Bridgehouse

Don’t forget, every Gibson ES series (335,336,330 etc) guitars are all “laminate” and probably count as ply. Well, they are ply, but the description will be laminate You can spend many many thousands on one of those and they sound glorious. Ply isn’t a bad thing - it can be a very good thing. Cheap nasty ply is a bad thing - in the same way cheap nasty solid wood can be a bad thing too

Thanks! It’s surprisingly articulate for a cheapie. The Dimarzio pickup suits it. Didn’t think it would but it does.

The new Shuker fretless has a single coil J bass pickup in it. It’s well shielded, but there’s still hum there. For the type of stuff I’m doing, I suspect that a noiseless option is the way forward.. Now, I really like the tone of the J pickup that’s in there - it complements the piezo pickup really nicely by giving the mids a bump and adding some growl/snarl and some higher end shimmer. So far, I’ve had a mooch at the Lindy Fralin split coils, the Nordstrand NJ4 SV/SE... they both seem very highly regarded, and it needs to be fairly “hifi” to match the piezo. I have a Dimarzio J and it’s a bit too deep for this bass, and I suspect a SD would be too. Any thoughts or other suggestions or experiences with Pickups I’m thinking of?

It was a second from someone I know who makes them - no website or suchlike though

Alder would come out slightly darker. Not much tho. And I’d say 0.5 l would do about 5 basses...

Managed to get time to finish this tonight! Stuck a Dimarzio P in I had in the spares drawer, along with a bunch of spare electronics - fitted, soldered up and so on. Assembled and strung with some TI Flats - it’s now sounding like a proper chunky thumpy P bass. Very nice. I added the costs up. Given I had a lot of bits lying around this actually only cost about £120 - but I reckon even if you had to buy all the bits it would be around £300 all up, which is really rather splendid!

Playing at 3 today. It’s wet. Real wet. Like waterproof gear and cagoule wet...

Reshielded the pickup compartment last night - must have come loose or something because the SC is now encased in copper tape and it’s about 75% quieter - there’s a faint hum in certain directions in my (usually noisy) man cave. It’s actually about as noisy as my 64 P 😮 Well pleased. This design means you can actually fully enclose a single coil in shielding and it actually works really well!!!

“I wish I was checking out Basschat”

It’s got a marlin sidewinder in it

@Chris2112 - Interestingly, the piezo in this is immense - as standard it has a really thick and full low & sub bass, with some cracking high bass/low mids and less mids/treble. The boost gives it a sparkle of highs and mids and cuts some of the sub bass so it has a P-bass ish tone. The magnetic adds all the mids you might like (it's a Jazz pickup) so it gives it some grind and twang and adds a sparkle to the sound which you can blend in an out of either of the two options above. I'd use the piezo on it's own for a lot of band contexts, and the magnetic for adding that special something/variance as and when required. On it's own, the magnetic is a nice choice for something different, but on this bass the Piezo adds so much that I'd hardly ever use the magnetic on it's own It's a touch noisy as a single coil - its shielded so it's not a lot at all, and actually I'd be reluctant to lose the sparkle in it for the sake of a noiseless magnetic - as the reality is that live the totally silent piezo is more than enough for most circumstances.

Yeah - sorry about that 😊

A P with a piezo bridge.... honestly.. I have two piezo bridge basses now and the punch plus sustain is crazy...

Punchier is P basses tho, innit?

Mrs B Thanks you for the trimming notification..

I’m a fingers man, but I do play pick when it’s needed. I think strings respond differently to each. And Chromes are really good for pick so I can see why you’ve got them on!

That’s not a dressing gown. Oh, I see, you mixed up the cord with my..... 😁

Do you play pick or fingers on rounds?

😮

You’re always welcome to have a play if you are ever close by!!

No, but I’m tempted too I reckon half rounds would work well on the 51P semi hollow.. I may try some of the fender ones as they are apparently good for the money!

Yep as real as they come that one. And they are quite sought after as well. Nice colour, and IIRC the pickups are a balanced set so you get a nice uniform tone/volume out of them when using one or the other rather than both blended together. And £45 is frankly a ludicrous price for it...!

@josie This has TI Jazz Flats on. I normally use Chromes on all my fretted’s bar my ACG which has TI’s on, and I am trialling a set of Fender flats on my 51P semi hollow partscaster. The TI’s do seem to suit this tho. I really like the low tension

I AM BRIDGEHOUSE, AND I AM A PREAMPAHOLIC

My eBay watch list looks like a Preamp convention