’s a good thing. In short, I’m digging the Mustang even more now.

It really is a looker and as I love the sound from my VTDI, I’m sure it sounds great too. If I was looking to change my rig (I’m not, I’m not, I’m not!) one of these would surely be in the frame.

Is There Anybody Out There? - Pink Floyd

Beat Surrender - The Jam

Missing You - John Waite

There’s some customer service, right there. Thanks for clarifying the ‘flat’ question @skelf, every day’s a school day.

I’m Walking Backwards For Christmas - The Goons

Tea in the Sahara - The Police

For those of you who liked the Toy Matinee stuff that Guy has done previously, here’s a pretty long video about the band and recording, made by Tim Pierce, the guitarist. It features all the surviving members of that project.

Black Coffee In Bed - Squeeze

Another new one today. It might be my ears, but I’m sure Guy’s timing is a bit wayward in places on this. Perhaps it was intentional on the original.

Speed Your Love To Me - Simple Minds

Welcome to Gear Acquisition Syndrome central. Fab community here.

White Lines (Don’t Do It) - Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel

No, the Reds must’ve passed me by. However, I’ve had some acoustic strings go the green route in the past.

Sowing the Seeds of Love - Tears for Fears

It shouldn’t be hard. As @ped says, if you can’t get a tone you like from a flat eq, you’re probably on a hiding to nothing. Is there a passive option? If there is, how do the pickups sound to you unprocessed (or for a value of unprocessed)? If you don’t like the core tone of the pickups, they may not be for you.

There’s no ‘import tax’ as I understand it. However, you will have to pay 20% VAT if it’s over £135 (otherwise it’s added by the seller at source) and a lot of EU companies seem to be charging an additional admin fee to cover the extra paperwork they are now required to complete. You may also find yourself waiting for it to be delivered for longer than you expect (although some stuff seems to get through quickly).