shoulderpet

Have decided to strip the finish and go with Danish oil, the satin finish is ok but I think the feel could be a little better. Any tips for applying the oil? Also maybe a silly question but I know there is a fire risk using it on rags, what about using brushes? One final question ,after the final coat how long should I leave it before I play my bass? Instructions on Danish oil say to leave 4 to 8 hours between coats but I'm guessing this doesn't necessarily mean I can play my bass 8 hours after the final coat Thanks

The Kent Armstrong Hot Ceramic P pickup (make sure its the ceramic one and not the vintage voiced one) is nice and bright and growly too, they call it Hot but whilst the output is good it is not wound superhot (11k resistance) and Ceramic keeps it nice and bright, I dont know what flats you are using but have heard that Quarter pounders sound great with TI's

I was feeling like my P bass was missing something tonally then after playing my Hofner straight afterwards I was surprised to find that the 3 week old Rotosound Rotobass strings on my P bass were only very marginally brighter sounding than the TI Jazz flats on my Hofner, granted the difference became more pronounced when slapping but the Rotosound Rotobass strings are probably the darkest sounding nickel plated rounds ive used so for anyone who likes broken in sounding rounds these will probably be just the ticket, they dont start out particularly bright and break in quickly

I had one of those a while back, they are a tonne of fun to play, I wasn't crazy about the stock pickup but its simple enough to replace and the good thing is that if you are so inclined all of the parts are easily upgradable

That is a more reasonable price than the £700-800 ive seen them average, still not sure I would pay that nowadays when you can get an mim mustang p/j for around the same price ,

On the original studio version it is actually a midi track but on this version in the video and in live versions it is a player called Matthew Caroll

Have managed to sort the issue, I did some googling and the 2 main causes of a sticky finish seem to be a) humidity too high when applying b) too much varnish applied so I sanded off the finish and started again and this time I did the application(s) outside for lower humidity and applied the varnish much more sparingly

Guy Pratt is awesome, I love his bassline on Like a Prayer , less enamoured with the actual song but the bassline itself is awesome

Yes, the bass on the original studio recording is a midi track but this one is billed as live and it appears that in this version it is real bass rather than midi

I quite like the bass tone, could maybe do with a little more bass but sounds pretty good to me..... I think you would absolutely hate my tone, I crank the treble on my amp and then engage the bright switch which gives me another +13 of treble..oh and I switch the tweeter on, lowish action so i get plenty of clank

Bass player is absolutely killing it in this, theres a looong intro and the song actually properly starts around 1min37s , I suspect this has been tweaked but even so..Damn I know what the next bassline I learn is gonna be [youtube]

Ok so have done the finish in satin varnish looks food but it feels a bit sticky, any pointers as to where I may have gone wrong? Thanks

Ok , have decided to go with a satin finish clear varnish,I figured this would be one of the most difficult ones to screw up, fingers crossed

Thanks, I think I might leave the colour as is for now and might try some beeswax or carnauba wax to seal the wood , have heard of people using boiled linseed oil for fretboards, wondering if that might be a viable option, also would like to keep to items with as few ingredients as possible so anything that is a pure oil or wax would be great

Hi all In an uncharacteristic idea for me I decided to strip the finish on a satin finish neck and refinish in a tinted gloss varnish as the original neck is a very pale maple colour, however after 3 attempts I have found that (probably because I suck at this kind of thing) I just cannot get an even finish so I have stripped the neck back to bare wood again and looking for easy refinishing ideas that I cannot easily bodge, I was thinking a clear gloss varnish would be hard to mess up but am wondering if there are any other options I should try, maybe there is some kind of wax I could use that will seal the wood and give it a nice gloss? thank you

Ok so have tried to do some soundclips of the Kent Armstrong Hot P compared with the Roswell Quarter Pound P , sound quality sadly is not great and you will have to excuse the sloppy playing and fret buzz, this is on a bass that is in need of a good fret dress and it was late, I was tired and not bothered about being precise. First part is the Kent Armstrong, 2nd is the Roswell Quarter Pound P, although the sound quality is not great on the recording I think I am hearing a stronger low mid bias on the Roswell pickup and a slightly brighter tone from the Kent Armstrong pickup Pickup comparison link

Hi I have some Neodymium bar magnets and I have a cheapy ceramic P pickup that I am planning to replace the ceramic magnet with the neo magnets, I could only find the bar magnets in 20mm length bars so my plan is to put 2 bar magnets side by side for each half of the pickup but I was wondering if it matters which side round the bar magnets are, to explain what I mean if you add a magnet to the bottom of an alnico pickup if the magnet is the wrong way round it will repel, seeing as I will be removing the ceramic magnet completely and these are not alnico pickups there will be nothing to repel the magnet? so does it matter which way round I have the magnets ? thank you

Ok so I have found some neodymium bar magnets for only a few quid so have ordered some and will be experimenting with them, not sure whether to use one of the ceramic pickups I have and replace the ceramic magnets with the neodymium magnets or whether to put them at the bottom of one of the pickups I have with Alnico pole pieces

Ahh so I guess nickel plated as then they do not have to use stainless steel, they just use a low grade of steel and nickel plate it so it doesn't rust ?

Having recently tried a load of P pickups I eventually decided to stay with the Roswell Quarter Pounder P pickup having a nice thick tone and having a good look to it, that being said I have found the highs a little muted compared to what was in the bass before and has less high end than the Duncan Quarter Pounder P pickup and being wound at 8k rather than (i believe) around 12 for the Duncan the pickup has slightly less output. This pickup is an alnico pickup that uses alnico 5 pole pieces, having some ceramic magnets spare from some cheap pickups and knowing that Dimarzio have a few pickups that have alnico pole pieces boosted by ceramic magnets and having read about people adding magnets to boost the magnetic field on pickups I thought why not give it a try. I was initally thinking I would epoxy the magnets underneath the pole pieces but the pole pieces stick out a good mm out the bottom so I resorted to taping the ceramic magnets to the bottom of the pickup using electrical tape. Put the pickup back in tuned my bass up, nice result! More highs and high mid punch, the pickup is very crisp sounding now, greater output, more of that piano like tone that you get with a bright bass/pickup, worth the experiment

I can well believe that the Squiers would be better, tbh my Squier Jaguar bass is a much better bass than the Musicmaster I owned (also a 79) ever was, I would get another Musicmaster IF the price was low (£400-500) with a view to modding the crap out of it

Yeah the prices are crazy, I owned one many years ago, I brought it for £75 and moved it on after 2-3 years, it was a terrible bass, weighed a ton, terrible bridge, cheap pickguard, the cheapest nut ever and the tone was terrible, really murky sounding, now on Ebay there are Musicmasters going for close to MIA Fender prices which is ridiculous when you consider that this was Fenders budget offering at the time that these were made, they even made the bodies from leftover wood from other instruments and put a strat pickup in to save costs

Hi Just wondering why is Nickel plated steel so common on cheap strings? Almost all of the cheapy strings out there, Harley Benton, Gear4music, Rotobass, Legacy, Johnny Brook are Nickel plated steel, there must be a reason but what is it? thanks

Have you tried a cable from your bass to a pedal and then the headphone amp plug goes in the output of the effect pedal, thats what i do with my Amplug and it works

Yeah it's the tone to me, Amplug sounds awful, noisy, mine is temperamental, really it should be a £20 device not £30-£35