Obrienp

Bit confused by exactly what is happening at Chowny. Lots of positive messaging on here, other forums and Facebook but the website is saying 8-10 weeks wait for CHB-1 and talking about the 2018 model. Is it just that the website has not been updated for 4 years?

Well, it sounds super quiet on idle….now. The push/pull pot didn’t arrive until Saturday morning and I wired it up in a hurry so I could catch the 6 Nations matches live. Reassembled, I found the volume control was working backwards and it was buzzing like hell. A more measured dismantle and rewire on Sunday morning fixed both issues. It is now really quiet, even with the jazz on solo and more surprisingly, with the pickups in series mode. That is without touching the strings too. I also think the jazz sounds a bit stronger than before but that might be wishful thinking. It turned out that the new Fender high mass bridge wasn’t making contact with the earth wire in its standard position, so I extended it (without insulation) to one of the mounting screw holes and put some copper tape over it for good measure. I must have used about a meter of cloth covered wire (I am old school) to earth everything, top and bottom of the pots and onto the shielding tape in every cavity. I can recommend Northwest Guitars cloth covered wire, which I tried for the first time. It may be a bit more expensive than other sources but it is pre-tinned, so really easy to solder. All the controls I used were Alpha but I was a little disappointed that the push/pull and blend controls had mini pots, whereas the tone is a full sized pot (like a CTS). This is not clear when you order them but I guess if they had full sized pots on top, they might be too bulky. They seem to work very well and the blend has a centre detent. I also liked the tag on the bottom of the push/pull that means you don’t have to try to solder the earth wires onto the side of the pot. In fact, it took a female spade connector, which made it easy to bring together multiple ground wires. That’s the end of upgrades for now, I hope. Now to gig it!

I put a full split P in mine and it looked fine. There is a company on eBay that do custom pickguards and they did one for me cut for the split P. You will have to do a little routing to fit it in but not a huge amount. I did mine with a couple of sharp chisels. I did consider putting a ‘51 pickup in it, as I have one spare from a project I did. The trouble is the string spacing is all wrong: a proper ‘51 P pickup expects wide spacing (they are 20mm string to string at the bridge). With a split P you can move the two pickups to overlap more and compensate for the narrower Bronco string spacing. Also ‘51s are pretty much a one trick pony too. IMO a split P is more versatile. It’s a matter of taste though, you might like the ‘51 if you can find one with the pole pieces close enough together for the Bronco string spacing.

At the risk of making people really ticked off with this thread, I think I may have sussed why that jazz pickup is so noisy on the TMB35, at least if mine is typical. This is what it looks like inside. No shielding at all in the jazz cavity but strangely they chose to paint the cavity for the precision with graphite paint (pretty sloppy job) and even earthed the cavity (I had removed the earth wire before taking the pic). You would think, if they were only going to shield one cavity, it would have been the one for the jazz pickup! The second photograph is my “after” state with copper shielding in place. I will run an earth wire from each pickup up cavity to a central ground. I have also installed the Fender high mass bridge unit. I had to drill new mount holes but fortunately there was no overlap with the existing ones, so it should be firmly anchored despite only having 4 screws. The next job is to wire up the push/pull, blend and tone potentiometers, and a new output jack.

I’ll second that. I have used a 4 way Tele switch to do just that. The added wrinkle is that the neck pickup is a humbucker and middle pickup single coil, so the series position creates a 3 coil pickup, which sounds huge but it is a bit noisy. I also have a separate coil tap switch for the humbucker.

A lot of people on this forum have done that but it is an expensive option. Maybe not so much if you are buying in $ but this side of the pond you are looking at £300 for that size Aguilars and which ones? Do you stick with the DCB type or go for something that sounds single coil like the Super Splits.

Exactly my thoughts. I bet it sounds incredible but my simple rule is not to spend more on upgrading components than the bass cost originally. I broke that rule recently on a Bronco and got taught a lesson when I came to sell it. I can see it is tempting with the TMB35 because I can’t think of another decent short scale 5 string for less than £1,000. It might be argued that spending £400, or so on upgrading the main components (bridge, pickups, machine heads, electrics) leaves you with a fantastic bass that still cost you less than the alternatives. Anyway, with the way string prices are going, it might be impossible to honour my rule when a string change is needed! I am still going to try though.

No. I didn’t explain it very well. Fingers crossed that it is going to work OK!

I should probably let this go but I was talking about 250k and 500k potentiometers, rather than caps. The cap I would be using would be 47nf with a 250K pot.

I might look again at my schematic design but I was going to do the blend first and then go to the push/pull but the switch will shut off one pickup’s hot lead to the blend when in series; it sends it to the ground of the next pickup in series. I will definitely have to shield to keep the noise down when in series. I might be wrong but I think the 250K cuts more top than the 500K, which is why 500K is recommended for humbuckers. Anyway, it looks as though I am going to find out for certain as I ordered 250Ks. Certainly my experience with a project bass, that has a mudbucker and a ‘51 P in it, is that the single coil P going into the 500K pots and .22 cap solo was much too bright (and loud) but 250Ks and .47 cap made the mudbucker (actually it is a DiMarzio 145) too muddy. I got round this by wiring a 500k resistor in parallel with the P’s hot lead: it makes the 500K pot look like a 250 to the ‘51 pickup, so it takes some of the top end and signal off. I can’t get my head round what happens when the two pickups are switched to series. They do sound massive but as you say quite noisy, despite tons of copper tape shielding. By the way, I am no electronics expert, I just got all this off the web and I am probably not using the correct technical language, so I am probably talking a load of bllx. The Stewmac and Fralin websites are really helpful for this sort of stuff. I now wish I had paid more attention during O Level Physics!

I meant switching the 2 pickups between parallel and series. I tried parallel/series switching between the two parts of a split P (and a 4 wire 51) and I didn’t think it added much but maybe I am not very attentive to nuisances in tone. Yes, you are are right, when I switch them to series the blend won’t function. It will effectively be one big pickup with volume and tone controls. Actually thinking about that, I am now wondering what value pots and capacitor I should be using. I have ordered 250s but maybe I should go for 500s and wire resistors in parallel to the pickups’ hot leads for when they are needing to see 250. I guess 250s are going to clip off some of the top end, so maybe that is not such a bad thing for a bass, as long as it doesn’t make it sound muddy. I always think Ibanez basses sound a tadge bright anyway.

Interesting thread this. Personally, I think over-playing is a problem when you move to bass from guitar (it may be a problem for people who never played guitar too). Like others have said, it is a different instrument with a different role. Somehow I have ended moving back to bass from guitar over the last 6 years or so. Originally I overplayed terribly, because my reflex was to put tags and fills in every time the singer paused for breath, and to get as busy as the guitarists during solos. Now that may be fine, if you are good enough to hit root exactly on time to maintain the groove and move with the chord changes but if it causes you to be late on that beat, or chord change, you are sabotaging the band. Better to pedal on root than miss the groove and changes. Also everybody in the band tagging, filling and twiddling frantically makes it really hard for the audience to follow: there is just too much going on and it may not all be pulling in the same direction. I think the line up and genre of the band also influences how the bassist should play. If you are playing bass in a band with keys, brass, guitars, etc, your job is to hold down the groove with the drummer, the mix is already full enough with other instruments . If you are in a power rock/blues 3 piece, you have got to fill up a lot more of the mix, especially when the guitarist is soloing. That is not to say you compete with the guitarist’s solo but you need to fill that space underneath them where their chords were and match their dynamics. I was listening to the remastered version of Led Zep 1 & 2 the other day and you can really hear how JPJ was doing this: it was a master class. I now play in two bands with rhythm and lead guitarists (and harmonica in one of them). I have learnt to keep it simple stupid: maintain the groove, match the dynamics and occasionally they throw you a bone: you get to start a number, or you get a solo fill. I have a long way to go still but I feel I am becoming a bassist, rather than a guitarist with a bass in his hands.

Only because I’m not very good at wiring the shunts between the terminals on the switches. Probably more of a faff on the blend pot to be honest. The push/pull and the blend will be the top two pots on the scratchplate, so it sounds as though space won’t be a problem in the cavity. The series wiring does add some hum but as you say but the shielding helps tame it a bit. It’s worth it for the massive tone that it produces: it turns the pickups into a huge humbucker with lots of bass and low mids.

Yep, those pots are pretty bad but the soldering is about my level of incompetence , at least on the back of pots. However, some Alpha pots are on order and I will try to do better this time, despite the non-lead solder we have to use these days. I am going to go for a parallel/series switch on a push/pull pot as well as the blend control. Took me most of the afternoon to work out the wiring schematic and it is going to be a bit fiddly to do. At least the control cavity looks quite big in your pics and it seems to have shielding paint but whether they carried that over into the pickup cavities and put connected shielding on the back of the pickguard, remains to be seen. I might give Newtone a shout. I use their Michael Messer strings on my National NRP reso and I have used their Acoustic Masters in the past as well. You just have to be careful how, when and where you cut any surplus length off when changing strings.

Thanks for the info. I have an Alpha blend pot I was going to fit instead of having 2 individual volume controls. It sounds like it might be worth replacing all the electronics at the same time. It probably will have zero impact on the sound but it gives you peace of mind for gigging. I agree the OEM bridge and tuners look surprisingly good for the price point. The Fender item is so heavy it might be worth fitting just to combat the neck dive but the trade off would be even more weight on the shoulder. It is already quite heavy for a short scale. Fortunately the OEM strings seem pretty good because there seem to be very few choices around for SS 5 strings and even fewer in stock in the UK.

I haven’t noticed that yet but I have only played it at studio volume. Are we talking the sort of noise that shielding will cure? That was on my to-do list, as I have some copper tape left from my last project. BTW have you replaced the bridge and if so, with what? I spotted an unused Fender high mass unit going cheap on eBay and bought it on impulse but now it has arrived I see it has a 4 screw mount. They look as though they might line up with 4 of the originals but I will only know if it aligns properly when I try it. I might need to look for something else. How have the machine heads held up? They look pretty good.

Yes, I saw that but £300: streuth! The BC sized Aguilars were over £200 for the 1000. I now wish I had gone for the Big Splits rather than the Dual Coil but I am going to have to live with them and they certainly sound a lot better than the OEM Bartolinis. It’s just I am having a lot of love for the Jazz bass sound at the moment. I was listening to the remastered versions of Led Zep’s first couple of albums and JPJ’s tone is amazing.

Well, having just sold my AFR Affirma 5 string (very sad) because of having to go short scale, I couldn’t resist the GAS and succumbed to a Talman TMB35. I am staggered by the value for money of this bass. You get a lot for your £219. All the frets are seated well, no sharp ends. The finish is well applied. The hardware is reasonable quality for a guitar in this price bracket. Really the only things I am not that keen on are the “mint” green, which is a bit insipid, the control knobs and the bulk of the neck. After all I have gone short scale because I was finding long scale basses too much for my arthritic left hand. I’ll see how I get on with it but I can always get the spoke shave out and take it down a bit. At this price, it’s not really an issue. I now have two green Ibanez short scales. The other being the EHB1000s. I did think about getting the EHB1005s but then I would have the expense of changing the Bartolini pickups for Aguilar, or Nordstrand. Whereas the pickups in the Talman seem OK on first use. There is no way I am going to spend North of £200 on replacement pickups for it anyway.

I thought I would do a quick update in case anybody is interested. I fitted the K&K Pure transducers: quite a fiddly operation, especially as the Guild has quite a small sound hole. If you follow the instructions to the letter and use the template they provide, you get there in the end. One of the problems I discovered is that they obviously give you the same mounting template with the bass set as they do for a standard six string acoustic guitar. The golf tee (yes really) and locating stick might be a snug fit in an acoustic bridge but the string holes in a bass bridge are much bigger, so the template is quite difficult to line up, especially as you can only get one hand in the body to do the job. Eventually I did get both sensors stuck in place on the bridge reinforcement plate inside the body, just about underneath the saddle slot in the bridge. My advice: take it slowly and give yourself plenty of time to do it. The whole job took about 2 1/2 hours. One annoyance was that, having followed the advice to drill out the end pin hole with a Forstner bit, with duct tape to protect the finish, there was still a little chip out of the top surface of the ply around the hole. This wasn’t quite covered by the collar of the end pin jack socket. I suspect this is because the back and sides on the Guild are mahogany laminate, rather than solid tone wood. Anyway, it was worth all the hassle because the K&K Pure system produces a very even string balance and an accurate reproduction of the bass’s acoustic tone: better than the Sonitone under saddle system. I did notice quite a lot of handling noise, which I guess is going to be a feature with transducers fitted to the body but the system seems to be more feedback resistant than the under saddle system. I was also impressed with the strength of the signal from a passive pickup system. Almost as much gain as the Sonitone which has quite a hot active preamp. Next step was to replace the Sonitone pickup with the Artec PP 417. I had to drill out the hole in the end of the bridge slot a bit to get the Artec’s cable through because of its jack plug. Cutting the original Sonitone pickup’s cable to the preamp and fitting a 2.5mm inline jack socket was straightforward but fiddly. I had to leave enough cable to be able to pull it out of the sound hole to solder on the socket but not so much that it would be flopping around once attached to the Artec’s cable. In the end I did have to coil it was once back in the body and use a cable tie to fix it to other cables: super fiddly and accompanied by much swearing. The Artec pickup seated nicely in the bridge slot but is a gnat’s thicker than the braided Sonitone pickup. The final step was to replace the original bone saddle with a better fitting Tusq item. I made this from a Tusq blank and it involved about half an hour’s filing and sanding. It probably isn’t the best executed saddle but it seems to work OK and fortunately there was no compensation on the original to copy. After restringing, I was pleased to hear both pickup systems worked and actually were a marked improvement on the original Sonitone setup. The Artec pickup produces a much better string balance than the original. If anything the A string is a little quieter than the others with the Artec but I suspect that might be because I haven’t quite cut the saddle right. Tone wise the Artec is a bit more thudding than the Sonitone and perhaps has compressed the tone a little. It is seems to be slightly less prone to feedback than the original but not much. Overall though at £11 for the Artec pickup and £2.50 for the inline jack socket, it was a relatively cheap and effective upgrade over the Sonitone, while reusing the original preamp and peripherals. The Tusq saddle blank was another £11 but that wasn’t strictly necessary. Of course, the upgrade would be much more expensive if you have to get it done by a luthier. For reference the K&K Pure bass transducer system cost £95 delivered and you need a fresh tube of superglue gel to fit it, plus tools to fit the end pin jack socket. If I wanted to fit a pickup to an acoustic bass without an OEM system, I would definitely go for the K&K and not bother with an under saddle system. My final task is to fit a set of Medium Scale LaBella Black Nylon Tape Wounds that arrived in the post yesterday. £44 inc p&p from Bass Direct (and much cheaper than elsewhere). I hope these will help suppress some of the Wolf tones that the bronze round wounds are producing, which I think contribute to feedback. Also there should be less string noise from slides, etc.

I was interested in that. Thanks for the review. My fist bass as a teenager was a Vox. I forget what the model was but it had two lipstick style single coil pickups and a vaguely Fender shape. Short scale with a terrible action and intonation. I didn’t touch a bass again for about 40 years but these new Vox basses look altogether more competent.

Thanks. Oh dear! Not helping my GAS!

Am I expecting too much to think that you shouldn’t need to dress the frets on a bass that costs the best part of £700 new? I would be less bothered by the nut being a touch high. Personal preference comes in there and it is better to have it high and need to take it down a bit, than too low and have to replace it.

Whoops! I tried clicking through before but it didn’t work! It just did and I read your review, so apologies. I would still be interested to know how you find the fretboard radius though.

Enjoy! Let us know what you think once you have used it a bit. I quite fancy one of those but the 9.5” fingerboard radius puts me off a bit. I prefer flatter boards. Interested to hear what you think.

I was just scoping out flats and nylon wound strings for a new acoustic bass. I checked out pricing on the usual direct online sellers. I was quite shocked to see prices for D’Addario strings were roughly the same, or more than La Bella equivalents. I am sure their nylon wound sets used to be much cheaper. I can’t say I have been keeping a log of D’Addario prices, so this is purely subjective but the prices of flats and nylon wounds do seem to have jumped considerably. Has anybody else noticed this, or am I just imagining it?