DocTrucker

Apologies, thought you were just telling to rumage in charity shops! 😄

That does look a good shout. Having said that I just remembered I have an old digital SLR with a few accessories to flog on ebay which may help me make the diference up and get the five string I had my eye on, so this may get shelved for a while!

I'm looking for a sub £100 spend, most likely second hand.

The tinkering is part of the fun for me here. Not asking for a good PBass that you'd be happy with, just a list of mass produced entry level basses that were balanced well with half decent bodys and necks.

Thanks.

Mornin' all!

I've got a francenstien of a PBass that I've cobbled together and while I like the tone and behaviour of the electrics it has cronic neck dive. As a temporary measure I'm tempted to route out a pocket and fill it with weight, but longer term I'd like to swap the hardaware and electronics onto a more balanced neck and body.

I am looking for pbasses that are really common and cheap but suffer cheap hardware and electrics. Do the squier affinity basses bslance well? Would the PBass kit from Thomann be a good pick or does that also suffer neck dive? Others to look out for?

Thanks!

Weight: 4.7kg or 10lbs 5oz.

I'll add this hard case. Not the idea size for the bass. It is standard 34" scale, just lioks tiddy in this case! Better than none for transit! I believe it was an Aria Pro II case. I never owned that, aquiredthe case from a closing down music store.

Dropped to £200.

I'll leave it at this (save a bump or two) for upto two weeks before I list it on ebay.

Thanks for looking.

Price dropped to £225.

SOLD!

2009 "ICS" Made in Indonesia Squire Vintage Modified Jazz Bass.

St Helens, Merseyside, UK

I bought this nearly new from Sound Affects music in Ormskirk, Lancashire around 2010. (still had film protecting scratch guard) and haven't modified it. I've always enjoyed this bass, but now looking to move to five strings.

Overall good condition with a few marks which I have pictured. Strap or stand not included in the sale.

@MichaelDean 😁

I'm in a covers band and trying to drag up my standards while I learn the songs. Fair bit of development to do before I'm doing original stuff!

This genre has come into my awareness via an unmentioned group.

https://shreddibnah.bandcamp.com/

It appears I have lots of catching up to do!

Don't get out to anywhere near enough gigs. Hopefully that'll change as the kids (7 & 3) get a little older.

How often do you guys meet? Missed the may meet, but to be fair may was busy anyhow!

@tretim great to hear the feedback. I was hoping the "Pro Series" may have ment a notch up on the QC. I've got the six string H650 (lighter than the squire!) which was ok, just had little niggles around the inonation and neck setup. Latter I wouldn't have known about, the Luither who I oaid for a setup told me about it.

Sorry to hear you're not getting along with yours. Understandable though, I do feel the effects of long practice sessions with the Squire (reweighed at 4.6kg sans strap). Must start core exercises again soon!

On 04/07/2024 at 16:11, tretim said:

That's exactly the one I have. It's just too heavy unfortunately, my neck and shoulder are killing me because of the weight. It's a great bass otherwise.

I'm seriously tempted by one of them. My Squire Vintage Modified Jazz 4 string is already 4.8kg, so think the weight won't feel too bad. Having said that I do normally need a bass back in the stand break during practice/rehearsal! Have you weighed it?

Edit: Beg your pardon, you've already said your guitar weighed 5kg, and later that you had the MJ-5MN. Found the thread by seach and hit page 2.

Afternoon all,

I'm struggling to maintain enthusiasm for learning scales. What are the favorite books to follow for a guided method for leaning?

I'm rehearsing in a covers band and slowly improving my technique, but unable to go off piste at all. Looking to start building blocks to be able to play in a jam environment.

Thanks.

Thanks. At the moment my strategy would be as siple as looking at which models are a similar price new to the Squire VM and then looking for them or better second hand to try!

Happy to hear Cort is a trusted mark though.

Edit; missed Yamaha & Warwick off original list.

Morning all,

I've got a stock Squire Vintage Modified Jazz Bass which is currently the best quality in my small selection of 3 basses. In addition to this I have a hacked about Harley Benton P Bass that was originally a short scale and is now long scale with a 24 fret neck, and a Harley Benton six string with different pick ups and electrics.

I rehearse with a cover band and frequently find the B string on the six useful to cover drop tunings, and rather pickup the six and keep patterns the same than drop tuning on my jazz. I'm now considering moving on my Squire and seeking a similar quality 5 string. This would I assume give slightly larger spaced strings.

I'm mighty confused in the £300-400 territory. We've Squire (although there appear to be a few duffs), Cort, Harley Benton Delux, Vintage, & Ibanez to mention a few. There doesn't appear to be many places with a large second hand selection in the northwest, so I think I need to familerise myself with which models are the minimums to go for from these, or other makes. ZI'd consider single coil jazz, HH, or PJ pickup setups.

Does a new Harley Benton BZ 5000 make more sense than one of the others second hand or do I just need to get out to try whenever I see something come up nearby?

I fear this is likely to result in a huge range of options, but interested to listen!

I've also stumbled across some folk suggesting through body stringing being preferred for mainly fingerstyle players. Does that make a great difference to the feel too? None of mine are through body strung.

Edit: Scrub this question. Found a good chat on it via a web search and synopsis on the balace seems to be negligible difference.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/thoughts-on-thru-body-vs-bridge-stringing-on-same-bass.1484499/page-2

6 hours ago, Paolo85 said:

 

So, is the P bass a short scale?

It was a short scale! I bought it off ebay (only £60!) as I wanted a PBass in the fold and then realised it may be short scale before it arrived, which it was. I had already planned to swap over the pickups and hardware from my older project Warlock, but then decided to swap the neck too. Neck fit like a glove, scale from nut to bridge checked out, and was able to get intonation set ok.

It's very light, but perhaps having a light one in the group isn't a bad thing for when my back's having an off day!

Thanks all. It never occurred to me that the nut width may be different on the two basses. I'm going to keep playing them all and look really close at setup soon.

I wanted to know what to look for soon as I still want to build up a dual humbucker five string at some point, and would rather that sat in my sweet spot!

I suspect that this is likely to be a uniquely personal preference but thought I'd ask any way to make sure I'm not missing anything obvious!

I've got two 4 string basses; a Squire Jazz Vintage modified, and a project pbass made from a short scale Harley Benton that's now sporting the neck from a bronze series BC Rich Warlock, which I never got along with the body.

I really like both, but for some reason tunes seem easier to play on the PBass. Is it common to find a specific neck shape makes playing easier or is it more likely that I need to take a closer look at action etc?

Thanks.

Appreciate the reminder about a set turn on the pickup height screws having more tonal effect when the pick up is close to the strings compare to a pickup further away.

My neck pickup was far too close after I initially put it back together. I was getting some strange harmonics.

Morning all,

I appreciate pickup height is subjective, but can fould suggest a good starting point please?

My bass is HH configuration 6 string Harley Benton. The pickups have been changed to Warman MM6s.

These are spec'ed as:

16 kOhm

12 Henries

https://www.warmanguitars.co.uk/product/mm-double-6-6-string-bass-bucker-16kohm-pickup/

I've seen suggestions that the standard ~3mm neck and ~2.5mm bridge with top frets pressed maybe too close for generic Musicman style pickups?

My hearing isn't great, so conformation of a good starting point is appreciated. Thanks.

Finally finished the basics today. One of my Warman pickups was DOA. Returned it to them and they replaced and returned it arriving one day after I left for a 9 day break with the family!

Hoping to sort pickup height this evening but so far the effect of the pickup selector is very interesting. Single coil not sounding far off my Jazz bass and series and parallel sounding subtlety different on all but volume!

Recently been making an effort to finish some open ended projects and it's thankfully decimating the head Squirrel population! Can't see me completeing them all any time soon, but hopefully scratch off a few more soon. I'll class adding a master volume for this as a new project for another time!

Edit: Pickup height sorted. Happy with it!

On 06/04/2024 at 23:10, Mottlefeeder said:

Yes you would need something to mimic the pot. If you don't then you will hear pick-up (electrical) resonances that the pots usually damp down.

That's interesting. I've an irritating harmonic on my project bass which I had thought may have been due to technique, but now wonder if it's an artifact of my wiring!

Deleted double post...

Appreciate this read, thanks for posting. I'm a number of steps down the skill ladder from yourself but play monthly rehearsal sessions with three others. Two of these I know play bass, but as others have said we're the one with the bass in hand in our respective bands.

Played one gig a couple of years back (with a previous band put together in the music school I used to take lessons at) and the head squirrels really kicked off after, but on the upside resulted in me getting my cheap 6 string project bass! Having been there once before I'm working towards a much more enjoyable next outing and have a bit more of an idea about what to expect!