Doctor J

Good to see others had issues with the E strings, wasn't just me then

Very cool. Here it is in Dublin in 1983

Some day... some dark, dark day... Fender are going to run out of tiny changes they can make to repackage 60 year old designs. I'm going wait until they take the modern P bass scratchplate design and stick a single coil in it. 70th, 80th anniversary? I'll wait.

Got a studio at home so hear it all the time. I used to worry about being ultra clean and ultra precise but now I really don't bother. It's amazing how much a bit of crap can add to a recording over being really clean.

Used to get this a lot with Rotosounds, stopped using them and haven't experienced it since.

First has to be [b]David Ellefson[/b], simply because it was during a Megadeth concert in 1988 that I had the epiphany that bass was the instrument I had to play. [b]Troy Gregory[/b] from Flotsam And Jetsam/Prong for the filthiest, grindiest finger plucked tone on Prove You Wrong which still thrills me to this day. [b]Jaco Pastorius[/b] and [b]Colin Hodgkinson[/b] - Around 1992 I was given a tape with Heavy Weather on one side and Back Door's self titled on the the other. Both were mind blowing for different reasons and both really opened my eyes to the advanced role a bassist can play while never neglecting the groove. Finally, [b]Bernard Edwards[/b] - for stylish playing which never descends into w***, for always serving the tune with flair, for some of the greatest basslines ever, Bernard was [i]the[/i] man.

Yeah, saw those Groovelines a few months ago, I rather like the look of them for sure.

The smaller switches are serial/parallel switches for each pickup and the bigger switch is the pickup selector - bridge/both/neck. It's most likely a coil in your humbucking pickup is dead and when you switch to serial you're forced to go through the dead coil and that is why the output is disappearing. It seems to be fairly common with old Arias and it's almost impossible to get original replacments. Kent Armstrong will make a replacement but they sound nothing like the Aria pickups, so you either get two Armstrong pickups and live with a wildly different sounding bass or wait for a working original to appear. Try tapping around the face of the pickups with a screwdriver and see if one side is louder than the other when moving through the different selection options.

That is one seriously beautiful instrument. Well done!

Mark's a gent. I ordered a Nordstrand J5 and MM5 for a bass I ended up selling before I installed them. Some time later I aquired a Godlyke 5 and decided to install the Nordstrands, only to find the routing for the mounting screw lugs on the J were wider than standard and it wouldn't fit. I asked Mark if it would be possible to get a cover to fit the Godlyke's non standard sizing. Sure enough, he got it from Nordstrand and sent it to me gratis. Can't say enough good things about the man's service.

RAWK!

They never went out of their way to select nice looking wood in Fullerton either.

Congrats, that looks sweet!

[quote name='Chris2112' post='1071741' date='Dec 29 2010, 02:02 PM']If you're after getting the Hotwire defretted, make sure you go to a professional and maybe even get a new board fitted as that will always look better than a defret. If you do it yourself you'll absolutely ruin the value of the bass.[/quote] I've defretted quite successfully in the past. I couldn't really care less about the value, I bought it new so I'd be taking a [b]huge[/b] hit no matter what Ah I'd never sell it, it's the only bass I ever had made specifically, it's not going anywhere, but I reserve the right to butcher it as I see fit

If it only happens on open strings it has to be the nut. It's the only difference between a fretted and open note - the string twists, the high pickups, everything else is there when he plays open and fretted. If it goes away when he plays a fret then it really suggests the nut is the problem here.

Better how? Better in the sense that it connects with millions more people than the many millions who connected with the songs in the first place or better in the sense that random bassists will high-five you as you walk down the street?

He has the talent to back it up, though, which separates him from the herd of idiotic, over-indulged frontmen who blight all our lives. I suppose he could just stand there like that Gallagher moron... nah, it's been done. More power to him, I say, what he does is unique, more than can be said for a lot of bland, generic soundalikes.

Dodgy slot in the nut, by the sounds of it. Try muting the D string behind the nut with an earplug or something, see if there's a difference.

That's rather nice. Well played!

[quote name='lee650' post='1069799' date='Dec 26 2010, 09:15 PM']you could even put a D tuner on the E string for that little bit extra[/quote]That's what I was thinking I'm surprised by how easy it's been to adapt to the different setup. I think it could be a really useful setup.

Ahh the Bacchus is perfection, I won't be changing anything on it, way better B than the Hotwire too. No, I'm just surprised by how much the HW has come to life with the change, plus I'm a little surprised by how much I'm enjoying playing it that way. The voice of the HW would definitely suit fretless, I reckon. Doesn't mean I'll be embarking on a journey of bass w*** though ha ha.

[quote name='JTUK' post='1069514' date='Dec 26 2010, 11:18 AM']If Clayton is so bad... not my opinion, though, how come so many bands butcher U2 numbers?[/quote] +2

I ordered a Hotwire 5 string many years ago, a custom jobbie with Q-tuners and a fancy Noll pre. While it was being built, however, I picked up a battered Bacchus 5 string cheap which was a revelation and, in truth, the Hotwire never really got a proper look in once it arrived such is my affection for the Bacchus. A couple of days ago I found a set of 6-strings I had bought for my old 6er but never got to use before I sold the 6... I found myself looking at the C string... then the Hotwire... then back to the C string... then back at the Hotwire... thought "[i]what have I got to lose?[/i]" and strung it up E to C. Wow! What fun. Now I'm using every bit of will power I have to resist ripping the frets out of the (absurdly) expensive Hotwire but, to be honest, I think a defretting is inevitable. Fretless E to C with lovely clear Q-tuners, how could that possibly be a bad idea?

The Who Live At Leeds 40th Anniversary super duper mega deluxe thing. Lessons from the Ox, priceless.

[quote name='bubinga5' post='1067349' date='Dec 22 2010, 11:59 PM']i understand some special order Fender Jazz basses were ordered with Bartolinis...[/quote] Black dots with white binding in 78? Never saw that before. Never heard of a Fender from that era coming with Barts either.