itu

The original AFRs were made in Japan, reissues seem to be from Indonesia. AFR's serial is in the abalone insert between the piezo bridge and the magnetic pickup. The old 4 has a detuner bridge (E), which is missing from the newer ones. My understanding is that the originals have ebony fretboards. What I do not always like is the sharp lower horn while playing sitting down. I do like the light weight. The playability has been impeccable within those two I have owned (previously a fretted flame maple 4, now a fretless 5). I have not been able to try a new one. I think few custom fretless instruments were built to Percy Jones. There was a line of basses made from luthite in between these two wooden series. The construction and the electronics were cheaper.

I am not sure, what does this mean? A Bourns blend pot (type MN) has two tracks, which end at the centre detent. Therefore the pot acts electrically exactly like two separate vols.

"Nah, not a new bass, it has been in the garage for years..." I do like the idea of several cases, like @Jonesy just wrote. But I already have quite a few, I need to refine the idea. "I have so many basses I need to buy few more empty cases."

Excellent. Although the stock strings are 45-100, I would try a 40-95 set instead. It is slightly lighter and might help with the fingerings. This set is one of my personal favourites - please find yours via several trials. The lightest I have used has been 30-90. Really twangy. https://www.daddario.com/products/guitar/bass-guitar/xl-prosteels-bass/eps220-prosteels-bass-super-light-40-95-long-scale/

Has the bass been adjusted by a seasoned luthier? Are the strings very old and thick? How about a professional setup and a 40 - 100 set?

First of all, the preamp needs to be piezo compliant = sufficient input impedance. If the preamp can not handle the impedance, the lowest frequencies will be sacrificed. Artec makes some attractively priced units including a preamp, but I do not know the input Z. Trial seems to be reasonable pricewise. Practically any preamp is a possible choice - if you have any at hand, please try one. @Passinwind has a very interesting and attractive design presented here in BC. If you like tinkering...

The heel has a wooden block inside the graphite for wood screws. I decided to use thread inserts and glue.

Pageflip is dead quiet. Switches do not make any sound, but this also contributes with the feel. Feedback is only given through the page change.

I don't think, that the ground tabs are making any significant difference. My guess is like I already wrote about Bourns. They are great value and available. If you want to invest slightly more, Mixpot is not so friendly to solder, but works well.

Well, one detail is good to understand here and now: the signal from the pickups goes first to the balance pot. This is very common. In other words, the high impedance signal from the pickups is blended before the opamps (or: the active / lo-Z circuitry), and therefore the balance pot has to be high impedance. You want to try something made for this, try either of the Bourns MN pots. They have the tracks continuing to the centre point only. In case you want to make the preamp a true mixer, you need to add an active blend, like Noll Mixpot before the Status circuitry. I did this to my former Modulus Graphite Quantum. The bartolinis started a new life.

Most of the fumes are coming from the burning resin. You are not boiling the lead, (or tin, or silver, or copper, or...) just melting. But it is true that any extra substances going to your respiration may be harmful to you.

A pro setup and light string set would certainly help. Costs a bit, but makes the playing a breeze.

I do admit that many years ago Stanley Clarke was the thing for me with his first solo. And School days was special, too. Later on, I have fell in love with bassists who only play the right notes, sparingly. True: Gary Willis, Pekka Pohjola, and Niels-Henning Ørsted-Pedersen, they are all incredible, just like Marc Johnson and Bruford are mind blowing. Jimmy Johnson, Tom Kennedy, Marcus Miller, and many others are exceptional sidemen, but I am not impressed by their compositions. One thing is to support, and another is to lead. Sometimes pretty easy sounding bass line can be earth shaking, when the player knows the style and helps to make the song larger than life. I like Tommy Shannon with SRV, Free and Andy Fraser, Kraftwerk. I have no idea of the players of some old Schönberg and Händel recordings or who plays with Macy Gray, but the bands play like a dream. I love the feel, when several players turn to a collective, which creates magic. Specific records wanted: Edgar Meyer - Dreams of flight CAB 2

For me the flanger is the thing. Love it.

With two ABYs you need to step twice to change from sound to another. Buy a splitter, please. And if you were interested in using both units, why should you use just one strip at a time? Parallel effects, anyone?

Hey, the bass is sold. @ped please, lock this thread. (Where's my coat...)

Have you been considering a wireless set? Then you could do the sound check beside the sound person.

Simple compared to ported - yes, but not simple. I studied acoustics in the uni, and I do remember quite many issues that are too easy to meet if the designer is not sharp. Modern tools like WinISD surely help, but the basics have to be understood in the first phase. Shapes, volume, materials, leaks... I still want to build a lightweight cab in the future. I do hate this trio, where everything is related: cubic volume - efficiency - lowest reproducible f

Many pedal sized graphic eqs tend to have wide Q. They may not be exact instruments if something specific is not working. But they may be good enough for some tweaking. What's wrong with the MB eq?

1 band - Artec 2 band - tce (hard to find, expensive) 3 band - WMD, Empress... 4 band is already a rack unit, like tce 1140, or Tascam PE-40 et al.

Neither is superior, both can be designed well - and not so well. They are a bit different, but both are complicated to design.

Could you consider parametric eq? There are one, two, three, and four band units available. I love fully parametric ones, because they are very effective.

Well, the right term is buffer. The pickup has a built-in buffer, which also amplifies the signal a bit. EMG puts less wire to its pickups. The frequency response is wider, but the basic output is also lower, thus buffer. Once more: EMGs are ordinary coil-magnet pickups. But as the buffer is built-in (integrated / epoxied) to the pickup, we can use the word "active", although a better description is "low impedance" (lo-Z). You can also say, that practically any electronics which incorporate batteries, are lo-Z. As the buffers are built-in, there is no possibility to drive the pickups in high impedance mode (passive). EMG Hz is a series of ordinary hi-Z pickups without built-in buffers.

I have a Soul amp, too. It used to be in a Soul Combo, but the set weighs a lot. I bought a 2 x 12" cab and put the amp to a carry on rack case. To me that 440 W is enough; I play in band with 13 players/singers. I think the Soul is loud enough, and one very good sounding unit it is. I would not worry about the power. Power is not the same as loudness.