SamPlaysBass

Definitely. I've played some basses with £xxx pickups and they sound great, but compared to the likes of Entwistle and Wilkinson, there isn't much in it. In fact, I'd say that pickups are different rather than better or worse. Plus I quite like representing the underdog in badge wars Perhaps some pickups are better suited to certain applications but even sub £30 pickups are a vast improvement over what a lot of manufacturers put in their basses from the factory. YMMV but the pickups I had in my old MiM Jazz from 2007 were absolutely dreadful. Actually uninspiring.

I think you're right! Any advance below £39? 😜 Congrats @skankdelvar, you built an entire bass for nearly the same price as my 'budget' bridge cost me.

@PlasmaZombies They are great basses and they happen to cost £339. There’s no downside! If a second hand one comes up that would be unbelievable value for money. I’d definite recommend them.

What a little beast! The Entwistle pickups are seriously good. Plenty of attack but can also do mellow pretty well with some gaming of the tone knob. Bet that bass can flap some trousers.

The Fender Hi Mass bridge fits perfectly. I unscrewed the old bridge, used the same screws to the screw the new bridge in. Took less than 5 minutes. A very worthwhile upgrade in terms of playability if you are thinking of keeping the bass. Otherwise, save it for something you’ll keep. I think any Fender-shaped bass that’s strung through the bridge will benefit from one of these.

@ead they are lovely! I did try looking for DiMarzio DP126s but there were none around and I was getting impatient. Both of those look awesome 👏🏼 Do they still get outings? There’s something wicked about giving a cheap bass a bollocking on a gig.

Show us some pictures, sounds like a great little project!

Not meaning to hijack the thread, but I’ve got some sound samples of the Entwistle PBXN compared to the standard Squier classic vibe precision pickup here. Just to help people out.

Just before we were sent into our houses for the foreseeable (big shoutout to those key workers who are out making the world go round), I bought myself a Squier Classic Vibe 70s Precision bass. I had sold a Squier Chris Aiken bass last year that I had modified with EMG GZR pickups and really regretted it, so it was time for another. I wanted a P bass that I could leave in the back of a van or not worry so much if it gets knocked or, to a lesser degree, nicked. I've got some great basses but it's hard to relax when you've got a couple of grand on a stage in a dodgy venue! I needed a 'cheap' bass. So here she is... £339 from A Strings in South Wales. They had two in stock, this and a brown one. The brown one looked cooler on the Internet but the black looked better in real life and this one played better. I also wanted a bit of a project - I enjoy taking guitars apart and wanted my new bass to be different to everyone else's. So I decided to set myself a bit of a challenge, Top Gear style (but without the laughs and million pound budgets). A cheap bass challenge it was then. I gave myself the challenge of spending 10% of what I paid for the bass on each upgrade - maximum of £34 per modification. I'd been looking at P bass pickups and the prices you can pay are crazy - you can easily spend 50% of what I paid for this bass on fancy pickups alone, so I thought I'd try a few budget conscious options out. First to go was the bridge. The bass played very well to begin with, but I've always had a problem with the thin, bent metal bridge that Fender supplies on its poverty instruments. I find they wobble a bit in the saddles and don't feel secure. So I ordered a Fender High Mass bridge from here -> https://mickleburgh.co.uk/shop/fender-jazz-bass-p-bass-brass-bridge-assembly/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItePq_P7q6AIVQbTtCh08ZgWEEAQYAyABEgISgPD_BwE for £34. I wanted to see if the age old forum rumour was true - does a bridge increase sustain and improve tone? To find out, I recorded myself before changing the bridge and after. (Soundcloud link at the end, and no it doesn't!) The new bridge made the bass feel a lot tighter, and better screwed together, weirdly. It also added some weight to the very light body and helped it sit a bit more nicely on a fabric strap. It's a quality item, with well machined parts and no sharp bits. Intonation was easy to sort and it required very little saddle adjustment to get the bass playing nicely again. I'd recommend Fender's Hi Mass bridge. In terms of sound, I didn't hear any difference. See for yourself in the Soundcloud link below. The notes don't sustain for years like people say and the tone of the bass remained the same. I never understood why someone would want a bass that sustained for ages, I've certainly never found any use for 2 minute long sustained notes... yet. Happy with the bridge, I decided to try some new pickups. The pickups that came with the bass were a pleasant surprise - they had character and a nice output. The tone control was useful and helped tame some top end but it could also let the bass 'bite' when you wanted it to. I decided to change them just because I had some free time and I was curious. I had acquired a set of Seymour Duncan SDP-1 pickups courtesy of @shoulderpet. They arrived really quickly and I set about carving up my bass to try them out. They needed a little soldering, but I fancied a challenge. Unfortunately, I was only getting sound out of the E and A strings. Upon going through everything with a fine tooth comb (and a magnifying glass), I had realised that in trying to solder a connection from one half of the pickup to the other, I had lost the end of the winding. I had probably lost it when I put some heat on the solder point and it had slipped out of it's hole and gone missing. Bugger. I shelved those for now and I ordered a set of Entwistle PBXN pickups to see what the fuss was about. Whilst I was waiting for them to arrive, I decided to shield the insides as per @la bam's awesome thread on his John Deacon bass. I had noticed a bit of noise when I wasn't touching the strings previously so thought why not. I got some aluminium tape and went to work on the gizzards. It's a surprisingly therapeutic thing, putting foil tape in the pickup cavity, but my attempt did look a bit like a 5 year old had finished it off. I put some on the back of the pick guard and we were done. This was the tape I used, a whole £4.09 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fixman-190288-Silver-Aluminium-Adhesive/dp/B00FHXA7TE/ref=pd_nav_hcs_rp_2/258-0320931-5931511?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00FHXA7TE&pd_rd_r=abbd6043-4e0b-4aae-9843-e48fde7dfe81&pd_rd_w=LHmq1&pd_rd_wg=TIXYi&pf_rd_p=12e82a50-703f-4e6f-ae56-e22f8e18f1f0&pf_rd_r=M0X9MJ3HJM004AQ0HFH7&psc=1&refRID=M0X9MJ3HJM004AQ0HFH7 The new pickups arrived from Pickupsplusmore on eBay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Entwistle-PBXN-pickup-for-bass-guitar-neodymium-designed-by-Alan-Entwistle/233364897542?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649). First thing's first, these pickups are DEEP. The screws that go through the pickup go pretty much the entire height of the pickup again underneath. I had to cut the foam that kept the original pickups secure in half and put them either side of the screws that hang down. After a quick test with a tap from a screwdriver and happy that they worked, I tried to refit the pick guard, but as is well documented on here, the 'ears' of the Entwistle pickup cover are bigger than the originals. IMG_3912.HEIC Luckily, I had the Seymour Duncan pickups here which I salvaged the pickup covers from. Popped the Entwistle ones off, put these on, and the pick guard fit. Voila. I'm not a badge snob by any means (in fact I'm a bit gutted not to be representing a British guitar legend), but the Seymour Duncan covers look cool and the Entwistle pickups are superb. Using neodymium magnets obviously gives these pickups an increased output, but they can sound aggressive and menacing or they can chill out but keep a fat, smooth sound. There's more of everything - every frequency seems to have been turned up by 4 or 5 notches. Playing with these pickups reminds me of the first time I plugged my old MiM Jazz into my friends Fender Bassman 135; it made my bass sound higher in quality compared to playing through the shitboxes I usually went through. There were deep, rich overtones and each note left my bass beautifully. I feel like that is what these pickups have done to this bass. I'd be impressed if they were £130, but they aren't. They're barely £30. Honestly, a brilliant buy. I recorded this bass throughout the (admittedly limited!) mods. I've uploaded them to Soundcloud with a fingerstyle, a slap line and a picked blues tune to give a bit of a range. The fingerstyle pieces were played with the tone at 50% but the rest had the tone fully open. There is no compression, no touching up (oh matron...) or do-overs, or even a backing sound. Just the raw sound of the bass with all of my mistakes after each mod. So in all, this bass has cost me: £339 - bass £34 - Fender Hi Mass Bridge £29.49 - Entwistle PBXN £10 - Seymour Duncans (that I ruined, sorry!) £4.09 - Aluminium Tape Total = £416.58 I'm really pleased with everything, and all upgrades cost no more than 10% of the bass. I've spent around 23% of the bass' new value modifying it. God, lockdown is fun, isn't it?

I bought a Classic Vibe 70s Precision bass just before lockdown. It’s a great bass, sounds like a P, plays like a P. £339 brand new. I was heading down the Vintage Tony Butler route but I wanted to put some money in the pocket of my local music shop which only had the Squiers in stock. I’m very happy with it. They’re easy to come by if nothing else!

How did it all go with the Entwistles? Any sound clips would be welcome 😉 I fancy changing the pickup in my new CV vibe 70s P. Something more of a vintage voicing but again, CHEAP. I bought a set of Tonerider Jazz pickups for my MiM Jazz last year and they are amazing. Tempted to take a punt on the P version for £35ish. Although, I have heard that some earlier CV basses use Tonerider pickups from the factory. Nothing particularly wrong with the pickup in there now but we’ve got a long few months ahead and a few little projects won’t go amiss.

I love seeing an Ashdown at a venue. Even if it’s been ragged to holy hell and back, they still sound great and have plenty of volume. MAGs usually, EB180 a couple of times. Never had the luxury of an ABM provided by the venue.. yet! Charlie Wrights in East London had a great vintage Peavey Session bass head into a TVX 4x10 cab when I played there around 5 years ago. That had been scouring eBay for a few weeks.

Last month I traded a jazz bass for a Markbass Evo 1 as my old TC RH450 is getting on a bit. After some research, there seems to be a split of opinion on the internet, but here’s my tuppence. It’s larger than the usual Markbass head but not massive at all. Light and well built, as all MB stuff seems to be. The two channels are blendable, and the focus of this amp seems to achieve the results of biamp-ing but using a single head. It does this really well. I’ve set mine up to use the blended option, with a clean tone blended with a grindy-SVT OD blended in in the ratio of about 60:40. It sounds great. EQ is generally flat unless compensating for a crap cab or boomy room and even though it’s 3 band, it works really well. Better than my old LM3, dare I say. I’ve used it for about 10 rehearsals and 3 gigs, and it’s always been plenty loud enough and sits beautifully in a mix. Lows sound full, mids are punchy and there’s top end there if you need it. Very impressed indeed. I use my tone control on my American Professional 5er Jazz to tame the OD, opening the tone up for some spanky intro sounds and mellowing it out once everyone else is playing. My experience is pretty limited in terms of the effects, but the compressore works well and the envelope filter is honestly the best I’ve ever heard. If they could put that filter in a pedal I’d buy it in a heartbeat - much better than the MXR bass envelope filter I’d used for a few years. Tuner is a welcome addition. Downsides that I’ve found so far are that it’s difficult to see the labels for the controls and the blend switch is a bit fiddly if you’re making last minute changes. If they were to release an EVO 2, then I’d like a slightly simplified (or at least emphasised) EQ section. The headphone volume knob is the same size as the master volume and they are next to each other! I’ve used it with my 5 String jazz and my 4 string Mayones. Makes both sound great. Here it is in the Earl Haig Club in Cardiff last night. Plenty of compliments and the opening band (who used my rig) sounded awesome. No complaints from the sound guy. Happy days!

After 4 gigs and 4 rehearsals, I’m very, very pleased with the Labella 760s. They are a very similar tension to my preferred 45-105 rounds but sound helluva lot better - fuller lower end, more punchy mids, less clank. Sounds great in a mix and I’m sold on flats on a jazz. Very happy. They also sound great slapped! The Tonerider pickups are well worth a mention as they are extraordinary for the money. They’re not quite as meaty as the medium set on the studio bass, but they are 85% of the beef and tone but much easier to play. They feel beautiful on your fingers as well. Great purchase and highly recommended.

After reading everyone’s advice and seeing the love for the low tension Labellas... I’ve bought regular ones, albeit in the 43 gauge. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Potential wrong choice incoming!

Cheers both for the recommendation. The other thing I’ve just thought of is to go regular Labella but bring the action down a little bit. The blue jazz had medium-high action which made for a great tone, but made you work for it. Are the low tension flats drastically less tension than the regular flats? I could just suck it up and grow some extra skin on the old sausages I suppose... 😉

Last weekend, I went to a studio to do some recording. I had brought along my slap-happy jazz and StingRay. Both were strung with rounds, but I ended up doing the session on the studio owner's 64 Jazz reissue (Lake Placid Blue with matching headstock, for those who care ) and it blew my nuts off. The sound was incredible and I now want a jazz with flats. My only complaint was that the Blue Jazz with flats was a proper workout to play over the day - the action was fairly high to get 'that' sound in conjunction with the Labella Deep Talkin' flats and a nearly completely rolled off tone knob. I was wondering if it's possible to get most of that sound but at a slightly lower tension. I've ordered myself some Tonerider pickups for my 12 year old MiM Jazz and now I need some flats. Any recommendations? I liked the Labellas but they were pretty tight. I've had P's with flats and loved them, but I adored the sound when playing hard over the bridge pickup on the jazz bass. Deep, fat, mid-heavy with no horrible clank. Just pure groove!

Did a deal with Stew in a dodgy service station... he was brilliant to deal with! Traded my CTM 100 for a high quality bitsa Jazz. Amazing comms, met at a time that was great, met halfway. If Carlsberg did basschatters! (Stew is actually much nicer than Carlsberg, FYI). 10/10 would meet in a similarly dodgy car park to trade again.

I had the same scepticism before buying my RH450. I’d bought two RS112s and powered them with various heads that I bought and sold on. Had a good bit of success with an LM3, but when I bought the RH450, you can tell these amps and cabs have been designed to work together. Very loud, a slight bump in the low mids naturally (which can be dialled out if needed), and just a great sound. I’ve also owned a BH250 in the past and that was vastly underpowered and lacking in any clout unless going through the PA. The RH450 doesn’t suffer with this. Favourite parts are the ability to move to EQ centres and boost/cut frequencies that actually make a positive impact on sound, the preset buttons set up for ‘your sound’ which you can then tweak for the room, and the tuner is handy, as well as just sounding great. More amps need these points. RS cabs will always sound great, they are very underrated and undervalued as TC is no longer flavour of the month. So far, the negatives are few and far between; it’s heavier than more modern alternatives, parts are expensive to replace (or TC don’t stock a great deal of spares and ship them when they have enough demand, but this shouldn’t be a make or break situation!), and when I’ve used the RH450 through lesser quality cabs (I.e. rehearsal room offerings) the sound has seemed more bass-heavy and boomy. The RS cabs seem to negate this by being so clear and concise. In short, I preferred the RS cabs to the Barefaced Super Compact and Ampeg SVT 410 HE I’ve owned previously, and the head matches well with the cabs with plenty of volume, guts and definition. Go for it!

I’ve owned a TecAmp Puma 900 and it was incredible for the 2 weeks it worked. Shame that it kept dying or going into protect mode. I ended up with my money back but a bit gutted that it didn’t work. If they weren’t £700+ brand new, definite contender. I think I’m looking closer to £500 as an absolute maximum.

Reading back over this thread and I missed this at first glance - the Reidmar 750 seems particularly good value for money. Even more so, the Reidmar 502 is under £400! Any idea how ‘loud’ they are compared to their watt ratings? Before the can of worms starts bubbling, I’m fully aware that loudness and watts are not necessarily related. What I’m trying to decipher is: are the Reidmars capable of producing a similar amount of power as other amplifiers (such as my RH450) or are companies playing marketing games? Will a Reidmar 502/500 be as loud as my RH450, and is the 750 as loud as you expect it to be?

My apologies, this is what I meant - worded much more elegantly than my attempt. Every amp I’ve owned has had a DI with a pre/post switch. Seems strange that Quilter didn’t put one on theirs.