JPJ

My self assembly PJ five string has the stack pot arrangement from KiOgon and it’s very versatile. That said, my Fender Tony Franklin fretless PJ has conventional volume and tone and a three-way switch which works equally well but I suspect that the P & the J pickups are very well matched. Those Tonerider pickups are excellent, but be careful as some of their P pickups are very ‘hot’ and will easily overpower the J.

So having spent some money on a Gewa Prestige gig bag (money well spent, this thing looks fit for the road with plenty of padding and pockets galore), last night Lilly and I took part in an acoustic rehearsal. She sat so lovely along side two acoustic guitars, looking forward to gigging her next weekend (hopefully our singers laryngitis will have cleared before then 🤞).

Found this on the GSS site - input sensitivity 10kohm?

Are you driving the Sumo hard enough? Given that the output of any amplifier is governed by the ‘strength’ of the input signal, it sounds like you might need to turn the VT1 up a bit to give the Sumo something more to amplify?

There is certainly something very tactile about playing a double bass, and I can certainly confirm that there is a very pleasing interaction between bass and body. As I generally refuse to dance on account of my two left feet, I’d better not start dancing with Lilly or Mrs JPJ will get jealous 😂

Having finished a couple of guitars and basses using nitro in rattle cans, here’s my approach. 1) sand the body to 400 grit 2) apply the grain filler working the filler in with a plastic spatula across the grain 3) sand the body to 800 grit working slightly diagonally to the grain so as to avoid pulling the grain filler out of the grain. 4) apply sanding sealer, this will serve two purposes, firstly it will let you catch the light so you can see any areas that need more sanding or filling, and secondly it will cut down on the amount of primer you use. I normally knock the sanding sealer back to about 1200 grit before I apply the primer. 5) apply the number of coats of primer you need to get a good even finish with no exposed grain, sanding scratches, defects. Pay particular attention the the edges where the primer can sink into the open grain. 6) once happy with the primer coverage, wet sand to 1500 grit. Everything you apply from here on in will magnify any remaining defects so this is probably the most important stage. 7) apply your colour coat. I’d probably apply three coats around the edges, two to the back and three on the front, although as the Sherwood green is relatively pigment heavy, two good coats all over may be sufficient. If you haven’t sprayed nitro before I’d highly recommend practicing on some scrap wood as the line between enough coverage and enough to run a screw your finish is very very fine. 8 ) wet sand the colour coat to 2000 grit 9) Apply the clear coat, again probably two or three coats to build up enough coverage to wet sand without sanding through to the colour coat. Leave it at least two weeks to fully cure (finger nail test is the way of knowing for sure). 10) Wet sand through 2000, 2500, and finally 3000 grit. 11) buff with coarse, medium, and fine buffing compounds and then polish to final finish. To improve the spray pattern and reduce the ‘orange peel’ you invariably get with rattle cans, warm the paint before you spray by standing the can in a pot of warm water. Do not scrimp on the can shaking, you need the paint and propellant to be fully mixed to avoid spatter. Finally, health and safety - you need a really good professional filter mask as nitro is nasty stuff. You need the room you spray in to be warm and well ventilated with good light (preferably natural light). Don’t be tempted to spray out doors especially at this time of year, moisture in the air will cause your finish to go milky and there is nothing you can do other than stripping back the offending coat and starting again. Following my process I managed to achieve this on a black telecaster body - a finish I am rather proud of.

Cheers @jonnybass couldn’t agree more, the sound is like nothing else.

So after years of EUB ownership, becoming empty nesters this year has opened the space opportunity to owning a real doghouse. As mentioned in my other thread requesting advice, I have had this lovely Boosey Hawkes Excelsior 50/2 on loan for a little while and today I have bought her. Previously owned and used by @Blartfactor10 she’s an honest workhorse bass with a great dark tone - perfect for my blue grass / country / Americana acoustic trio 😎

The main out and DI outs are muted but the tuner output stays on.

Found this on the internet - its on the bottom of PCB, easily accessible once you open the pedal up.

Thanks, all good advice and well received. I have an old left hand thumb injury that makes me very protective of my left hand, and it was a flare up of this injury that ended my ownership of the KK Baby Bass EUB as there was just no way to keep the weight of the instrument off my left thumb. Since getting the NS EUB I have been working much more on my technique and I’m an avid watcher of Geoff Chalmers ‘Discover Double Bass’ series, but using arm weight on the NS does cause a certain amount of movement of the instrument but I can already put this to good use on the Excelsior as the instrument really wants to hug you. This, along with the slimmer feeling neck, is already helping reduce wrist and hand pressure.

Surprisingly, I’m actually finding the neck on the doghouse easier to move around on than the EUB which feels deeper in the hand. It’s actually not but the doghouse has more shape (a bit like comparing a baseball bat ‘51 precision and a 70’s Jazz). I am having to work the right hand harder, especially to get the E string to speak with a full tone.

A small update, I currently have a loan of this lovely Boosey Hawkes Excelsior 50/2 care of our own @Blartfactor10. Based on my initial fumblings I believe she may well be staying with me in exchange for a very reasonable sum of beer vouchers 😎

There is a small switch inside the casing that switches the tuner out to be either permanently on or switchable with the mute switch. Sounds like this could be your answer?

Got one sitting next to me here in the office - what do you need?

As we all know, watts are about as effective at measuring ‘loudness’ as amps are at measuring mass (weight, not heft😉). Modern small practice amps surpass the practice amps of old in just about every department. My go to home practice amp is my TC Electronics BG250 208, a 2x8” 250w combo the size of a large shoe box. It’s also my gigging amp with my three-piece acoustic trio. The 8’s seem to work really well with my EUB delivering a lovely warm tone at low volumes.

Nice little stripped down acoustic gig up in the wilds of Northumberland at the fantastic Star Inn Harbottle. Despite my Satnav taking me on a magical mystery tour it was a great night, and booked back for two gigs next year - job done 😎

“acoustic” gig up in the wilds of Northumberland for me tonight, playing my NS NXT EUB through my Stanley Clarke preamp into the marvellous little TC Electronics BG250 208 combo that just seems to love the EUB, and it’s an easy carry too 😎

Converting a right hand stick EUB like the Stagg, Aria, Harley Benton etc isn’t a huge challenge, but be prepared to be underwhelmed. I started on the Stagg, quickly moved on to a KK Baby Bass, and most recently an NS NXT. Each step has taken me closer to an upright sound (especially as I am now running double bass impulses from 3Sigma) but it’s still not a true upright bass sound. So much so that I have just today taken a loan of a real db which I think is probably coming home to stay with me.

Respect to you for getting it up into and down from the loft, respect to your house for the weight not collapsing the ceiling 😂

This Saturday (9th) I’m heading out to the wilds of Northumberland to play what will be my second full gig on EUB only at the rather marvellous Star Inn in Harbottle (also the scene of my first EUB only gig so I must have done something right 😂) with our acoustic trio covering the best of Americana, country and more. We have a few guests joining us, so it should be a fun filled night. Kick-off is 8pm.

As others have said, very subjective question. I’ve owned the Sire and I loved it. I only sold mine when I got home from a five year stint in Holland as I have another 5 string jazz in the stable here (Overwater) and Mrs JPJ says I have too many basses 🤷‍♂️

I have one of those rare Ashdown Neo 400W 1x15 combo’s that I’ve found to be plenty loud enough on its own in a variety of band settings. Mine lives in its flight case on castors and that seems to do the same thing as those sexy Auralex isolation pads as this thing punches way above its weight.