brickers

Thanks. I think that thought was probably in the back of my head. I currently have some EMG pickups that allow some of this tonal variety but I don’t really care for the differences that much, but I also think I’m not a fan of these particular pickups in general, so I’m struggling to know what the issue is. I guess this is what sterling did with their HH models… should have got an HH! 😭

Thanks Michael.

Absolutely. Takes a swathe of inexpensive basses off my shopping list, sadly. But I cannot get over it since some Canadian on talkbass compared it to a moose head

I’m considering building a music man/super jazz hybrid tone monster. The initial idea is to buy two quad coil humbucking pickups and set up the electronics for every possible combination. Each pick up would have a five way switch to choose between north coil, south coil, both coils in series or parallel, or off. And then a two-way switch to choose between combining the output of each pick up in series or in parallel. A couple of questions I have: Is this a viable way of combining the two pick ups electronics wise? is it even worth making all of these two options available?

I have a sire jazz bass that I routed some wood out of for new pickups. I’m considering routing out yet more wood for different pickups. Sooner or later I want to repaint the body and fill the unused cavities and I’m just wondering the best way of doing that. The plan so far is to fill the cavities by gluing in wood blocks, lightly sand most of the body, and completely sand the front, then use car paint spray cans for the refinish. My concern is that over time there might be some join visible on the front if there is wood movement - I’m going for a pickguardless look. Is it worth finding some very thin sheet wood to glue over the front? For example Hobbycraft have sheets that are 1/32 of an inch thick. Does anyone have any experience of refinishing sire bodies? Are they known to be polyurethane? And if so am I right in thinking they can be painted over as long as they’ve been sanded to give the paint something to hold onto? Would this apply to the headstock too - I’d like to match the body colour and I’ve GOT to get rid of that terrible shape…

I love Ernie Ball cobalt flats. They tend to be more like a roundwound in sound that many other flats, but they don't have that zing to start and mellow nicely. i'm told they stay at that point for a long time. only issue people complain about is rusting, though it's purely cosmetic, and if you use something fastfret it'll prevent it.

Hey @Gaano124 do you happen to have any sound examples of your mod? I recently bought a new ray34 and already I’m tone chasing. Would be really nice to hear the effect of your change. Also did you find the pickup without thumb rest fitted straight in to the existing hole?

I’ve been playing a lot of different strings on a couple of different basses - a jazz and the new stingray. The good news is that I’ve realised string tension, feel and flat/roundness are less important to me than I thought, and the same goes for neck shape and size. It takes me a minute or two and I can adjust. I’m pretty pleased about this as a short while ago I couldn’t play a p and needed a slim jazz neck, and I needed lower tension flats. So that feels like progress in a non musical way and opens up options to get the right sound. The bad news is I’m tone chasing and concerned that my new bass isn’t what I thought it was. I put fresh rounds on my old jazz and got 80% of what I wanted 😢The ray34 is a great bass but the array of options between the preamp and variety of strings is a lot to get through to find what I want. Then I found this video yesterday which has the tone I’m after, so I bought a 45-100 set of these Ernie ball cobalt flats, and I have something to aim for. They seem to have a brightness without clank, and a nice metallic rattle which is a big part of the stingray sound to me. Only time will tell whether it was worth the cost!

Thanks. I was reading about these elsewhere and heard the same about brightness. Weird naming. They’re on the list

Are the TI rounds similar in feel to their flats? I have a set of their flats so might test them out The Dogals certainly are pricey… £60-£70 from thomann! Probably a bit beyond me currently, but I appreciate the info

As far as I’m aware they only had this one in stock so if you try one it’s probably the one I had!

Hi all I've got the aforementioned labella’s on my jazz bass and love the feel. Just pickup a stingray and am looking for a set of roundwounds with a similar feel, ideally a bit growly and not too zingy - the preamp can provide plenty of that if needed. Presumably I’m looking for something nickel or nickel plated (I’d prefer not to shred my fingers or frets with stainless steel anyway) and maybe round core? So far I can find GHS round core boomers and DR Sunbeams - anyone have an experience with their flexibility? What other options might be worth looking at?

I must half-sheepishly admit to returning this bass. I actually think there might be a design flaw with it - I kept hearing a chorus-type effect that I associate with pickups being too close to the strings. Unfortunately the pickups are tall and there was only maybe a millimetre of travel to move them away, and it made no difference. The guys in anderton’s couldn’t hear it, but I play mostly on headphones through an hx stomp, so maybe it less noticeable through an amp. Maybe my mind was playing tricks, but I couldn’t get past it, and that feeling of inexpensiveness did not go either. As I was within the first 14 days of owning they allowed me to return with no questions - great service from Andertons once more. I went for a ray34 and I’m so glad I did - it is twice the price but way more than twice the bass (not least in weight…) and feels like a forever bass. And due to an error on anderton’s part, I came away with a superb sire gig bag for free, that easily exceeded the one Hils included. So a lot of what I originally said still stands but I realise now how much I was swayed by the size - it really did make the normal sized basses seem unmanageable and they’re just not. And if you want a stingray - get a stingray…

Thanks for the responses. I think this is the info I was after - basically, you can build something that’s just a long stick and this is how it can be balanced. Cheers I wasn’t, but having looked I like the cut of their jib!

I’m thinking of building a small body to put on a jazz neck a really like. Like really small - enough for pickups, bridge, controls and enough shape to be able to rest it on my leg when sitting, but no more. Are there any examples of basses like this with a headstock rather than headless? Or am I just asking for it to want to dive south? If so, is it possible to counter that with good strap placement?