Sharkfinger

Is there such a thing as bass guitar modelling in a stomp box / multi-fx? Line 6 had the Variax bass thingy that did it but I bet they would have sold more if they'd have put it in a stomp box. I ask because I love my P bass tone but prefer the low weight and feel of my P Lyte and sometimes I'd like to be playing a straight-up J. There are plenty of amp modellers out there, you'd have thought there would be something like this. Wouldn't it be nice if there were such a product?

Was kindly offered this by BC member Skinner for nowt. Not really listened to Jaco Pastorius before and was curious so accepted his kind offer. I think I lasted about 40 seconds trying to listen to it. Free to anyone who covers postage. £2 ought to do it.

[quote name='Fuzzbass2000' timestamp='1364905874' post='2032379'] Slightly off topic, but here goes.... I'm always curious the effect these changes have on neck mass and the appearance / movement / disappearance of dead spots (kind of FatFinger in reverse) and the impact on the sound (if any) on an instrument. [/quote] Well if I do it and dead-spots appear, I'll let you know.

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1364737607' post='2030155'] There is possibly a cheaper way to do this - s/h G&L tuners £30 ish ebay sometimes. These have aluminium posts and are Schaller BM size. Key question is what size plate do your existing ones have? Are they the larger Fender type or the smaller BM sized ones? [/quote] Haven't measured them but look pretty big to me... [quote name='iiipopes' timestamp='1364770200' post='2030796'] Not only that, but there are also offerings from Gotoh and Schaller, as well as HipShot, which are light weight as well. If you go with aluminum, as I did with the HipShots, do make sure it is proper milled aircraft-style aluminum of the proper alloy and thickness so they will be durable. [/quote] Hadn't considered Schaller, will check them out...

[quote name='iiipopes' timestamp='1364734717' post='2030113'] YES! On my main 4-string P-style custom bass, I changed out the traditional large "Elephant Ear" tuners with Hipshot Ultralights. The traditional tuners weighed a total of about a half kilo. the Ultralights weigh about a quarter kilo total. That's a quarter kilo weight savings. It may not sound like much, but it completely cured neck dive, and over the course of a three hour gig, it is very noticable on the shoulder. Caveat: the lightweight tuners may have a different post diameter than stock, so different bushings may need to be installed. But it is worth it. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/174777-and-now-for-something-completely-different-in-a-pj"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/174777-and-now-for-something-completely-different-in-a-pj[/url] [/quote] Thanks! Will defo give it a try now.

[quote name='mart' timestamp='1364720175' post='2029901'] Did you weigh the tuner while you had it off the bass? Apparently some P tuners are close to 100g, in which case if you switched to lightweight tuners, which can be 40-50g, then it would have the effect of removing TWO tuners, not just one. On the other hand, on some basses (such as my Thumb), the original tuners already weigh only 57g, so there's little room for improvement. My guess would be that the Squier's tuners wouldn't be all that heavy, but it is worth checking. [/quote] It's a JV so they're heavy all right. Thanks for the advice, will give it done thought.

Well, there is a slight improvement. Obviously difficult to tell without wearing it for a couple of hours, which is pretty pointless without a string! Still hard to tell if it's £140* of improvement. Would really like to hear from someone who's done it, whether they thought it was worth it. * Price based on Gotoh Res-O-Lite.

Not especially heavy, about 9lbs. It feels neck heavy. The weight save I think would be the equivalent of removing one of the tuners. Might try that and strap it on and see how it feels.

Got a JV Squier P and I'm thinking of bringing it back as my main bass but to do that, I need to reduce the pressure it puts on my left shoulder. Has anyone tried replacing the tuners with lightweight ones on a P bass? Was it worth the £140 odd to do it?

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1364131204' post='2022174'] Such a nice bass! It's a shame it wasn't built properly I'm sure someone will be able to get it to the standard it deserves to be! Very nice of you to give it up for a donation to BC, I'm sure it won't be around long! [/quote] I know, that's why I've held onto it this long. Been using it as a practice bass, which it's absolutely fine for, so if you've got a set of pickups and a wiring harness, you're set.

The body is swamp-ash, is chambered, has a book-matched top and is french-polished. The neck is pretty decent too. Hand-made in the USA and it originally had Nordstrand P/J pickups. Hold on a minute, this is the recycling section, surely I've made a mistake listing it here? Actually no. I bought this a few years ago unseen from the states and it cost about £350 all-told. That should have a warning sign. It is very lightweight, looks great and plays well but look closely at the body: the strings don't line up with the pick-up pole pieces, which meant the output of the D and G strings was far lower than the others. Rather than go through the hassle of sending it back straight-away like I should have, thought I would have a go at sorting it out. Lengthened the bottom P pickup route and moved it lower which helped but didn't completely sort it out. Problem is, the bridge was mounted in the wrong place so it's never going to be completely right. Just move the bridge? Tried that with a standard Fender bridge but it turns out the pickup routes are slightly wrong too. It's like the bridge and pickups were an afterthought. Can't simply move the current bridge because of the string-though holes in the body would be difficult to fill, being quite large EMGs - with their bar magnets instead of pole-pieces - would probably sort the 'lining-up' and output issues but if you want to use light gauge strings (which I prefer) you're going to have to move the bridge or you can't get the intonation right. So there you are. Got some of my money back by selling the Nordstrands that came with it (which were wired up wrong). Free if you want it on the following conditions:[list] [*]Will [b]not [/b]post. Have spent enough time and effort on this bass to parcel it up. Pick it up from Enfield or from one of my gigs in Essex. [*][b]No[/b] [b]electronics [/b]included. [*]Donate to Basschat. [/list] [url="http://www.pixhost.org/show/4180/16409317_img_20130324_112322.jpg"][/url][url="http://www.pixhost.org/show/4180/16409318_img_20130324_112342.jpg"][/url]

Thanks for the reply. Thought it would be something along those lines. Makes sense.

Bought some jazz pickups. Good price and dispatched quickly and communicated well throughout.