Doctor J

[quote name='Linus27' post='774791' date='Mar 14 2010, 11:11 PM']One of my best sounding and playing basses I own is an ESP 400 series jazz, seen in the below picture (black with white scratchplate) and based on a 1962 Fender Jazz. Its from 1988 and is uber rare because it has the same headstock as a Fender. I think at the time, ESP were making parts for Fender Japan in the same factory so it could well had ended up as a Fender. I have never ever seen another ESP bass with this headstock. My bass has served me really well and done 100's of gigs. I would never ever sell it.[/quote] Now you've seen two Like yours, mine is an 87 or 88, I got it in 93. I've done 100's of gigs with it too. In those years the likes of Sadowsky, Fender, Rickenbacker, Warwick, EBMM have come and gone, but this one stays. It's the bass for all occasions. Despite being a real prick for messing around with aftermarket bits, this one is still stock and it's the best sounding and playing bass I have. The headstock is a bit thicker than any Fender I've seen, I think this was as they were leaving the aftermarket parts business and becoming a full on manufacturer.

I'd nominate anyone who'd come up with something unique and interesting, not just another bog standard J bass but in a different shade of orange.

The bass of the moment is a Wal MkII. Never really thought too much about them during the lull over the last few years, but, now that they're available again, I've got to say I'm rather tempted to go for it.

Nice collection. You like Fenders then?

It's as above but a 3 way rotary pickup switch and the two mini toggles are series/parallel switch for each pickup, at least that's how it was on my SB-R80.

The wire fconnected to the controls usually connects to the G side of the D-G pickup and then from the D side to the A side where both pickups are connected, there may not be enough slack to completely rotate both pickups but there should be enough slack to rotate the E-A pickup. All you do is unscrew, keep an eye out if it uses springs to keep resistance between the body and the pickup, turn the pickup around and screw back in, making sure the screws stay inside the springs (some basses use foam) and that the wire is nowhere near the screws. Take your time and don't force the screws back in, find the existing hole, it's very easy to gouge a new hole in the body if you apply too much force with the screw in the wrong place.

[quote name='alexisonfire' post='638756' date='Oct 28 2009, 08:28 AM']Im using Daddario Pro Steels [/quote] Heh heh heh it was worth asking, I generally love the sound of Rotosounds but I've come across too many duff E strings over the years, sometimes a new pack yields the same problem.

If it sounds ok acoustically then that rules out any nut or bridge issue. The nut is only a factor when you play an open string anyway. If this deadness is still there when you fret, then it's not the nut. You could swap the A and E bridge saddles too, rule out the bridge. Anyway, what might be worth trying is reversing the pickup under your E and A strings so the posts under the A string are now under the E string and vice versa. It should rule the pickup in or out as an issue fairly quickly, just make sure you don't put a screw through the wire when you're seating it, it's easy to do. On the off chance, this isn't a Rotosound string, by any chance?

Can you distinguish if it's an electrical or acoustic problem - ie, can you hear if it's dead sounding when you play it unplugged?

Squier by Fender and Orville by Gibson spring to mind

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='634396' date='Oct 23 2009, 01:01 PM']To be fair, the standard of Jazzes in '77 is well documented to be pretty hit-and-miss.[/quote] True, but there was nothing amiss in general terms, the bridge was in the right place, never had any trouble with the 3 bolt neck, there was nothing glaringly wrong with it, no obvious Friday afternoon symptoms. There was nothing there to suggest there was something specificially off with it, that the next one down the line would be any better. It was just a ho-hum instrument, not very bad, but not very good or legend justifying either. Edit -> I'll add that I've played a good few other 70's Fenders over the last 20 years but I've concentrated on the one I owned for a few years. A mate's 74 P had the same shoddy routing, I've never played one that comes anywhere to justifying the prices they're now going for. Selling a Wal for one? I think I'm gonna cry.

[quote name='OldGit' post='634359' date='Oct 23 2009, 12:38 PM']Rather ambiguous ... Did you: A ) find it was the answer to all your dreams, attracted women (and/or men of course) like wasps to a cream tea and cured your GAS for ever B ) something else?[/quote] Apologies, allow me to elaborate I picked up a 77 Jazz, all original, in good condition, a few years ago. Not a bad bass, per se, but nothing remarkable either. It set up reasonably well and it played, well, ok, but it was really nothing remarkable in hand other than exceptionally heavy. The tone was ok to be fair but, again, nothing exceptional by any stretch. The standard of hardware, especially the bridge, was absurdly poor, the routing of the pickup cavities and neck pocket just miserable. I appreciate one cannot judge every bass of that era on the strength of one but the constants, ie routing templates used, hardware, heavy woods, are a feature across the board of that era and being old doesn't make them good. All in my humble opinion, of course It was a £350 bass, if even that. The thought of the OP selling some high end gear to buy one just made my day cloudly.

I used to have vintage Fender GAS until I got a vintage Fender.

[quote name='bubinga5' post='633971' date='Oct 22 2009, 10:43 PM']Just to add, i was playing a gig recently and the erm...sound man asked on behalf of the on coming band, if the bass player could borrow my bass as he had erm...erm... forgotten his???? He wanted to borrow my CS Jazz. i said a polite no....i was later watching the band, he had borrowed a bass and proceeded to play..i could tell the guy was pissed..he played sh*te, and the music seemed like it called for it..he was knocking the bass around, wacking the headstock against the wall..put it down against a wall and you know the rest..[/quote] Had a similar request with a band we were supporting, I had to ask myself "What kind of bass player 'forgets' to bring his bass to a gig?" and the only answer I could conjure up was "A sh*t one". In my case it was my beloved Ric 4003. I agreed to let him soundcheck with it - he had enough time to go home and get his bass between their soundcheck and their set - and when I handed it to him I told him how much it cost me and that if he damaged it, dinked it, scraped it or did anything I didn't like with it, I would break his hands. I felt like a prick saying it, but having seen them previously and how he treated his own gear, I wasn't in the mood to take any chances. Can you really trust a bass player who "forgets" his bass?

I generally plug in and bypass the amp EQ and take it from there. That's about it. I'm fortunate to have some basses which sound amazing by default and generally don't need too much messing around with.

Your buddy may have paid £50 to get a half-assed repair done, but that doesn't cover what you would lose were you to sell it on, either repaired or as is. Suggest you sell it as is and he covers the difference between what you get and the cost of a new one because that's the amount of damage he did, not £50. If he doesn't agree to that, he's no friend and I wouldn't have a problem taking the small claims route.

[quote name='ezbass' post='632177' date='Oct 21 2009, 10:38 AM']A hand built bass for £800, really? Why am I the last to find about these things?[/quote] Yup, the Woodline J Classics sell on Japanese sites for between US$900-$1000. Even with shipping and taxes you should come in nicely under £800. This second hand P Classic is on [url="http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box"]http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box[/url] for Y50,000 excluding shipping and taxes, that's about 330 of your Queen pounds, I believe. Shouldn't be more than £500 or so all in. I have one of them, it's a work of art. The exchange rate makes buying from Japan just superb value at the moment. Derailed the thread slightly, sorry.

The problem I'd have with these is the price. For the money, you could get a hand made, nitro-finished, selected wood, built the old school way by a master (if that matters to you) Bacchus Woodline J and some change. If you're worried about dinking an unblemished bass, yet you'd pay someone to take a belt sander to one... well, I just can't think of anything to say about that

The mid-frequency control is a frequency sweep, you can select the centre frequency which you cut and boost, very handy. Turn it anti-clockwise to head towards low mids and clockwise to change the upper mids.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='628026' date='Oct 16 2009, 04:07 PM']Isn't that the point? They spend a lot of money on a professional standard instrument and then mould themselves to its individual personality and find the instruments own voice. DB players don't buy and sell with the frequency of electric players.[/quote] That's not really a valid comparison, in my opinion, as the sound from double basses doesn't come from electronics, it's the sound of the wood and what you hear at first is largely the way it is and always will be. Not so with electric instruments, there are many, many more options and combinations to try before one can say they've found the package (wood, electronics, hardware, ergonomics and styling) which suits them best. Why mould yourself to something when there is something out there which might fit just right first time, you just need to find it. You won't find it if you don't look and if you don't find it, well maybe someone can build it. What is wrong with that?

Didn't they try that whole thing where everyone just makes do with what's there and no-one aspires to anything different? What was it called again? Oh yeah, Communism.

[quote name='The Burpster' post='626653' date='Oct 15 2009, 08:27 AM']Welcome on board! Sadly there is no one answer to your question, because 'tone' is such a subjective issue. If there are a 100 folks on here you wil get 100 different answers...... Its easiest and probably most sensible to say that ALL elements of the construction and spec of a bass wil effect its 'tone. 2 basses made from identical wood with the same electrics can sound different - that just the nature of wood, some of it is more dense than other bits and cuts. The most stable and consistant sounding basses are those made of Carbon composites because the matrerial is so stable (as well teh odd metal ones out there too) . The easiest way to change the 'tone of a solid body bass is to change the electrics as ultimately the electric signal is generated by the strings moving through a magnetic field..... change these and the tone will change instantly. Types of wood to generate types of sound is as hit and miss as the lottery.... but to give you a VERY general guideline, the more dense the wood in the build the brigther sound and longer sustain. The reality is much more confusing than that tho' (refer to para 2 above). Anyone who says difinitively that X wood with Y pick up will give Z sound, is using real salesmanship because as soon as wood is involved the whole issue gets foggy! Someone saying this about a Status or Steinberger on the other hand, may be a different issue! The even tone between strings is definately a pick up issue, although the nut and bridge can sometimes have an influence on large dia. low range strings.[/quote] Bravo, a nugget of logic in what is often a forest of wild conjecture!

I went with a custom build because I couldn't find an off-the-shelf 5 string with the pickups (Q-Tuners) and pre-amp (Noll TCM3) in the colour (trans green) which I wanted. I didn't want to go through the time and expense of buying an off the shelf bass and butchering it to fit, so custom was the only option. Had that setup been available by a bespoke vendor I surely would have gone with them, I'm not a fan of spending more money than I have to, but The Man doesn't care what I want. As I see it, it's the fault of Fender et al for not accomodating their potential customers needs and I was left with no choice but to take to the back streets and engage a shady custom builder. Shame on them all, says I.

On the jackplate itself.

Had sopabars in one bass, MM and J in another, got a NTCT and NBMB pres in a couple of other basses. Love their pre-amps, always found their pickups a little too polite sounding. I'd love them to sound a bit more aggressive, bit more growl, they're just not in your face enough.