bnt

New one on the market: the Retrovibe Telenbacker. The "Hot Yellow" would make a statement, for sure:

I’m heading for a few weeks off work, recovering from surgery, so one thing I want to do is get better at bass repairs. I have two instruments with high frets, so I have a Thomann order in for miscellaneous tools & bits: fret rocker, string height gauge, fret file etc. A couple of EMG pickups for my HB Clonedberg, and an adjustable nut for my fret less.

And note that a R/L filter is also a thing, & it definitely takes the edge off the low frequencies. Put that together with the R/C filter, and you can see why I think passive mixing of pickups could affect the tone a tad.

Yep - one example would be the Fender Jazz with its VVT wiring. With both volume knobs on full, the two pickups are shorted together with no resistance between them.

I'd say it depends e.g. in my HB, before I rewired it, the pickups came together at a balance pot before feeding the active circuit, so it was still passive mixing, though the pot arrangement meant that there was always some resistance between them. Better preamp circuits such as the John East models buffer the signals before mixing them. EMG will sell you their Active Balance Control which does a similar thing for passive pickups. (I have some active EMG pickups on the way for my HB, as it happens.)

I don't know the answer to the specific question about a mid scoop, but an active pickup signal is "buffered" and doesn't interact with other signals when mixed. Two passive pickup signals will interact when mixed together, on the other hand. From the point of view of one pickup, bringing in the other pickup is introducing another coil in to the circuit. That changes the overall impedance of the circuit, which can change the frequency response. Is it heresy to link to a post on Talkbass? If not, this is a decent explanation.

If it helps, here are measurements from my HB MP-4 Enhanced, which I suspect they cribbed from a Sandberg VM. 34” scale, from the 12th fret to the centre of the pole piece: EA coil: 314 mm DG coil: 286 mm

My HB MP-4 Enhanced has a reverse P: I like the look, not expecting it to be a major factor in sonic terms. Since the bass side is closer to the bridge, I expect it to be slightly less bassy, and the converse for the treble side. So perhaps a little less tonal range. I've posted about the stock Roswell PM-4 before, how it's a steamroller that flattens everything else, so such subtleties are likely lost on it. I have some EMGs on the way in a couple of weeks, though, so maybe I'll hear something once they're on.

Kiesel was split off from Carvin in 2009 and still makes some of their classic designs, such as the Brian Bromberg signature model. They make a few instruments that I would really like to try if I could afford them, such as the ZBM5 multiscale headless.

Can we appreciate Sandbergs even if we don't own one? The Configurator on the website lets you spec one out and see what it would look like. You can copy or paste the code to or from the box, so if you put the following code in, you can get an idea of what I'm imagining today: CANV2-VM:S-N-4S-34-MF-GB-ASH-NOT-MPF-F-NOI-NOM-BKH-CLT-2EQ-MP-MCP-RH

I was going to mention the Behringer BDI, but can see you've been there and done that. I just took a look at Thomann, out of interest, and can see that they have the Eden Module TerraNova at a very interesting price. I don't know much about it, though, except to note that Eden is now owned by Marshall. PS: found this thread with some not-so-good reviews

With multiscales, one factor I always check is the position of the “vertical” fret, which determines how steep the angle is low down. On the Dingwalls it’s around the 7th fret, and it’s the same on Strandberg and the new Ibanez range. On the Dimension it’s around the 12th fret, so it does mean more of an angle for the hand at the lower frets. The ESP Ltd and the Schecter Stiletto Studio-5FF are the same. I like the look of these basses, but I think I’d be happier with the Dingwall-type layout.

Video demo of the Dimension 5:

Insert "record scratch" sound effect here: the order was dispatched, they say, but returned by the courier and I was refunded. Thanks to the timing - after Christmas - it ran head-first in to Brexit-related covfefe and the courier company said "we can't even". Which is probably a good thing, since I've seen some new product releases and am having a rethink. I saw the thread about the Hotone Stomp, and if that can handle a dual output "Rick-O-Sound" bass, then I may be up for that. To Be Continued ...

The dual inputs are definitely interesting, since I'm getting more in to running dual pickup outputs and processing them differently a la Rick-O-Sound. The Line6 Helix and Boss GT-1000 can do that, but at a hefty price, so I'll keep one eye on this one and hope it has that capability.

SubZero appears to be Gear4Music's in-house budget brand - don't know much about them, though I have a couple of their pedals and a headphone amp on the way to me this week.

I can see a few Behringer MDX2200s and dbx266XLs on Reverb with seller in the UK, and also a Yamaha GC2020b. Thomann has the Behringer MDX4600 in stock, 4 channels in 1U for €111, though that could be a bit too much ..? PS: checked Gear4Music out of curiosity, they have the usual suspects, but they also have this, a full channel strip (preamp, compressor, EQ) in 1U for £100.

I bought an Artec "Mudbucker" with the idea of installing it on this bass, but on arrival it's bigger than I thought. I would have to rout to within a few mm of the back, and I'm wary about removing that much wood so close to the neck joint. I know Billy Sheehan did exactly what I'm thinking about to a P-bass and it's still playable - that's where I got the idea.

I'm playing with this at the moment on my HB MP4-EB, but with strings that are a bit too light (lowest 0.120"). A 5-string set is on the way and could even be here tomorrow, so I'll set it up properly then. I don't know how good a tone I'm going to get on a 34" scale, I'd really prefer something longer, but we'll see. This bass has a zero fret, so the nut shouldn't be critical.

Ooh, that’s lovely. This is the design that Harley Benton was “inspired by” for their Enhanced MP series, the one I got because I was cheap and looking for something I could mod. If I ever get gigging again, I can definitely see one of these in my future, maybe a 5-er in Greenburst. 😎

A Harley Benton bass back in April, a guitar a couple of months ago, and just today I finally placed an order I've been meaning to place for months now: a proper pedalboard, a few more pedals, and some strings & bits, all from Gear4Music. Funding courtesy of a gift debit card from my employer, which has been really nice to have. It's got to do double duty as a guitar pedalboard too, since I'm getting in to that too, so I got some inexpensive guitar pedals at the same time (compressor, fuzz and phaser), all mini size from their house "SubZero" line. It seems that the "bass versions" of pedals seem to cost more, but the fears that guitar effects suck the life out of bass are kind-of overblown and don't apply to all effects types e.g. I rarely hear it about compressors or phasers. Distortion pedals, maybe, which is why I specifically chose a fuzz with a dry blend control. These will all feed in to my existing tc electronics SpectraDrive, which can act as a DI and headphone practice amp evev if i don't need its own compressor & drive facilities at the time.

I have the almost cheapest one from Thomann and am generally happy with it. I don't expect miracles, and prefer to tune with harmonics. But I agree it's a bad idea to leave it on all the time, and would take it off if playing live.

I did it a few months ago on an old inexpensive bass. Even after heating, there was some flaking of the wood around the frets. I thought about veneers or plastic, but decided to use a dark wood filler that dried slightly lighter in colour than the fretboard. The fret slots don’t reach the edges of the fretboard, which complicated things but meant that I didn’t have to worry about the edges when it came to sanding. I haven’t sanded it down as much as I could have, so it’s a bit steampunk if you look closely, and the nut needs more filing down, but so far it’s rather playable.

The bridge is actually pretty straightforward, it just came with no instructions. Each bridgepiece has a height adjustment screw and a locking screw. It's possible to unscrew the adjustment screw too far, so that the bridgepiece can't be raised by the screw, but all you need to do is lift it a little by hand and tighten the screw again. I was playing the guitar again last night, and I can't get over just how light it is. I bet a guitar purist would find fault with the pickups, and I think it could benefit from more shielding, but very playable. PS - mods, when I started this thread I didn't realise that the forum has a Guitars section. It's kind-of hidden away at the bottom of the page which is understandable, I suppose.

That pic wasn't there when I ordered the guitar. They changed the guitar during production, they added some extra string clamps on the headstock as in the "living room" pictures. I've been very busy at work and haven't played much, but so far I like it. The little tool is an Allen key, you can use a standard Allen key if one is handy. Fingers work on some strings if they're strong enough, but the tuners are tight and close together.