DocTrucker

@dudewheresmybass certinally no harm in trying! Only recently nailed the issue down to to the preamp. 30/12/23 Edit: Issue appears to be a PSU dropping out. Likely nothing wrong with the Digbeth Pre.

Pretty sure my Digbeth has developed a fault that makes it into something I can't rely on. 😞 Never knowingly pushed it hard but now the output occasionally drops to next to nothing. I did at first think it was the active electronics in my Harley 6 string, but it also happened with my Squire Vintage Modified Jazz 4 string. Alas well past warranty period. Used the same combo amp without the digbeth at rehersal direct from the squire with no issues last week. It's a frustating occasional drop, perhaps something isn't cooling right. 30/12/23 Edit: Issue appears to be a PSU dropping out. Likely nothing wrong with the Digbeth Pre.

Not that it changes this much but I mainly focus on plucking and have recently added a couple of pick tracks to the rehersal list. I don't slap at the moment. My equipment is a daily 4 string Squire Vintage Modefied and a Harley fretted Six string which is in the process of being having its electronics swapped at the moment.

Morning all. I'm a notch or two up from beginner on the bass and reherse monthly with a guitarist and drummer in a local studio. I like blues rock through to heavy metal with a few outliers like Vangellis and Zimmer sound tracks. The musical tastes of the others is wider still. I've been looking at multi effects units as both a similification (aside from the learning curve!) and cost perspective. My ears aren't what they used to be. I have Meniere's disease which comes hand in hand with a-symetric hearing loss which is profound at high pitch and severe throughout the rest of the spectrum on my right side and normal ish for a ~40 year old on my left! With that in mind the highest details of digital vs analogue are likely to be lost on me and it makes setting tones on the fly in a noisey environment very difficult. So for a broad spectrum unit that does well from bypass (/tuner) out towards more synthy blade runner sound track like stuff what are the community favorites without loosing £300+? Would these allow me to set up a play list and increment through them quickly at a poor light (had thoughts about adding a light to the pedal board!) gig? I wouldn't mind a balanced out (stereo as going to PA) but could easily add that separately. Zoom B9? Boss GT-10b? Something else? I was thinking whether this should be my next investment or a rig, but the more I think about it working towards getting a PA ready output seems more sensible, but stand to be corrected!

Yup, that's the way it's going. I have two DPDT pickup tap switchs on order so I can do single/parallel/series changes on the coils, making sure I keep the current flow in the right direction for the humbucking. It won't be pretty but it will give the pickups a fair chance before looking at routing out for Warman MM6s.

Looking at other 6 string bass pickups on ebay that resistance (when wired in series) is about half that you'd expect for a 6 string pickup. So perhaps the fix would ideally include pickups too?

Just stripped it back a bit to see what I have got. Neck pick up looks to have nicely matched coils, one of the coils on the bridge is a bit mismatched, but at only 2.2% higher resistance than the other of the pair I'm assuming this is within the relms of matched? Neck (Ohms) 7160 black green (white red joined - serial) 3580 white black 3580 green red Bridge (Ohms) 7210 black green (white red joined - serial) (+0.7% over Neck) 3570 white black 3650 green red (+2.2% over first coil) Edit: Having written that I guess coil matching has to consider inductance too, so DC resistance only part of the story?

Thanks. Don't mind active that come with recomendations! Yes, thos units look only a little more pricy than a decent CTD or Bournes audio pot! From memory I think I had access to more than just hot and ground from the coils. Is it worth thinking about switches to change the wiring of each pickup, or is that only really useful/distinguishable for the most acutwly trained ear?

Great. Think that is the best way forward then. Not worth trying to fault find in that bird's nest! I did sketch out the the loom at one point but long since lost that! Link to model: https://harleybenton.com/product/b-650-bk/

Terminology not likely to be on point! There is a pre amp in the cavity. Is it anyones guess what a double humbucker is likely to sound like in the double volume tone setup? Is it something that lends itself to a specific style or are setup changes like this more subtle? Edit: Yeah, needs a clean! Been sat on thw side for a few months!

I should clarify as I imagine most are not familiar with this beginner 6 string. This has a volume knob that when pulled out the active system is used and when pushed in it works as passive. Guess I've answered my own question on if passive can be used, so the question remains. Would you: Use existing pickups and rewire for pure passive. Or Look at alternative active electronics and either use a jack controlled power, add a switch somewhere, or simply remove battery as habit.

Morning All, Disclaimer: Early stage player with an urge to tinker with most things! Appreciate a 6 string wouldn't be most people's pick for me, and to reasure I have a trusty squire vintage modified which is my default rehersal bass! Earlier last year I bought a Harley Benton 6 string to experiment with. I enjoy playing it (after a comprehensive setup by Luither which corrected intonation issues) and am begining to use the extra strings a little more. There are however gremlins in the electronics. The sound out of the amp sometimes drops right down or becomes dull, doesn't appear to be down to my active pedal pre amp as my squire has so far been immune. I also find the push in volume knob switch to activate the active pickups infuriating as it has nearly always been knocked and flat by the time I need it! So at least a soldering iron job and at most a brain & pickup transplant! A few options... 1) Jack plug power cut for active pickups:- I think you can get jack plugs that control the power and use that to cut the power feed from the battery, or failing that add a switch somewhere. 2) Convert to plain passive:- Are the pick ups likely to be usable for conversion to passive? If so swap to a double tone and volume setup? 3) Alternative pickup & active:- Due to the neiche market for 6 string basses I'm assuming an alternative active pickups (or any pickups for that matter) are expensive? I've no issue with passive electronics as my squire sounds great to me. I appreciate the Harley Benton won't be the best advert for active, so won't judge active vs passive purely on this one! What are your thoughts on these options? I'm leaning to conversion to passive if people think that is likely to be feasible.

I've set my string height with a depth gauge to the top of the string rather than using this ruler as I find it more consistent.

It is difficult to get a decent photo of action but that first one was just trying to show the angle of the fret board. I'll try and post another for action on B shortly. Any lower and I get buzz on first 2-3 frets but the action is plenty low enough for me I think! My skills are not near the session musician end just yet! This was a little compensation for knuckling down to some more dull time with scales. Gap under the 7th fret with the first and 24th held down is about 0.25-0.5mm. Photo of action to follow...

2.7mm at B string 12th fret.

It'd be more useful if you suggest what action you believe to be correct between an open B string and the top of the 12th and the same for the C.

Think the saddles are high to cope with the neck angle. I'm going through setting up the action. To be honest action at the 12th fret was in the right ball park as pictured. Bridge pickup was high as I was part way through experimenting with improving passive mode tone. Pickup was moved toward strings, not strings up from pickup. I'll see what the saddles are like with the action set right.

Thanks @Doctor J relieved to hear it's not a fail straight away. Will run through a setup and see how things go. This is the guide that I have followed in the past for - but not specific to - my Squire Jazz Bass: https://www.jerzydrozdbasses.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-the-perfect-bass-guitar-setup

Hi all, I was half expecting issues with this because of the price. Return this bass? The finger board isn't parrallel to the body. Looks like the action has had to be set very high.

So thinking something like: Intro 1 2 3 Verse 1 2 3 4 Giving the ability move about a bit it somrone comes in a bar or two too late for a solo, or singing a verse?

Yeah, I know I've been too hard on myself this time. Need to change my mindset for gigs vs practice.

Recently jumped at the chance to join a band pieced together from our local music school. Up until around early 2019 I'd been learning bass at the school but had lost enthusiasm. This band is the first time I've played with others - aside from a tutor - and required many big steps for me such as comitting songs to memory and ditching my tab comfort blanket. Playing with others has given me back the spark for playing that I had lost. Our first set was a short 25min one Saturday just gone and the amount information and experience gathered from that is mountain like, and I am now slowly chipping through it in order to get the most from it. Two big question areas. How you folks structure the songs in your heads to learn them? How do you balance self critique? Learning songs to play in their entirety without tab to refer to was new to me. I took the approach of tabbing it out (with a few tweaks or simplifications) on my computer so I could hear an isolated 'perfect' bass line to help get the muscle memory sorted. Next step was playing over and over against album tracks of the originals - including versions of songs that I hacked to suit changes we had made. On the later rehersals where we all 'knew' the songs it fell apart in the abscence of the singer. We were relying on the vocals to guide us through the song stucture. The gig also highlighted an issue with practicing against original tracks and dealing with not bring able to hear everyone clearly on stage. While playing at the gig it all felt odd, almost deja vu like as I suspect key parts or sounds I had subconciuosly anchored my song structure to were either missing or lost in the mix. What methods do you use to structure songs in your head? Sure no one size fits all, but can you simply play your bass parts in their entirety with nothing to guide you? I found that most tricky on the simplest bass lines where a 2 or 4 bar pattern is repeated to death before a suden change. Do you learn the lyrics to the songs word perfect and have an internal monologue singing them out or think more interms of intro - verse 1 - verse 2 - chorus - bridge etc? Practice the complete songs in isolation against a metronome/click track? And now the big one, managing you mindset! There's no subsitute for experience. For a newbee to gigging the stress levels were up in the beams as I juggled with many new to me experiences and challanges. I'm sure gig 2 will be more enjoyable for me. For this gig though while on stage I felt like I was playing chicken with a dump truck at night. I was mentally cooked when I came off stage and rather than enjoying the posative vibes and feedback I had already begun to over analyse my mistakes and spiralled, taking the best part of a day after to sort my head out. How best to manage a healthy balance of self critique for continual improvement and enjoying the moment? Deep questions really, and things many of you manage with little thought. Not quite asking how do I be a bassist, but not far from!