mcnach

Well, I had this OLP I bought a while ago with the idea of making it fretless... and I got as far as pulling out all the frets. Then nothing. For months. Many months.

Finally, in on of the bands I play there was a bit of a need for a fretless. So I took the bass to my favourite luthier.

I got it back today.

Here it is:





and here it is flanked by one of the (in?)famous Sue Ryder P-basses and my MM SUB5:




The fret slots were filled in with a dark blue veneer (it looks more blue in real life than in these pictures). I was not very careful when I removed the frets and I didn't want big slots (less work too, so cheaper), so the luthier did what he could with what I gave him... then planed the fingerboard nicely, smoothened up the back too and rounded the edges and finished it in oil, as it was... Beautiful.

I took it to rehearsal after barely one hour trial... and I'm amazed how nice it is to play. I'm used to OLP/Stingrays, so I guess that helped, but although my intonation was not perfect, it was much better than I expected. I'd be happy to gig it already (I do have to watch my hands more than I normally do). I ended up playing a whole lot of RHCP songs on it, and yes, you can slap a fretless, and yes it sounds pretty cool! Today we tried "Blackeyed Blonde" for the first time... and it sounded pretty good

Fretless, eh? Who would have thought it?

The strings are a set of Ernie Balls I think (not my usual), roundwounds 45-100 or so. Rather old, so not very bright. It is actually quite nice and I love the "growmwahl" you can get on the lower notes. I was going to put some flats in there. I have D'Addario Chromes and Status Hotwires -both flats and groundwounds- to try... oh, decisions decisions... I'm new to fretless and almost-new to flats... any hints?

Now I need to replace the pickup and put the 2EQ preamp I took from my MM Stingray... The pickup on this OLP is more powerful than on the other 3 I've owned, not sure why. It sounds pretty good, but I need my alnico parallel fix. So if anybody has a Seymour Duncan or Nordstrand MM type pickup... I'll be interested!

The highly rated preamp/DI/distortion package.

Great condition, boxed etc.

£90 delivered (1st class recorded).

Since I got the RH450 I just don't use this anymore... so here's a Boss LMB-3 limiter/enhancer pedal for bass. Used but not abused.

Looking for £40 inc. delivery

Great condition, boxed. Classic Cry Baby GCB-100 wah for bass.

£40 delivered.

Here's my Ashdown MAG250 head. 250W into 4ohm. Good working order, good sounds, dependable, with a decent DI, just not required anymore.

Looking for £130 delivered (mainland UK).

pics:
[attachment=74165:MAG250.jpg]
[attachment=74166:MAG250_back.jpg]
[attachment=74167:Ashdown_rig_2.jpg]



Edit: I would be willing to sell it with the cab. It's an ABM mini15 rated at 300W, giggable, very portable and reasonably light (<13Kg on my bathroom scales)
I'd be looking at £200 + delivery for both amp + head.

evil bump

[quote name='pikeman' post='1151252' date='Mar 6 2011, 10:46 AM']Oh bugger, I've just had a phone call and the audition has been cancelled, the singer has a migraine.
All that worrying for nothing.
No date set for another audition yet.
I've gone from nervous to disappointed.
Sorry to put you guys through it with me.
Still feeling the love though.

Steve.[/quote]


Singers, eh?

That must be frustrating, but hey, you get a little more time to play those songs until you can play them in your sleep.
Let us know what happens.

I hope you get back in business soon!

I don't know that bass (sounds interesting though), but... I suspect that push/pull on volume is a passive/active switch. You can test that by removing the battery: if the bass works in one position but not the other, that's what it's doing.
As for removing hum... they're single coils so always susceptible to hum when selected individually. You can however reduce some of it by properly shielding the bass. Have a look on www.guitarnuts.com for info on wiring/shielding.

[quote name='tom1946' post='1151112' date='Mar 6 2011, 06:47 AM']I have a red SR..............[/quote]



I didn't think I would like a red one back then

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='1151539' date='Mar 6 2011, 03:39 PM']+1 on the G&L if not, a Jazz'll cover most things.[/quote]

That's exactly what I thought. In that order too.
My L2500 still amazes me. I want to do the single coil modification (changing the series/parallel switch so that I get series/parallel/single coil) which should make it pretty much unbeatable when it comes to versatility. It already does a very passable P-bass. It has a wide range of tones that you may not say "it's a P, it's a J" (I guess it sounds... L2000 )... but they sound "classic" enough to fit into pretty much anything from 60-80s, and then some more.

Although a Stingray is what I'd probably go for, but I just *love* that bass. It's surprisingly versatile... and that's teh 1-pickup version. If you go for the 2 pickup...

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='1150598' date='Mar 5 2011, 02:43 PM']IIRC, the SR5 was originally alnico for the first few years, switchable series/single/parallel (as my old SR5 was). It was around 1992-93 that EBMM made it ceramic, and they introduced the phantom coil around the same time (to buck hum in the single-coil position).

In 2008, they switched back to alnico to make it more like the StingRay (so that StingRay = alnico and Sterling = ceramic); they also ditched the single-coil setting and made the switch run series/"Enhanced Parallel"/parallel.

I've never actually tried an SR5 with "Enhanced Parallel"... it'd have to be pretty damn good to live up to the loveliness of the original single-coil position. That was my go-to setting.[/quote]


Thanks for that. That would make sense: it means they used pickups they already had for the SUB5. There would not be a point in making a new different pickup for the SUB, when you think of the whole idea behind the SUB concept.

I still have no idea where the 4-string alnico/series Ou7shined showed would be used, apart from the SUB4...

I suggest you try the sound of both pickups in *series* and see what you think.
Of course that only works for the both pickups on situation... but it's a great sound, in my opinion, with lots of "oomph". It makes it fatter and you get a bit of a volume boost too.

It would be very easy to change the tone pot for a push/pull (or push/push as I did) so you can choose which configuration to use.

[quote name='luckman67' post='1150516' date='Mar 5 2011, 01:22 PM']How hard is it to rewire a SUB pickup & is there any diagrams on how to do it. Plus does it make any difference.[/quote]


If you mean converting the series pickup as Ou7shined showed to parallel... I can't imagine it's a hard thing to do. All you'd have to do is snip the little loop at the bottom joining the two bobins, and extend the two cables. Now you'll have your 4 wires, start/end for each bobin. Wire in parallel (start with start, end with end) and away you go.

There is a noticeable difference betwen coils in parallel and coils in series. The series has a higher output and sounds "darker", many people fit switches to be able to choose parallel/series in their humbuckers for that reason. On a Stingray I really prefer parallel, so I would not bother. But one of the mods I love in jazz basses is to add a switch to wire the pickups in series. By default they are in parallel, when you select both pickups on. Putting them in series gives you a very nice boost, in my opinion.

But yeah, it sounds different. Which one you prefer, is up to you of course.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1150218' date='Mar 5 2011, 02:04 AM']I don't know much about them except there's no series / parallel switch. I guess it would sound close to a 3eq 'ray.[/quote]


Hmmm, I wonder if the Sterling SUB has alnico series as standard... and maybe that's the pickup you showed a few posts earlier...

(see, I couldn't sleep wondering what pickups went on SUBs )

They must have made pickups especifically for the SUB basses, because my SUB5 had an alnico parallel, at a time when real 5-string Stingrays had ceramic pickups!

[quote name='Machines' post='1150501' date='Mar 5 2011, 01:06 PM']Went into a shop today - they only had a Gold Top and red Strat though .[/quote]


I can't find the icon for "ner ner ner neeer ner"

I wish they'd made the P-bass in red. I don't like red guitars, but then I was supposed to not like P-basses either Now I think a red P-bass with tortoiseshell type pickguard and rosewood fingerboard (and I'm a fan of maple) is a very cool looking thing indeed.

what happened to me?

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1150153' date='Mar 5 2011, 12:10 AM']That is a Stingray pup.
Looks like we may have uncovered the reason why the SUB 5 sounds like a 'ray and not a SUB. [/quote]


how very confusing!!!

so you take the SR4 (not talking Sue Ryder now, ok? ) and it's alnico parallel.
Then the Sterling comes, and it's ceramic series/parallel (switchable, right?). Ok.
The SR5 comes along, and rather interestingly it's ceramic parallel (rather than a more Stingray-ish alnico parallel).

Then the SUB comes... and the SUB4 is alnico series, very oddly.
But the SUB5 is alnico parallel? making it more like a Stingray than the SUB4... and again not being consistent between 4/5 string models

Later on the SR5 becomes alnico parallel. Back into Stingray territory.

C R A Z Y.

I'm of a sceptical and suspicious nature... and I would say that for the SUBs they may have used anything and everything they had available. The goal was to build a cheaper ($1000) version of the Stingray. The cheapest pickup is the one you have spares of, extra stock not needed, etc...
Maybe.
The thing is... was there any MM bass that used an alnico pickup wired in series exclusively?

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1150093' date='Mar 4 2011, 11:05 PM']Here's a pic I took myself Jose.
One is a SUB pup the other is a Stingray one. It's fairly easy to work out which is which just by looking.

[/quote]



pictures, pah! I'm a scientist, I need to measure things

anyway, now I'm well and truly confused...

you see, I'd say the one on the right looks very much like a series one (one bobin finishes, a cable goes to the start of the other... you get both in series). The one on the left looks like a parallel wired one...
The pickup on my SUB5 looks like the left one (and the resistance measurement is consistent with it being parallel: 4 Kohm per coil, typically... so that makes 2K for parallel and 8K for series), it measured 2.07Kohm...

Ah, I have a picture... wait:



so, I shall stand by "my SUB5 is wired in parallel"... the question is 1) is mine unusual? 2) is yours unusual? 3) are 5-string SUBs diffrent from the SUB4 in that respect? 4) am I totally and utterly confused? (wouldn't be the first time, or the last )

[quote name='Toasted' post='1149465' date='Mar 4 2011, 02:04 PM']Point taken, but pushing the cone to maximum excursion like that can't be good for it.[/quote]

and normal playing is that: normal and necessary.
pops from careless unplugging/plugging is just not necessary.

what about plugging in an active bass while the cable is attached to the amp? Does the amp see the 9V for a fraction of a second, rather than the milliV it would normally get? (I don't know, I'm asking)

Received my DiMarzio DP122 (model P) pickup, so I decided to start the changes I was going to do in one of the basses.
First of all, it involved changing the neck. It has a rosewood fretboard and I wanted a maple one (still a SR neck!). And I noticed one thing... the maple necks are noticeably chunkier than teh rosewood ones!!!

My first SR was a rosewood one, and felt rather slim. I didn't understand why so many people talked about chunky necks. Now I do!

I have 3 SR basses, and 4 SR necks. Two rosewood, both identically slim. Two maple, both identically chunky.

There you go!

Also, out of my 3 SR basses, the navy blue one (SR#3, navy/maple) is the one that I consider to be more "growly". Using the stock strings and pickup. This bass was destined to be body-stripped and fitted with roundwounds, and pickup choice was unknown. I quite fancied a DiMarzio DP127, which is P-shaped but very unlike a P-bass in every other respect... but now I might just leave the stock pickup on, at least initially.
SR#1 (white/rosewood) stays stock, with Rotosound nylon flats. I have an up/down relationship with these strings. Some days I love them. Very double-bass like. Other days I hate them. Hmmm.
SR#2 (white/rosewood) will have the pretty maple SR neck I bought from 'pikeman' (holes don't quite match, so a bit of filling/redrilling will be involved), the DiMarzio model-P I just received, and some brighter flats (non-coated). I have a set of D'Addario Chromes just waiting.

That's all for now on the SR bass bonanza

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1143722' date='Feb 27 2011, 07:30 PM']Stingray pups are wired in parallel while Sterlings and SUBs are series[/quote]


Not sure about the SUBs, unless mine was unsual.
My SUB5 came with a replacement pickup on, and I was given the original also. It only had 2 wires, so can't play with parallel/series combinations, but it measured just over 2Kohm so I assumed it was wired in parallel.
Just checked my file (I write down silly stuff like that): 2.07 Kohm. Exactly the same as the alnico Seymour Duncan replacement, it turns out.

[quote name='Dr_Tom' post='1149817' date='Mar 4 2011, 07:30 PM']Hey,

Just wondering if anyone knows of some good replacement pickups for the MM active SUB?

I really want to start playing this bass again as I love the look of it and it seems a waste to have it sitting around, but I could never find the sound I was after. Then I got a mexican jazz and that was exactly what I wanted. I love the mids of jazz basses, whereas I find the SUB to either be all bass or all treble, no compromise.

Does anybody know of any good replacement pups that would give me that mid I'm looking for?

Cheers
Tom

P.s. I havent actually tried it out on my new TC electronic stuff yet as its stored away at a mates house, that might make a difference....[/quote]


I just realised that we share some equipment: SUB (I also have a Stingray 4-stringer), RH450 and RS210

The SUB/Stingray love that amp. And viceversa.

[quote name='Dr_Tom' post='1149817' date='Mar 4 2011, 07:30 PM']Hey,

Just wondering if anyone knows of some good replacement pickups for the MM active SUB?

I really want to start playing this bass again as I love the look of it and it seems a waste to have it sitting around, but I could never find the sound I was after. Then I got a mexican jazz and that was exactly what I wanted. I love the mids of jazz basses, whereas I find the SUB to either be all bass or all treble, no compromise.

Does anybody know of any good replacement pups that would give me that mid I'm looking for?

Cheers
Tom

P.s. I havent actually tried it out on my new TC electronic stuff yet as its stored away at a mates house, that might make a difference....[/quote]


a good SUB replacement is... a SUB pickup.

I personally think they are great pickups. So I'll just say I am going to need a pickup for an OLP I defretted... if you don't want your SUB pickup, I'll buy if from you!
Just PM me. I'm serious.
(4-string, I presume)

I personally love the Seymour Duncan alnico replacement, the SMB4A. I have a couple of those and they really are very nice.
But I happen to like the SUB pickup. I have a SUB5 that came with a ceramic SD fitted, and the original. It sounded great, but I wanted it to sounds more like my Stingray. I happened to have the alnico version of the Sd as well (bought for another project). Sounded very good. Then tried original. Not much difference. I liked the original, not sure whether more or less than the others, but it sounds great so it stays put.

However the 2EQ preamp can be a bit extreme. The treble can be insanely trebly, and cutting down treble can leave the sound too bassy and boomy. I get nice sounds out of it, I like it a lot... but what transformed my Stingray for me (a 2EQ as well) was not changing the pickup but changing the preamp. I use a John East preamp. Not very cheap, but it's well worth the money. Much more focused bottom end, and with the sweepable mids you can get such a wide variety of tones. I think if you did that you would be amazed and like your SUB with the original pickup.

But if you want to sell your pickup... please let me know!

[quote name='spongebob' post='1149682' date='Mar 4 2011, 05:17 PM']Only band I was sacked from was when I was still drumming alongside bass.[/quote]


seriously???

I'd pay to see that!

Oh, you mean...

nevermind.

Listened to the clip. The tone was poo.

No, not really. It sounded really nice. It's very far from the sound I usually want from my basses, but it sounded really nice.

[quote name='allihts' post='1147312' date='Mar 2 2011, 04:23 PM']Quite excited to hear the samples, I was thinking about a P-retro for my Squier (already upgraded the pickup to a Duncan SPB-2) but not too sure if I need one/can justify spending more than I payed for the bass on a preamp.[/quote]

If you really like how the bass plays and sounds... then *YES*.
Don't do it if you hope it'll transform a meh bass into a great one, but if you already like what you have (regardless of the price or headstock label), then do it, and buy some anti-wrinkle cream, because you won't stop grinning