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I reckon you'd be better off using that varnish on the floor, you'll get a better tone without it and it will wear through on the neck anyway.

If you really like the sound of your bass as it is, don't do anything to the neck, especially not for cosmetic reasons, if it sounds worse or doesn't play as well, you'll be kicking yourself. Some production line basses are way better than others just by chance, so if it ain't broke....

Have you replaced your lead? Even new ones can cause problems. It could be a bad solder joint.

You could easily use the 9V from an ebs to power your bass with a stereo jack input and a bit of soldering, but what happens when you have to go direct into a DI? Many an engineer insists on this for good reason so it is slightly problematic. I'm still into the passive sound of my musicman, it is very different from the pre-amp tone which as far as I can hear adds about 15db of top end boost (set flat). Since I made the change I can set most amps flat and get the sound I am after. Previously I was turning up the low end on the bass and the amp and still not getting a great tone. I use a lot of different amps when touring and I am realizing the preset contour on many might sound good with the bass on its own but really doesn't help when the band kicks in, the mids make it much fuller and more audible on stage. I still use a bit of eq if it needs it, but only about 3db or so. [quote name='bassmachine2112' post='280499' date='Sep 9 2008, 04:45 PM']hiho,2 weeks ,2months out of a battery on a mm.my mm the batteries last about 12 months n that,s giggin twice a week n 2 x 4 hour practices n doodles inbetween.i use duracell.i would suspect a problem or it,s time to invest in rechargeable ones.do ebs heads not have phantom powering for pedals n basses built in?.if any bass manufacturers want to use this simple idea,brown envelope please n a sample of wares for testing purposes will be gratefully recieved.[/quote]

I had a look inside and it does appear to be a multi tap transformer so I might install a switch to make voltage changes easy when I'm travelling. I'll just have to remember to select the right voltage! [quote name='synaesthesia' post='266769' date='Aug 21 2008, 01:46 AM']Send an email to diane at said company dot com, or send it to james (himself) at the company dot com; but if you expect a reply call them first and make contact, tell them who you are and tell them to expect your email. Otherwise you'll wait till the twelfth of never. The newer models usually have multitap transformers and the older ones don't. If yours is a multitap you can wire it yourself for UK usage. I've had two Demeters one old and one newer, the only difference is the tranny inside. That said, your DI may be high voltage but it does not draw much current, and a small step down will work. I had a US version triaxis that was fed off a Dick Smith inline step down, when I was living down under. Dick Smith is the Ozzie Maplin.[/quote]

Have you noticed that there is an Epifani 2x12 for sale on this site? One of these will produce as much bottom end as most 2x15s and weigh a lot less.

After listening to several of the valve preamps on basstasters I decided I liked sound of the Demeter VTDB-2B Valve DI the best. I tracked an old one down on ebay and got it sent from the states. It does what valves do very nicely, slightly rounding the attack of notes and lifting the sustain of the harmonics. This gives the impression that the sound is somehow thicker, without reducing the dynamic range in a way that a compressor would. It's a very subtle difference but the nice thing is that you can increase this effect by switching in the boost which sends the signal through the valve again. I had to buy a voltage converter as it runs on 120V. Aside from anything else, it's a quality low noise DI, you can ensure that you'll get a good recorded or live sound.

After trying this out for a while, I've put the springs back, as I disconnected my preamp and liked the passive tone. The preamp added a huge amount of top end (and hiss) so with that gone I needed a bit more top and set the pickup flat again. It was worth the experiment though.

Someone in surrey is selling this very cheap [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Wawick-NEO-PRO-tubepath-5-1_W0QQitemZ290240933800QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item290240933800&_trkparms=72%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C65%3A12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Wawick-NEO-PRO-tubep...id=p3286.c0.m14[/url]

It's a pre 91 ernie ball stingray 5. I replaced the original pickup with a seymour duncan alcino copy which has much better string balance. I didn't know that about the later pre-amps, they may well have a better s/n ratio too.

[quote name='acidbass' post='227533' date='Jun 26 2008, 05:53 PM']Interesting idea! Can you still get the trademark MM sound out of it though?[/quote] If you add in the top end at the amp or in the mix it sounds the same.

My pickup has no dummy coil. I disconnected the input and output of the pre-amp and connected the selector switch to the volume. [quote name='obbm' post='227466' date='Jun 26 2008, 03:57 PM']Just out of interest which wire did you intercept and what coil mode is it in?[/quote]

I just bypassed the pre-amp on my musicman to see what it would sound like. The surprising thing was that it had more output with no pre-amp. The pre-amp just seems to add loads of top end and hiss, so I'm just going to leave it without the pre-amp connected. I've tried bartolini and aguilar pre-amps and they are quieter but they still added a bit of hiss. Now I've got no eq on the bass so I tilted the pickup to get a bit more bass response and I'm really happy with the result. I should have tried it years ago, never mind messing around with pre-amps. If you're wondering how to get less hiss, it's worth checking out, the best way would be to get a bass tech to install an active/ passive pull/push switch volume control, although it wouldn't work so well with low output pickups. (I just found out from obbm that this wouldn't work on MM basses made after 91. The pickups have an extra hum canceling coil so they would need a balanced input to work.)

I just bypassed the musicman pre-amp to see what it would sound like before installing a switch. The surprising thing was more output with no pre-amp and no hiss at all. The pre-amp set flat just seems to add loads of top end and hiss, so I'm just going to leave it without the pre-amp connected. I'll have no onboard eq but the output is louder, quieter, less trebly and I won't need any batteries.

My bass is a late 80's ernie ball stingray 5 so the pole pieces aren't staggered. [quote name='ahpook' post='225245' date='Jun 23 2008, 06:49 PM']are the pole pieces on the pickup staggered ? just curious...they are on my sabre[/quote]

I just removed two of the springs underneath the humbucker on my musicman to lower it on the bridge side. This produced more bottom end and less high mid which was a great improvement in the tone to my ears. If you want to give it a try, just angle your pickup without removing any springs as that only makes a couple of mm difference.

I am thinking of installing an active passive switch into my ernie ball musicman 5. There are a few reasons for this. I would like to be able to use the pickup without the onboard preamp for a different recording tone with less noise. I really like the tone of the mm preamp but it is quite noisy. The preamp is on when a lead is plugged into the jack socket of the bass so I would like to be able to leave the bass plugged in while not draining the battery. I reckon a DPDT switch with one side switching the + preamp out/pickup to volume and the other side connect/disconnect battery ground should do it. That would leave the + signal wire from the pickup connected to the preamp input in passive mode which should be OK. Does that sound like it would work? Does anyone have a better wiring diagram for this that takes the preamp out completely and disconnects the battery in passive mode?

I bought a second hand fretless Wal in the 80s, which I soon discovered had a very uneven fingerboard. At the time I was playing slap bass on a lot of funk tunes on the fretless, but realised I would be better off with fretted neck. I phoned up Ian at Wal and asked if he would replace the neck with a fretted if I sent it to him. He only charged me £80, which just goes to show what a great bloke he was. The Wal was beautifully made and a great bass to play, but after a couple of years I stared comparing it to some other basses and sold it to buy an old musicman. So that's one less fretless out there (or maybe not if that neck ever got a new fingerboard)

Thanks for the reply Dave That sounds like a good solution, I'd be interested to hear a VTX sound clip if you could get one on your site. Even one note clean followed by through the preamp would be great to hear what it does to the tone. cheers dub [quote name='DHA' post='210182' date='May 31 2008, 05:10 PM']I really do believe the only way to get the tone you want is with an output transformer and output valves. Some digital effects try but don't get there IMHO. We have our VTX range which is available in a pre-amp version which we believe generates this tone.[/quote]

Hi Dave I used to own an ampeg V4 but I got tired of carrying it around a long time ago and sold it. It did have a certain tone about it that I really liked. Not so much the distortion which it did well at high volume, more the slightly woolly compressed tone at reasonable level that I would like to recreate both for recording and live. My experience of valve preamps is that although I like what some preamp valves do, they usually add more high end harmonics to the tone which is not really what I'm looking for. Some of the more recent digital effects come pretty close. The problem with the digital stuff is the slight delay although this is getting better these days. I am aware that the output transformer of a valve amp might part of what creates the tone that I am looking for but is it possible to simulate this using a small light box?

I've wanted to try out the elixirs sometime, but hopefully it will be along time till the DRs start wearing out. Has anyone had a chance to compare coated DRs and elixirs? What are the differences in tone? I've done my fair share of string boiling over the years. Just add an onion to what's left in the pan to make an great soup when times are hard.

Up till recently I was thinking that my musicman didn't sound as good as it used to and I was finding there was far too much string noise, especially when I was recording. I have used a few different makes strings but mainly D'Addario xls for years and had bought a set of elites as I needed some new strings in a hurry for a gig and that was all I could get and they sounded pretty good for a while. I just bought some DR silver stars which seemed kind of expensive but I wanted to try something different. They are a massive improvement on the elites to my ears and I have no problem with too much string noise now. They have a deep, dark tone relative to other strings. I'll be interested to see how long they keep their tone. The DRs might not suit everyone, especially if you want a really bright tone but if you're not totally happy with your bass tone I would recommend trying out some different makes of string to your usual ones. It might take a while to find the right ones for your bass but it might be a lot cheaper than buying a new bass or amp! On the cheaper end of the scale try the nickel bass strings from the bulk strings section at www.juststrings.com they are pretty good for the price.

Try using a cotton bud to remove the dirt and rust after squirting on the servisol. If it's still a bit dodgy see if you can get at the jack input without disconnecting any wires (unscrew the plate if you need to) give it another clean and carefully bend the contact a little so it will make a firmer connection when the jack is in.

Thats all good advice about starting with the eq flat on everything. Something that's worth doing, is comparing the sound of the eq on your bass with the eq on the amp. Turning down the tone control (low pass filter) on a passive bass can be really useful for cutting too much string click or getting a dubby double bass like tone. If you have active electronics on the bass, turn the bass control half way up to see how it sounds, then set it flat and compare it to turning up the same control on the amp by the same amount. Do the same with the other controls and use whichever you like best. I found that I preferred the sound of the low end turned up on my bass with a tiny bit of mid cut. One thing to look out for, if you like a lot of bass and turn it up on both the bass and the amp, this can produce high levels of infrasonics (below hearing range) which can actually result in less audible low end and make your speakers crack up. A high-pass filter can be really useful to help this, (there's a variable one in the fishman platinum DI that works well). I used to turn up the bass control full on everything and wonder why my speakers were distorting so easily, till I figured this out.