foxthebiker Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Guys, This is a weird one.... Been playing with my Mex P Bass 60th Anniversary with no issues.....for 6 months since I had it Traded up my 65 Watt Laney combo to an Ashdown EB 12/180 Combo with Mag 210 and now.... My P Bass has "grunge"! Not bad but noticable if I roll off the treble particularly. My Squire VM Jazz fretless has no issues but then has Duncan PUPs in. Do you reckon it's because my Ashdown gear is louder and so am able to notice it or maybe these P bass pups as standard are just like it. I had never noticed it before. Perhaps I ought to change out the pups! Which is best, EMG, DIMS, Duncan, Vintage? Tried different cables and sockets and different pot settings. My usual is about half way up on the volume pot on the bass and half up on the tone although that changes from time to time depending on what is being played of course. The previous combo wasn't ever loud enough to notice I think but this new Ashdown puppy is seriously loud and is noticable now . Any ideas anybody? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muppet Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Why don't you run your bass volume pot at full and use your amp's volume control to limit the overall volume? You're only getting half the sound out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Burpster Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 It is still passive n'est pas? If so as Muppet above..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinman Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 [quote name='foxthebiker' post='126215' date='Jan 23 2008, 03:50 PM']Guys, This is a weird one.... Been playing with my Mex P Bass 60th Anniversary with no issues.....for 6 months since I had it Traded up my 65 Watt Laney combo to an Ashdown EB 12/180 Combo with Mag 210 and now.... My P Bass has "grunge"! Not bad but noticable if I roll off the treble particularly. My Squire VM Jazz fretless has no issues but then has Duncan PUPs in. Do you reckon it's because my Ashdown gear is louder and so am able to notice it or maybe these P bass pups as standard are just like it. I had never noticed it before. Perhaps I ought to change out the pups! Which is best, EMG, DIMS, Duncan, Vintage? Tried different cables and sockets and different pot settings. My usual is about half way up on the volume pot on the bass and half up on the tone although that changes from time to time depending on what is being played of course. The previous combo wasn't ever loud enough to notice I think but this new Ashdown puppy is seriously loud and is noticable now . Any ideas anybody?[/quote] Not sure this is of any practical help but I've always had a suspicion that my MAG300 (which I'm assuming is substantially the same amp as yours) never sounded consistent - its tone seemed to change as it warmed up. Like you it seemed to sound like it was clipping even at low volumes but that seemed to disappear after a short peiod. That was with my MIM Jazz. Is yours a consistent problem? Oddly enough that problem seemed to go after I swapped the standard pickups for Wizard '84s as recommended on here. (Can't recommend them enough - I'd take a look at his P pickups ) They seem to have a much higher output but are not farty like the others seemed at times. Maybe your Duncans are similar? My MAG's blown its mains transformer now and is in for repair - maybe the fartiness was that degrading... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxthebiker Posted January 24, 2008 Author Share Posted January 24, 2008 Thanks guys.... I have tried the following: Taken the scratch plate off the P and examined it (interesting)! For a Mexi it's well put together except.....the main jack socket had an interesting joint. In fact the joint was shorting out on the pole when the jack was inserted! This would increase the resistance if I am right and gave way to scratching noises as well as the clipping. Anyway, after a bit of soldering and bending of spades the bass now sounds much cleaner! It's not perfect but is much better. I am now maxing the volume on the vol pot too. I think it has improved what with the these 2 things definately. Thanks guys, good one. Also, I have to agree that my EB does "warm" up definately and it gets better. I will probably invest in a set of PUPS as well. the others are ok but they are quite noisy is has to be said. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 Whenever I've had problems with jack sockets, bending them back into shape was at best a temporary solution and the permanent solution was to replace them with switchcraft sockets. Cheapo ones are often fairly flimsy and more liable to bending out of shape. I'm not sure what's fitted to MIM Ps, but if it isn't a switchcraft its a cheap & easy upgrade that could be worth doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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