mcnach

[quote name='Japhet' timestamp='1352626652' post='1865200'] Unfortunately it seems to be that we bassists are generally undervalued and often our opinions are ignored. [/quote] I think whether your opinions are heard or not depends on your personality and how you carry yourself, more than what instrument you play in the band. I certainly don't have problems being heard, in three current bands, or in previous bands. I cannot be that lucky...

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1352564591' post='1864685'] It would be very easy for an unscrupulous dealer to arrange fake Fenders to be built to his specification in a factory in China. Then import them and fit Fender decals etc when they get to the UK. The quality would probably be very good, as they already make Fender branded basses and guitars in chinese factories (not just Squiers anymore). [/quote] he could probably get the decals installed at the factory, actually... See TradeTang and similar websites for examples...

As one of the most prominent resident OLP fanbois, I thought I'd report on my latest OLP-related adventure. I am down to only one OLP. As much as I like them and think they *can be* great basses, I prefer my SUB and my Stingray (especially that SUB!) and the OLPs just were not used as much. So they were sold, eventually. Except one. I decided to keep this last one, because it's black and has a maple fingerboard and I really like that combo... so I sold the fretless with a real Stingray preamp and a Nordstrand pickup, I sold also what was my #1 bass for some time, with a Basslines pickup and preamp... and kept one that had seen just a pickup replacement (Basslines SMB4A). It makes no sense, but there you go. Then, a few months ago I acquired one of the Stingray clone preamps Tommorichards was assembling... and nothing happened for a long time. Until now. And let this be a lesson to all of you who, like me, decide to act impulsively without good planning. Well, I've been ill, mostly in bed, for about a week, and now that I'm functional again and go to work... when I get back home I decided to do one of those "5 minute" jobs that I keep postponing. Ok, it will be 30min, but... how hard is it going to be to install the preamp, eh? Ok, so I want to put a battery compartment too... I bought the battery box ages ago too. Easy, just route a hole and put it in. Just pay attention where you put it. So I put some masking tape to protect the finish on the back and leave a rectangle to route (I'm not using a template, the box has overhangs that will cover a less-than-perfect routing outline). Then remove the strings and electronics (leaving the pickup, taping the cable away from the action), plce the bass face down on my "work blanket", and start to drill. Then I realise the cable will be in the way... ok, I remove the pickup too. It did not take very long... and then I put the battery box in, good fit... and I realise my mistake: I had placed it overlapping the control cavity, so the battery box is partly in the control cavity and... the pots and preamp will not fit!!! A few colurful spanish words later, I decide it's time to do some chiselling. The truth is, these OLP cavities are narrower than those on a Stingray, so they often require to remove a little bit of wood. A sharp chisel and a bit of care, and that's all you need. Of course, if you are dumb enough to route and install a battery box overlapping the control cavity... the work can be a bit more challenging than necessary. Fortunately, I was able to remove enough wood to fit the preamp and the pots and all is good. Battery box removed, pickup reinstalled, battery box back in place, solder preamp terminals, solder battery box and bridge ground wire... plug in and tap pickup... it's alive!!! So clean it up, screw it all in place, put new strings on and... BRILLIANT RESULTS! Thanks Tommorichards for making this possible (I don't think I'd have bothered to install a preamp on this bass if I hadn't been able to get one of the ones you made). Cheap modification (more or less) to a cheap bass resulting in something very tasty indeed. Just make sure you measure things before you start and you'll get it all done in 25% of the time it took me! Next: install a set of mutes. And I did measure these, they will fit

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1352468622' post='1863469'] Replacing all of the stuff on a Squier with US stuff and all the other work and time would make it cost more than buying a Fender for a dealer. And probably make an as good or better instrument. [/quote] indeed, it all sounds a bit "strange", many dimensions are also not identical between Squiers and Fenders making replacements hard to fit nicely, which will leave obvious marks... If I wanted to make good fakes, so good that they can pass for US Fenders... I'd probably be better off sourcing parts elsewhere, not buying Squiers to transform etc, I don't know. Colour me sceptical.

[quote name='mickthebass' timestamp='1352316671' post='1861608'] How sad it is to end your comments with pretentious quotations. How did it go? “Just another turd floating in the toilet bowl of life” [/quote] gem of a guy you are, eh? welcome to basschat

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1352319410' post='1861676'] as the title says i have a rehearsal in 2 weeks for said band.. they are doing originals and some covers.. they have asked me to play the bass line to amy winehouse's valerie.. no probs there.. but they have also asked me to play a song of my choice.. .... i immediately thought of 'i wish' by Stevie Wonder... kick ass bass line that most people know and i can play with confidence... just wondered if you guys had any other suggestions, that might be suitable.. needs to be fairly recognisable, up tempo, nothing too simple, and funky... any thoughts.. [/quote] "I wish" is a great tune, I'd go with that, or maybe Michael Jackson's "Get on the floor".

[quote name='apa' timestamp='1352317945' post='1861644'] An LED A [/quote] no kidding, I thought about it for a minute!

[quote name='steve-soar' timestamp='1352314540' post='1861562'] Just watched both bands. One was a band and the other was a bland. [/quote] funny, that's just what I said... I was going to watch something with my gf when we noticed Soundgarden on JH's. We watched that. Ok. I was not in love but I quite enjoyed it. Then the other guy/band/bland came in... and she looked at me like "can we watch something else now?". "Bland" was the adjective we used to describe them too. It sounded like... another hundred similar "bands", same voice, same sound, same lyrics... totally uninspiring.

Aha! It lives!!!!!!!!!!!! I wrongly wired the - wires of the coils at the - terminal of the preamp, when they should be grounded directly and instead take a wire from the parallel/series switch to the - of the preamp (which I had grounded by mistake). It now works... and it's mighty The only question left is... what to fill the hole left by the preamp off/on/boost switch with. I'll probably just put a dummy switch there.

[quote name='vegas j' timestamp='1352287147' post='1861027'] I've just spent 68 pounds on a peavey 300 combo off of Ebay! Sounds good, and for that money id say its a bargain! [/quote] I think the zombies agree with you

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1352168216' post='1859693'] I cannot test it right now but... I have an idea: the cable I took to ground from the parallel/series switch... should probably go to the negative terminal in the preamp, not to the common ground. I suspect I have a "simulation of a broken pickup" with my present wiring. I hope this is it, as it'd be easy to fix! Tomorrow... [/quote] No, it wasn't that I must have made a silly mistake somewhere... but I can't see it. So, time to remove the whole thing and start again, carefully.

[quote name='JohnFitzgerald' timestamp='1352204905' post='1859979'] Spoke too soon. Went to pick it up at lunchtime. The only thing missing was a pair of green tights and a quiver of arrows to wear whilst playing it. Yes, the neck had a bit of a shape to it. Who knows, it might well have adjusted iut, but then again it might not at which point I'm stuck with it. Walking away is sometimes the best approach. Next !! [/quote] it did seem a little cheap... pity. hey, want a great one with all those mods already in place? I believe 'wildman' is still selling my old one.

I cannot test it right now but... I have an idea: the cable I took to ground from the parallel/series switch... should probably go to the negative terminal in the preamp, not to the common ground. I suspect I have a "simulation of a broken pickup" with my present wiring. I hope this is it, as it'd be easy to fix! Tomorrow...

No, and this is not the usual "it's a bit quiet compared to other basses". It's almost silent.

I'm sure I must have done something wrong, especially considering I wrote down the wiring a few days ago while I was very ill... Anyway, I finally went ahead to install the John East Stingray 3-band preamp into my Tribute G&L L2000... I gutted it, removing everything except the pickup switch and the series/parallel switch, and stacked the MMSR on top of that. As the pickups were already wired to a couple of switches all I had to deal with were: the hot output from the pickup switch, which I fed into the + terminal of the preamp (the pickup hot wires go to the series/parallel swith, and the output into the pickup selector switch). there was a ground cable from the series/parallel switch. Connected to a common ground ring. the - wires from each pickup were joined together and connected to the - terminal of the preamp. Each pickup has an additional shielding wire. I connected them to the common ground ring. Then I rewired the jack socket as per the MMSR's (the L2000 uses a side mounted barrel type), and joining there the common ring grounds and the ground cable from the bridge. When I tried it... I got no sound Actually, I did... but it was so low it took me a while to realise it. I turned up fully my practice amp, and what should have been really loud for the house turned to be just about as loud as a whisper. Enough to verify everything worked... the switches, the EQ, everything... just at extremely low volume. So, what did I do wrong? Any hints before I disassemble the whole thing and I start a systematic aproach building it up one bit at a time? (very slow) To summarise: negative from each pickup joined together and fed to preamp - positive(s) from each pickup fed into series/parallel switch and then into a pickup selector switch. Output fed to preamp + grounds directly to jack socket: pickup shields, bridge, and wire from series/parallel switch (originally wired to the back of a pot)

[quote name='StephenFerguson' timestamp='1352123758' post='1858964'] Dont do, the original SUB series is far superior and CAN be found for about £50 more, same spec and build of the american MM's just with less finish and therefor less man hours spent, so they could sell it for cheaper. In the end this stoped being cost effective and the range was discontinued and the inferior sterling came about. IMHO the matt black, plain original sub looks bad ass aswell! [/quote] I agree. The original SUBs are fantastic. If I hadn't bought a Stingray already when I got my SUB, I'm not sure I would have bought a Stingray at all. Probably another SUB and use the change to replace my amp or something like that.

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1352112921' post='1858751'] Stop giving me gas! (although the neck on that one was *slightly* too chunky for me... ...doesn't mean I'm not lusting after one though ) [/quote] It is the chunkiest neck I own right now, and it does feel a bit... hefty. But you soon get used to it, unless you are a Jazz-only type of person. It has a very huge, unique and lovely kind of sound.

somebody mentioned my name? [quote name='StephenFerguson' timestamp='1352139225' post='1859264'] £80? Bargain! I would def get the big round plate MM bridge as I think these fit on the OLP without routing. [/quote] They fit but leave a small gap (about 4mm) between the pickguard and the neck. The pickup routing is pretty large on these basses, so it's usually easy to move the pickup up a bit and close teh gap a little. If you want it to close perfectly you need to enlarge the routing a little bit to move the pickup upwards a little, towards the neck. But... £80??? Bargain!!! It looks in good condition! 'wildman' is selling one here in BC that used to be mine, and was just like this one when I bought it. I had some work done on mine: got it set up which involved fret levelling, I had a new nut installed and also rolled the fingerboard edges a bit... then a Basslines SMB4A turned the bass into a veritable beast. I don't like the original pickups on these at all. Put a SMB4A there and smile . I also put a 3-band Seymour Duncan preamp, the STC-3M3 (or something like that). I spent more than you did on my OLP, and then the extras added up quite a bit... but it was well worth it. £80? Great score! I still have one OLP left. This one is still passive, but I did change the pickup, which I think it's the least you can do to it. Tommorichards of this parish was assembling and selling clones of the 2EQ Stingray preamp... that would be a great addition to the OLP too! I got one, and it's going to go on my OLP.

[quote name='Earbrass' timestamp='1352134597' post='1859178'] If only one of the audience had decided that sitting still and listening was too "boring" a way of experiencing a lecture, and had instead opted for shoving a huge custard pie into the speaker's pretentious smug face. [/quote] smug? did we watch the same video?

[quote name='Mikey R' timestamp='1352113186' post='1858761'] Hey all, does anyone have off days / weeks / months? Like, practicing just makes everything worse and you just get frustrated? I feel like Ive been in this rut for a couple of months now, I thought I was just not practicing enough but practice just doesnt help. Got no control over the strings, my quarter notes are all different lengths, cant seem to hit the strings with the same velocity each note, the ghost notes dont sound, and I keep forgetting what section of the song comes next. Its like my muscle memory has gone to pot. Someone please tell me it'll pass some time soon cos Im really not enjoying it right now! [/quote] is this you? [url="http://youtu.be/9DbUPjEbIvA"]http://youtu.be/9DbUPjEbIvA[/url]

[quote name='bassman344' timestamp='1352139059' post='1859262'] Take the plunge and grin benz. [/quote] did you get a discount in exchange for this? I really must try GB... I like what I have, but I am not "in love", if you know what I mean... and the more I look around, the more it looks like GB would make me smile

oh, another one like a million before it, goody!

I already bought "Rage"... loving it.