mcnach

Typical... Over a year later and... still not very far along! Well, I decided to apply a power sander to the body and get rid off that supertough coat. It *is* tough! about 15min later using 40 grit, this is how far I got: The paler wood is where I catually reached the naked wood. The rest still has that coat on, to some extent. And I still have the back, and all the roundy bits... why did I start this, why? I don't even need a P-bass! By the way... change of plans... it'll no longer have a MM pickup. Plain P-bass it'll be, only with a SD 3-band preamp. Tune in next year again to see if I have actually finished stripping this thing

For someone looking at the Precision sound, I'd recommend checking out the 50s version with the single coil. Yes, not the same bass -although they are both "Precision" in name... and althoughh they sound in the ballbark of eachother, I personally prefer the sound of the 50s one. In particular, the Squier 50s Precision from the Classic Vibe series is a really nice bass.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1341162688' post='1714546'] Ignore the talk about pole pieces its utter rubbish, If they had covered poles it would never of even been a theory! That thread has been done many times and we found loads of basses with strings that dont run over the pups pole pieces and guitars too, Put it this way does a Fender Strat drop in volume if you bend the strings well out of any pole pieces when playing a solo? I think you could have the whole pickup too close to the strings which sounds like your going to have even less chance of hearing the G string but hear me out, if you lower the pup into the body quite a bit on the E side and lower the G end level to start with then plug it in and try it to see what the overall sound is like then you will need to boost your amp volume wise a little from where it was to compensate and the G will probably be too weak, keep it plugged in use a flat EQ, raise the G end up until it gives a bit more clarity and an even output, I have done this at home before in isolation and actually had to reduce the pup back on the G end a bit at the next rehersal as it was actually over powering on the G&D strings, crazy I know As for the EQ I would take the 2 EQ over a 3 any day, Im saving up for a Classic Ray5 as we speak [/quote] +1 for this man. I do not notice a difference when I bend strings and push the string sideways over the polepiece... I doubt that with those huge poles sliding the string a bit one way or the other makes a big difference... I certainly do not hear it, so I am with stingrayPete about the polepiece position being not very important. I find, however, that string gauge does make a difference. In addition to what is said above abount the pickup height etc... Use a 40 for the G? Move to a 45, and you will notice a difference. Even more so with a 50, although going from 40-50 may not seem nice at first if you are used to thinner gauges. The MM 3EQ is different from the JE 3EQ. The JE 3-band is merely a 2-band, with an added mid-sweep control. The midsweep control alone is wonderful as it allows you to really fine tune your sound. On the MM 2EQ, as in my SUB, I tend to have the bass control just slightly up, and the treble anything from totally down, to quite high, depending on the situation. I find they interact a lot, and sometimes you can control the top end better if you turn down bass, rather than turning up treble... These basses, in passive form, do not sound thin at all. Lots of bottom end. But you need to balance the controls not to unbalance the sound too much. The treble is cut and boost, without centre detent... so no idea where it is flat (unless you have a bypass switch added). The bass control I've heard it said it's boost only. To me it sounds like it is asymmetrical, and can boost a lot more than it can cut. For the Stingray I went with the JE 3-band, and I asked for a bypass switch to be installed. Because of that, I am sure I know what my bass sounds like without the preamp, and so where the "flat" setting is. And believe me, thin is not the word that best describes the sound.

[quote name='far0n' timestamp='1341159124' post='1714480'] I've ripped out the preamp and pickup out of my Sub4. Replaced with a Nordstrand MM4.2 and a John East 3 band parametric eq preamp. Weirdly the chrome plate that came with it didn't fit the screw holes. No idea if this is a Sub4 anomaly or not ?? Anyway, has it cured the weak G ? Yes, although there is a tendancy for the strings to get weaker towards the G, but I've had this same problem on plenty of other basses in the past. It's manageable if you screw the E end down a bit. The Nordstrand is quite a subtle pickup though, certainly not "in your face screaming stingray" as you might want. Me personally I like that, I always thought the original pickup was over the top sound wise. The Bartolini MM replacement is single rails across all four strings so that may be your best bet pickup wise. [/quote] Do you still have the original pickup on the SUB? I like them and I would be interested in it if you were selling... And +1 for the John East MMSR preamp. My Stingray was 2EQ, and I found it a bit too brittle on the high end. I bouught the 3-band from JE, more for the midsweep than anything, but as a bonus, I found the treble seemed a bit less gritting and more useable, while the bottom end seemed... "tighter" somehow. However, I am happy with the 2EQ in my SUB. I think the different pickup in the SUB (wired in series) works better with the 2EQ preamp. For me. Plate not fitting... I encountered the same thing with my 2002 Stingray. So I reused the original plate. I told John East about it. I actually compared the plate to my OLPs, and... it was identical to the OLP plates, but as you found out, the Stingray (and SUB) is a tiny bit different. I guess he has not changed them, or still has a few of those. He said he'd look into it when I sent him pictures... but he also said nobody had mentioned this to him before (hmmm) The Bartolini pickups may be nice, but if a "stingray" tone is desired, perhaps not the best choice.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1341143103' post='1714200'] From the fret in the cases of the Decade and Precision, which are fretted. From the fingerboard in the cases of the Takamine and the upright, which have no frets. [/quote] ah, but you play upright... you can probably hammer a nail into the wall with your fingers and it'd feel fine to you my basses vary, but they're generally 3mm-ish.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1341135931' post='1714071'] E string 12th fret at 5mm sounds fine to me: Lakland Decade = approx 3mm = very low, IMO Fender Precision = approx 5mm = slightly low, IMO Takamine B10 = approx 7mm = not low, IMO Upright = approx 9mm = "Couldn't play it 'cos the action was too high" sounds a bit wimpy. [/quote] Are you measuring bottom of the string to top of the fret? or the fingerboard? 7mm bottom of string to top of fret is... quite some action!

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1341065261' post='1713399'] A bass playing mate of mine came round the other day while I was restringing and setting up the Mexican P I got from Lojo. He had a go on it and handed it back saying he couldnt play it as the action was too high. I though that was odd as I like it like that. Anyway we measured the E string height at the 12th fret as it was 5mm. Is this considered high? [/quote] High? VERY high! (for me)

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1341069034' post='1713470'] Given the choice, to the left of my amp and the drummer. However it's usually 'wherever I can bloody fit myself in' . [/quote] Pretty much Space is often limited, so... wherever I can. When space is not so much of a problem, I tend to stay near the amp so that I can hear myself well, somewhere where I can hear me, the drums and get some vocals/guitar from the monitors. I often use a wireless so that cables are not in the way.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1341059091' post='1713320'] where you get the board from? make it? [/quote] I got it from 'unclefluffy' over at TalkBass, for a couple of beer tokens. I think he still makes a few from time to time, so you just have to get in the thread there and PM me to let him know you are interested.

Yes, and I have the circuit board even... but not for this bass. In fact I'm starting to think that a mid-sweep control probably makes more sense than a full 2/3-band preamp in most basses.

I have a (n early?) 90s Korean Squier Jazz. The pickups were ok, but not very good. The bridge pickup is the same size as the neck pickup, so a standard set will not fit without widening the cavity. I put some alnico Gotoh pickups I already had in there, and widened the cavity a bit with a chisel and a lot of care. The body turned out to be plywood... so it could crumble if not careful. I managed and it doesn't look bad unless you are really close looking for defects. Much better sounding now. That's the negative part. The positive? Amazing neck. I love that neck. It just feels fantastic, and the whole bass feels and balances great. So, I love my plywood Squier Jazz, what can I say? And I paid considerably less than £150 for it.

So I'm liking this bass. But not so much in its current form because of the electronics. So this is what will happen to it: *pickups I already had a Seymour Duncan SMB4A, MM style, so that will go on the bridge. I just ordered a Seymour Duncan SJB-3 for the neck. I have that on the fretless jazz and I like it. next the preamp will go. It works, but it's not really doing it for me. I'll see whether with the new pickups I change my mind, but I'm thinking that I will simply have a pickup miniswitch (instead of the current "slap switch"), single passive volume and tone controls... and this leaves an unused knob... I might just put a rotary switch to select from various capacitors for the tone control, and keep it all passive. Or buy the mid-sweep module from John East and install that. we will see. The coil selector switch might stay as it is (single coil/series humbucker/another single coil) or turn it into (series/parallel/one of the single coils)

[quote name='Rayman' timestamp='1340904608' post='1711395'] I had one, and it was nowhere near as bad as some had said it would be. I pimped it with an EMG passive pickup, and re wired it, but even before that I gigged it along side an Overwater Progress 5 with no problem at all, it was a great little bass. The only reason I pimped it was because I'm a tart. I discovered that some of the folks who had slagged them off had never even actually seen one. Funny that. [/quote] It's called "the Behringer effect"

I read very mixed reviews. Then I heard some sounding pretty decent. The bad reviews were mostly about things that a set-up would take care of. If you need to spend £60 in having someone getting it to play nicely, maybe it's not a good idea to buy unseen. If, on the other hand, you are reasonably competent... it does not sound like a bad deal. I've bought guitars and basses that the sellers sold cheap because they just could not handle them and they wanted to upgrade and buy a better brand etc... and later that day I had teh same instruments playing quite nicely at home. So... YMMV.

Not the Modulus one, obviously. I just saw Thomann are selling the black one at £155, both the shortscale and the 34" scale versions. At >£300 they seemed a bit much, but at £155 they look just about right. I just thought I'd let you all know, just in case. Oh, and the pickguard is just held with double sided sticky tape, easily removed, and it looks sexy in all-black