DF Shortscale

The single colour / minimalist approach can be really nice, I love graphics like this on pedals. Although this may still be a UV print, I’m not sure.

I would love to, but there’s a full time job, a freelance career on the side, plus gigs, practice, and two mouths to feed* which unfortunately doesn’t leave much time for new hobbies.. *ok they’re just cats, but they do eat an awful lot

I guess that’s similar to people who build pedals using old tin boxes, that stuff looks great.

I guess printing will up the cost by a certain amount, and paying the artist will add to the cost if the artwork is not being done in-house. From what I can find online it seems like if you want full colour, the way to print these things is using UV printing. I think the place I work at has just bought some new equipment that can do this so I might buy a few enclosures and have a go.

Getting artwork onto pedals is quite a challenge, I’ve been looking into this over the past few days. Scribbling directly on the casing seems like the only method that isn’t a huge commitment, which is maybe why some boutique builders choose that as their ‘aesthetic’. Screen printing is probably the nicest method but it involves using inks that are pretty toxic, the studios I would normally print in don’t allow those materials.

Yeah, having looked around a bit it seems like lots of builders have a design background, if there were more hours in the day I’d go down the DIY route and start building stuff myself. Such a great platform for artwork.

It's not so much about buying pedals, I work as a designer / illustrator, I wanted to see if any builders needed help with artwork. Not for financial gain, more as a fun side project - I have a FT job so I'm busy enough but I always wanted to create artwork for pedals and really want to contribute or collab with a new builder.

Who's out there making cool / interesting / one-off / DIY pedals in the UK at the moment? Doesn't have to be bass specific, and if you're building pedals feel free to post your pedals and works in progress here too.

That’s only a quick drive from me, that would be great - I’ll send you a DM. Thank you! Thanks everyone for the great suggestions, really helpful.

Thanks Gary, I’ll send you a DM.

I need to get a body refinished, seems like it’s a little tricky to find anyone who does paintwork in London, is there anyone here on BC who does that sort of thing? Alternatively any recommendations in London / South East?

There are a few bass friendly vendors on the list, Origin / Diamond etc, I'm hoping they'll bring some bass bits along. It's not too far from where I live so I'll go along on the Saturday and report back.

Thought this might be of interest here, first I've heard of it but looks pretty good to me, and it's free. Not sure how much bass related stuff they'll have there but the vendor list looks pretty intriguing, has anyone been to one of these before? https://delicious-audio.com/london-synth-pedal-expo-2024/

Should be ok, I have a Dimarzio Model J going in there. I’m hoping that’s loud enough, I have a PJ with a quarter pounder in the P position and a Model J at the bridge and volume wise they match, despite the loud P pickup. Should also be ok in terms of string spacing. Interesting that you prefer the pickup right by the bridge, I think it might be a little too quacky back there for me, would probably sound good with both pickups on but I do like to solo the bridge sometimes.

Re relative scale length - no, but I measured another of my short scales for reference (Atelier Z) and the bridge pickup on that one is pretty much in the optimal spot, so I was going with that as the reference point. Re. test rig - I can't do this myself because I have significantly less than 2 brain cells, but I could definitely ask the guy doing the modding if he'd be willing to do this.

I hear you, C was my original choice too, the only thing stopping me was that I measured all my favourite basses and the distance between the 2 pickups (outer edge to outer edge) was always around 10cm. Perhaps a measurement from the bridge would make more sense than measuring the distance between pickups. I'd like to approximate 60's J bass pickup locations. I won't be doing the routing myself so I may not be able to find the sweet spot in the way you suggest, which I know would be the ideal scenario.

I'm about to mod a bass not unlike the one above. Before I go ahead and ruin things, would you go with position A, B or C? My choice is B, with around 10cm from bridge pickup outer edge (closest to bridge) to neck pickup outer edge (closest to neck). It's going to be vol/vol/tone with the jack going to the side of the body. Feel free to talk me out of it if you think one of the other positions makes more sense.

Wow that bass sounds tasty, the tones in this and the other video you posted with the flats are killer. Really like that Gemini pickup in the bridge. I’ll send you a DM.

I’ll post some info and pics once I’ve modded it.

Thanks for the motivation! I’m gonna do it. Or rather get someone who knows what they’re doing to do it.

Thanks, yeah it would definitely be a blend, not a fan of pickup switches at all. I'm half tempted to buy the Model J set, so if I'm not happy with the tone of the P-style pickup I'll just turn the whole thing into a jazz bass. It's a funny old pickup, it looks like a 50's P pickup but is actually a split coil. I'm also going to switch out the tone control, it's doing something nasal that I really don't like at the moment, it's not doing what you'd expect a tone control to do on a Precision. It's quite a lot of modding, which I'm not normally into but it's a case of a bass with perfect ergonomics and playability but weird tone. I want to be able to gig with it.

I have a Musicmaster style short scale which has a fairly loud P-style pickup installed in it. It's a very nice bass but it feels like it desperately needs a bridge pickup somewhere around the 60's position, not right by the bridge like the current USA Mustangs but much closer to the 60's spot. Before I go ahead and butcher this bass (it's not vintage and it's not a Fender), can anyone: a. give me any reason why this would be a terrible idea? b. recommend a single coil J pickup that has a nice loud but vintage J style tone, and won't be dwarfed by the loud P pickup? Nothing modern / over the top / no giant humbuckers etc, just a traditional (but maybe louder than average) J bridge pickup. Also - if anyone has done this mod on a shortie, please tell me how it went, and whether you liked the outcome or thought it was a waste of time. Thanks!

Origin / Jad Freer / Broughton / Sushi Box all make preamp pedals that address this, it’s probably the least expensive way to get a bit of vintage voicing into your signal chain. Genzler’s Nu Classic cabs are also voiced to sound more like older cabs, I haven’t tried these but if they’re anything like the rest of their product line I’m sure they will be amazing.