Lfalex

[quote name='steve' post='61940' date='Sep 17 2007, 10:14 PM']The badass looks the part, but I'm not sure whether or not to bother fitting one as mine sounds pretty good as it is - it went down well at rehearsal last night. I still fancy changing the controls to blend/vol/tone and sorting out the cavity shielding, I'm hoping that'll quiet it down enough so I don't need to swap out the pups as for strings, I have a pair of DR black beauties lying around tantalisingly.......[/quote] The BadAss really makes a difference to the attack, sustain and tonality of the sound. It's clearer, sharper, faster and cleaner. In a nutshell, more "modern" sounding. If you want a warmer, vintage vibe, keep the original bridge. I wonder what a thru-body strung one would sound like?

Due to numerous considerations, I've mothballed my various combos/heads/cabs, and moved to a practice set-up using (full size) circumaural closed-back headphones. It works like so; [color="#FF0000"]Pre-amp[/color] ( Ampeg, Peavey or Hartke VXL) [color="#00FF00"]DI'ed[/color] to a cheap [color="#FF0000"]Mixer[/color], with an [color="#FF0000"]MP3[/color] player providing accompaniment. Headphones are a pair of [color="#0000FF"]Sennheiser HD251s[/color] It's superb. Well, I think so. [u]The pros; (endless!)[/u] Low power consumption Much lower colouration than a bass cabinet No weird sonic interactions with the room you're playing in No phase errors between cabinet and other loudspeakers you may be using It takes up less room It doesn't disturb anyone It's quite cheap! The cheapest incarnation costs £250 including Preamp, Mixer, Headphones, Cables and a Power supply. [u]The cons;[/u] No real bass you can [i]feel[/i] Risk of deafness if you go too mad with the volume control Your ears get hot! You look like a Cyberman when you practice! It really has helped improve my playing. I used my combo the other day and just went straight back to the headphone rig again. I can't recommend it enough. Definitely worth it, even if it's only to get used to headphones for an upcoming studio session. I'd be tempted to go "in-ear" for gigs after this. Does anyone else play like this at home? What are your experiences? Can anyone else think of some more pros and cons? Alex.

[quote name='Merton' post='61914' date='Sep 17 2007, 09:26 PM']No. The quality of woods affects the stabilty and tone, the quality of the hardware also plays a part, and most of all teh qualit yof the workmanship on the frets will have a massive effect. I've played a gorgeous Wal with the lowest action ever with zero buzz, yet my cheap J copy could never be as low even if I threw hundreds of pounds at it. Conversely, I've just had my Groove 5 set up and is now an equal to that Wal, but that was a far better built bass in the first place....[/quote] I'd agree with that. [i]Theoretically[/i] any given neck could be adjusted, planed, sanded, crowned, dressed and levelled to the same physical dimensions as any other, but the very fact that they're (generally) made of wood means each will react differently to humidity and temperature changes, and each will have varying rigidity and stability accordingly. This in turn may impact upon tone and the frequency with which the neck needs adjustment to keep it playing as well as possible. In my experience, good things in necks include; Graphite / Carbon Fibre reinforcement - Stiffness and stability. Phenolic or Ebonol fretboards - Amelioration of dead spots (and they're stiff and tough, too) Zero frets - Excellent for intonation accuracy, helps prevent nut wear & tear, can help to give a consistently low action across the neck.

Here's mine; I've added a BadAssII, and spent [i]ages[/i] getting the string alignment into the best compromise between dead straight string pull and aligning perfectly between the pick-up poles. The only other mods- Black (solid brass) Schaller control knobs. Weigh a ton, but they feel so much more positive and have position "dimples" DR Marcus Miller Signature FatBeam strings (45,65,80,100) I could be persuaded to go to 2vol 2 tone stacked controls on better pots, but the originals are certainly 500k on the pick-ups. Don't know about the tone pot, though... haven't checked. Sounds (not surprisingly) halfway between a good Standard Jazz and a Marcus Miller Signature Jazz. Just what I was looking for!

Nice bass, there! Have you got coil taps running on either or both Twin Js? If so, which coils are operational, front or rear? What's the JJ like in the neck position? (I own an Infinity SN 4, which has the "Dolphin-esque" J/JJ arrangement, like the "normal" Vamps...) In the Infinity, the neck coil of the bridge pick-up is soloed in single coil mode...

I didn't see it, but... Was the scratchplate still on it? If so, is it possible that they've routed the body to take a split "P" and had a new scratchplate cut to cover the evidence? Failing that, a new body blank made for a "P" but still set up for all the original hardware would also do the trick. I reckon a luthier would knock that up for about £400 or so.

I'd rather trust my "Far East" produced instrument than my FIAT... It was made in Japan, though. The FIAT, well, that didn't outlast the bass! And it was the newest car I've ever owned...

[b]Pros:[/b] There's greater tonal flexibility than passive. The active EQ may cover different frequencies to your amp's EQ. The active EQ may allow a greater Q (range of adjustment) than your amp's EQ. The active EQ may be quieter than your amp's. Batteries deliver clean, isolated power. You can use other rigs easily if you can get your sound from just the active EQ - Leave whatever amp you're using "flat". You can get a shorter signal path if the above is true by bypassing the amp EQ. It may give you a punchier sound. Similarly, if your sound comes form the bass, you can i) EQ the amp to compensate for the room acoustics ii) Still maintain some degree of control over what the desk receives, even if a soundman inserts a DI box between your bass and amp. It'll probably run "hotter" than the passive incarnation, which may give you more drive if you want it. If you don't like it, it's easy to remove from a Jazz and sell on... [b]Cons:[/b] Cost (of course), which varies according to what you want to buy. J-Retros are a popular choice. Some EQs can smother the natural tone of the instrument (Some can enhance it, though) Active EQs can reduce the immediacy of the sound against the passive version of events. Will it fit without routing the control cavity to a greater depth? Will the cavity need shielding/more shielding to keep noise gremlins at bay? You may lose the 2 volume controls in favour of 1 volume, 1 pan. Can you tolerate that. You may find it better as you can "fade" the bass in a live environment. Could an outboard pre (Sadowsky, Aguilar etc. etc.) do the same for you without the mods to the instrument? Batteries can die mid gig, which can be a pain. A true passive bypass is a good idea! That's about all I can think of!