Al Nico

Thank you. Yes, the bridge pickup is so close to the bridge it makes wild mid range sounds, and without a preamp. I like that. No battery. Here's the plan. I've ordered a 'Custom Series - Crafted in America' headstock label from the web to replace the old 'Made in China' sticker. It will validate the inlays, and increase the instruments value to around £9,500.00. Cunning eh?

I tried this fret cleaning kit that came in a pack of 6 D'addario piccolo bass strings. It's a very slightly abrasive cloth sheet and works a treat.

Drink plenty of spirits, tune by ear, and be as loud as possible.

@Leonard Smalls Exciting stuff. Great beat, and that bass riff growls the good one - I'm jumping round the room.

Do you have a Theremin by chance?

Thank you. Please, no apology needed. It's interesting to me.

The Fender Jazz is a good choice. I borrowed an active one a long time ago to record with and liked the sound. I do seem to like the twangy bass guitars, like the Spector. Mine is a passive EMG thing and the HB is active. I'm not after endless tone shaping, just good sounding pickups to select. The EMGs on the Spector sound nice when the string clanks the frets, I end up doing it on purpose, slapping the string with finger tips, but the HB sounds bad like that. The challenge is to play an instrument before buying. I've introduced myself at the local guitar shop and they might be able to help a bit in that respect. They have a billion guitars, and half a dozen basses, two are acoustic, one fretless. Tricky.

Fixed now, cleaned up, and setup. Flattened the neck and socket. While the neck is off it got a wash in antibaterial hand soap and a fret polish using a kit that came with some D'addario strings. It's a very simple solution. Here's the before: Now a quick rub - behave. Nice. So now it is back together. It fitted together in a slightly different place. A few more tweaks of truss rod and saddles brought it into shape a little better than before. That's about as good as it gets, and it's not bad. Ready to go from my bedroom woodwork workshop and polishing area, to my bedroom electronics department for new pots.

@Mykesbass Yes I agree. I have no intention of bashing the instruments or playing hard, apart from the odd bit. I've been conscious of longevity while practicing. I've played in bands doing two 1.5 hour sets with a guitar. That's physically easy, but with the 12kg HB-70 with big strings, I last four songs standing before back cramp sets in. It's partly why I got the Spector, to see if I can stand an play it without back cramp, and I can. @Reggaebass Thank you for that. Assuming your username reflects a style you aim at, you would likely have considered, and tested how much bass you get from any sort of string, so I'm putting that advice directly into my scrap book. @HeadlessBassist Funkmeister sounds familiar. The've got packed away for now, so can't check. What I find is the lighter strings with their increased dynamics or articulation, need a bit more even playing to stay even sounding, where the bigger ones are a bit easier to keep even. I've already started to prefer a particular bass for particular songs I'm practicing. In the end, I want a bass guitar that does it all. Which one shall I get for that, and which strings?

Look what I found. This neck was upgraded from a four bolt to a five bolt, without removing the four bolts. Nice tight fit tho. I'll scrape both sides flat with a tungsten stripper blade, and see how it sets up then.

@Lozz196 @Norris @Mykesbass Hi. Thank you for the replies. You seem you understand my ambiguous reporting. It's a tricky one. As you mentioned, the experience of changing from playing heavy to playing light stings, is a delightful experience. While I'm learning I like the higher effort needed for the heavy strings, to develop strength in my little finger. I think I've done that now and gone past sore fingers a few months ago. Just left with a tingly left index finger tip, I think that is permanent nerve damage, so should never feel sore again. Ultimately, I will have to experiment to find what I like, but thank you for passing on your thoughts.

Hi. I am now the lucky owner of two, albeit budget, bass guitars. A Harley Benton TB-70, the thunderbird derived instrument with a set neck, and a Spector with a spangly bolt on. The HB has noticeably thicker strings on it and produces a strong sound, where the lighter stringed Spector is more articulate with a lower fundamental. It takes noticeably more effort to pluck the thick HB strings, hence the strong sound. I realise it's a dodgy comparison in terms of tone, since they are different constructions, materials and electronics. I expect someone must have been here before and decided to change string gauge? If I put thicker strings on the Spector to get a louder fundamental, will it stop being articulate? Also, my son gifted me some very light gauge strings which I'm not sure if I'd like? Packet says they are funky? I'd be interested to hear about any experience you have of changing string gauges.

Hi. I think I found where the setup problem was. To get the neck and action setup I was nearly out of down adjustment on the bridge saddles and had that thing where the low F rattled, but the rest of the fretboard is ok. The saddles being low I suspected the neck had lost it's structural integrity. But, my mind thinks about stuff for a long time. It has to, to arrive at solutions others arrive at sooner. I put the bass face down on the bed and applied some force at the neck joint. After, on inspection, the action was now a little lower. I got a large screwdriver and tightened the neck screws. Now with the neck in a new position I could slacken the truss rod a tiny bit, raise the bridge half a squidge, and now low F plays the same as the others. That's two bass guitars I've fixed from the pawn shop now. I may advertise my apparent skills?

@Chiliwailer Good sounds and mix. Bass is soft and strong and magical all at once.

Good circuit design I've no doubt. It would introduce a battery and although the battery last 800 hrs, 200 of them will be struggling, and I have no battery access compartment. Passive. Yep. Def passive

Production Tools. MT Power 2 drums - Donation ware - 120bpm Little wooden Bajolele, Double tracked and panned stereo (SM57). Claps - Hands x 4, (SM 57) panned wide layered with centre clap sample Guitar - Budget Jackson V with Schaller hot vintage neck humbucker into Line 6 virtual plexi and 4 x 12. Bass - Spector with EMG-SSD passive with real solder bobbles - compressed. Synthesizer - Xfer Serum - played on PC keyboard . Line 6 USB1 audio interface - Pentium 2nd Gen PC - Ableton 9. I already recorded the ukes a few months back, so built a track using them. The image drew me to imagine a futuristic fairground organ style circus sound. Happy tune with running bass, side snare and clapping. Key of C, the happiest key. I can't really say I wrote the tune, more fitted together a load of typical musical clichés, and probably some nursey rhymes and music I've probably heard before, until I had a big happy futuristic showbiz extravaganza. I had fun making it. Left it a bit sloppy too because it seems to work like that? Very different to what I usually make.

Thank you. I looked up Mixpot. Tidy solution and other good things. Good to know. I have decided to stick with passive though. I like the sound this bass makes. I might only upgrade the pots and wiring as per factory setup, and stick with that. Having got to know this Spector a bit, it has so much mid range on the bridge pickup, I don't have to find it with other tricks. Stands out in the mix no problem.

@Woodinblack Hi. I asked Chat GPT about setting up a blend from series to parallel and It's technically possible, however: Chat GPT: It’s Not Perfect The transition isn't linear (you don't get a smooth tonal gradient — it’s more like a shape-shifting zone between the two extremes). You’ll likely lose output level, clarity, or introduce tone weirdness in the mid-position. Requires careful impedance matching to avoid phase cancellation or signal loss. It goes on to give solutions, the easiest being don't fade it, have a switch. All the fade solutions are large technical projects. Chat GPT: Why a Switch is Better for Series/Parallel No phase or impedance weirdness — the pickups are either fully in series or fully in parallel, electrically clean. Consistent output — no mid-blend signal drop like with pots. Simple wiring — easy to implement with a push-pull pot or mini toggle (DPDT). Predictable tone: Series = louder, thicker, mid-heavy. Parallel = clearer, lower output, scooped mids. Sounds Like an interesting option. I'm going to stick with passive. I'll test series - parallel first and if useful, decide on a switch or pull pot. Prefer switch.

Hi. I've made a demo with these passive EMG-SSD pickups. I ran it through a Line6 Pod GX. It went into the Ampeg. About 30% gain, 50% the rest except low mids on 75%. Into a thumpy compressor pedal then into a limiting compressor. Chose some different playing styles and pickup settings. Played a few bass lines to tunes that are a bit above my pay grade from ear, from memory, which produces better bass lines by allowing gopping differences in notation and timing. Original Tempos are retained. I rate the pickups. Very clear and articulate. The bridge pickup has so much mid, buy lowering the neck pickup slowly against it, the sounds sweeps through mid frequencies. Bridge Pickup only, doesn't have much fundamental strength, but the mids are so strong. Yeah. Lively thing and light. It might be good enough for the world tour I'm expecting to be invited on, as I'm imminently discovered.

I just had a run through my practice tracks. Didn't have to stop for a rest and had great fun. It plays fine. I must record the bridge pickup and post it here, well, I'll do a demo of both, no worries.

That's good to know. Thank you. Might be a bit premature for this project. I've been setting it up today and it's not great. It's just about ok, but it's not great. Good enough for me to get to know it and will help me decide if it's a Spector I want to have, when I go get my best bass.

@Woodinblack Agreed. I get confused because I use synths and they can morph the oscillators between series and parallel. In the digital world you see, I lose track of what's possible in the real world? What I'm thinking is that each circuit will have very different resistance measurements, and in a passive world, will I have created mostly a loud and quiet setting? @itu 1. clinck link 2. crtl + F 3. input = spector result - page 307. There be a passive EMG circuit for Spector. Splendid. Thank you. edit: ah, there's a tone pump. Missed that. More research to do. Page 326 may be a starting point. @lemmywinks I'm not yet tempted. There are signs that some were built without preamps yet had EMG pickups. They register similar on the input meter to my active on centre notches. It already has great tone. Compared to the TB-70, it is lively and clear with a fret thump that isn't too bright but has mid range chunk. It make me smile as soon as I played it. It sounds good when it's not plugged in, even slapped, maybe. The instrument has a lot of natural tone dynamic, very lively but calm and deep if careful. I'll experiment without the pots, setting a switch for series and parallel. I will enjoy struggling with the circuit design.

@itu Thank you for that. I went straight to Bourns and they have pots they say are specifically designed for guitars. That gives me confidence. The selectable pots I can see being very useful on active setups to be very sure about the adjustment position. I may approach this passive setup slightly differently. I'd like, if practical with passive pickups, to wire them to run together in parallel or series. I could perhaps use a tone pot for summed output, freeing up the other to have maybe a variable series/parallel adjustment, or switch if I'm dreaming. I'll need to design the circuit. I've found my college folder from 1999, which shows 6 ways to earth an electricity network distribution sub station, and work from there. I seem to recall a Dingwall demo where the pickups could be set series or parallel and it seemed to make my favourite two sounds of the setup. I'd appreciate if anyone could let me know if there are examples of passive guitars or basses wired like this to build my hopes and dreams upon?

I have some answers and it's looking promising. No PCB's in here. I found Philips screwdriver and had the back plate off. I later scattered the screws around the room when I got in bed. The spunky little balsa wood Spector is a passive analogue device, but alas, it has been visited by the Solder Butcher. As seen in the image, the solder balls are created with a 40w soldering iron and 30 to 40 minuets of heat applied to the pot casing. If done skilfully it can create exactly the right conditions to ruin the pot. and prevent a good electrical contact. Still. This is all good. I have a preamp in the TB-70 but don't use it, that is, it stays set in the middle notches. I set the tone with an amp, just working to help it's natural sound, not processing into something new. I might turn the treble down for a dull thumb sound, but that's rare. I understand a bit about this passive setup and am going to enjoy fixing it, making all the signal paths strong, extra shielding, and military spec wiring quality, as I imagine it would be. Whenever I buy pots on the net I don't get the nice ones. Can anyone tell me please where I might get those nice high quality pots with ballistic grade sweat and cigarette ash IP protection?

Ernie - Benny Hill