Baloney Balderdash

I just played the bass again, still with the "baritone slide guitar" strings and tuning, through the ampless setup I made for my Ibanez Mikro bass, and just using the neck (really more like middle position) humbucker P like pickup (did some more research and it's not actual wound as a P, but like a full big soapbar humbucker (or slightly bigger actually), with 2 bar magnets, I think ceramic, though I can't find any information about it on the iinternet, on each side and the full length, just with the pole pieces setup like a P pickup), and it sounded absolutely amazingly awesome playing on the lowest string, tuned to C2 (3 half steps above the low A string on a four string bass tuned in E standard tuning), even if the strings on it is years old and already was used when they were installed and long gone completely dead. So think, at least in the first instance, will just ignore the bridge J like pickup, since the neck P like humbucker fits my tonal preferences so spot on perfectly, actually with some of the same qualities that I like with the DiMarzio Model P installed in my Mikro Bass, just much better, fuller, more articulated and defined (and mind this is with completely dead strings, unlike those on my Mikro), but about equally aggressive, and I think, though it is hard to judge with the strings being raised so insanely high, actually even higher output. I count on getting the D'Addario NYXL gauge .095 to .040 string set that I ordered with the mail service either Thursday or at latest Friday, if I am unlucky. Damn, really looking forward to be able to play it properly, can hardly wait. Seems Christmas will come early this year. These basses are absolutely astonishing quality for the totally ridiculously used prices they go for, and probably already was back when they were released for the price they asked from new. As said I might be biased since this was my very first bass ever, and main for about 10 years forward, but it beats the 3 1000$+ basses I've owned, admittedly with the exception of the Jerry Jones Longhorn, that one was a truly amazing bass too, and I regret much being stupid enough to sell it. I guess I should consider me lucky from way back having stepped on a jack plug that was plugged into my Aria Pro II, breaking a small hole in the thin layer of wood above the control cavity around the front mounted jack output socket, which naturally got ripped out as well in the process (miraculously no harm was done to the actual jack socket or the soldered on wiring), which I in usual impulsive haphazardly style fixed by super-gluing a cut out piece of a tobacco tin box lit and a piece from the lid of a plastic medicine glass together, and then after drilling a hole in the middle of this hack lo-tech patch, to be able to fit the jack socket in it, super-glued to the control cavity side of the hole, which I assumed would make the bass close to impossible to sell for an even remotely reasonable price, or else I by far most likely would have been stupid enough to part with that as well, and while my repair works absolutely perfectly, without any issues whatsoever, and even actually seems to be a quite resilient and sturdy solution (so far it has worked flawlessly for something like about 13 years or so), it isn't exactly pretty, to say the least, and is without doubt an absolutely haphazardly hack job, that just accidentally happened to turn out well as a workable lasting solution, despite the look of it and the unconventional hack job construction.

Was my first bass ever, and I just fell in love with it all over again. Rock solid quality. The neck is a 3 piece maple with the grain going the opposite direction in the center part, making it highly unlikely to ever warp or twist and extremely stable. Rosewood fretboard and ash body. Also sounds no short of awesome. One of the last Aria Pro II basses actually made in Japan, on the highly praised Matsumoku factory, before they moved the production to Korea. The used prices of these basses are absolutely ridiculously low compared to the quality you actually get.

I ordered a gauge .095 to .040 set of D'Addario NYXL strings, as I like low tension strings and a tone that leans towards the brighter end (even though they will still end up having more tension than the ones I use currently for my Mikro, but the longer scale length will help them not feel quite as stiff still), and as I was really impressed with the tone of the NYXL's I tried on my Mikro Bass, sort of a fuller, maybe with a bit more mids than usual XL strings, sort of more linear or in a way more hi-fi tone.

Well the Entwistle JBXN J pickup got screw pole pieces so if I go for that it should be possible, even if the pole distance turns out to be slightly different and doesn't fit the holes in the cover at least I will be able to raise the middle pole pieces according to the arc of the original pickup cover.

Found this doing a Google search on "Aria Pro II Replacement pickups" : https://www.rautiaguitars.net/aria-pro-ii.html The MM/MB-pickup seems promising and should fit perfectly in the bridge cavity.

My guess is that having the pickup rewound would end up costing more than buying a new one, but then again I never had this done, so I might be wrong in that assumption, also I would guess it would need a new magnet as well, as testing the magnetic pull on respectively the P like humbucker neck pickup and the bridge J like pickup in comparison the pole pieces on the J has a much weaker magnetic field. Finally I would rather want something that adds more snap and bite than something that tame down the humbucker neck, and as I said I don't really mind some space of the bridge pickup cavity eventual not being filled out completely by the new pickup at all. I appreciate your suggestion though. I didn't think of that, brilliant idea, thank you. That might actually turn out to be the best possible solution, if it is doable that is, haven't actually ever had the pickups out to have a look. Though the covers does have an arc, approximately following the fretboard radius, but I guess that technically will make no difference on whatever J pickup it might be possible to fit inside it anyway (except slightly limiting how close I can raise it towards the strings (the pole pieces of the stock bridge pickup, unlike the flushed pole pieces of the neck, are staggered and sticking out a bit)). In case this is actually possible I might consider either the Seymour Duncan STK-J2 Hot Stack Jazz Bass J pickup, or eventual, for a much cheaper solution, but one that seems to get a lot of praise on the internet, the Entwistle JBXN J pickup, utilizing neodymium magnets.

Thank you. Though personally I am not too fond of it's looks. I never really liked white basses, and don't quite understand why I chose to buy it back then, guess it was just the first and best used bass that fit my budget and felt nice to play, and frankly the metallic star stickers and green neon tape treatment that I, as an ironic statement ( ), added back when I was about 18 years old () doesn't exactly make it any better looking, to put it mildly. Add to that that time has not been too kind to the stickers and that it looks much worse than on that picture at the moment. But I can live with that, the way a bass plays, feels and sounds has always had way higher priority to me than looks, though if I ever pull myself together to do it I would love to strip off the paint and give it a matte black finish (I don't see that happening anytime soon though, if ever). However, before I install the new strings and set the bass up, as soon as I receive the strings I've ordered, I am going to give the body a good cleaning with a universal cleaning agent, water and a raspy sponge, and the fretboard with first a moist raspy sponge, and then a cloth with fretboard conditioner, cause it gathered a lot of dust and dirt since the picture in my OP was taken.

So as I wrote in another post last night I fell in love with my first bass ever and old main an Aria Pro II Laser Electric Classic last night. But while the neck/midle position pickup which is an about big soapbar size humbucker, I assume split coil reverse P like pickup judging from the pole pieces, has a quite high output, a nice fairly aggressive character and sounds amazing the bridge J type pickup sounds really weak, thin and anemic, so I am pondering on replacing it. However a regular J pickup won't fit into the cavity as the screw holes on this is at the ends of the length of the pickup, missing room for the screw hole ears on the side, though, except for missing the side screw hole ears, the cavity is slightly wider and longer than a regular J pickup cavity. To be exact the bridge pickup cavity is about 26.5mm (1.043") wide , 119mm (4.685") long, and the string spacing at the bridge pickup placement is about 16.5mm (0.65"). This as far as I have been able to conclude makes room for either a Tele bass type pickup, though the pole spacing of those will be way too close together for the actual string spacing of my bass at the bridge pickup cavity, or a Strat guitar pickup, which, to make sure it covers the strings, would have to be a blade style one, I have checked and the blade would typically be just about 60mm long, while the overall string span at the bridge pickup on my bass is just about 50mm (I don't actually care about some of the cavity being left not filled out by the pickup at all). So far having looked through Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio's offerings for blade Strat pickups, particularly judging from the DC Resistance/Output and tone profile information on the home pages, the DiMarzio DP182 Fast Track 2 blade humbucker Strat guitar pickup seems to be closest to the the kind of pickup I would be looking for, which is high output, pronounced mids and not too pronounced highs, but I am definitely open to other suggestions that'll fit those criteria and will fit the pickup cavity. So anyone got any suggestions to alternatives I should look into for this? Here's a pickture of the pickups in my Aria Pro II Laser Electric to give you a better idea :

For the past 15 years or so I have exclusively played short scale basses, and the last 9 years or so an 28,6" scale Ibanez Mikro Bass have been my main, but for the first 10 years or so playing bass I used my first bass ever the Aria Pro II Laser Electric Classic as my main bass. I even back then bought a Rickenbacker at some point, but only played it for short while before going back to the Aria, I hated how the Rickenbacker felt and I didn't care much for it's tone either, think I played it for a couple of months at band rehearsals, recorded the band I was in's second demo tape and did one gig with it, then that Rickenbacker spend a long while just laying in a case under a sofa in the rehearsal space until it got stolen, I didn't miss it one bit, but for the money I could have gotten from a resale. Anyway story is that I a few years back after the Aria Pro II had just stood in a corner for years decided to restring it with thinner strings, max the saddles out and tune it in an open tuning, to use as a sort of 4 string baritone slide guitar, and I actually did have some great use of that adding an unique touch to some of the tracks I created, but then one day I got the "brilliant" idea of gutting it for it's preamp ( ), which doubles as a HPF/LPF, and turn it into a pedal, however I ended up getting completely lost in the wiring and since the Aria Pro spend a couple of years just sitting in a corner again, that is until today, where I decided to just wire the pickups back in passively, as O still have no idea of how to reinstall that original preamp, just with the original 3 way pickup selector and the original master volume pot. So when I went to plug it in to check if I had wired it correctly it all came back, wouh, just felt so nice and familiar to play on, and even though the saddles was still raised insanely high and it still was equipped with the "baritone slide guitar" strings in the corresponding higher open baritone tuning, it felt awesomely inspiring to play, and I jammed for about half an hour or so, spitting out awesome improvised bass riffs and grooves, like finally coming home. I always kind of shook my head when people talked about how only 34" scale basses sounded and felt like real basses to them, but man, now I realize what they mean. Even with the totally wrong strings and tuning and insanely high action for the first time in years I played bass tonight and not 4 string low tuned baritone guitar. Though I do realize it being my first bass and main for years when I first started to play bass might bias my view strongly. Anyway, I need to order a set of long scale bass strings as soon as possible so I can have it set up and play it properly. Can't wait. Here it is, the most recent picture I got of it, from before I gutted it, but after having converted it to a "baritone slide guitar" (and yes, I am aware that the strings are wrapped the wrong way around the tuning pegs, something that was since corrected) : And here it is in action, back when it was still my main, at a gig with the noise rock and hardcore influenced math rock band "Menfolk" that I was playing in at the time :

Thank you for that suggestion, will try it. Really hope it will lead to a conclusion of this mystery, cause, as you said, it's extremely frustrating. Kind of pondering if it could possibly be either my Zoom G1Xon, that I use for reverb effects, as I seem to recall the problems only started to occur after I added that to my setup, or perhaps some weird interaction from having most of my pedals daisy chained (even if all my digital pedals are either powered by separate power supplies or in a separate daisy chain).

They should be attached the right way, the side where they are naturally attracted to the pickup vs. the side where they are repelled, made sure they did, so not sure what is wrong. Anyway I really like the tone I get with my DiMarzio Model P pickup, and as I wrote in my update I actually doubt my tone changing issue stems from the pickup, so I will install the Model P pickup in my bass again and then go through my pedals once again, this time starting with just one pedal and keeping it like that for a while, to see if the changes occur, and then proceed that way, slowly adding pedals until the tone changes happens, that way hopefully pin pointing which are causing the issue. I also took the opportunity to shield the Model P pickup, which is quite noisy when not touching the bridge (or other metal parts), unlike the Geezer, which is dead quiet, even without the bridge ground connection, cause it is shielded internally and got shielded wiring (sort of a braided net of thin metal threads surrounding the insulated lead wire) as well from stock, having added a strip of conductive copper shielding tape covering the bottom of the two halves of the Model P pickup, making sure the tape touches the underside of the pole pieces too, and then cut off the thin un-shielded wires that the pickup comes with from stock and instead attached shielded wires, with the shield being soldered to the copper tape and connected to the ground, which I hope will give a, at least approximately, noise free result, similar to the Geezer.

Espers, one of the best songs ever made :

I am playing with headphones, and I have used both a microphone preamp and a mixer, and changes cables from a jack cable to an xlr cable between the two from my bass preamp, the random tone changes happens in every of those combinations, The headphones and headphone preamp seems to work flawlessly when not used with my bass and bass setup and the tone changes started to happen back when I was using another bass preamp as well.

@Acebassmusic It's a DiMarzio Model P P pickup wired directly to the output jack socket, not much that could go wrong, especially not when I have already completely re-soldered it once in an attempt to fix the issue, as I wrote in my OP. As I also wrote I even installed a new barrel input jack socket, but to no avail either. I also have tried wiggling the cable jack at the bass output socket, pulling it in and out, tapping the pickups hard, and shaking and punching my bass, to see if I could trigger a tone change, but with no effect. It really seems to happen totally at random, and as said pretty radical changes, not just loss of tone, but seemingly boosting and cutting of random frequencies. I realize this points at my digital Zoom effect that I use exclusively as an equalizer unit, but as said I have already ruled that out, the changes happens anyway (though naturally sounding slightly different), and it being 5 bands just boosted 1 to 2 dB at max you wouldn't think it made that radically a change anyway, and beside the changes started to happen even before I started to use that Zoom effect in my setup.

I have struggled for quite a while with my tone changing from time to time I plugged my bass in, sometimes while it was plugged in as well, and sometimes quite radically, and after having tried to source down the problem, changing instrument and patch cables, leaving out effects one by one to determine if they were the source to the problem. I am at a loss. No idea what causes the issues with the tone of bass changing randomly with random intervals. Sometimes it will stay good for a longer period, and I can turn my setup on and off and come back to it and it will still sound good, other times it will change several time while I practice, but usually the change happens after turning my setup off and coming back to it later. Sometimes there is way too much bass and subdued highs, other times it has piercing high end without much bass, sometimes it is just perfect, snappy and punchy, but well balanced, and other times it is thin and dull. A huge mystery to me what could possibly cause this, especially since I think I've been through all the usual suspects, as said, cables, pedals, as said even changed the barrel jack input socket on my bass for a new one and completely re-soldered the pickups, heck I even experimented with how I power my pedals, but to no avail. What really puzzles me though is that it will randomly change between several different kind of tones, and that sometimes it will sound awesome or only require minor EQ re-adjustments to do so, while other times it will sound absolutely horrible, and just about everything in between those two extremes. Anyone got any ideas what could possibly cause this?

Update!!! Huge failure! The Geezer P for some reason had even less output than usual, and the tone was really thin and anemic. . And no it wasn't because the magnet field choked the strings, as said it weren't stronger than on the Model P pickup, and the sustain was actually fine. Also I am not even that sure it's the Model P pickup that is the cause to my issue, doesn't seem like it would be the sort of issue you would get from a faulty pickup. I am at a loss. No idea what causes the issues with the tone of bass changing randomly with random intervals, sometimes quite radical changes even. Sometimes it will stay good for a longer period, and I can turn my setup on and off and come back to it and it will still sound good, other times it will change several time while I practice, but usually the change happens after turning my setup off and coming back to it later. Sometimes there is way too much bass and subdued highs, other times it has piercing high end without much bass, sometimes it is just perfect, snappy and punchy, but well balanced, and other times it is thin and dull. A huge mystery to me what could possibly cause this, especially since I think I've been through the usual suspects, cables, pedals, as said even changed the barrel jack input socket on my bass for a new one and completely re-soldered the pickups, heck I even experimented with how I power my pedals, but to no avail. What really puzzles me though is that it will randomly change between several different kind of tones, and that sometimes it will sound awesome or only require minor EQ re-adjustments to do so, while other times it will sound absolutely horrible, and just about everything in between those two extremes. Anyone got any ideas what could possibly cause this?

I use an always on 1 octave up effect from my TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini for a bass/vocals and drums duo I got with a drummer friend of mine, the Sub'N'Up in my opinion got the most natural sounding octave up effect on the entire market of octavers (though pitching up a whole octave will always sound somewhat artificial), using the default polyphonic octaver Toneprint template, though to get it perfect you will need to play with the EQ option the Toneprint editor offers you, also got as good as perfect tracking and a pretty insignificant latency. This will give an effect similar to that of an 8 string bass, with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings and fill out a lot of sonic space. If you decide to go for my recommendation just PM me and I will mail you the settings I use, which I personal think sounds remarkably natural without any obvious odd digital artifacts (will still sound artificial isolated, but as said that is inevitable with this kind of effect, and mixed with your regular uneffected bass signal, and especially in the band mix, you won't hear that at all).

The trussrod really shouldn't offer much resistance either way except for at it's maximum travel length, also you don't adjust the action with the trussrod, you do that by adjusting the height of the saddles, down by the bridge, the trussrod is used to adjust neck relief, as in how much the neck bends (usually you would want it to bend just ever so slightly forward to give the strings more space to vibrate). And the trussrod in an Ibanez GSRM20 have a 1 way trussrod to clear that out for you as well.

After having struggled for quite a while with my tone changing from time to time I plugged my bass in, sometimes while it was plugged in as well, and sometimes quite radically, and after having tried to source down the problem, changing instrument and patch cables, leaving out effects one by one to determine if they were the source to the problem, and even installing a new barrel jack plug in my bass and completely re-soldering the DiMarzio Model P pickup that I have currently installed in it, I came to the conclusion that the issue unfortunately have to stem from some fault with the pickup it self. So as I don't have enough knowledge and skills to be able to source the issue down further and even less fix it, and that I don't have the money right now to buy me a new Model P P pickup, I decided to conduct an experiment with adding a neodymium bar pickup right down under the pole pieces of each of my EMG Geezer Butler P pickup's two halves (that is on the bottom side of the pickup plastic enclosures, since these pickups are completely sealed), hoping to make it as hot, aggressive and hopefully overall more similar feel and tone-wise to the Model P pickup, the Model P being wound to have just ever so slightly higher DC resistance than the Geezer, but with a much stronger magnetic field from it's ceramics pickups than the Geezer's Alnico V magnets have. I haven't actually installed the modified Geezer P in my bass yet, but testing the magnetic pull with a piece of iron against the pole pieces of respectively the Model P and the Geezer P it seems that they now are very similar in magnetic strength, and with the neodymium allegedly supposed to have tonal characteristics to what some describe as ceramic magnets on steroids I hope that the combination of the stock Alnico V and the added neodymium magnets in the modded Geezer P has resulted in it becoming at least somewhat in the ballpark of the Model P in terms of feel and tone. I will update this thread with a summarize of how the experiment actually went when I have installed the modded Geezer P and tested it out, and I'll try to get an audio clip recorded that I'll then post a link to as well (even if I guess it would have made more sense with an actual before and after clip). Anyway this is how it looks (having used hot glue to attach the added magnets, that way making them fairly easy to remove again if the experiment turns out to be a failure or that I at some point would want the standard Geezer P tone) :

A bit pretentious though, especially considering it by far most likely is actually a budget instrument. Kind of like a now bankrupt and closed big Danish music gear chain that had a series of budget musical instruments and music gear called "Supreme" (kind of like how Thomann got Harley Benton). The Supreme tube condenser mic that I bought from them though is no short of amazing though, and has served me well for 18 years or something in that ballpark, it actually even wasn't exactly that cheap, but compared to other tube condenser microphones on the market it would still be considered budget. But yeah, "Shite", "Mediocre" and "Wannabee" are probably brand names you'd want to avoid regardless of what business you are running or what you are trying to sell.

If you are just interested in comparing it's output to other of your basses you could simply record the different basses if you got a DAW installed on your computer and a sound interface, just using the same settings on whatever gear you eventual use between the bass and sound interface (like a preamp, EQ e.t.c), and playing the exact same with about an equal amount of force behind your picking on the different basses you want to compare, that way you would get both a dB measurement of the difference between the output of your different basses and you would get a visual idea of it by comparing the graphic representations of the recorded bass signals in your DAW.

Dial in more mids on your amp's EQ, if it's a more general issue. Or get a clean boost pedal you can kick in and out as you desire, if it is a question of your bass drowning because the guitars actually gets louder in some parts of the songs you play (typically distorted parts, where setting the volume of the distortion higher is part of what makes up the song's dynamics).