neepheid

Aye aye min, I'm not a mod - simply spending time here damn near every day isn't enough to rise to those exalted heights! I'll see you later on for the fitba?

Maybe just be a bit more selective? Maybe take the festive season off completely for next year - lucrative though it may be? I've got no gigs until the end of January. Even bass players deserve a break...

They're so cheap these days, buy 2 sets, then keep them charged. If one runs out, you've got the second set to fall back on while you charge the first.

Go wireless, problem solved.

Only had first hand experience with the L2500, but I would pick it any day of the week and twice on Sundays over any J bass. Why? Well, the purely personal answer is that I despise J basses. MFD pickups sound amazing. If you *really* want a single coil sound from the L2500, you can mod it to provide that with inner or outer coils by changing one selector switch. The G&L bridge is fabulous, apart from the saddle lock feature, it has lovely rounded edges which make it a joy for palm muting at the bridge - no sticky out bits anywhere. I love Sire basses (I've owned two - had a D5, still have a Z7), it'll be a fine bass, but the V is a J bass and so as far as I'm concerned, it can get in the bin.

When life farts in your face, make fartade? I've ordered some stuff. Because it's still 2025. Watch this space...

Ahh, I knew it was too good to be true. There's a niggling fault and it looks a lot like it's the pickup There's an intermittent low level buzz coming from the bass which goes away if you wiggle or press down on the pickup. Also goes away if you go into the cavity and pull on the pickup wires. It doesn't stop the pickup making sound, but it's audible and seems to change the tone of the pickup a little when the mild humming/buzzing is happening. That's a PITA because the pickup is epoxy potted by the looks of things. Damn! What I think I'll do is get a Warman MM sized pickup as a stopgap (they're only £25 after all) then see what I can do about the stock pickup issue - if anything. What's low level annoying me is that I had a spare ATK CAP quad coil pickup, but I put it in a Squier Jag H and I was too lazy to take the pickup out when I sold the bass. Should have used my crystal ball!

Which Jazz circuit works best for me? Probably the one with no output jack... Merry Christmas!

Yes, with the OG preamp there are two trim pots behind those holes. I adjusted at them both - but they only affect the sound when the "slap switch" is activated, otherwise it goes through the three band EQ pots instead and ignores these settings. I twiddled at them to try to get volume parity between the two modes but they're not very intuitive and I realised pretty quickly that I just would leave the switch alone. Just not my thing at all. Even through the 3 band EQ instead of the slap switch mode, it was scooped as hell when the EQ was set flat. Whether it was the pickup or the EQ circuit I couldn't say, but I wasn't a fan of any of it, so I replaced the whole kit and kaboodle.

Phew, it did fit (just). All wired up and yes, series sounds much better (to me anyway) than parallel. Success! After I had to swap the top and bottom terminals because I got the fifty fifty decision wrong and got my north and south the wrong way round. Typical!

It is an AL, but it's luthite unless they got a bit stamp happy at the factory?

Ooft, that's a chonky switch. Must confess I didn't check the dimensions - it was that much of a pain in the arris to find one which wasn't momentary that I jumped on the first latching one I found. Hope it fits!

Your bass next, I think. He was on a mission to own *all* the basses in the world after all...

Lesson to be learned going forward - next time, as soon as the date is decided, make a thread?

Nice bass, mate, but not really fair to compare it to a 'ray - it's passive for a start. Most ATKs are active with a 3 band EQ. Different pickup too - according to the Ibanez wiki (not saying it's gospel, like) the ATK100 has a regular dual coil humbucker, most other ones made around this time had a triple coil (a dual coil with a phantom coil), or later a quad coil (double humbucker).

I don't think it's fantastic that the two biggest bashes are happening on the same day. This is most unfortunate

A quick razz in the GIMP, and you're welcome! To answer your question, not always but in this case yes, there is a noticeable difference between the two pairs. Granted it's a variation on a theme, but it is there.

Am I invisible? Did I stutter? It's a QUAD coil. I used pictures and everything! Yes, because the two pairs (so that's four then) can only be addressed as individual pairs (in that each pair of coils are joined together inside the pickup then present the each end of that pair as a wire) then it logically becomes a dual "coil" situation, it's more like two units, than two coils. I may be splitting hairs here, but technically correct is the best kind, and I'm a little cross that I've basically been talked over/around in my own effing thread

Because you're worth it. Don't let that pesky imposter syndrome get in your way. And lose the "just". Even "just" doing pub gigs you are already in the rarefied air of musicians who actually make it out of the bedroom.

The thing that puzzles me about this one is that I don't think the fingerboard is ebonol - it's not jet black, I can see grain in it (and in the light), pretty sure it's a wood of some sort, if not rosewood then some other dark wood. And the grain on the back of the neck looks a lot like wenge to me. I have no idea what the "AL" in "CURBOW 4 AL" on the back of the headstock means, but maybe it's a clue?

I would be open to the possibility.

Yes, these later models have a quad coil pickup, but they don't have individual wires for each coil, you can only operate them in pairs. The stock switch does this: And the middle setting (parallel) blows IMO, hence the impending mod.

As I went down the road to the SE Bass Bash in November I stopped off en route to purchase a bass for the hell of it, a Cort Curbow. I had always been really intrigued about them, what with their use of man made materials and I always thought they looked pretty neat in some finishes. I spied one for sale, a sunburst one and figured "what the hell?" So, I like how it looks, and I like how it feels to play. Unfortunately, whilst sounding fine in headphones, it was utter garbage live with the band. Where are my mids? This thing is so scooped by default that they're barely noticeable. I had to crank the mids on the preamp AND crank them on the amp just to be audible, seriously, it just disappeared. Well, I picked it up for a tasty low price so I figured it was worth modding. I procured a Bartolini Classic Bass soapbar of the appropriate size and shape (MK4CBC) (thanks @Bass Direct) and someone on here sold me a Glockenklang 3 band preamp for a decent price (cheers @Fettsman) and got to work on the mods. Fitting the pickup was a piece of cake, the only thing of note I had to do was accomodate 2 screws on one side instead of one. Then I replaced the stupid "slap switch" (which scoops an already inherently scooped bass some more - WHY?) with a much more useful parallel/single/series switch and fed the pickup into that. However, fiting the preamp was another matter. This body is thin, and to compound the issue, the knobs are sunk into the top. There was no effing way that Glock was going to fit in there as supplied. I mean, I was modding it anyway - don't need a blend control on a single pickup bass after all. First problem - the body of the push pull volume control was just too tall, even if the shakeproof washer was eschewed. So out with the drill and the forstner bit to remove some material from the cavity to sink it down enough so the lid will go down... Just made it! Not a lot of material left, but this luthite stuff seems sturdy so I think it'll be OK. Then onto the main board, which was way too tall. So, to scheming. Thankfully, while the control cavity in the Curbow may be shallow, it is thankfully quite wide. Lots of dead space above where the bass pot would go... So to cut a long story short, I turned it through 90 degrees. The pot legs wouldn't bend enough while it was mounted, so I had to desolder the pot, bend little 90 degree nubs on the ends of the terminals then resolder it thus: >>>>> Did a test fit (the small board attached to the mid pot was able to be bent sufficiently with the pot in situ)... Yas, the lid closed. So I soldered up the rest of the wires... Cheeky little single connector block thing for the myriad ground wires I had to connect together... Great success! It now has mids when the preamp is flat! I took it to a subsequent band rehearsal and praise be, I was able to hear myself with the preamp set flat. MIssion accomplished! I hope you enjoyed this shaggy dog story and if you only take away one thing from this, is that it's usually true what they say - where there's a will, there's a way...

Well, so that I don't fall foul of gear abstinence rules next year, I've ordered the on-off-on switch required to make it north (single)/series (both)/south (single), instead of north/parallel/south as it is wired stock. And in case you're wondering, this is what I'll be doing with it:

Get them told! What next, supporting the "wrong" football team? It's a slippery slope...