brensabre79

Thomann do one of these things, but cheaper... [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant.htm?sid=03598e1afee2fdad1eac02604e5e8607"]LINK[/url]

Depends on how deep they are, but sandpaper, brasso or t-cut (finer than brasso) and finally a bit of polish will get you smooth again usually. Just for clarity, I would definitely [u][b]not[/b][/u] use brasso or t-cut on a rosewood or ebony board!

Assuming its a Rosewood it should be around £100 - £150 for a refret. But it depends how the fret slots have been filled when converting to fretless, it may be more work. I paid Bernie Goodfellow £200 for a Maple neck refret and he re-laquered the sanded area and matched the colour of the 30 year old Nitro finish so you can't even tell its been done. That was a lot more work that a standard rosewood neck refret.

[quote name='OliverBlackman' timestamp='1345412862' post='1777307'] I've played 3 custom shop jazzes. An Oly White, Shoreline Gold and Dakota Red. All these sounded boring and lacklustre in comparison. My Tokai's got more growl, more defined mids, boomy lows and lovely low action. I will never sell it. Might have to take it to the south east bass bash at this rate. [/quote] Glad to hear you have a bass you're really happy with and will never sell! Those 80s Japanese instruments really are very well made. Although if their website is to be believed they are the best musical products in the world. Which makes me somewhat dubious... I'm not sure they make the Jazz Sound any more, and I'm not sure they make them in Japan any more either! The Jazz copy on their site is £350 though, I'm not sure its the same one as your Jazz Sound, it has an Agathis body!

Gosh thats a challenge! The key to a good studio monitor (for me) is as close to an absolutely flat speaker response as possible. This takes some serious design, usually based on considerable R&D. Any colouration whatsoever and you'll really have to get used to your speakers and potentially you'll be continually referencing known material through them as you mix. Studio monitors normally sound quite harsh and unpleasant compared to HiFi speakers. They are very different beasts. To that end I would say used whatever materials colour the sound the least.

Yep My ECC81 loaded compressor does this every time. Also My Vox Tonelab does this whenever its first turned on, that's a JJ Tesla ECC83. Freaked me out the first time it did it, but sounds well still so I'm not changing it!

Either of the Squier CV or VM, perfectly good basses, usually great necks on the VM series and you can swap with Fender parts later if you want to upgrade. But at this price range make sure you try before you buy!!

IF you already have a Squier VM you'll know the necks are pretty good for the money. You could stick a Squier VM neck on a Mex or US Fender body, or even just upgrade your Squier to the spec you want. If you want something that looks and feels like a 60s Fender but is a solid workhorse you shouldn't be looking at a blocks and binding neck - thats the 75 reissue neck! There are loads of places who supply 60s Fender Jazz-a-like parts in the UK. I just got hit with a customs bill for the genuine 70s body on my bitsa. To be honest with all the money I've spent on making it I could have bought a 100% genuine mid 70s Jazz Bass, which would be worth what I paid for it - although mine is actually nice to play and my main gigging bass If you just like the look and you want something really solid, allparts and warmoth builds are quite popular, but you will never get your money back and it will only be as well built as you can build it. I say, for the money you'd be spending on all those bits, go get yourself a Fender reissue.

The Barefaced drivers are better (on paper) spec than the ones in the Genz. So I went for the BF. As to whether this will make the difference you need I don't know, but I get a thundering amount of low end out of my Super12T and my amp gives in long before the cab will. In fact if i was going to replace anything on my rig it would be the amp.

Depending on the output of your current pickups, new pickups could increase the volume dramatically. Its also a myth that all active basses are louder than passive ones. 5 string pickups are harder to come by than 4s but you should be able to find some. You could talk to Wizard Pickups as they do a range of Jazz Bass pickups as well as custom orders, so you could probably get some really nice sounding hot (loud) pickups made for under £100. Or have a look on eBay for some S/H. The good thing about Fender stuff is its industry standard so theres loads of bits around that will fit. If you want to go the preamp route, you invariably get what you pay for, but the Artec preamps are incredibly cheap, usually only on eBay though. They are a little bit noisy compared to the more expensive ones. I'm not sure how much louder they are when running flat though. I'd start with the Pickups and stay passive personally.

[quote name='mart' timestamp='1345020955' post='1772318'] I've used Schallers for twenty years without any problems. I've always had the lock connected to the strap (with the U the right way up!). But some people prefer to put the strap on the button as normal, and then put the lock on afterwards. That way, if the lock fails, then the strap should still be connected to the button as usual, albeit no longer with any kind of lock. [/quote] This. I never got on with the Schaller locks, my Musicman has strap buttons so well designed that I've never needed straplocks. But my Jazz Bass has Fender straplocks on, which came off nightly until I superglued the fecker on there! It was only when I saw the guitarist in one of my bands using their Schaller locks the 'wrong' way (not attached to the strap) that I asked about it and was given the same explanation as above. Its a far better way to use them to be honest as it has a failsafe and doesn't rely on a tiny threaded nut staying put! Although it works exactly the same way as a grolsch bottle seal then - which is far more rock n' roll if you ask me!

Sorry I thought we were still using a stacked pot, having a volume for each pickup... Thats what I understood from the OP. A stacked pot (e.g. 2x 250k) wire one pickup to each of the stacks as you would a standard volume control for each pickup on a Jazz bass. Only they are stacked, not in different holes! Might be a bit fiddly though. Edit: I see you are thinking of a single control stacked pot. I am talking about the dual ones that have independant adjustment for each stack! Like the original Jazz bass which had two stacked pots, one for each pickup... http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Electronics/Pots/i-3479.html So for example, top stack, neck pickup volume. bottom stack, bpu volume, like I said though, might be a bit fiddly getting the sound you want in a hurry, but wiring wise should be simples.

The thing that makes a huge difference to the price of an instrument like a guitar (or bass) is the amount of human time involved in making it. Hence a completely handcrafted luthier built guitar will fetch thousands, because you're paying for the time spent by an expert to make the thing. At the other end of the price scale, it is largely built by machines, with the minimum of human contact. I was told by a reputable guitar builder last year that my Squier VM Jazz had probably had about 15 minutes total human contact in its manufacture, a fraction of which was actually QC. Hence the threaded screws, microphonic pickups and sharp edge on the scratchplate. It's exactly the same regardless of what country its built in, except in USA the hourly rate is higher so they probably get a minute or so cursory glance before being boxed and shipped. As Ancient Mariner says, its pot luck as to whether you get a good one or a bad one. To be fair, this is exactly why Rickenbacker don't do this sort of thing, for which they get flamed for making people wait and pay a high price for their product. Over time the Gibson brand is becoming one that is associated with poor quality control etc. as it has been in the past. It used to only represent very high quality instruments, the holy grail of guitars. They left the mass production stuff to Fender. Gibsons became quite undesirable a few years ago because they were producing awful guitars. Then they re-introduced the Epiphone brand (formerly a prestige brand) to handle the lower end of the market, to rekindle the prestige of owning a Gibson. Now it seems they are back to their old ways...

I'd take it back to him, having made sure its nothing else in your setup that's causing the static noise. Its your call, but you won't get much for it if its not working, even if you want to see it gone I'd get it fixed first then sell it as working - you'll get a lot more towards a replacement Ashdown or whatever you decide to get!

[quote name='mart' timestamp='1344807176' post='1769483'] But then what would you do with the two outputs? You'd have to link them together, in which case you're back with the traditional blend control, and no overall volume control. [/quote] I think this will be just two volume controls, one for each pickup just like a normal Jazz Bass, except they are stacked.

[quote name='chapsimon' timestamp='1344371803' post='1763693'] Not sure on the DIY vinyl blocks yet, i'm 50/50[/quote] I think they're just a bit big

Yep silver grille is the way to go IMHO

Well.... OK then. I just wanted to stress that the molded plugs are the preferred option because they fit properly and form a proper seal all the way around. The generic style with 3 or 4 flares that are supposed to form into the shape of your ear canal are incredibly thin, its only the bit in the middle that does any attenuating and its down to the size and shape of your ear canal (which you can't change) as to how effective the generic ones are . Generic ones are also just as prone to breaking the seal as the bespoke kind, if not more so due to movement, irregular ear canal shape or damage to the silicone itself (it does get weaker with time). Also, because many of the generic ones don't give an even frequency attenuation, (especially the foam ones) people have a tendency to not put them in all the way, or turn them around until they can hear well. The result is you can hear better, but the reason for that is you're not protecting your ears properly! So I see the generic ones, including the Noizezz, as a stop gap, or temporary solution. Since we're mostly all musicians for life I think £150 is a reasonable price to pay for having our ears serviceable as long as we are musicians!

You could also look at Barefaced Midget, it's a 1x12 like the MiBass, and I reckon it would be plenty loud enough for that amp. cheaper than the Compact too... The Barefaced stuff is in another league.

Welcome to the club JohnnyC looks sweet! Its worth the wait Plunger.

Have a look at what else you can buy for £50 that, as you say, works well. I think it's probably worth £50, but like Bill says, I seem to recall these being Maplins or Tandy or something... so you've probably not stumbled on an [i]amazin[/i]g speaker, but for £50...

OK well its common enough to get this sort of thing, especially in venues - thats why DI boxes and most amps have a ground lift! I don't think there's anything wrong with your gear. But you should get that socket fixed before it one day fails completely mid song and makes you look like a total idiot, rather than just a bit of an idiot with a bass held together with gaffa tape.

That looks like a good bass for the money, I've already got a full stable of Jazzes or i'd be buying that!

Was the DI coming out of your amp? Usually if the sound man DI's he'll put the box before the amp and the DI box will have a ground lift. To be honest so many things can cause hum. Dodgy mains being the main culprit, followed by interference from transformers in amps (not necessarily yours), lighting rigs etc. that are around the stage. They all emit electromagnetic interference, some of which could be picked up by your bass. Generally you only get a ground lift with an XLR output.

[quote name='Commando Jack' timestamp='1344518550' post='1765828'] Considering the universal fit brand "Noizezz" you linked to cost [url="http://www.proguarduk.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=39"]£16.65[/url] and will accomplish the same as a moulded plug i.e. reduce the amount of noise going into your ear to a safe level, some people may consider £150 too much. [/quote] I did not say that they accomplish the same thing as the molded ones. In fact I quite emphatically said the molded ones were best but if you couldn't afford them these ones work quite well and they are based on the same technology. The difference is you won't get the same fit as a molded one and as such this may impair the effectiveness of the ear plug. I'm not trying to present an argument for or against any product here. I suffer from tinnitus, sometimes quite badly to the point where I put my hands over my ears in vein to try and stop the noise. It is unpleasant, and in some countries used as a torture method. i am trying to help you and anyone else interested prevent a similar experience by passing on what I have learned from over 5 years of experimenting with different earplugs and talking to experts. At the end of the day they all do the job of attenuating the sound, whether you can hear what is going on around you or not with them in is down to the quality of your plugs.