PatrickJ

I'm not a religious person but I'd like to play in a church / worship band. I think a lot of churches are beautiful buildings, the music I've heard is all really positive and the people who attend are there to share in a spiritual event.

I think having a traditional work horse bass for the run of the mill gigs makes a lot of sense. I'm not sure I'd want to take my custom Shuker (when I get it) to the Dog and Duck in god knows what cramped space with a bunch of inebriated punters who were really there to watch the footie and don't give two hoots about the music. It's a shame you'd have to sell one of them to fund it but if it was me I'd keep the single cut and sell the Series 2.

Howdy John, yeah I checked that but it didn't give a lot of useful information. The pickups went into a Sandberg VS4 that has an active pre-amp. There was no grey cable on the pick-ups as described in the article you referenced just black and white leads. The original Sandberg pickup was the same so I soldered the white wire to the pre where the original white wire was connected and the same with the black. I looked at the guitar again and fiddled the cables a bit. It seems to have changed the behaviour that seems to fit with a grounding ssue, I.e. the buzz is only audible when volume is above 50% and stops if I touch the strings. This makes sense as I wasnt very happy with how I soldered the black cable so I guess it needs to be redone.

Hello my Friends, I need a little help. Today I picked up a replacement P Bass pickup for my Sandberg VS4. I went for a Nordstrand NP4V, I installed it fairly hasitily this afternoon and initially all seemed to be good, however, I'm sure I've got something wrong. This is the first time I've done any work on a bass guitars electronics so I'm sure it's something obvious. This evening I noticed a buzz from the guitar when the volume on my amp was at 1/2 way or more. This didn't happen with the stock Sandberg pups, I swapped to my VT4 and that was totally silent, same amp, same cables. The buzz is constant, and doesn't change when I touch the strings - though touching the guitar at certain points makes the buzz louder. A weird thing also is if I touch my laptop it makes a buzz audible even at lower volumes. The laptop has a aluminium case, but other metal objects didn't have the same effect. Again trying the same with the VT4 and nothing, totally quiet. So what have I got wrong. The pickups that came out had the covers sealed with a plate on the back which looked like it had a lot of wax holding it all in place. The Nordstrand pickups have lose covers and no back plate - I used some acoustic foam under the pickup to hold it all in place - was this wrong, is there something I need to do? I've heard of brass plates being used under the pickups for extra grounding/ shielding. Do I need to add something like that? Cheers

Ah with you. I've spent a few hours with the new pick up playing a mix of Motown and John Mayer Blues. I have another Sandberg P, a VT4 with a Delano PMVC P pickup. Playing them side by side through the same amp and EQ'd settings I can hear quite a difference. The NP4V has more clank in passive mode, but rolling off the tone a bit tames that. The lows are just lovely through my valve amp. I'm already considering a NP4 / NJ4 upgrade for the VT4 now :). I wish I'd done a better job installing it but I can go back and correct that later - I just ordered some pickup foam so I can do a proper job with it.

After watching a number of YouTube videos comparing P Bass sounds with different pickups I could hear very little difference in the ones that were 60s voiced. After all they are all trying to recreate the same 'Fender' tone so this is to be expected. I fitted the NP4V this afternoon, I need to go back and do it properly as the Delano's that came out had rear covers with wax sealing the pickup in, there were no foam or springs either. The Nordstrands had loose covers and no back plate, so I cut down some acoustic foam panels to fit behind them as a temporary fix, my soldering wasnt up to much either. Again to be re done when I have a bit more time. For those that do this often what is the correct way to fit pickups like the NP4V and how do you set appropriate pickup height? In terms of tone, it still sounds like a P Bass!! The tone is a little warmer and perhaps sounds a little more hollow if that makes sense but it's a definite improvement over the stock Sandberg pups, both visually and sonically. I've just noticed the E string is slightly off centre, seems to be mis-adjusted at the bridge. Another thing to tweak when I go back and do the job properly.

Found myself at Bass direct this morning, hadn't heard back from Jaime @ The Creamery (it is the holidays so wasnt expecting too) so after a good chat with Mark about what I was after and what he had in stock I ended up driving home with this:

Delivery for new orders are now predicted to come in Feb so he clearly has a good number of orders on the books. I'd definately like to buy from a UK small business - it's just a shame that ordering has been such a pain in the donkey. Hopefully Jamie will get back to me soon.

His mobile number was on the website, sent him a message on WhatsApp to see if he can help.

Another video that again reinforces my feeling that there's very little difference between the different flavours of P's. To my ears (which I acknowledge will not be as tuned as many on this forum) the 90's MEX, USA and JAP were all sonically pretty close to each other (the JAP less so I guess). In a full band mix I think the subtleties would be completely lost, especially to average Jo down the dog and duck. The 70's P had a really nice zing to it and it did stand out from the others. It's not the tone I'm after for my VS4 which has confirmed I want a 60's voice pickup as opposed to a 70's. I tried to order a Classic '65 last night but the website wouldnt let me. Annoyingly I was being forced to create and activate an account before I could finalise, but the activation emails were not coming through, and still haven't, so I couldn't place the order. Tried with 2 email addresses. Will give it another go tonight, if still doesn't work I'll be off the Bassdirect in the morning to pick up either the Nordstrand NP4 or the Delano PC4 AL

So after watching this YouTube video from the bass whisperer (posted by chris_b) in the Scott's 30 Basses thread I realised that I could hear barely any difference in the Dimarzio's vs. the Nordstrands vs the Fender stock pickups. With the differences so damn minimal it seems a little pointless in forking out £100+ on a NP4 or Aguilar 60s pup when the DiMarzio area P, Delano PC 4 or the offerings from the Creamery come in well under that mark.

I got the first two from the bassline publishing website. I'm not sure where Santa got the 3rd, hopefully the same place else the elfs may be up for a copy write infringement law suit

I just had a listen to the Isolated bass ones, the only difference I could really pick up on was between the basses with Rounds and Flats, but even that was surprisingly minimal. You almost found a permanent cure for my GAS affliction. Fortunately there are many other aspects to buying basses; weight, neck profile, aesthetics, play-ability so still plenty of things to debate here on Basschat.

I have all three, those along with my Helix FX have led me to some of the most fun I've had on the bass all year

They all sounded exactly the same!!!

I've never owned one but the Sire's have got to be worth a look. Andertons have some Jan sale offers on them, plenty of fivers there around the £500 mark.

Yeah amazing tone. I looked it up on Bass Direct's website and was surprised to see it had a Mahogany body, Makes me wonder with an Active instrument how much the body impacts the tone or whether it's all in the electronics. There was a thread about this a while ago, and Scott even recorded a little video just for VC to respond to it. Its quite interesting to hear his perspective, but ultimately it's a path YouTube has driven content providers down due to how their algorithms promote videos - and I imagine YouTube is one of Scott's primary sources to drive new subscribers to his academy.

A few bassy bits from the family this year: Jamiroquai Bass Book Vol 3 published by the awesome @Stuart Clayton Money for a pickup upgrade for my VS4 And tickets to go see the Tedeschi Trucks Band @ Wembley in Feb