project_c

Yeah these are awesome, congratulations.

I think thickness and spacing has an effect on how you play in terms of speed and dynamics, which will have an impact on how you sound.

[quote name='xroads' timestamp='1473769618' post='3132936'] Whats the problem with the dead PU? Can you give it to a repair guy? Sometimes only a wire gets loose, and with one soldering step, it can be repaired. Otherwise, my choice of PUs would be Lollar or Fralin. [/quote] Yep, they've gone to a repair guy, it probably is a simple soldering issue, the pickup is making an ungodly amount of electrical noise, it sounds like an old tv with static going through it - but I'm not very happy given that these are virtually brand new pickups, they should really last a bit longer than a year without developing faults... I have a gig and a rehearsal this week so I've had to put the old pickups back in the bass, which will be fine for now but I did like the sound of those CS62's. [quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1473776732' post='3133035'] Something like this ? :-) [url="http://nordstrandpickups.com/products/the-bigman/"]http://nordstrandpic...cts/the-bigman/[/url] [/quote] very nice, but not quite the 'traditional precision look' I'm after I'm sure they sound good tho.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1473765930' post='3132875'] Might be worth checking these out: [url="http://www.herrickpickups.com/"]http://www.herrickpickups.com/[/url] [/quote] Thanks for the suggestions, will try to dig through YouTube for the Dimarzios, intrigued by those Herrick pickups, never heard of them before but I like that they're hand built by a guy who studied at StMartins. Have you used them or heard anyone using them?

I bought a set of CS62's less than a year ago and apparently one of them is not working properly, so I need an urgent replacement. I'm reluctant to buy another set of the same pickups, they sound good but if they're going to die on me on an annual basis I'd rather get something else. Can anyone suggest a suitable replacement? Requirements: they're going in a fretless P that is used for jazz, I like lots of mids, no scoop, slightly aggressive tone is good, needs to look like a traditional P pickup, and be available to order this week. Price doesn't matter too much. thanks!

Jaco for me too, love the tone, wish it worked for me but I found my tone when I discovered maple necks and tapewounds on fretless precisions, the Jaco tone only comes out at home when I need a break from the P's. I could never use it in a band context, as much as I love it:

Just a note to say I've received my first set, and it seems fine. The packaging is a little bit knackered but I put that down to these being the last set they had, other than that the strings are as expected.

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1472334872' post='3120476'] The J pickup ruins it for me. In theory you could either build or buy a pickguard (tort!) that is routed for Mustang pickups, and get the bass back to normal Mustang specs by degrees. Unfortunately that J pickup is always going to be there! Not sure why they had to add the J pickup. [/quote] I agree with this too, I don't know if turning this into a PJ will suck out all the Mustang character and make it sound like a standard but slightly duller than normal PJ. When I first heard about these I thought I was going to buy one for sure, but I'm not fully convinced that these are not just intended for beginners and guitarists who don't care about the potential issues above.

[quote name='philw' timestamp='1471789194' post='3115861'] Needs a maple fingerboard though. [/quote] Totally agree with this. They're doing 3 colours, but no maple option. I don't get the thinking behind that, unless it's to see whether these sell before they offer more options.

[quote name='thodrik' timestamp='1471629980' post='3114658'] I tried a couple of Fender Elites a few months ago and thought they were a marked improvement on the previous Deluxe models. The fit and finish was spot on and the pickups and EQ were a lot better. Still, I think that the Fender active EQ systems are still a good piece behind Sandberg, Lakland and Sadowsky. For £1700, yeah that is probably a reflection of the normal 'upwards' price increases. Laklands are great basses. Not sure I would pay £2000 grand for a passive Fender style bass when I know that if I tried enough I would find a Fender that would play just as well for half the price. I do like the active Laklands too, but when it comes to 'really expensive active Fender Jazz' designs I will choose Sadowsky (and have done so...twice) [/quote] This is a matter of opinion. I had a Sadowsky which I got rid of because I didn't like the tone at all, it was bass-heavy and scooped with very weak mids, and I found the vintage tone control made very little difference to the overall character of the tone. For someone playing slap, or for people who love a scooped tone, sure - but for straight-up fingerstyle it just didn't have what I was after at all. The build quality was indeed flawless and it was a nice looking bass, but i much prefer the 2011 Deluxe Jazz I replaced it with, I love the preamp in that thing, the mid control is pretty much perfect and the build quality is at least as good as the Sadowsky. It's had one setup in the last 5 years, it's just a good bass. People say the output is quieter than other basses, which is true in passive mode, but I don't know of a situation where that would be a problem, you need to adjust gain for whatever bass you're playing. In active mode it's the perfect J tone for me, passive Jazz characteristics with a bit of a mid boost. Maybe it's a one off and I got lucky but I never get why people didn't get on with the USA Deluxe series, they get far too much of a hard time.

[quote name='machinehead' timestamp='1471519302' post='3113591'] My wife used to really enjoy my bass and 6 string guitar collection. But recently something has changed. She seems to be no longer interested in my guitars or my bands and coming to gigs. She has started going out for nights without me. I've asked her who she's with and she just says "It's just some friends from work". When she comes home late at night she gets out of a taxi around the corner and walks the last 25 metres to our door. The other day her phone rang and I went to hand it to her. She flipped at this and told me never to touch her phone! Sometimes the landline rings and when I answer it, the caller stays silent and hangs up. What's that about? She just seems so distant all the time now. I'm at my wits end now and don't know what to do? There's a lovely Fender custom shop Precision for sale on the forum just now. Should I buy it, even though my wife seems to have lost interest in my bass collection? Frank. [/quote] None of my business but it sounds a lot like you should consider taking the money you've saved for that Precision and take the 2 of you on a quick holiday instead. I know this is a bass forum and we should all encourage endless bass buying, but that story doesn't sound like it will end well.

[quote name='DiceSociety' timestamp='1472058275' post='3118115'] Hmmm. Same thing happened to me; I ordered a 2 sets at the weekend, then had an email saying they were out of stock and offering either a refund or to post them on Friday. Not the best start... [/quote] Perhaps it's because they're a new company, they may not have too much in stock yet. Let us know how you get on with your order, hopefully it'll be ok. It's a little bit dishonest to not mark items as 'out of stock' on their site, and take orders on stuff that they don't have but let's see how it goes, maybe it's just early days.

Well, turns out they only had 1 pack of my strings in stock, so they've offered to refund the whole thing, or send one pack now and the rest in a month's time (I ordered 4). I'm giving them the benefit of doubt and going with the second option, fingers crossed I'm not going to get shafted. (I paid with Paypal so I should be ok in case any shafting occurs).

Anyone have any experience with Strings Home? Never heard of them before but they have some of the lowest prices on their site at the moment, I just ordered a load of XL Tapewounds, hopefully they'll be ok. (no affiliation whatsoever)

Alaska sounds like it smells even worse than Rooz. Last time I rehearsed at Rooz I actually got ill from the stale fag-smoke and general booze vapour and lack of air. Unfortunately we've booked it for thursday so I'm preparing for the worst. Can't stand those Orange amps either, might take my little Genz combo with me.

Yeah Resident is great, I've been there at their recording studio but it's just a little too far away for a couple of us. (Plus it's near to Dollis Hill, home of the legendary Reinforced records, but that's a subject for a whole other forum..)

thanks for these! brixton / balham ideal for me, no good for the others.. blue studios will be perfect for another time, they do have an electric piano so we'll be using them soon. we're looking into New Rose as well, so I may well be round for those stale biscuits soon.

I really need to find a rehearsal room for this week, and all our usual places are booked up, so i'm looking for suggestions. (I'm sure this topic has come up before but London being what it is, it might be useful to have a 2016 update anyway.) Requirements: - piano (electric is fine) - drum kit - not too much bleed from other rooms - as close to Zone 1 as possible My usual places are: - The Premises Hoxton - The Joint Kings Cross - Rooz Old Street (not my cup of tea, it's full of Orange amps and stinks of cigarettes and booze) - Vine Yard (great, has Markbass amps nailed to the floor of every room) Please let me know your suggestions.

I tried the Jeff Berlin combo a while ago (although not with a band), it sounded very very good, I tried it with a precision, a stingray and a yamaha, just out of curiosity. no loss of clarity at all as far as I could tell, probably one of the nicest combos I've played through. The price at the time was the only thing that stopped me.

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1471293757' post='3111964'] Awesome!! What was the fix in the end? - Pleased to hear it's all sorted! It's all smooth motoring from now on eh! [/quote] Core audio anomaly, apparently happens once in a while on some macs. Fixed with a couple of terminal commands. Other than that, this thing is a beast. I was worried that there would not be too much of an audible difference between this and the MicroBook, but there is. The clarity and level of detail in the signal is on a whole different level, and that's just with Air switched off and the sample rate at 44.1kHz, just basic settings.

..and fixed - big thanks to Sibob!

[quote name='Basszilla' timestamp='1471271000' post='3111687'] Cali76-tx for my vote [/quote] Definitely that, if you can afford it! If not, Seymour Duncan Studio Bass Comp is the best one I've found, it's versatile, and fattens up your tone without hurting it or making it sound unnatural. It has a blend function so you can mix your uncompressed signal with the effect, the result is that it ends up sounding natural and rich. The suggested presets give you good starting points, and they're all totally useable so there's no learning curve despite the versatility. Mine is on all the time for practice and recording, especially for fretless, it's working well for me. The other comp I use is the Boss LMB3, but I use that purely to bring the dynamics under control on a pbass with quarter pounders (which have a massive low mid boost), because otherwise I'm either too quiet in the mix or clipping the signal when I dig in. So I recommend SD Comp for versatility and tone improvement, and for much less money the LMB3 for bringing spikes under control, especially if you switch between techniques a lot, or play very dynamically.

Well, that wasn't it, it still defaults to ADAT on every startup. I'll drop Sibob a PM.

Ok - found a potential culprit, Focusrite settings were set to ADAT in Audio Midi Setup, which may have confused the 2Pre. However these settings only show up once I actually turn on the 2Pre, so I will see what happens at next restart - if they default back to ADAT the problem is elsewhere - let's hope not, because that would make this a very easy fix! Thanks again.