JJ Bass

[quote name='pete.young' post='1346245' date='Aug 20 2011, 12:05 PM']This one? [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GUITAR-JIM-REED-OLD-VINTAGE-BASS-VERY-SOUND-/270803504663?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3f0d258e17"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GUITAR-JIM-REED-...=item3f0d258e17[/url] I've got a Jim Reed 4-string passive jazz copy which I bought second-hand off ebay a couple of years ago for the kids to play with, to keep them away from my decent basses. It has a really really fast slim neck and decent electrics (Kent Armstrong pickups). The only problem with it is a traditional 1970's Fender style neck pocket, with a 2mm gap along one side of the neck . Hopefully a neck-through won't suffer the same thing. Jim Reed is a 'luthier' working from Italy. For a while there was a guy up north importing them and selling them one-at-at-time on ebay. I don't know if there were ever any official importers. Web site is here: [url="http://www.jim-reed-guitars.com/eng/index.php"]http://www.jim-reed-guitars.com/eng/index.php[/url][/quote] Hi, and thanks for the reply. Yes its that one. I just don't know if it'll be good or not? No clue what its price range would be as I don't want to get shot of my current bass if this one isn't any better! I phoned the music shop in Glasgow that used to sell the guitars, but the fella doesn't recall selling the basses... He remember the guitars were £200 and upwards. This style bass looks to be one of their higher range basses and look quite 'ok', but some of the budget basses look the business these days!! Any idea what you paid for your one? I guess the one on ebay is a higher range bass, but it gives me an idea to its value and if its a cheapo bass or not ) Theres no prices on that website, why would they do that!!

Hi all, Just been offered a Jim Reed 4 string active through neck bass, 2x soapbar pick ups, active. Anyone know anything about the basses, price new, reviews etc...?? New one on me!! Help please

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='1334640' date='Aug 10 2011, 10:23 AM']I think you would too.[/quote] Thanks for the help. The JD looks a good bass, but some of the budget ones do loook the business these days but the elecs and build quality isn't all that. I ask alot of my bass so an inferior one would only annoy me and end up being sold on asap! Wish it was a 'jaydee' though !

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='1333957' date='Aug 9 2011, 06:41 PM'][url="http://www.alfelectronics.co.uk/j--d-bass-guitars-522-c.asp"]http://www.alfelectronics.co.uk/j--d-bass-guitars-522-c.asp[/url] New. [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/j-d-luthiers-jd-s4b-active-576235/"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/j-d-luthi...-active-576235/[/url][/quote] The reviews are a bit mixed, might be better off with my old hohner B!

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='1333930' date='Aug 9 2011, 06:27 PM'][url="http://www.alfelectronics.co.uk/j-and-d-jds4b-stbr-lh-bass-guitar-3374-p.asp"]http://www.alfelectronics.co.uk/j-and-d-jd...itar-3374-p.asp[/url] £250.[/quote] Is that new or used? Don't want to get rid of my bass if its better!

Hi all, Seen a nice looking bass for sale online a JD-S4B bass. Has anyone played one? I read its $699 new somewhere which may suggest its not a complete budget bass. It's a neck through wood bass with active 2 band eq and soapbar pick-ups, but not sure sure of the brand of them... Whats the second hand price? 'elp please Thanks

[quote name='aldude' post='1303640' date='Jul 14 2011, 03:35 PM']Longer scale?[/quote] it's 34 scale....!

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='1303196' date='Jul 14 2011, 08:55 AM']Thanks for clearing that up. The dead spot stuff was a red herring, so clamping something to your headstock won't solve your problem. When you say you "messed around with the truss rod", do you mean you were following any directions on how to adjust it and understand the prinicples of what the truss rod does & how it does it? or were you giving it a tweak to see what happens? If the latter it is unlikely you'll be able to set the optimum amount of relief correctly and in that case it's worth letting someone more experience take a look. where are you based? perhaps there's a BCer local to you who foes his own setups who can have a look?[/quote] I've set up a few of my old basses before, from handmade UK & Tawain basses to stock Schecter's and always got the action right, the intonation spot on etc, so I'm hoping I've grasped more than the basics of setting up the bass, plus my local luthier I'm not 100% sure on, and I'm low on funds!! The only thing I wouldn't touch are the frets, I'll clean them, but thats it! I'm still annoyed a bit by its tension, its just a bit firmer than any other bass I've had...!!! Odd but great bass for the money!!

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='1302942' date='Jul 13 2011, 10:12 PM']Good points. It does sound as if the bass needs a setup - we all zoomed in on the words "dead spot", but that could well be a red herring as the sypical symptoms of a dead spot aren't mentioned. The OP doesn't mention setting the truss rod if the relief is incorrect, no amount of setting the height at the bridge will help and messing about with the intonation will only affect how out of tune it is over the neck.[/quote] Thanks for all the tips! I only referred to it as a dead spot as I didn't know any other term for it! I think it may need re-fretting as I think its from 1990, but its in amazing condition. I've messed around with the truss rod, used no end of different strings from Olympia to Warwicks to Funkmasters. I think it maybe a mixture of the two from what everyone has said, but I've tried gently pulling the headstock and it still does it... May look for another bass, which is a real shame!

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='1301436' date='Jul 12 2011, 07:04 PM']I have two. Yes, they work, but can be unpredictable. One is permanently fixed to my Fortress MasterMan V, where it just "focusses" the tone. The other floats from bass to bass. It makes my Yamaha Attitude into the sonic equivalent of a Bunker-Buster bomb, but robs it of a degree of resonance- It's just all out armour-piercing! It ruins my Warwick Infinity. Kills it dead. Try before you buy if at all possible. Works a treat for some basses, not for others. Billy Sheehan likes such devices, but he uses a small G-Clamp on the headstock. They certainly aren't £30, but may be a bit of trial and error to get the weight right. Final thought- Got a string tree on the bass? Thru-neck? Probably not. Try attaching (carpet tape?) a small piece of brass to the back of your headstock. Try different weights. Find a weight/location that does the trick, drill it and screw it onto the headstock. Washburn used to do it on some of their instruments. Do be aware that there's a bass and guitar version of the FatFinger (different masses) As for string tension, try round cored strings. They are more compliant for a given tension, and feel softer under the hand. I favour DRs- Either FatBeams (for steels) or SunBeams (for Nickels) All a bit "suck-it-and-see", but there's nothing to be lost by [b]fully reversible, semi-permanent[/b] experimentation. (Except time and effort, I suppose!) Hope this helps. Alex.[/quote] Hi Alex, I'll give some of these ideas a try, is there a trick to positioning the weights on the headstock? I'm quite limited on the strings I use as there isn't many that do 30-90's - even the Rotosound funkmaster's feel like bridge wires!! The strings I got on best with on this bass are Indie strings for a 6 stringer that have 25-85 in the set, I used them on my old Schecter & Status and could barely feel the tension as they are great for bendinging/harmonics.... Thanks for the tips, still not sure what to do with the bass as it sounds bloody good! J

[quote name='fretmeister' post='1300726' date='Jul 12 2011, 10:41 AM']Try one of these: [url="http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/accessories/guitar_extras/fat_finger"]http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/accessories...tras/fat_finger[/url] If I remember my sums properly - more headstock mass - the higher up the neck the dead spot will be. So stick one of them on and see what happens.[/quote] Never seen one of those before!! - £30 odd quid? Gits! Is this a common flaw of basses with small headstocks? My Status 1000 never had a head and didn't do this, or my series 1.... Does it genuinely work? Any thoughts on the string tension anyone? All this makes my bass sounds like its knackered, but its a great little player!!

[quote name='paul_5' post='1300584' date='Jul 12 2011, 07:42 AM']whereabouts on the neck is the deadspot? This is a common problem with fender jazz basses (amongst others) and can be fixed by using a small piece of wood and a clamp. It's caused by the mass of the headstock, turns out it vibrates at the wrong frequency and cancels out key frequencies. Increase the headstock mass by clamping said piece of wood to the headstock and that should sort it. It's not pretty but works for studio stuff and playing at home. Hope this helps mate. Cheers, paul.[/quote] Hi Paul, Thanks for the reply. Its around frets 17-19 mainly on the D string, but I can get the notes on the G but if I bend the G higher up it will not sustain and sound as if I need to raise the action .......... I hope that all makes sence! It does have quite a small headstock, but I've had this trouble before!

Hi all - bit of help please! Is it possible to fix a dead spot on a through neck bass? I think I have a slightly 'u' shaped neck, but barely noticeable. The bass has an unusual tension as its makes the strings fairly stiff, I have to use a string size down to make it feel like my normal 30-90's... The bass has a great tone and some even have commented that it sounded better than my old Status S1, so I'm a bit reluctant to get rid of it! But to get rid of alot of fret buzz I have to raise the action higher than I want to, I like a bit of fret buzz, but not too much! I've fixed the intonation and set up the neck to the best of my abilites, which is fairly ok, but as I have no extra funds to put towards another bass I really don't know what I could get in the 150-200 range that would compete.... Any ideas? Thanks in advance J

[quote name='GBass' post='1300494' date='Jul 11 2011, 11:55 PM']Here's one. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/liberty-bass-guitar-/200628816711?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2eb668cb47"]e-bay[/url][/quote] thats the one I'm looking at, but unsure of its sound etc.... Would it be better than my hohner b pro?

bump anyone?

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='1299664' date='Jul 11 2011, 10:11 AM']****ing Liberty Basses Not sure if it was a model or a sub brand, but I think Liberty was a range of budget electric guitars & basses by tanglewood.[/quote] Nice pic ) Thats the only info I've found, nothing else! He said it was about £300 new 8-10 years ago, not sure if its going to be any improvement over my Hohner Pro B?? Thanks for the help

Hi all, Has anyone any info on Liberty basses? I've never heard of them and I've been offered one - any ideas?? Thanks J

[quote name='JTUK' post='1242889' date='May 24 2011, 01:05 PM']Generally, thicker string are more prone to going dead. Variety of reasons and some alluded to here but no easy way around it. I've only had one set of DR's not clean up on me and they weren't great out of the packet anyway so time to bin them for my purposes. Clean meths may help as the gunk that comes out of the winds has to be deposited somewhere and if the meths is old..it may will degrade as well. I give strings a clean over 24hrs and use a clean container as well. Overall DR's clean up the best, IME... as they don't have silk/cotton winds to fray and clog up the cleaning solution..I never try and submerge that part anyway... But if and E-string doesn't come up clean... then you have to decide how useable it is... You then have 2 choices..cheap but new strings more often..or buy seperates..at least that might save a few pennies on a new set..??[/quote] Sometimes its done it with new strings....! I usually use something like fairy or 'flash' with water and boil for about 10 minutes, then again in just hot water to get all the deturgents off. Or hopefully I'll put a new set on. I didn't get on with the DR's I tried, felt very rough compared to even the Olympia strings I get (for free!) As my strings are so thin they generally clean up and sound fresh on any other bass, its only the E, and possibly the D, but I've compensated for that by using a 35 which feels like a 45/50 - bloody odd thing! Don't really want to sell it as I don't think I'll get anything in the same price range that will play or sound as good as finances are nill!

[quote name='silddx' post='1242810' date='May 24 2011, 12:21 PM']Ahh, I thought you meant a headless one. The nut looks ok to me, as does the nut. Pickup height seems ok too. Duff set of strings springs to mind.[/quote] I wish it was that simple! It's done it on a few strings! And the tension can be odd as I use 25-85 which give the feel of 30-90... Never known a bass like this one, when I used the 25-85's on my Status S1 or Schecter you could barely feel the tension, cracking bass for the money though.

[quote name='silddx' post='1242313' date='May 23 2011, 09:45 PM']photos please[/quote] see photo's - any ideas ??!

bump for more info pls!

[quote name='Prime_BASS' post='1241059' date='May 23 2011, 12:37 AM']It's the break angle on the string, between nut and tuning post. The better the break angle the better the clearance from the first couple of frets, this is usually a cause of buzzing strings when played open. More likly so since you haventhe drop D thing, as the post is usually taller than normal tuning posts, which means you need to make sure you have enough wrappings around the post.[/quote] Hi, I tried an old string I had of Doug Wimbish's I had (bought an ex bass of his) and that string worked ok? Yet the string is ancient! Think its a Trace Elliot string???? May sound odd, but when I've tried the full length Warwick strings I've been using the E sounded as dead as a dodo! Trim it down and sometimes it's ok... Baffling one! I can only liken the sound to putting a sh*te covered rusty string on even when its brand new or 're-freshed'!! I'm trying different heights on the tuning post etc... Nothing is ever simple! Wish I still had my Status, never had that problem with that!!!

[quote name='silddx' post='1240717' date='May 22 2011, 07:44 PM']Which model is it? If it has the Steinberger system, then there is no nut on these, there's a zero fret. Look at the wrap on the E string, on many strings the wrap actually sits on the zero fret, One side of the wrap is often higher on one side of the string and fairly normal on the other, especially on the E. Try to get the more normal side sitting on the zero fret. What brand of string are you using? They are very light so the neck profile will be almost back-bowing if you haven't compensated by adjusting the truss rod and the strings will choke out as a result.[/quote] Hi, I use any brand of string I have laying around, I have been using warwick yellow's as they do the 25-85 I use on this bass. There isn't a zero fret on the neck. I think the Steinberger system is the same they used on the 'The Jack', but don't quote me, it has the tuning pegs and the drop D device. The only thing that confuses me is that it doesn't do it everytime! Abeit with new or re-freshed strings! Theres no point in a dead sounding E when I'm doing my Mark King thing ) The neck is adjusted about right, theres a dead spot, but I don't think I'll cure that with my thin strings... Any more ideas [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxZRSST4-H0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxZRSST4-H0[/url] It's that bass, but not sure if you can see it properly - but you can hear the E sounds right on this!

Thanks for all the help here. I'll try turning the string into a better position. The bass has the Steinberger bit with the tuning bottom pegs and the drop D device on it. The E sits fairly well on the nut, I recently replaced the original nut as the E was worn and making it sit too low I use incredibly light strings as the tension on this bass is slightly odd, I usually used to use 30-90, but now using 25-85 so I do get a nice bright sound as I'm a bit of slap player So when the sound isn't as it should be it's very obvious.... any more ides??

Hi, Just a quick one... Quite often when I re-string (or boil up my old strings) the E sounds 'dead' like its a few years old, the rest sound crisp and as they should - any ideas? I've tried the height of the string either end of the bass, but this one has me baffled! The bass is a Hohner B pro with the Steinburger bum on it. It doesn't do this every time, and as I hate the sound of old strings I wondering what to do.... 'ELP! Cheers J