neepheid

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1377417196' post='2187176'] I don't really like the idea of people buying stuff with the sole intention of selling it for a profit. Either here, or on eBay, or in life in general. [/quote] Life in general? Isn't this how shops work?

Sounds great, go for it. I'm too lazy to embark on something like this, so do it for me as well as yourself

Nope. Happy still to play anything from a simple P bass to the absolutely bonkers RD Artist. Funnily enough, they all sound like basses.

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1377376208' post='2186946'] The last time this topic came up (a few months back) there were quite a few posters who were adamant that selling stuff on here for more than you paid for it was a massive abuse of the community and completely and utterly unforgivable. It got fairly heated as I recall. [/quote] Yes, unfortunately I remember. I'm a free market radical. Not to mention the worst kind of amoral profiteer it would seem.

Rig - no problem, as long as I'm asked first. I'm not being difficult, it's just simple manners. No prior permission sought, no play. Anyone who thinks that's dickish I wouldn't want within a 10m radius of anything of mine. I'm not precious about settings or any of that nonsense (I know my settings) but please NO drinks on top of amps. Also - I don't understand the "use your own head with my cab" thing. I'd rather have a head going through my cab that I know is hooked up right and that the cab can handle maximum output from the head. Bass - highly unlikely. Sorry. It's going to have to be one hell of a tale of woe.

Are the pickups in phase? Try swapping the hot/ground wires of ONE of the pickups and see if that helps?

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1377215248' post='2185018'] Only in the most low end market is there a big difference in quality. Once it gets to a certain point, a bass is as good as a bass can be. It's just a matter of what you like. [/quote] I'd agree with that. The beginner is spoiled for choice of quality instruments these days. There's even less excuse to jack it all in after a month because at least you won't be fighting the instrument you're supposed to be playing. Diminishing returns as the price increases though, agreed. [quote] So which budget basses are great and which are garbage? [/quote] I do not agree with the pigeonholing of entire brands/models of instrument. I don't think it's useful. Each instrument is a unique instance (every bit of wood is unique, will have seen attention from different people along the assembly line for instance) and must be evaluated on its own merits. There will be Friday afternoon specials from so-called superior brands. There will be diamonds in the rough from brands that some will turn their nose up at. [quote] I feel the VM Squiers are cheap basses. But for a few pounds more you can have a CV, which is as good as any Fender other than an american standard from a good year. The custom shop is just an AS with hype. Music Man came out with the Ray line and they matched the original in quality. Now there's a SUB series for even less and THEY are every bit as good. It's actually quite ridiculous. [/quote] I'm going to extend the "I feel" at the beginning of this paragraph to include the whole of these quoted paragraphs, as I hope you meant that. [quote] So has everything changed? Are super expensive basses a thing of the past? I appreciate the dedication Luthiers have for their craft but why should I have to spend all that money on someone's personal carpentry hobby? [/quote] You don't have to. I don't get where this indignation is coming from. If you don't think it's worth it then fine, walk away but there must be a market out there for "bespoke", not "off the shelf" or however you want to describe them basses otherwise they wouldn't get made in the first place. No-one's forcing you to commission a custom made bass. [quote] Is there a future for elite instruments or are we looking at a future where instruments will be like TV's? Far better and far cheaper. [/quote] I don't know, and because I'm highly unlikely to want such an instrument (as I feel I'm not worth it, coupled with the financial imprudence of it all), I don't particularly care beyond the disconnected, offhand "that's a shame" level if they did die out.

Oh, I didn't notice you said PJ - G&L SB-2.

G&L L-2000. Might be able to pick up a second hand USA model for that if one shops around, easily get a new Tribute for that. Passive EQ, there is an "active" setting but that's just a line boost. There is one active tone shaping thing - the "treble boost" setting and I think it sounds terrible so I never use it.

I love my bands too. I'm in a good place right now. Managed to get a 6 piece band together (The Inevitable Teaspoons) with no egos who keep in touch, turn up when they're supposed to, actually work on stuff when they say "I'll work on that", aren't afraid to say "can we run through that song again?" get involved, make suggestions, all help carry big stuff and are good guys who I get along with. Songs are coming together and I think it's sounding ace. Next weekend we've got our first gig since our singer John joined us and I'm really looking forward to it. My other band (FaR) is doing fine also in this respect. It's a different dynamic because it's a creative duo (who sometimes play acoustic shows themselves) with a rhythm section tacked on so I guess I get to take a relatively further back seat on this one but it's been going great since the start of the year, played on average twice a month and one festival. Great players who are also nice people, I think I've been very lucky this year. Good times! Mind you, last year was the worst I've had for scheming, backstabbing, conniving, childish, passive/aggressive nonsense, so maybe it's just evening itself out.

[quote name='Toasted' timestamp='1377117478' post='2183683'] Did you decide on natural in the end? [/quote] No, that's just a base coat of sanding sealer in preparation for the translucent cherry red. I want that deep, dark red like on EB basses. All the way up the back of the neck too. Usual black headstock with the appropriate gold Gibson logo.

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1377032635' post='2182595'] Just thought I'd pass along a tip to anyone who has a string through body design. I have a J with that type of bridge and I always felt as if it didn't have a great slap sound. It didn't matter much, since a J isn't really a slap bass and I have others that work in that regard very well. But... I found that as the strings got deader, the sound became very choked and the feel very..."spongy." Very dull. So I changed the strings and it was better, but I felt the bass should really "snap" more. Then by observing the "through the body" design, I noticed it's a drastic downward bend -- causing the string to flex over the bridge saddle. So I removed the strings and strung them straight through to the hole in the back. BINGO! The bass now sings with more tone, more brightness and a snappier feel. The slap sound is sharp and twangy. WHO WOUDDA KNOWN? I never really bought into the notion that a thru the body design was an improvment, but it does look kinda cool. But now I realize, it's an unnatural and flawed design and the regular old fashioned way is better. If any one else has been experiencing lack of tone with a thru body string design I recommend going straight. It may solve a big problem. [/quote] Didn't work on one bass, so the whole idea is invalid? Not buying that, sorry. Also, the "old fashioned way" is through body - RE: the 1951 P bass.

I used to bugger about with these sorts of things but apart from extreme mods like gutting an Epi Les Paul Standard and decking it out in EMG-HB pickups (split P in a guitar humbucker sized enclosure) and an EMG-BQC 3 band EQ which obviously completely change the sound of a bass from the original passive humbuckers, the only one which made any pleasing difference was the single coil mod on my G&L Tribute L-2000 - a really nice tone that isn't normally available. Other mods have made pleasing functional differences like the Hipshot Supertone bridge on my RD Artist - big improvement in adjustability, but whether or not it made any difference to the tone is debatable (and the RD is a bad example, its character comes from the bonkers Moog circuit) or the Ultralites on my Jack Casady (just helps with the balance a bit) Replaced the mudbucker in my first bass with a DiMarzio Model One. Can't even remember what the difference/point was. All my current basses have the pickups they were born with, and I have no desire to mess about with them.

[quote name='Low End Bee' timestamp='1376995812' post='2181896'] Kicking myself that I was too lazy to get my Shergold Marathon pickup to him for the re-wind we discussed. The Thumper in my Precision is still the best for me of all the many pups I tried. [/quote] You could always try Aaron Armstrong for your rewind. I'm going to ask him to clone my Ripper pickup - cheaper than getting a Seymour Duncan replacement over from the States. [url="http://www.armstrongpickups.co.uk/repairs-rewind-services/"]http://www.armstrongpickups.co.uk/repairs-rewind-services/[/url]

I imported a Guild B402-A in from the States, one of only 335 made (assuming all serial numbers were issued and started from 1 - and that number is shared between the B402 and the single pickup B401), I guess that counts as pretty rare. Here's a picture of me playing it, wearing a silly hat. Funnily enough I traded it for another lesser spotted beast, a G&L El Toro. One could argue that my G&L Tribute M-2000 is very rare indeed - one of a batch of 24-36 where the factory made a mistake - they were supposed to be the GTB model (white carved top body, black body binding, matching headstock) but instead they came out regular white body with matching headstock with vintage tint on the back of the neck, a combination not normally available in a Tribute. It won't make a bean of difference to its value, but it's got an interesting back story if nothing else

[quote name='tommorichards' timestamp='1376934292' post='2181177'] could you send me a few pictures of the string retainer on the rear of the bass? [/quote] I'd love to oblige but I don't have the bass in my possession at the moment. There is no single string retainer, this is a pre-1977 Ripper with individual holes and some sort of recessed metal insert (a bit like a boot eyelet?) in each of the holes instead of the single recessed metal plate of post-1976 models. The differences are detailed here: [url="http://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/Ripper_variations.php"]http://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/Ripper_variations.php[/url] - This is the best picture of the individual holes I can find online:

Bet you weren't expecting to see your lunch again so soon, xilddx. Enjoy

Some more pics I found on Fender's flickr:

[quote name='Si600' timestamp='1376912925' post='2180656'] Is the neck glued on? [/quote] Yup, Ripper has a set neck.

Between those three? The Schaller (specifically the 3D). I have one on my Gibson IV. Adjustment every which way you want and not obtrusive in design with nicely rounded off edges.

Is this still rumbling along? I can't abide threads like this. Apart from the irrelevance (only vaguely aware of the brand and the guy and will never buy one of his basses so basically I don't care) it's 17 pages (and counting) of cyclic argument and reminds me of just about every thread on TB. Too long and too full of puffed up opinionated antagonism.

And as if his ears were burning, Rich sent me some pics He'll have made it much smoother, and sprayed some sealer on it. Grain's popping out nicely

I don't know the answer to your question but I can help narrow it down. It isn't in Aberdeen.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1376811684' post='2179266'] I don't know this switch, but I think the normal config would have the bridge hot at 3 and bridge ground at 4. This should avoid the bridge signal cancelling out the neck signal in the middle switch position. [/quote] It's the way round for my pickups that avoids phase cancellation. It works in my bass. I had it round the way you describe and the sound was fine on each pickup individually but thin and weedy together. Of course this is based on me assuming that the ground wires in my bass are the braid in the case of the neck pickup and black (as opposed to red) in the case of the bridge. Fair assumptions, I'm sure you'll agree, but maybe I got that wrong. If my terminology is wrong as a consequence of this assumption based upon wire colours then I apologise. Your situation may differ but it's a 50/50 shot and not difficult to remedy. You wire them up the way you think they should be. If it's thin and weedy sounding with both pickups engaged but fine individually, swap one of 'em. The OP's issue of no sound when the switch is centred is a different issue altogether. Even wired up out of phase there would be something.

[quote name='Greggo' timestamp='1376780599' post='2179155'] Managed to wire this in as per diagram and both pickups work individually but silent on middle position any ideas? Have reverses wires of one of the pickups but no joy still. Don't know if it makes a difference but on mine there is a wire coming from top of volume pot (assume this is a ground) which I've wired to the position 4 on diagram. Thanks [/quote] Extra ground wire shouldn't matter. I guess I've been a bit lax in not earthing my pickups but it works for me without it - maybe I got lucky. Maybe I'll put that wire in now Check the switch in each position with a multimeter to see if you get the results you expect. Can't think of any other reason why the pickups would work individually but not collectively off the top of my head.