markdavid

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='739' date='May 17 2007, 08:16 PM'](note: I wrote this review about 8 months ago, and I still stand by it.)

Hi all

My search for replacement pickups for my '73 J has come to an extremely successful conclusion.

I've had this bass for nearly a year, and I love it dearly. However, the lack of definition on the E string has always bothered me a bit, which I put down to the non-original pickups of questionable origin. The bridge pup was a bit weak, as was one of the poles on the neck pup.

When it came to swapping them out, I liked the idea of something slightly overwound, and I considered the likes of Fender's 60s CS, Fralin, Aero, etc. While I was looking into this, someone suggested I have a chat with Andy at Wizard Pickups in Scotland.

I believe Andy used to work for Kent Armstrong, and he started his own venture building and rewinding pickups when Kent moved back to the US.

I had a look at his website, and saw he had two 'stock' J offerings - the traditionally vintage 64s and the dirtier, overwound 84s. I emailed him and told him I prefer I prefer a warm, smooth tone with lots of bottom end and not too much in the way of sizzle, but I was concerned the 84s might be a little too dark for my liking. He suggested some custom winds, using the same wire as the 84s, with a few less turns and slightly longer magnets which increases the power, volume and presence.

So, I coughed up a perfectly reasonable £70 (no extra charge for custom winds) and waited...

...for a day! I placed the order on Thursday afternoon, and they arrived via registered post on Saturday morning. They're well packed in a funky little box, with black and white cloth wires.

I took them to my tech chap, who dropped them in (I'm an idiot with a soldering iron) and took it to a gig last night.

What a result! My J has been pushed into a different league. I'm a P-nut at heart, but my J now has an incredible thumpy punch with the neck solo'd. Open both pups up, and it's warm, smooth and growly. Every note is perfectly defined and even, right down to the E. It was the most fun I've had at a gig for a long time.

I can't recommend them enough, and as they cost significantly less than most of the alternatives out there, UK or EU-based folks looking for new pups should definitely have a chat with Andy to see what he can offer. He's made an old, tired Jazz (and it's owner) very happy!

[url="http://www.wizardpickups.co.uk"]Wizard Pickups[/url][/quote]


Sound like good pickups , I am looking to swap out my Quarter Pounders as they have practically no mid range , may try these

[quote name='low note lee' post='73085' date='Oct 11 2007, 10:37 PM']i'm turning the knobs, but my amp still isn't making any noise. Maybe if I dropped it off a cliff, it'd work. I wonder if they'd encourage that...[/quote]

Have you picked your Bass up by the strings and shook it violently , Expert Village highly recommend it

[quote name='The Funk' post='72772' date='Oct 11 2007, 01:06 PM']We should do a spoof called Expert Village Idiots.[/quote]

Excellent idea

[quote name='Bass_In_Yer_Face' post='72603' date='Oct 11 2007, 08:52 AM']I am toying with the idea of seelling my Yamaha RBX170 as I'm fed up with it. Any suggestions for good entry level basses to replace it with?[/quote]

You should get a Vintage Modified Squier Jazz Bass , they are awesome basses for the money

[quote name='markdavid' post='72744' date='Oct 11 2007, 12:27 PM']Ha , Ha , I had forgotten about that one, I just watched it again and nearly pulled a muscle laughing !!![/quote]

Just found these ones


[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx0w6W8BVTQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx0w6W8BVTQ[/url]
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbC26mXCW58"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbC26mXCW58[/url]

[quote name='Soulfinger' post='72643' date='Oct 11 2007, 10:00 AM']Well, what would you expect from an "Expert Village" video?

Famous for their ultimate "String Stretching" exercise:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k7igz-Pmkw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k7igz-Pmkw[/url] [/quote]

Ha , Ha , I had forgotten about that one, I just watched it again and nearly pulled a muscle laughing !!!

[quote name='Delberthot' post='69258' date='Oct 3 2007, 09:19 PM']wow. I can't believe all the negatives for Citylink.[/quote]

I work for a company that uses citylink , we had problems with them on a daily basis and had all kinds of problems with them from damaged goods , goods delivered to wrong addresses , goods smashed to bits, goods lost, I have been shocked by their incompetency. TNT and UPS on the other hand I have nothing but praise for but Citylink are shockingly bad , its a wonder they are still in business.

is this guy serious? I hate to be a hater but this guy claims to be a professional

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_azVGllTMW8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_azVGllTMW8[/url]

[quote name='lex_luthier' post='67768' date='Sep 30 2007, 05:39 PM']I put this bass together from a body and hardware I bought from Ebay and a left-handed Encore P-bass neck I part exchanged with a mate of mine.

I 'reliced' the body and hardware (and the beer-label sticker), sanded the back of the neck to get rid of the high gloss and wired it up with a Artec passive tone eq pot.

It's perfect for gigging with coz I don't care if it gets damaged.

The action's high to accomodate the fret buzz probs I had and it works for me coz I really hammer the strings on stage (causing many blisters!!!)

Also put a piece of walnut-veneered mdf on as a 'ramp' where I play coz when I rooted my thumb on the 'skinny' pickup I kept falling off and when rooted on the string above the one I was playing it used to keep falling through!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Basically it's a rough piece of crap but I love the old girl !!!









[/quote]

Very nice looking bass , love the P Neck on the Jazz body. You should have a setup done on that bass and have some Dimarzios installed instead of the cheapo ebay p/ups. I think you could really turn that into a nice bass with a small amount of work

[quote name='BassBod' post='68143' date='Oct 1 2007, 01:53 PM']I've used the Picato's - didn't think they were that bad. Just a very traditional flat. In fact, I really like the roundwound nickel sets...esp for the ££.

BB[/quote]

How would you describe them , bright , dark. How are they compared to other flats ?

Register to disable this ad Hi, I am after some opinions please. I have sd quarter pounders on my p bass special. I have been feeling for a while that although the pups provide plenty of bass I would really like to have a more midrangey snarly type of sound.
I am thinking of swapping out the j bridge pickup for a SJB-2 hot for jazz bass pickup as I like the idea of having the quarter pounder p for a deep bass sound and dialing in the SJB-2 bridge pickup to add snarl.
Anybody done this? Do you think this will be a good idea , what are the SJB-2 pickups like, I thank you in advance for any comments or suggestions you may have.

[quote name='Paul Cooke' post='61842' date='Sep 17 2007, 07:13 PM']The only thing Picato have going for them is the price... about half the price of other flats... so good for sticking on the practice bass and for price conscious music students and that's about it...

I wouldn't buy another set... Given the life of flats, it's a bit of a false economy, but they probably sell mostly to parents who don't know anything about Picato except that they've been asked to get flats and they're half the price of the others... that's if you can even find any flats in the shops...[/quote]


Ouch , doesn't sound good , one to avoid then

Hi all , will be adding ashtrays this week , have attached some pics now so you can see what i am working with , any ideas? What should I add next to pimpify my bass
[url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=67414&d=1188517508"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/attachment.p...mp;d=1188517508[/url]
[url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=67415&d=1188517508"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/attachment.p...mp;d=1188517508[/url]
[url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=65298&d=1186259902"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/attachment.p...mp;d=1186259902[/url]

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='56271' date='Sep 5 2007, 10:50 PM']Did you know you can now get a pre-aged Vintage "Icon Series" jazz copy? Have a look here...
[url="http://www.jhs.co.uk/vintagebass.html"]http://www.jhs.co.uk/vintagebass.html[/url][/quote]

Are these any good , they look very nice

Hi, Not sure if I have posted this on the right section but was hoping somebody could help. I know that duty has to be paid on basses , amps etc , but if I bought a lower cost item , for example a set of bass strings at $20-$30 or a bridge for $30-$40 would I still have to pay duty on these despite the low value?

Don't know if this bass is any good but my lord is it hot. Buy it now price of 80 quid , somethings gotta be rotten in denmark

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HEAVY-METAL-ELECTRIC-BASS-GUITAR-NEW-DESIGN_W0QQitemZ260154102422QQihZ016QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HEAVY-METAL-ELECTRIC...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url]

Hi,

Have noticed that some basses (especially the cheaper ones) are made of "Eastern Poplar" . Just curious is this an industry code word meaning that the wood is rubbish or that has been rejected by other companies. Anyone?

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='53330' date='Aug 31 2007, 01:17 PM']^they're a business, when they were making the ford model T they wanted to make a car with the least amount of bolts possible. Even 1 bolt on each car being taken out was great. Why? because the bolt itself might cost 10 cents but if they make 100,000 cars that means that they would save $10,000 just on one bolt if you see what i mean. If you spend £5 extra on a decent bit of wood and you make 1000 guitars in a day then that's a loss of £5000 a day! and most ppl who buy cheap guitars have no idea what "tone" even is so why should they loose that much money if they know it's not gonna make much difference to sales? However some companies have decided that it's a good business strategy to get better bits of wood on cheap guitars like yamaha, the idea being that more ppl will buy a high quality cheap guitar so they make more money. It all depends on what will make the most money.[/quote]

That makes sense , however what baffles me is that my Squier P Bass Special has an Agathis body , however the cheaper Squier Affinity models have Alder bodies , yet they are meant to be a cheaper poorer quality version of the standard Squiers which have Agathis bodies. This means in theory that if you were to buy a Squier with the intention of upgrading the pickups you would get a better result from upgrading the cheaper Affinity model , Confusing or what?

Hi all,

Will be buying some flatwounds in the next couple of days , I have only tried a couple of brands of flats (Daddario Chromes , Rotosound Jazz Flats) I am looking for something a bit darker and more dead and old school sounding and considering the following , any recommendations out of these?

Ernie Ball Flatwounds
Elites Flatwounds
Fender Flatwounds
Roberts Flatwounds
Olympia Flatwounds
Picato Flatwounds

I thank you for any suggestions you may have

Heard people say that Agathis is a lousy tonewood, my question is , a lot of lower end basses are made of agathis , is it really that bad a tonewood? would a bass with good pickups sound bad because of an agathis body?

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='45057' date='Aug 13 2007, 10:57 PM']I always have a spare set of what I use otherwise if you break one you could end up putting a string on thats completly at odds with the rest.[/quote]

Using rotosound trubass on my main bass gauges 115-100-75-65 , no chance of me breaking these anytime soon

Hi there,

I really want to try out a set of Dean Markley Flatwounds as I have heard these have a really dark sound , anybody know where I can buy these from?

[quote name='Tinman' post='50045' date='Aug 24 2007, 11:49 AM']I want mellow but punchy, nothing too bright, sort of vintage-ish but with plenty of cut. Something along the lines of the bass sound on Disco inferno by The Trampps. (Don't want much, me)[/quote]

This website [url="http://www.axesrus.com/axepickup.htm"]http://www.axesrus.com/axepickup.htm[/url] has a set of Fender Custom Shop 60's Electric J-Bass Guitar Pickup set pick ups , if you want vintage they may be what you are looking for and it means you can still keep the Fender vibe with the sound

[quote]MD.

They are both (Mex and Jap) very good instruments and, in no way be put off by them because they are not 'made in America' ...

QC at both areas of production is as good (and if I dare put my head above the parapet) if not better than the US. I very nearly bought a MIM Frank Bello sig Pbass and I found it be excellently made.

Jap Fenders are as good as other Jap makes, Yamaha, Ibanez etc so 'nuff said about that!!!!!

You'll be fine going with MIJ or MIM as long as it fits you, the music you play and your wallet....[/quote]

Thanks Burpster , I know that the MIM pick ups are made slightly differently whilst the MIJ pickups are pretty much identical to the US ones is this correct.

[quote name='The Burpster' post='49923' date='Aug 24 2007, 07:56 AM']MD,

Theres some on Thomann worth a look....? P upgrade for 329[/quote]

Hiya Burpster, I always wondered what it means by P upgrade on a website as ive seen P and Jazz upgrades and it is probably just another name for a MIJ or MIM P Bass ?