neepheid

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So, I did this before bed last night... The jury is very much out on this sticker business - looks OK in that photo but I went a bit wonky on 7 and really quite a lot wonky on 9 - not centred side to side and very noticeable (to me anyway) when the strings went back on. Also it's pretty obvious they're stickers - not so much the edges but you can see little depressions in the stickers of where the dots are underneath in the light. I'll wait until the black pickguard arrives before deciding whether or not to keep them (in which case I might order another set and redo 7 and 9) - or just lift them all and go back to the stock dots.

No, it's the CAP double humbucker from the ATK200/810/1200 etc. Yes, I'm aware of the triple coil and initially I thought I was dealing with the same beast - the three mouldings on the top of the casing are very misleading as you have pointed out! So it's just a simple quad coil bruiser. I like it - especially in series mode! If you've ever attacked some drywall with a club hammer, this pickup, centrally located, makes me think of that each time I hit a note. Because it's centrally mounted, I think it could probably do P bass-ish without trickery, but I honestly don't pay much attention to these things. If I'm ordered to provide a P bass sound, I'll play my G&L Tribute LB-100. I want all my basses to be themselves, and I treat them as such. I have a loosely defined notion in my head of what "good" sounds like, and that's as far down the rabbit hole as I'm willing to go.

Prep for some cosmetic treatment - fret polish time... Mmm, shiny frets r gud frets...

It's good to get it off your chest. I don't have much to add, apart from the usual "don't give up, mate" type platitudes - if you're still fit to play gigs (and you still want to) then I hope you find an outlet for that. The part I highlighted in your original post struck a chord with me. We had to change singers at the end of last year and what a gaggle of muppets, morons, and wastes of space and time did we encounter in our search! From no-shows at auditions, to people being all "I know all your songs" only to be found out at the audition, to folk with all the gear and no idea, to people who were overconfident to the point of either announcing that they were our new singer before we'd even said anything about it to them, to control freaks who could sing well enough but had a list of demands as long as your arm, trying to get folk to join the band before they'd even joined. We had it all - it was MONTHS of hell during which time we entertained thoughts of jacking it all in. TL:DR - I feel some of your pain, but stick in there, if we can find someone eventually in the wilds of NE Scotland, I'm sure you'll be fine in the end.

Full deets here: https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/503167-squier-jaguar-h-a-good-start-but-what-if The wunkay never disappoints. What an awesome bass. Simple AND effective, just a tad more flexible than a P bass, and loads of great sounds to be had. Bridge pickups be damned!

Yesterday afternoon, a bit more progress. Got the electronics sorted - VT with a three way switch for parallel, single, series options. Don't have any pics of it fully wired before assembly, was too keen to get it in and tested. To my amazement, it worked first time! Then I felt cocky so I took it and played it at a 3 hour gig. This passed flawlessly. This has done my confidence the world of good - the last time I did a full rewire (to be fair it was a more complex wiring job - 2 pickups, VVTT with series parallel push/push pots on both tones and a pickup selector switch) I made a complete hash of it and was so dispirited that I handed it over to the local guitar shop to bail me out. This time I went super methodical, putting pen through wires on a diagram as I did them, checking continuity as I went after every few solder joints. The only thing that tripped me up was that orange drop capacitor and the less than capacious control cavity on this bass - I thought I was being neat and tidy putting it alongside the three way switch but where it sat it was sticking out just too much for the control plate to go down and line up with the screw holes. Baws! Thankfully there was some latitude to squish it harder up against the switch and then it just made it. Phew! Delighted with the results - that Ibanez CAP dual humbucker is a beast - especially in series mode. What a thump it delivers, but not muddy, clear and punchy, loads of authority. I love it! Some cosmetics to do, but then I'm going to call this one done.

Eerily prescient - see below! A weekend of gigs to report on. Friday night with Nine Lives at The Leathan in Portlethen, near Aberdeen. It's an odd place to play - hard floor, low ceiling, band area walled in on both sides half way up. Caused a plethora of sound issues to be worked around, we were a few mins late starting. From gremlins with the singer's wireless mic (a lot of hiss for some reason - went wired in the end), to having to drop the bass down a lot because too much boom. But when we did get going, we had a good time, sound got better in the second half, probably because it got a bit busier. It was a good night - a small crowd but lots of enthusiastic dancing makes it worth double. Gear was Sire Z7 then G&L wunkay into the usual Markbass tone cubes. Saturday afternoon I did some wiring work on my Squier Jag H, was feeling cocky so I took it to the gig at night (with a backup, of course). Saturday night was at Gray's Inn in Mastrick, Aberdeen, again with Nine Lives. What a difference a room makes - wide open space, carpeted floor, high ceiling. Setup was a breeze and the drummer (who has taken up the challenge of being main sound guy, as well as being a sound guy!) nailed the levels almost right away. A less busy time, but we still had a few folk up dancing. I went walkabout through to the other bit of the bar where people were being shy and took 25% of the show to them. You can run, but you can't hide when the bass player's wireless! The Squier Jag H performed flawlessly, what a glorious sound in series mode! I was having so much fun I played it for the whole night (sorry you left the house for nothing, Triad). Modified Squier Jag H all night into the yellow and black modular bringer of boom.

Ah ken fit's fit.

You'll have to catch me first, lawman!

I use a set of Lekato WS-70 - UHF, so neither 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz. I've had great results with these - gone on walkabouts round the entire pub before. Lasts a 3 hour gig on a full charge no problem (I think the full life is 7 hours per charge, but I wouldn't like to risk playing 2 gigs back to back without charging in between). Seems to handle active basses OK (I've used them with my Sire Z7 in active mode without issue). Also can be had for anything between £30 and £60 depending on where you look. I bought these for a first stab at going wireless and honestly I don't think I need to "upgrade" as these have been doing the business for me for the last 6 months or so. If anything went wrong with them, at these prices I'd probably just buy another pair.

G&L MFD

This is the bridge, in case anyone sees it and thinks they might want to give it a go: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B8VZGRP6 Oddly enough, it uses hex heads for both the string height grub screws AND the intonation adjustment screws.

Last night I did a little bit of work to kick the can down the road... 1) fitted new bridge - I have nothing against the BBOT per se, but I do have a problem with it when it's got rattly springs that I can hear reverberating when I pluck a string. Giving a cheapo Guyker £19 Amazon job a go. Kinda like those part threaded saddles. 2) Drilled out a hole for the three way switch in the Jag's control plate. It was late, so I did it by hand. Which took a predictably long time, but at least it was quiet.

If it doesn't fit, make it fit...

Since the removal of fees, I'm 1 sale in, only one lowballer then someone simply paid my perfectly reasonable price. Sold within hours. No hassle.

Show's over - DHL picked up the bass this afternoon. I really don't understand why Thomann couldn't have let me keep the bass for like £100 or something - it's barely worth that now. It must have cost them to send DHL to my door. There's an invoice in there for around £30 for my time, mileage and packing materials I had to buy to make up for their utter lack of them in the original packaging. Oh well. Hopefully get my refund in the next couple of weeks.

Bought a Digitech Bass Synth Wah from Mike. Smooth transaction with good, clear comms. Pedal nicely packaged and arrived promptly. It's a yes from me!

Not any more - moved to Newcastle. Which I'll accept - has been Scottish a few times over the course of history... I just ordered a guard from Brian for my Jaguar H, and he did a pickguard for my G&L Tribute LB-100 a while back - top notch stuff.

I reamed out the holes and fit standard 1/2" tuners. Absolutely no help to you whatsoever, but have some free Bronco pron.

Bloody traumatised, min!

A half hour of fettling with files and sandpaper and the original pickguard can now fit over the new pickup... I couldn't find my round file so had to improvise in the corners - they're maybe a tad square but TL:DR, it's on.