Dankology

Sorry - I'd bored even myself with all this... It all got quite odd, as it happens. The new loom sorted out the odd out-of-phase issue with the top two strings but, as noted above, I was still getting signal from the P pickup when everything was zeroed and so had everything apart and together again several times, checked everything with a multimeter and found that the problem seemed to be an intermittent earth connection. I could recreate this by putting the slightest pressure on the terminal block atttached to the the P pickup pot - but only when the pickup was attached. In desperation, I tried swapping the wiring around and found the following: -bridge pickup to bridge pot - all ok -neck pickup to bridge pot - all ok -bridge pickup to neck pot - all ok -neck pickup to neck pot - the problem came back again (ie output when volume set to zero) I can only think that one of the wires from the neck/P pickup doesn't quite mate with the terminal block - but even that doesn't quite make sense to me. Anyway, it works perfectly with the pickups wired to the "wrong" volume pots and the pickups sound absolutely immense - enough to make me ponder getting a set to replace the Dimarzios in my Aerodyne. The new strings (105 Warwick Reds) arrived yesterday but haven't been fitted yet - intrigued to see it they sort the various buzzes and rattles out - if not there's a great luthier nearby who I'm sure will whip it into shape. Going back to the pickup thing - I'm not sure if the guitar has been messed about with in the past: there were three screw holes for the right side of one half of the neck pick up and two for the left side of the other half. Only one of the mounting screws had a spring on it too. I'd hope this is all evidence of tinkering rather than a reflection of how these things come out of the factory. BUT - on balance I'm very happy with it: it sounds great (my last 3 purchases prior to this have been the Aerodyne, a US Jazz and a Squire VI and this was the only one that instantly wowed me, although this may just be a measure of how hot the pickups are) and I'm finding it surprisingly easy to play. I'll let my bandmates be the final judges on that one though...

I certainly don't envy you that. The closest experience I have to that was trying to sync audio from a cassette to an analogue video recording. I think I gave up in the end 🙄

Only if you've got everything locked to an external clock... In truth, the speed of a particular recording doesn't drift but the sync between two definitely will, for the reasons I gave above.

I meant more the issues relating to discrepancies between stated and actual clocking rather than between different stated sampling rates. eg if your camera has recorded the audio accurately at 48kHz but your external audio has actually been recorded at say 48.05kHz (due to the inherent inaccuracy within the clock) then over the course of a long enough file the two will drift out of sync. These discrepancies seems to be magnified by resampling (say if the external audio was 44.1 and needs to be 48khz for the video). The most frustrating aspect of my video work is getting the external audio to stretch/sync in this way.

Without wanting to sound a potentially negative note, it's worth remembering that audio devices are not necessarily all strictly clocked at 44.1 or 48 or whatever kHz. Which means, especially if you are aligning long recordings, there may be some drift in the sync by the end of the set. I've experienced this even when syncing recordings made on the same make and model of recorder. Ways to get around it are time-stretching the audio (either by ear or by calculating the length discrepancy), dropping a few frames of video or (my current preferred method) leaving some audience noise up between each track and adding and aligning each song separately. Of course, if you're just doing single song videos this may not be an issue.

Movie Studio Platinum - I think I'm still on version 11 on my ancient laptop but upgraded to v17 (at a generous £10 discount...) for my newer PC. I'm actually in the middle of editing a shedload of two-camera gig footage at the moment - I'm happy to do a quick Whatsapp video call at some point with anyone who wants to see how it works for me.

(ahem) Sony Vegas. Honestly, if I can make it work for me virtually anyone can: just drop your footage in (on separate tracks if you prefer) then cut, chop and copy to your heart's content.

I've used various versions of Sony Vegas for years - all of them them of the "non-pro" level. It allows you to be very flexible in your workflow and has lots of effects, titles, transitions, corrections and even audio plugins bundled with it. You can even use it to mix multichannel audio if you so wish, I bought a Mac a few years ago, largely with a view to moving my video and music stuff over to it but I just couldn't make the switch. Here's a recentish video that I did in Vegas, five or six cameras, audio mixed separately in Reaper and then dropped into the finished edit:

The J goes down to zero when the volume pot is down but the P goes from 7.9 wide open to 8.1 fully closed. Which I'm guessing is not right.

Here are photos of the original wiring, the very tidy new loom from KiOgon and then the back of the problem pick up.

Ha, if I tried to ignore it and do something else it would just eat away at me until I went back to it... Apologies re the units - showing how little I remember from school there 😣 I've wired everything back together and all seems well apart from there still being output from the P pickup when its volume is completely off. I can live with this but it's still annoying. When you talk about the pickups being shorted out when the bolume is turned down - how would I test this?

Thank you for taking the time - really appreciate this: first day of a much needed holiday and I really didn't intend spending it repeatedly taking a bass apart. It's passive with a VVT layout. The earth seemed well-anchored under the bridge and the continuity you describe above seems intact. I've just taken the P pick up out and run a multimeter across it: 8.4ohm across the two units and 4.1 when each is checked individually. This means almost nothing to me but it seemed promising that there wasn't a huge discrepancy between the two.

But it's definitely got worse since I started fiddling with it - there was no volume difference when the P pickup was soloed before which makes me think I've possibly damaged the coil while tinkering. I forgot to mention as well - when both volume pots are turned all the way down there is still some output...

I'll try and keep this short. I recently picked up a second hand Relvelation PJ with a known issue with the pickups. On playing it, it seemed that both the P and J pickups were fine on their own but when set at the same volume (ie both full open), the D and G strings became very tinny. I'd already ordered a new loom from Kiogan of this parish and had hoped that installing this it would rectify any dodgy wiring issues. Sadly the D and G issue remained. I tried swapping the white and black wires from the P around but by the time I tested this, the P pickup on its own now had a huge volume difference between the E/A and the D/G. So I suspect I've broken (or at least finished off) the half of the P pickup that covers the higher two strings. I was looking to replace it like for like as I really quite liked what little I heard of the Entwistle PBXN before killing it. So, two questions, please: 1) is there anything else I can do or check before replacing the pickup? 2) if I do replace it, can I save a couple of quid by buying the standard PBX pickup and swapping in the neodymium magnets from the existing pickup?

I like HW, they seem like decent people. Although I do recall one of the staff threatening to impale my friend on a Les Paul about 25 years ago... The friend did have it coming in truth. I was wondering if this might have been Rimmers, who I recently had a slightly underwhelming experience with.

Ah, no. But it would make my comment above even more distasteful...

Is the large shop in Bolton part of a chain with a slightly amusing name? (amusing to someone with my puerile sense of humour, anyway)

I've now had a listen through an amp. It definitely needs a new jack socket (or possibly a bit of bending to innards of the current one). But explain this one to me: when both volume pots are wide open, the D and G strings are suddenly very tinny. This only happens during the final couple of degrees of their range and for the rest of the range they have no effect at all when used together. Either seems to work fine when the other is zeroed. I'm hoping the new wiring will sort out any oddities but just curious to know what might be causing this particular effect.

It arrived early! Just been messing about with it unplugged so far. The strings seem a little on the thin side for my tastes so I'm hoping some heavier ones will solve the nasty rattle that the A string has at the nut when played open. There's also some slight choking of the A and D stings around the very top of the neck. Not really sure what to do here but will probably treat myself to a nice set up once I've restrung it and got the new loom in place. Reasonably happy thus far...

I think I ignored the Basschat results, assuming it'd just be discussion 😃

I've had an unlined acoustic for a couple of years - really wanted a lined electric but the price on this one was too good to let go.

Where does one get one of those from - Google doesn't appear to be my friend on this one...

I'd been holding out for a fretless Jazz of some variety but with studio time booked I couldn't resist a £110 Revelation RPJ-77 on Ebay last night: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Revelation-4-String-Fretless-Bass-RPJ-77-Sunburst/264877128842 There's an odd comment about a phase issue with the pickups but I'm presuming that will be a straightforward fix. I know a couple of people here have owned the same model so please tell me what a smart buy I've made and what cool mods I might consider...

I thought I was the only person who remembered that... one of my all time favourites too, despite having otherwise little interest in either artist.

I've just had to double check London Calling's tracklisting. The Clampdown, Rudie Can't Fail, The Card Cheat, Guns of Brixton, I'm Not Down, Train in Vain, London Calling itself... I can see why it blindsided some punks and it certainly waxes and wanes over its full length but the Clash would go on to much, much worse than this. On topic though, I reckon the White Album, Tusk, Physical Graffiti and Trout Mask really work. But it's a bit hard to call nowadays as someone said earlier: almost every album that has come out since the early 90s would have been a double vinyl record back in the day. I especially like Wreckless Eric's Big Smash LP - but that's a bit of a cheat as he interleved a new album and a singles collection across the four sides.