Sharkfinger

Well I think I might have kind of solved this. What I had done on advice from someone here is solder a resistor with a tiny value (0.01) between the bridge pup and the pup selector. I'd done this because I'd read that when both pups are up full, there is a drop in the mids because of phase cancellation. I hadn't thought to take it out before because with the neck pickup selected, it should be completely isolated from the bridge one. However, taking it out has definitely improved the tone of the neck P pickup by brightening it up. Go figure. The only down-side is that when the pickup selector is in the middle position, there's a huge drop in volume to the point that setting is unusable. Not sure why just taking out the resistor would do this, as it's now the same as having both pickups on full. Might try putting a volume between each pickup and the selector. Maybe get my tech to do it for me....

Known Von432 and the aforementioned singer for a number of years (understatement). Good guys, very creative and hard-working. They're not going to mess around.

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1412783521' post='2572020'] If you're lacking high end clarity (are we talking treble here?) I'd suggest you decrease the gap between strings and the split P pup rather than increase it. I think (correct me if this is wrong anybody) that having the pup closer to the strings increases treble response. What sort of gap have you got at the moment? With the strings fretted at the last fret aim for just under 1/8" gap and see if that helps the tone. [/quote] I was under the impression that a smaller gap made the tone darker, which is why I increased the gap. Will check what it currently is and if it's not what you suggest, will try it. Thanks.

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1412781740' post='2571993'] I have stock pickups in mine with a J. East U Retro preamp. It does a 'sort of' Precision sound, but not a good old fashioned woody thump one. I can't honestly imagine getting that kind of tone from it, to be honest. I have 3 others Precisions, all of which do the old school thump thing. An early 80s '57 re-issue JV Squier, an 80s MIJ medium scale Squier and what started life as a 90s MIJ Fender but now sports a Mighty Mite Jazz neck - the last two have Fender 62 Re-Issue Pickups. Of the 3 I think the medium scale sounds nicest, the JV next then my bitsa. But it is a close run thing. The beauty of the medium scale is that it is under 8lbs, has a relatively thin neck and is uber-comfy - as well as sounding great. I am not sure these come around that often but, when one does, it sounds like the sort of thing you should nab! Or, thinking outside the box a bit, perhaps look out for a USA made Peavey Fury I. Very lightweight, very skinny neck and a hot pickup that can be tamed to give an old school thump if necessary. And can usually be found for very little money. [/quote] Yeah, I tried various permutations with the original P pickup but it just wasn't doing it for me. On the subject of alternative basses, might look out for a mustang or something. They're medium scale, mostly, and scaled down a bit. But the Lyte plays so nicely.... [quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1412781208' post='2571982'] Is there not a separate volume pot for each p/up? If there is, then just go for middle position on the 3-way and turn the P bass volume right up and the J p/up right down. If you only have provision for one pot, maybe use a stacked pot? [/quote] There was but I ripped it all out in favour of 1 vol, 1 tone and a toggle...

BTW, anyone know what the tonal difference is between the '57 pickup and the '62? Maybe it's the '57 that's in the JV though that's unlikely as I believe the bass is a '62 re-issue.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1412778301' post='2571947'] Thanks - it's amazing what you can do with a bit of veneer and a can of Ronseal The problem with tone is the number of things that can affect it. There is no guarantee if you did pop your JV P bass pickup into the Lyte that it would sound the same as in your JV. It is, having said that, a very low risk that, if you did try it and put it back into the JV again, that it would beggar anything up in the JV - so, maybe worth a try. The only reason I suggest trying the inclusion of a bit of the Jazz pickup is that you have all of the electronics you need, with the 3-way you've fitted, and a tiny bit of the jazz p/up WILL add high end clarity. If my Jaguar is anything to go by, it doesn't seem to suck any tone out of the P p/up. Certainly worth a try before taking the JV apart...you can always disconnect it again if it does affect the tone even when the jazz p/up is turned right down (there are also the Fender pots you can get that bypass completely at zero - are they call zero tone pots?) Just a thought Andy [/quote] Interesting idea: with the toggle in the middle I get equal parts of both, which is not what I'm after. Maybe I need a 5 way so can 'favour' the neck over the bridge.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1412775862' post='2571904'] Hi, Sharkfinger I'm assuming it has a jazz bridge pickup slot like PaulS's? If so, I would have thought the easiest and most riskless way would be to buy a budget jazz bridge pickup and wire it in using the two volumes for a blend. Have the P pickup on full volume and wind in the bridge until it sounds how you want it. That's what I do with my Squier VM Jaguar: [/quote] Gosh, that's pretty.... It does indeed have a jazz bridge pickup and I've left the original in, as I don't really use it. However, I'm after a pure P bass tone which is why I installed the toggle switch so that when it's in the appropriate position, it's effectively the same electronics. I should put up some pics to clarify things, I think.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1412775256' post='2571902'] It's OK I didn't take Paul's bait that time...I, too, was bothered by the potential loss of the logo. Didn't know they did black necks - a good lead from Sharkfinger, Paul? Andy [/quote] Well, they did a black finish with a matching headstock to be precise. Here's the thing: have only seen 'black sparkle' so far. YMMV.

I know some of you will suggest I just get a lighter full sized P bass but the lighter ones I've tried tend to neck-dive, even on a think strap.

Need some advice about this. I've had the lyte for a while and it's a wonderful bass to play but I was underwhelmed with the tone. I've tried various pickups and preamps before realising that what I actually wanted was the tone of my JV Squier P in a lighter package. So I bought the '62 re-issue pickup, put passive wiring in (tone, vol) and a 3 way toggle switch so that when it is in the forward position, the wiring only 'sees' the P pickup. It's much better but it's still not there. What it lacks is the high end clarity. I've lowered the pickups to have even a larger gap than the one on the full size P but this hasn't made much difference. The logical thing to do here is put the pickup from my JV into it to see if it's actually the pickups that need changing again but I just don't want to take a chance that they go back into the original bass and it's never quite the same again. Any ideas?

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1410007282' post='2545336'] Here's a thought - should I ask Andy to do the headstock to match? It should have a matching headstock, really, but I changed it to natural when I made my clumsy attempt at a re-fin. [/quote] Probably a bit too late but keep an eye on ebay. The necks for these frequently come up and IIRC, they did black ones as well. They all had matching headstocks. Getting decals and redoing the 'Lyte' writing on the headstock will be a pain, I imagine.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1412202126' post='2566812'] Maybe you should take the 3 pointed star off your Merc then...I reckon it will sell in 5 minutes! [/quote] Ha ha, I wondered if someone would mention that! Actually, you are kind of on the right track. The car manufacturer 'Lada' might have done well to take their name off their newer models because of the perceived 'cheapness' of their brand.

If people are happy to part with their money for these basses then who are we to say that's wrong? No one is stopping them from shopping around. Perhaps he's discovered that people are willing to pay more for something unbranded than something with a perceived 'cheap' brand. Perhaps he's actually increasing the value - value is, after all, only what someone is willing to pay - by removing the logo.

[quote name='mingsta' timestamp='1411741539' post='2562452'] Good idea. Having just splashed out a good £450 on a Pedaltrain Jnr, Power, Cables and a few "essential" pedals (Vol Pedal, Compressor, A/B box, OD), I've just become aware of the Zoom B3, which costs less than my compressor but is packed to the gills with features and looks a lot more user friendly than some of the older multi fx models. I'm still going to get me a nice Octave, Envelope Filter and possibly another OD pedal, but other than that, I may well get a B3 to stop me from the falling into the never ending circle of poverty and despair that seems to come with pedal GAS. I can use that as a one stop shop for the occassional use stuff such as reverb, flanger, chorus, phaser, pitch shift etc rather than bankrupting myself on yet more pedals. It looks small enough to co-exist with a pedal board set up too. Do you have any view on the quality of the effects on the B3, appreciate its a fairly subjective matter.... [/quote] Regarding the effects on the B3, they're pretty good. This may polarize opinion but I find the B3 colours the sound, somewhat, not being true bypass, even when the effects are 'off'. I run it in the amp's effects loop, which mitigates this. I mainly use it for chorus, octave, etc and popular opinion says that's where effects like these should be anyway.

BTW, I never had much luck with velcro; pedals always came loose. Guitarist was actually helpful (I know, right?) in giving me some bike chain links and using them to screw the pedals to the board.

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1411734748' post='2562359'] digital and analogue delay too on a serious note, if you've never played much with pedals, I'd get a multi effects like a Zoom B2.1U or B3. Then you can use this to find the effcts you like. You may be happy with the sounds you can get from the unit, or you might decide to replace it with other pedals, but at least you'll know which effects you like. [/quote] As a rule, I prefer stomp-boxes but that's exactly what I did. Not a fan of multi-FX but it helped me discover that all I was really after was couple of fuzzes, a good drive, chorus and octave. Thought I'd use the synth but didn't in the end. Wouldn't get rid of the B3 because if I ever get GAS for a particular effect in the future, the B3 will no doubt have it and I can try it first before shelling out on the stomp box.

[quote name='cliffyspliff' timestamp='1411454791' post='2559573'] It's mad that you can get something from America made by a German company quicker and with less hassle than you can over here. Good luck with it though dude ... I think they are good investments and a lot cheaper than the alternatives too. [/quote] It's actually sold by Behringer on the US Amazon, so I don't see why they can't on the UK one. Who knows? Anyway, am doing something slightly different with the IEs. It's all on my pedalboard with no feed from the mixer. The IEs have ambient porting and we're generally loud enough that I don't need a mix feed. It's working so well that I'm now blocking off the ambient port altogether. I'm currently using one of the older Korg pandoras as a headphone amp, with a custom patch that's got only a bit of EQ and compression. Might miss those when I switch the Behringer, in which case might add one of those cheap Behringer EQ pedals in front of it.

[quote name='dudewheresmybass' timestamp='1411369002' post='2558711'] [url="http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Behringer-Powerplay-P1-Personal-In-Ear-Monitor-Amplifier/XP0"]http://www.gear4musi...r-Amplifier/XP0[/url] [/quote] Gear4music's expected delivery 1st December! What's up with that? Bought from USA Amazon instead. 8-12 days delivery but even with import duty, doesn't work out too much more.

[quote name='cliffyspliff' timestamp='1411379518' post='2558835'] I ordered mine from Thomann ... It was showing as out of stock but they were giving a date as to when they would have them available ... So I just ordered one as I too struggled to find one with a British supplier ... Thomann did actually send it out to me a few days before the date they stated too which was great.... And with a three year warranty you can't really go wrong [/quote] Don't seem to be showing them in stock now. As dudewheresmybass pointed out, gear4music seems to have them but will give them a call to make sure they're physically in stock.

Bought my EHX micro synth. Quick and easy deal. Highly recommended.

[quote name='cliffyspliff' timestamp='1411209641' post='2557502'] Well I used the Powerplay P1 again last and after a bit of tinkering with the desk ... I managed to get pretty good results. As was mentioned yesterday .... If the signal is too hot coming out of the desk this thing will clip crackle and pop and be unusable .... Turn the signal down from the desk though and it works great .... In fact we had barely anything coming into it from the desk at all which I was surprised at ... But it was still plenty loud enough in my In ears. I understand the limiter on this thing in principle is a good idea for protecting your ears .... But if the signal coming into the Powerplay P1 is too strong it becomes unusable ..... Which is worth thinking about when setting it up to play live. I was happy with it last night to be fair. [/quote] I'm glad to hear it worked out for you. I too have 1964 in-ears and was thinking about the P1 as a headphone amp, so will will heed the advice. BTW, where did you order the P1 from? Don't see it available anywhere ATM.