hooky_lowdown

Wow, that is a great price for such a good bass. GLWTS.

@The59Sound

I've owned a few Standard Squire PJ's. Some are better than others. Every time I had to change the pups and electrics as they are by far the weakest part of the bass. The last one I had I managed to set the action super low, with flats, and was a dream to play and nailed the p sound.

My goto bass now is a 57 style bitsa V4 p bass. Its light, neck plays like butter and the parts from a V4 are solid and sound great. I prefer it over any Fender I've played.

2 hours ago, JohnDaBass said:

Recently purchased a 32ins flat wound set from Pestie and I'm really pleased with their performance. I normally use Fender 9050ML flat wound strings on all my other basses and the Status flat wound strings appear to be brighter than the Fender without loosing any bottom end thump. 

Do your flats have silks on them? I'm hoping they bring out some 34in flats sometime soon.

Just thought, if you ever wanted a bass to play varied musical styles, then a Burns with tri-sonic pups would be ideal. I used to have a Burns Bison, it nailed the Precison, Jazz, Rickenbacker and upright bass sounds all at the flick of a switch. Great basses, just weighed an anchor.

The SD SPB3's are a middy pup. I believe most 50s P basses had PIO 0.1 caps, basically the higher the value the more high's are cut from your signal, these include middy high's as well.

As you play varied musical styles, then the SPB3's is probably a good choice for pup, to cut some of the mid's I suggest you play with the eq of your amp. AFAIK no pup is ideal for all styles of music, you need a good amp with a good eq to dial in the different tones you want. Otherwise your tone knob is your friend.

What sort of music do you play donslow?

If you decide to solder pots I highly recommend full size Alpha pots, similar to CTS only a lot cheaper. As for a cap, if you are into vintage/Motown stuff I suggest a paper in oil (PIO) 0.1 cap.

Lovely bass. GLWTS.

Wired in series.

Picked up a hot rails pickup to put in a squier bronco bass. The stock (guitar) pup in the bronco has just two wires which are black and white, however the hot rails pup has three wires (Bare and Black twisted together / White and Green twisted together / and a single Red) - see pic below. Can someone tell me which wires I need to solder and where to solder them?

I think the White and Green twisted wires need to be insulated with electric tape. And the other two (Bare and Black twisted and the Red) get soldered to the volume pot, but I'm not sure where on the volume pot these go?

Tonewise I've not found much difference in bridges - remember the material of the nut can also influence the sound from the strings. However, I did find using a high mass bridge over BBOT did give much greater sustain, also I found brass saddles also give better sustain.

Nice @fender73 I do like white with maple. What year is your MIM?

Both are nice. Always have a place in my heart for the 51slab body. The V4's are very tempting.

Have gas for a white on white/cream bass, will be something like a precision, so show me your white on white/cream basses to help me pull the trigger?

Like this...

Fender flats with red silks?

Fender make an “urban” gigbag for short scale basses.

I found ghs flats to be similar in nature (sound, feel and tension) to chromes and fender flats. These do indeed sound great on a p bass.

After some research I've just ordered some self-tapping screws (size 6 - 3.5mm) from evilbay. These should do the job.

Anyone know the screw size that will fit in a Dunlop straplock? After moving straplocks from bass to bass, the heads on the two screws are now stripped and I can't turn them anymore - infact they are a mess so I've had to chuck them. Need new screws, but can't find anything that fits with the small head size needed?

As the OP is starting out, it’s worth remembering the more speaker surface area, the louder the sound. Any cab less than a 410 is worthless in a screamo band imho.

Just thought, if you don't want to do a lot of knob twiddling - an alternative could be to run a Tech 21 Sansamp Bass Driver into a QSC power amp, then into whatever configuration of cabs you want.

17 minutes ago, tstephens said:

Thanks for your help. I like the look of these amps so will keep an eye out for them.

And I'm guessing you strongly recommend using an 8x10, whether that's in a complete box or in 2 lots of 4?

If you can try out a few different set ups either at a local music shop or rehearsal studios, you will be able to decide if 8x10 or 6x10 or 4x10 or 4x10 + 1x15 or 2x 15 is your favourite configuration. As you'll be playing very loud, anything with 4x10 to retain clarity would work best imho.

The Firebass head runs as low as 2 ohms so keep an eye out for what the cabs run at. You can use two 4 ohm cabs or even four 8 ohm cabs (which would be a wall of noise). The 410 cabs would be easier to move about, as they will be not as heavy as a 810. The Firebass head runs crystal clear even at super high volumes, put a svt simulator like a Sansamp bass driver in front of it and you should get very close to your godly sound.

For your budget, secondhand...

Head: Peavey Firebass 700 + Tech 21 Sansamp Bass Driver or Line 6 Lowdown HD750

Cab: x2 Peavey 410 tvx or Peavey 810 tvx

It's heavy gear, but super reliable, super loud and you should be able to get either option for under 400 notes.

I’m sure the Aria comes in sunburst as well.

10 minutes ago, BrunoBass said:

I see they’re currently offering a Precision for £55...

Expensive firewood.

I always use Chromes or Fender flats, they are similar in sound and tension.