NancyJohnson

I had English Garden on vinyl and CD. God knows where it went. Five star album. P [quote name='RhysP' post='553212' date='Jul 27 2009, 09:08 PM']See if you can find the original version by Bruce Woolley & the Camera Club, there's a lot more guitar in it (it's more sort of XTC-ish). It's on the album "English Garden".[/quote]

I'd like to try a Thunderbird for a jam just to see if I actually liked it...but even then I doubt if I really liked it I'd go the whole hog and get a Gibson; probably one of the new Epiphones, I'd like some lighter cabinets...my 4x10 is breaking my back!! P

Gone P

For the life of me I don't know why people love old strings. Anyhow, been on my Lakland for three jams, lots of life left and unboiled! PM me if you want them. P

OK my final post here. The pickups just don't seem to be doing what I want; it's way too quiet, so for now they're out and a pair of MIJ Jazz pickups (that came with the body) are in. Everything is as it should be...the output is nice, loud and duuurty. They don't look so pretty in those massive cavities, but they'll do for now. Maybe some day I'll try again. Steve (Spartacus), cheers for your help and the PMs...at least I've become a bit more adept with a soldering iron, if nothing else. Best P

D'Addario make an SL (super long) string - I had issues with the Lakland. I paid £24.50 plus about £7.00 shipping for two sets of EXL170-5SL from the US (eBay). They last for ages. P

Dunlops. P

I always use a wide Levy's - black, neoprene material. Cheap, comfortable, long, long-lasting. P

[quote name='Spartacus' post='540608' date='Jul 14 2009, 07:05 PM']OR IF YOU WANT TO SAVE SOME TIME CHECK IF THIS WORKS AS PARALLEL WIRING 1. Desolder the white and red leads from the pots. 2. Solder the black/yellow to the same point where you soldered the red in your pic 3. Solder the white/red together and solder that to the lug where you soldered the white in your pic How does that sound now?[/quote] First off, let me just put on record that the information on this forum is priceless, so thank you for this. I've gone the route above...the output of the bass has increased significantly and dare I say it, it sounds quite lovely, but (always a [i]but[/i], eh?), the bass is pretty noisy; some buzzing/humming. In an attempt to troubleshoot, I de-soldered and re-soldered each pickup in turn and then the tone control and none of this has really had an effect. Tried bypassing the tone altogether, still humming. Checked the ground wire to the bridge (on and off) and it's still the same (I've never soldered to the bridge). **Edit** Well after I posted last night, I took another look - the issue with the noise may just have been something to do with simply being too close to the amp - by this I mean my other basses are just very quiet. If I move away from the amp, the buzzing pretty much disappears, which is fine. It might be down to the pots being a little old, too much soldering etc. I have some new pots around and may go the route of taking everything off at some stage and use new pots, but right now everything seems OK. I'll repost later today if I suspect there's any problems! Thanks for your help...much appreciated. Cheers P

OK, updates. First off, I've attached three photos, one of the plate, another of the bare cables from one of the pickups and finally the meter (that I loaned from work). Don't moan about my soldering skills! While it's messy, nothing is touching anything it shouldn't be. OK the readings. I did three readings with the meter set to the x100 ohm setting and recorded where the needle sat. The readings were: Cable colours/needle settings Red & White - 130 Black/Yellow & White - 80 Black/Yellow & Red - 80 In answer to another question, the black and yellow wires are pre-soldered to each other and were simply taped up and left to float. The red wire in both cases was soldered to the back of the pot, the white was soldered to the centre tab on the pot. Hopefully this means something! Thanks in advance... P

Never really been a big Rick' fan, but all-black 4000 series are stunning. Lovely. P

I've soldered the black and yellow together and run the red and white wires as per the Jazz diagram that Dave posted. I have sound - better sound - but the output [of the bass] is very woolly, a bit distorted and somewhat farty...there's not a lot of output either. It's very quiet. Both pickups are working independently now, in as much as I can turn the volumes up and down. The tone control works, but only really goes from super-woolly to woolly. On the upside, the earthing is fine! Not a buzz or anything. I'll have to put this on the back burner for a day or two - busy over the next two nights. Any further suggestions appreciated! Best P

Cheers for the replies...soldering iron will be on in a couple of hours - I'm just back from Italy and haven't eaten anything in about 20 hours. Must get some food in me. P

Can I just bump this if anyone can help. Cheers to Dave for the Fender schematic - already had that one! Cheers P

All Jim Dunlop for me. For bass the blackie 1mm, on the 12-string bass the grey .88mm and for guitar the white .46mm. +1 to misrule for Sharkfins - I used to use these with my acoustic guitar. I didn't know they still made them. P

I've been throwing together a Jazz style bass and as the existing body routs were kind of big, I bought a pair of Wilkinson MWM4C MusicMan clone pickups; the pickups came raw - no packaging or schamatics. A bit of honesty here too... don't actually know whether the pickups are active or passive (this only just dawned on me a few minutes ago); I paid until £25.00 the pair so I'm suspecting passive, which is fine. Everything on this build has been going quite smoothly until it came to actually getting some noise out of it! I'd like to run these is much the same configuration as a Jazz (V/V/T), but I can't find a schematic anywhere that will allow me to do this - I'm really not so worried about what the pickups can achieve when wired a certain way...I'm a straight rock player, so generally all the onboard bass controls are generally full on Anyhow, the pickups. They have four wires coming out of them coloured a (thick) black, yellow, red and white. The black and yellow wires are/were soldered together. I don't really understand the whole hot wire thing, so if anyone has a simple diagram that will help, or (if you're in a say thirty miles radius of Reading), I'll happily drive over and buy you a beer. Finally, I'm away now until the 13th. No PC so I can't post until I'm back. Thanks for any help P

Thanks for the nice comments. Paint job all mine. I have some nice enough gear, but I'm no purist when it comes to DIY. The body was a transparent blue colour, I rubbed it down a bit, sprayed it white - a couple of coats - rubbing down with 240 grit paper between coats. Taped up the body with 3mm and 18mm Scotch/3M tape and sprayed it dark blue. I was quite happy with the results to be honest. Rubbed down again and applied two coats of clear coat. Deepened the neck pocket and attached the neck and it all just kind of worked. I shimmed the neck with a small bit of card and the action is great. The rout for the neck pickup [i]is[/i] enormous, plus there are screw holes in all the wrong places, so I've angled the pickup a little and it looks fine. With all this in mind, I need to locate a wiring schematic...the two Wilkinson pickups aren't wired right. I've e-mailed Trevor W. and hopefully he'll come back to me. I'm off on holiday tomorrow, so no updates for ten days. P PS/edit...With my graphic designer head on, I've done a headstock logo - I've christened it the Frank Einstein - Modern Prometheus Bass. Heh. Go look it up. Can I copyright that?

I'd just thought I'd share the following. I've been sourcing gear from all over the place for the last few weeks to create a Frankenstein Jazz. I just wanted a Jazz type thing that was dirty and a mess, something I could bastardise when the mood took me and doesn't need to go in a case every time I leave the house. I also wanted to get an end result that had a bit of a Van Halenesque/80s metal vibe. Costwise, the body owes me £4.00. Yup, £4.00. That said there was a massive rout under the old scratchplate, which probably helped me decide what to do with it from a pickup perspective. All the hardware came in at about £60, pickups (a pair of passive Wilkinson MM clones) £25.00. Neck came from the US (Mighty Mite b-stock) was £40.00 including shipping. Paint and everything else I had already. I've just first fixed it and everything seems OK, except I need to chop out about 3mm on the neck joint as the neck sits way to high. Visually, I think I've got what I set out to achieve; I've got to put some clear coat/lacquer on it and install the electrics. It's also a nice alternative to having a load of black/rosewood basses. Best P

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='531095' date='Jul 2 2009, 09:22 PM']I hate to sound like i am pointing out the obvious but are you sure the tuners will fit if the bushing holes are too small?[/quote] The tuners fit the bushings and the bushings now fit the holes. I installed both while downing a nice cool beer (or three) on the patio about two hours ago. P

[quote name='neepheid' post='530285' date='Jul 2 2009, 09:42 AM']Unless you have the holy grail of drill bits which is exactly the right size, I have found it best to drill as close as you can (smaller) and then sand the hole out slightly with the Dremel until the bushings fit. Screw fit bushings for the win. I'm fed up of this crap [/quote] I used the 18mm and used the wiggle it a bit method. Sorted. P

I'm putting together a bass from parts and am fitting a Mighty Mite 2909 maple Jazz neck. I've bought some new Fender parts, specifically a set of vintage bushings (Fender part number 0019509049). Needless to say, the holes on the headstock are way too small. I've looked around on the web and the consensus seems to be that the holes need to be 11/16th of an inch - I tried a hole on another piece of wood at 1.8cm (which is a shade over; 11/16ths = 1.746cm) and it's still too small. They need to be snug and at the same time I don't want to crack the headstock. Anyone have an idea of the right size? Otherwise it's down to either filing out the hole or using sandpaper in the existing holes (and the temperature in my workshop was over 40 degrees yesterday). Cheers P

Not taking the offer tabled from Hodder. I had an agent who said he could get more. Stalled, went back to Hodder and they said no. Long story (literally). P