Grand Wazoo

Ok peeps as promised this is the first of the video clinics I "taped" yesterday, and please accept my apologies for the sound, but the auditorium was full and the only place I could sit down was in the proximity of the fugging drummer who's noise is almost covering the bass sound. So you've gotta turn the sound right up, ok? This is T.M. Stevens, what a powerful player! Here we go!

Faaakin' hell! Don't know what to say. Sorry to hear.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1160199' date='Mar 13 2011, 09:40 AM']Thanks! It looked vaguely Jet King-ish in shape but I didn't realise that they had 3 pickups. No 5-string version though :-([/quote] The special show price on that Ibanez bass was £235, not bad, but I found those 3 pickup selector switches to be awfully flimsy and noisy. It needs a more hi quality switching system.

It was a great show actually, I got to meet Sheldon Dingwall who is a very genuine and down to earth person, Barry Lamb also from Dingwall Guitars, and it was great to hang out with all of them after the show, including Dave Swift, Barry Lamb, John East (the preamp genius) Mark from Bass Direct (top bloke) and a few other I either can't pronounce their name or can't remember. I also saw great performance workshops by T.M. Stevens, Marco Mendoza, Gary Willis and a chap called Mark King who wears electrical tape on his right hand thumb, fancy that!?? Any ol' ways here here is a slideshow of some of pics I took yesterday, enjoy! (there are video links of the performance to come soon after I upload them to youtube) [u][b][size=3][url="http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r200/xt660/Bass%20Show%2012%20March%202011/?albumview=slideshow"]Click here for slideshow[/url][/size][/b][/u]

Absolutely accurate description of The Bass Gallery and the people who work there. Top store, top people. I've bought 2 of my Dingwall's there the ABZ 5 and the Super J 5

[b]Any of these over my dead body[/b]

This is a very sore subject. I sold a bass to someone here 8 years ago, didn't even know they were member of this forum, thought I had lost sight of the bass for good, I sold it in a moment of desperation, at a time when I was very down and out, now... I say [i]sold[/i] but it was more like I had given it away really, anyway I was desperate. I got back on my feet eventually and nowadays I am 10 times better off than I was 8 years ago / Divorcedv (pheww never again) / new home although smaller than my first house with the ex / with new younger and prettier girlfriend etc. One day I found out the person I sold it too was in this forum infact they contacted me out of the blue, I asked if they were willing to sell it back stating I was even willing to offer a bit more than I sold it to them and to my despair they wanted more than twice the amount I sold it to them for. I politely told them thanks but no thanks its a matter of principle and I was hurt already by selling it I didn't need the additional pain of having to pay over the odds for it so I turned it down. A life lesson learnt. Never again. Never marry and divorce peeps, as the song says: It's cheaper to keep her! Word.

[quote name='Prime_BASS' post='1154034' date='Mar 8 2011, 04:44 PM']I hate you! Mine wasnt on the shipment ![/quote] I feel for you it's horrible when a shipment comes in and your bass is not on it.

Congrats to both. The Big Al is what Forrest Gump desrcibed as a box of chocolates, in terms of sounds, you never know what you gon' get next! And Gareth before you take it back let me know what you think of it. hahaha me hearty! just teasing you

[quote name='tom1946' post='1153329' date='Mar 8 2011, 07:25 AM']In defence of Mr Wazoo I have changed the wiring on a Squier that had plastic covered wire and small pots and while it didn't make the earth shake the progression of the volume and tone was much more evenly spread, not 'on or off' like the original. [b][size=4]What does the capacitor do? How necessary is it?[/size][/b][/quote] I am glad you've asked that question, well a good quality capacitor, when used in conjunction with quality pots and wirings, will actually do a very impressive job, in fact your tone control will have an amazing sweep from 0 to max going from very dark but not muffled to very bright while retaining bass presence and not just a brittle toppy sound, in fact at every bit in between the pot sweep you can really appreciate the differece it makes. I know is a cliche' but hearing is believing.

[quote name='hellothere' post='1153292' date='Mar 8 2011, 02:00 AM']I don't see what offended you in my response as I meant nothing by it. No hard feelings?[/quote] No pal nothing offensive from you, it wasn't you who got my back up it was this wrong'n... [quote]That's a contencious point. There are those who seem convinced that changing a few scraps of wire, two pots and a capacitor is going to turn any old bass into a hi-tech masterpiece. On the other side of the scale there are those who reckon it's all just a pile of old cack and a bit of stripped down flex off of a discarded toaster will do the exact same job.[/quote]

Lets review this subject from a practical point, shall we? [b]Question: [/b]Why are Squier basses so cheap compared to real Fender? [b]Answer: [/b]because they are bodged together by low paid factory workers in the third world (Indonesia to name one) and made to look like the real thing at the least possible cost and without hardly any luthier skills in the making of them. The End. Apart from the very early 1983 JV's series which were the equivalent of what today is CIJ and MIJ Fender's all the other Squier's that came after the JV's were made with cheapness as a priority in other words to stop the loss of revenue Fender was suffering from all the copycat companies of the time, if you can't beat them join them so here is why we have Squier. The Classic Vibe series from China has been the best out of the lot after the JV's but even those are built with very very cheap electronic parts. The pots are bad and the wires used are so weak you can cut them with your nails. How can a proper quality signal be carried through such low quality components is what divides the boys from the men here, The pickups are definately not hifi and if you have ever owned a real Fender you will know why. But hey. Each to his own and if you are happy with a Squier as standard then god bless you. However if you want it to sound good and last you well, then a few pounds spent on it will make a great improvement in the performance side of things. Modding a cheap bass is a great platform to appreciate what makes a good quality instrument. +++ And by the way that was free advice I have given, so you should just appreciate it as that, the words gift horse & mouth comes to mind. I'll be damned if I'll give any more advice if that is the response I get.

Do you want it painted or unpainted? are you able to seal / sand, paint and spray?

HS best of both worlds, no one really needs an humbucker in the neck position, goes against religion almost. You need the neck sound to be mellow and moderate not overpowering, or it sounds like pants on stingray.

how much is the budget you are willing to invest? You say the bass don't work. That could be as simple as a loose / cut wire or as complicated as a f'd up pickup. Now the P bass has one of the world's simplest wiring schematics, so have a look here to learn how it should be wired, this way you can detect any anomalies and put them right. If all fails then your pickup is indeed f'd. Seymour Duncan wiring diagram for standard P bass: [url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/images/products/basslines/501030-100.pdf"]http://www.seymourduncan.com/images/produc.../501030-100.pdf[/url] Get back to this thread after you have tested the wiring and we can take it from there but I anticipate the following. To give your bass a solid sound I know for a fact that Squier wiring quality is poor in both material and workmanship not to mention the weakness of the pickup they use. you can buy pickups from as low as £40 to as high as £120 and it all depends on how deep your pocket is, but we can talk about that later First and foremost you need to junk all wiring and pots including the input jack and buy this kit from ebay which is the best available for a P bass, even a standard Fender would benefit from this kit: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Angela-Premium-Wiring-Kit-Fender-Precision-P-Bass-/370435071607?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item563fa69e77"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Angela-Premium-Wirin...=item563fa69e77[/url] before applying the new kit make sure the pickup and wiring cavities are well screened with the following: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GUITAR-SCREENING-COPPER-TAPE-SHIELDING-SELF-ADHESIVE-/270703967186?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3f0736bbd2"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GUITAR-SCREENING-COP...=item3f0736bbd2[/url] Then you can see about Seymour Duncan Vintage style pickup from as little as £47 [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Seymour-Duncan-SPB-1-Vintage-P-Bass-Pickup-NEW-/130427353607?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item1e5e137a07"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Seymour-Duncan-SPB-1...=item1e5e137a07[/url] I think that's your lot! Good luck

[size=3][center][b]*CRAFTY TIP*[/b][/center][/size] If you have a Stingray 5 from 2002 to 2009 the one with the ceramic pickup, you can find a series setting if you fiddle with the blade switch in between the middle and top position, i.e. like on the old 3 ways strats if you manage to stop it halfway you will get that fatter series setting. But its a bit of a pain cause it wont stay there if you move your bass about or knock it with your hand, I used to stick a matchstick in there to block it into place.

Dingwall basses come with those Glockenklang pre-amps and yeah they are awesome. You can tell the subtle difference when switching from passive to active in the fact that they really just add frequency range rather than over-colouring the tone or giving you an unwanted exaggerated boost. I really rate those preamps. +10000000

And yes I did own one of them a 2003 model with ceramic pickup which I replaced with a Seymour Duncan AlNiCo because I didn't like the way it sounded with the SR5, I remember mentioning in the EBMM forum and everyone's got their knickers in a twist because of it. Did my face looked bothered?

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1151409' date='Mar 6 2011, 01:03 PM']Do you mean pre 1992 or have you swapped the pup?[/quote] That bass is not mine but as far as I recall EBMM went throuh a period I am not accurately sure, but somewhere between 2001 to 2009 when they issued all SR5's with toilet rim pickups until they finally decided to go back to AlNiCo.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='1151293' date='Mar 6 2011, 11:17 AM']Which year/magnets is your Ray? [/quote] That would be pre 2002 and have alnico.

It would be interesting to see how that lower horn would dig on your leg when playing sitting down, which is one of the problem that for instance a Bongo has, the lower horn on the Bongo really does dig and hurts, I should imagine the one on that new Ibanez to be worse.

My advice to you is that you stick with the single H there is more tone to find in having just the one pickup than the confusion created by the 2 pickups giving you 4 different sounds which will only distract you. Your right hand position it's all you really need to obtain different nuances by moving it closer to the bridge or neck or anywhere in between. Less is actually more.

Gareth, I'm not being funny but perhaps the issue is not within the bass but to do with the sound processing, I totally recommend you to play your jazz through a simple but very effective TEch 21 VT Bass pedal, it's guaranteed to beef up the thinnest bass possible and can make a real crappy amp sound the bollox, have a go at trying one and then report back, you will say Fran you were right, you're a f---ing genius!

It is usually referred to as the "poor man's stingray" because it can sound very similar to a Stingray. However it's neither here nor there in terms of sounds and a little on the heavy side.