pn_day

I believe some Japanese Fenders are medium-scale, but they seem to only crop up occasionally. There was one on basschat classifieds a couple of weeks ago - link below. Alternatively, if you are happy to go down to 30" short scale, the JMJ Mustang gets my vote. It sounds great, is easy to play, and is mass produced so easy to get. I held off for years, and finally got one a few months ago and see what all the fuss was about. Great bass, particularly when strung with the La Bella Mustang strings. I would recommend shielding it after purchase. Good luck, Phil

Have you tried changing strings? Swapping from rounds to flats or tapes can give a different feel & sound without messing around with the original (or in my case, making it worse)! Also on most PJ basses I've had (except for a Japanese Yamaha BB2000 which was perfectly balanced between the pickups) the jazz pickup has to be set much closer to the strings in order to get any sort of parity of output with the P - which will naturally change the tone. I've usually then had to set the P pickup lower than 'ideal' to avoid string contact on the jazz PU - but that might be because I'm hamfisted and tend to dig in with my right hand when I get excited (i.e. when playing in a band rather than noodling at home). Apologies if these suggestions are painfully obvious - and you've already done them. I'm firmly in the camp of flats & tapes are great. Give me a couple of years and I'll be loudly extolling the virtues of rounds and half rounds Phil

Nice. I have a 1979 BB2000 and it's a keeper! Enjoy the bass

I finally took the plunge and purchased a (black) JMJ Mustang. Out of the box it was good, but not great. It felt good, but the E string never gave a consistent pitch - looking on an accurate tuner it was quite variable (a bit like a flabby 'B' string). In addition it was all rather noisy in my EMC test lab (also known as my study right next to the solar panel inverters). After shielding, and changing the strings from the factory long scale fenders to the La Bella 760F-MUS flats, it is even better. E string now gives consistent pitch, string to string balance is better, and there is no noise. I can see what all the fuss has been for the last few years - the JMJ Mustang is indeed a nice piece of kit. It might even be nicer to play than my 1970 Guild Starfire (although with slightly less character)! Cheers, Phil

If it was me I'd be tempted to rip it out and go passive (you could repurpose the boost switch as an S1 switch for combining the pickups in series. While you are in there check all the shielding and if necessary break out the copper tape to redo it. Phil

If you've got some spare cash also check out the Ian Martin Allinson (IMA) patches - his synth ones were fun to play with, but I've never used them live.

Makes a Wal look like the budget option...!

If you haven't bought the Cort yet, or if somebody else has, I would recommend looking for a Hohner B2 or Jack that has single coils, rather than the 'Select by EMG' humbuckers which lack clarity and top end. I have a later Jack that has the single coils and the pickups are much better than the humbuckers. Personally, I think I prefer the Hohner Jack (the one with the body) over the Hohner B2A for ergonomics. However, the classic cricket bat is a marvellous travel bass.

Thanks to both of you. I've ordered some radius gauges to at least measure the radius of the neck, then I'll decide after getting an idea of the radius. And thanks @Beedster for sharing the hard-won lesson! Phil

Dear all, Background I have a B2AFL (the factory fretless model). There are some markings on the fingerboard from previous use of round wounds, and a few nicks on the board as well. I think this might be the reason that the G-string develops a rather sitar-like resonance when the neck relief is low (I noticed it when I tried out tape wound strings, which didn't have enough tension to put much relief on the neck even with the truss rod loosened completely). For now I'm living with slightly more relief, and therefore using the old flats that came on the bass which have slightly higher more tension than I like. I believe from searching online that the fingerboard material might be ebanol. I've never done any neck sanding before. I was wondering about either just sanding down a touch to try and flatten off any high spots, or alternatively coating with CA glue and sanding that down - to try and fill in any low spots. Questions Do most people use a radius block for sanding a fretless fingerboard, or do you just use a long straight edge and do it by eye? Does anyone know what the radius of a 4-string Hohner B2A is? Is CA glue coating of an ebanol board possible or recommended? Many thanks for any tips you can offer. Phil Photos are attached to show the latest iteration - added glow in the dark stickers as some of the dots had worn away, swapped out the EMG Select humbuckers for some Warman Twin Locos, and swapped out the stock wiring for a VBT+SP harness from @KiOgon

I've used Warman Twin Loco (hot rails style) pickups in a recent upgrade of an old Hohner B2AFL (fretless). The original EMG Select soap bars were very muddy. The twin rails have much more clarity, even when wired in series. I haven't used his P or J pickups, but would now consider it - particularly based on other positive comments.

Thanks Franz. I'll see if it settles down after being left up to pitch for a few months - I gave up the last time I tried this after a couple of weeks!

Dear all, I've previously tried both the white tape wound and the 'copper white' tape wounds from La Bella. I liked them both for E-G strings (much more top end than black tape wounds or flat wounds), but found that both sets had a very flabby B-string. This is for a 5 string fretless bass (Clement), as I like the increased presence the strings give. It looks like La Bella only do a 135 thick B string in these tape wounds. https://www.labella.com/strings/category/white-nylon-tape-bass https://www.labella.com/strings/category/copper-white-nylon-tape When I say it is flabby - I actually mean it is very low tension, and when used with an accurate tuner you can see that the pitch is all over the place before it eventually starts to settle down. Even when playing with a very gentle touch, the pitch varies. I've already made sure the break angles are sufficient and pre-formed the string bends over the bridge saddle and nut (witness points I think some people call this). I'm even considering having a mismatched set of strings (such as a black tape wound on the low B, or even worse, a flat wound string on the low B). Apart from looking 'wrong' I'm somewhat concerned that the feel of the bass will be a bit weird having a different type of string on the low B. Does anyone have any other ideas on what I could try? Many thanks for any thoughts. Phil

Tuner. It just makes life easier, and tone doesn't matter when you are out of tune!

My take on this is a bit different. I bought them all, to see what he had done. I was pleasantly surprised that most of his standard amp setup was similar to something that I had already built, so I haven't used those patches. You could argue that was a waste of money. However, I was still glad to see what somebody else had done in detail for a general purpose set of patches. His synth patches were more imaginative, particularly the use of press and hold on some footswitches to trigger different behaviour. I haven't used them live as they wouldn't work in the smoothish music that we tend to go for in our church (!), but have enjoyed fiddling with them at home. I have previously used Dr Tone patches as well to see what others used as a starting point - but had the best results with making my own patches from scratch. My personal favourite is to use the tube mic pre model, combined with tape saturation (retro reel), then add effects as needed (reverb, chorus, octave). SVT is fun, Fender Bassman has tons of character, but all the amp and cab models seemed to not let enough of the instrument sound through for my liking, even after putting on a parallel path with <50% going to the amps. Your mileage will definitely vary! Phil

Are the Sandberg publicity people suggesting that the Central is a bit of a boat anchor? Or is it just a pretty backdrop?!

This might be controversial, but if you are not sure, try a decent digital multiFX to find a chorus sound you like, and then see what it is meant to model. I'm a fan of the Line6 Helix line - and have an HX Stomp - but there are many other alternatives out there as well. Good luck on the search. I've changed and use reverb more than chorus - even on a fretless. YMMV Phil

Updating this thread for posterity, and in case of future searches... I finally got around to the shielding job - and am much happier. Copper tape (with conductive adhesive) in both pickup cavities and the control cavity (including the lid, with plenty of overlap to ensure good connection) plus ground wire linking them all together have resulted in a much quieter bass. It is now very usable, even with 1 pickup soloed. I couldn't get the active pre to work, so ended up getting rid of it, and throwing in a loom from KiOgon that not only had a working tone control, but also push/pull for series mode. I have the same Hohner active 2 band preamp in my black fretless Hohner (with humbuckers) and did not really enjoy the sound much, so was happy to just ditch it. Oh my. The bass sounds good now (the Hohner Jack). Incidentally, I much prefer the sound of the (EMG Select?) single coil (jazz style) pickups in this later Hohner Jack 'Professional' to the sound of the EMG Select humbuckers in the Hohner B2A. Phil

I use the IEMs that I will use live - which have quite a flat frequency response. This means that I don't get surprised by a change in tone. Sometimes I also use some cheap Superlux over ears for convenience, but use the IEMs if practicing for church (which is as close as this rank amateur gets to a gig!) Phil

Another option might be just to get something like the HX Stomp, and then choose a reverb, octave, chorus or whatever else you want from it. Nice an minimal as a setup. Price not too bad second hand, and the software is still being updated. On the subject of LaBella white nylons - I had issues with both the gold white and stainless (white nylon) on a 5 string - the low B never tracked cleanly. I've therefore gone back to La Bella Black tape wounds on my 5 string fretless to get a more stable low B. YMMV Phil

EMO for passive with a transformer - but they do slightly colour the sound (lose a touch of high end). Orchid for good value for money active.

I would try ON/ON as this boosts at a lower frequency, and thus might also sound less 'sparkly'. I would definitely not try OFF/OFF or OFF/ON as these will both have the most HF content. Good luck.

Thanks Phil (W). Good to know there is an earth connection to the bridge. I'll open it up in the next couple of weeks and give the wiring some TLC - I'm not a fan of old graphite paint for shielding! I've added some photos to your other thread. Phil (D)