iiipopes

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1349903996' post='1832182'] Look great, sound great, not great QC, weird ergonomics. [/quote] Especially now that RIC has gone to CNC for most of its production and changed to a UV-cured finish instead of the older CV finish, QC at RIC is the best it has ever been, and continues to get even better. If a player bashes a quality instrument in a thrash band, no guarantees. If it's treated well like the fine instrument it is, then as with my three instruments, all three now over 30 years old, a 320 JG, a 360-12WB FG ckbd, and a 4002, then I've had no problems except what I brought on myself.

This website is also most helpful: joeysbassnotes.com

Did you have to chamfer the screw holes when flipping it?

Quite alright. Sometimes these niggles are difficult to solve. Glad you found it.

It's not the pickups. You're pickups are fine. The neck pickup is too close to the neck to get enough overtones for the B string to have definition. The bridge pickup is too close to the bridge to have any fundamental. The "ideal" position for pickups on low-tuning (whether dropped, 5-string, etc.) basses is to have the "neck" pickup in the same proportion for scale length as to where the D-G segment of a standard P-bass pickup is located, or maybe slightly closer to the bridge, and for the "bridge" pickup, to have it located in the same proportion to the string length as where a '60's Jazz bass bridge pickup is located.

The best way to get a "relic" bass: buy a new one and gig it regularly for 20 to 30 years.

On my P-style fanned fret bass, which I keep the bridge ashtray on just for looks, and after all the string changes over the first few years, the screw holes on the body gave out. So I drilled them out cleanly, installed sleeves, also known as anchors or barrel nuts, with internal machine threads, and replaced the two wood screws with small hex-head machine screws of a similar size to the original screws to fit the sleeves. They're small enough that no one can see them, but they will now last the lifetime of the bass.

Most start with a copy of a P-bass in order to learn all the basics (pun intended). Moreover, if you get a good deal on a slightly used or end-of-year closeout on a P-bass copy that has already been set up, over the long run it will retain a greater resale value should you ever need to.

Since it is the same jack that is used on a vintage Fender Telecaster, if all else fails, consult the guys at the Fender Forum.

Yes, you'll have to take the heat, and probably promise to do something for her, etc. But it is usually easier to obtain forgiveness after the fact than permission before the fact.

[quote name='NoirBass' timestamp='1349879159' post='1831691'] Thanks for the info iiipopes, I was thinking of eventually getting a Seymour Duncan STK-J2b to go with the SD Quarter Pounder that is in there. I'll stick a .01 cap in there until then. The bass sounds a lot better having reversed the bridge pickups wires, [b]but there is still some odd things happening just before the pot is set to maximum[/b].[/quote] Yes, indeed. That is [i]exactly [/i]what I'm talking about. The only drawback is that you might have to raise the pickup slightly, as there may be a slight loss in overall volume from the capacitor functioning as a high-pass filter. I've tried the SD stack. It was indistinct in the low register on my bass, and that is the nature of a conventional non-isolated stack pickup. To get enough bass response from the two coils tending to cancel each other out, it has to be overwound, with the resulting loss of definition. I'd go with DiMarzio J or UltraJazz, Fralin end-to-end or Aguilar end-to-end, or whatever may be similar on your side of the pond, with preference for the UltraJazz to match the SD QP P-pickup. Bremen - I'm glad you have had a better experience with your P-J single coil than I did. With all the electrostatic noise and hum that can be generated on stage with lighting levels, both incandescent and otherwise, as well as multiple earth's from the amps and PA equipment, to say nothing of fluorescent or transformer noise, I'll never play a single coil pickup on stage again.

I recommend against it. You can get volume drop in the middle with a blend knob. I've tried almost every imaginable wiring configuration out there over the past 36 years playing bass, and I come back to standard VVT as the most fool-proof, especially on stage.

4002. If you have to ask, then you won't understand.

NOT NECESSARILY OUT OF PHASE Impedance drop leading to volume drop when full on in a VVT configuration is common to all 2-pickup basses. Yes, you can switch the wires on the J bridge pickup, and it does seem to have helped a little bit, but it's not a perfect solution, especially since the J is a single coil and the P is effectively a humbucker. So with both on, one coil of the P pickup is getting reinforced while the other is not, resulting in an imperfect setup. Two solutions: 1) Get a humbucking J bridge unit to match the P, like a DiMarzio UltraJazz or similar, and/or 2) put a .01 capacitor inline from the hot lead of the bridge pickup to the wiper on its volume pot in conventional VVT wiring. There's not much fundamental signal coming out of the bridge pickup anyway, and this will help with the impedance drop/comb filtering issues.

For gigging, I prefer the V-V-T so that adjustments can be made more confidently on the fly. There are few things worse than grabbing the wrong knob in the middle of a set or song and floundering to get out of the mess.

I live in the same area as Dan Conklin. I know him. He's a great guy. In his early days, he did some custom work on another instrument for me when I didn't have a workshop to do it myself. A friend of mine has one of his seven-string basses. It sounds great. It's not really that heavy. Yes, the fretboard looks like an airport landing strip or the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Joking aside, there are others who do sound good on a multi-string bass. It's not just the access to the extreme high notes or low notes that a bass like this has. It's the technique of being able to switch positions laterally rather than longitudinally (across the neck instead of up and down the neck) for increased faculty (easier to play) on patterns, scales, intervals, leaps, and other advanced techniques that most of us, including me, don't really ever get into, but can appreciate. I'll go back to my 4-string trench now....

You will also add extra weight to the headstock, and this will cause neck dive, change the resonant frequency of the neck, and therefore the entire tone or mojo of the bass slightly, and will be a pain if you ever want to put the stock tuners back on.

I think this needs to be in the double bass strings section. Also, there is a large "for sale" section in the TalkBass forum.

Actually, to make sure there is enough rearwards travel to intonate the E string, I would measure almost to the front of the intonation range. In other words, put the bridge a little farther back than simply 1/2 the distance of the saddles. But it is a balance: too far back, and either the G string won't intonate, or there will be insufficient "break angle" over the G string saddle to secure it properly to prevent string buzz or a wobbly bridge saddle. Too far forward, and either the E string won't intonate, or there will be too much break angle for the E string and it will bind, risking breakage. On my custom fanned fret bass, I was able to cut a bridge in half between the D and A saddles and place each half accordingly for its travel. Here's more: [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f18/precision-bass-bridge-location-659033/"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f18/precision-bass-bridge-location-659033/[/url] [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/fender-jazz-bridge-placement-706095/"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/fender-jazz-bridge-placement-706095/[/url]

[quote name='PaulKing' timestamp='1349194695' post='1823115']Neck joint. It's crap, and breaks easily. IF it's properly set and tidily glued, a fixed neck is no problem.[/quote] This is the #1 issue with Kay basses. All Kay basses, at some point, require a neck reset, and sometimes a block and tenon rebuild. As far as the sunken top, they were made for gut or other low-tension strings. Many Kay players use one of the Innovation sets. Others use Spiro Weich or Solo, or "bump" a medium tension set over a string. Other issues are wear-and-tear from the basses being relatively inexpensive in both cost and construction, but played and treated hard. The tooling was bought by Englehardt when Kay went out of business, and they are effectively the same basses, with a tad more robust construction.

I gig regularly on both DB & EB with a Carvin MB12. I don't know the availability of such a combo in the UK. When I need the extra 1/2 octave extension downwards, I stack it on a 1X15 ported cab. Great value for money. Great tone. Flexible, and has all the accessories (line out, separate tuner out, shelving & parametric, compression, etc.) that a modern combo should have.

If it is a Squier J-bass body, it will have just the slightest bit of difference in its contours to distinguish it from a MIA J. Not so much it is noticable, but when you go to put different parts on it, there you go.

Why are you removing it? Exposed drivers are at risk of damage. I hope you're considering something else to secure them.

[quote name='ikay' timestamp='1349183609' post='1822899'] What's the difference (smoothness / tension / tone) between GHS Pressure Wound flats and GHS Brite Flats or are they pretty much the same? [/quote] They are completely different strings. As GHS says, the Pressurewounds windings are compressed in the making of the string, the Brite Flats are ground off. The Pressurewounds are more like nickel rounds that have been broken in to just the right "sweet spot." The Brite Flats are a combination of mellow and twangy. Here is a link to some demo videos of the various GHS strings: [url="http://www.youtube.com/results?q=youtube+ghs+bass+strings&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7ACEW_enUS473US473&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=w1"]http://www.youtube.c...F-8&sa=N&tab=w1[/url]

And then there are GHS Pressurewounds. These sound like good, broken in "sweet spot" nickel rounds out of the package.