Baloney Balderdash

For the past 15 years or so I have exclusively played short scale basses, and the last 9 years or so an 28,6" scale Ibanez Mikro Bass have been my main, but for the first 10 years or so playing bass I used my first bass ever the Aria Pro II Laser Electric Classic as my main bass. I even back then bought a Rickenbacker at some point, but only played it for short while before going back to the Aria, I hated how the Rickenbacker felt and I didn't care much for it's tone either, think I played it for a couple of months at band rehearsals, recorded the band I was in's second demo tape and did one gig with it, then that Rickenbacker spend a long while just laying in a case under a sofa in the rehearsal space until it got stolen, I didn't miss it one bit, but for the money I could have gotten from a resale. Anyway story is that I a few years back after the Aria Pro II had just stood in a corner for years decided to restring it with thinner strings, max the saddles out and tune it in an open tuning, to use as a sort of 4 string baritone slide guitar, and I actually did have some great use of that adding an unique touch to some of the tracks I created, but then one day I got the "brilliant" idea of gutting it for it's preamp ( ), which doubles as a HPF/LPF, and turn it into a pedal, however I ended up getting completely lost in the wiring and since the Aria Pro spend a couple of years just sitting in a corner again, that is until today, where I decided to just wire the pickups back in passively, as O still have no idea of how to reinstall that original preamp, just with the original 3 way pickup selector and the original master volume pot. So when I went to plug it in to check if I had wired it correctly it all came back, wouh, just felt so nice and familiar to play on, and even though the saddles was still raised insanely high and it still was equipped with the "baritone slide guitar" strings in the corresponding higher open baritone tuning, it felt awesomely inspiring to play, and I jammed for about half an hour or so, spitting out awesome improvised bass riffs and grooves, like finally coming home. I always kind of shook my head when people talked about how only 34" scale basses sounded and felt like real basses to them, but man, now I realize what they mean. Even with the totally wrong strings and tuning and insanely high action for the first time in years I played bass tonight and not 4 string low tuned baritone guitar. Though I do realize it being my first bass and main for years when I first started to play bass might bias my view strongly. Anyway, I need to order a set of long scale bass strings as soon as possible so I can have it set up and play it properly. Can't wait. Here it is, the most recent picture I got of it, from before I gutted it, but after having converted it to a "baritone slide guitar" (and yes, I am aware that the strings are wrapped the wrong way around the tuning pegs, something that was since corrected) : And here it is in action, back when it was still my main, at a gig with the noise rock and hardcore influenced math rock band "Menfolk" that I was playing in at the time :

Thank you for that suggestion, will try it. Really hope it will lead to a conclusion of this mystery, cause, as you said, it's extremely frustrating. Kind of pondering if it could possibly be either my Zoom G1Xon, that I use for reverb effects, as I seem to recall the problems only started to occur after I added that to my setup, or perhaps some weird interaction from having most of my pedals daisy chained (even if all my digital pedals are either powered by separate power supplies or in a separate daisy chain).

They should be attached the right way, the side where they are naturally attracted to the pickup vs. the side where they are repelled, made sure they did, so not sure what is wrong. Anyway I really like the tone I get with my DiMarzio Model P pickup, and as I wrote in my update I actually doubt my tone changing issue stems from the pickup, so I will install the Model P pickup in my bass again and then go through my pedals once again, this time starting with just one pedal and keeping it like that for a while, to see if the changes occur, and then proceed that way, slowly adding pedals until the tone changes happens, that way hopefully pin pointing which are causing the issue. I also took the opportunity to shield the Model P pickup, which is quite noisy when not touching the bridge (or other metal parts), unlike the Geezer, which is dead quiet, even without the bridge ground connection, cause it is shielded internally and got shielded wiring (sort of a braided net of thin metal threads surrounding the insulated lead wire) as well from stock, having added a strip of conductive copper shielding tape covering the bottom of the two halves of the Model P pickup, making sure the tape touches the underside of the pole pieces too, and then cut off the thin un-shielded wires that the pickup comes with from stock and instead attached shielded wires, with the shield being soldered to the copper tape and connected to the ground, which I hope will give a, at least approximately, noise free result, similar to the Geezer.

Espers, one of the best songs ever made :

I am playing with headphones, and I have used both a microphone preamp and a mixer, and changes cables from a jack cable to an xlr cable between the two from my bass preamp, the random tone changes happens in every of those combinations, The headphones and headphone preamp seems to work flawlessly when not used with my bass and bass setup and the tone changes started to happen back when I was using another bass preamp as well.

@Acebassmusic It's a DiMarzio Model P P pickup wired directly to the output jack socket, not much that could go wrong, especially not when I have already completely re-soldered it once in an attempt to fix the issue, as I wrote in my OP. As I also wrote I even installed a new barrel input jack socket, but to no avail either. I also have tried wiggling the cable jack at the bass output socket, pulling it in and out, tapping the pickups hard, and shaking and punching my bass, to see if I could trigger a tone change, but with no effect. It really seems to happen totally at random, and as said pretty radical changes, not just loss of tone, but seemingly boosting and cutting of random frequencies. I realize this points at my digital Zoom effect that I use exclusively as an equalizer unit, but as said I have already ruled that out, the changes happens anyway (though naturally sounding slightly different), and it being 5 bands just boosted 1 to 2 dB at max you wouldn't think it made that radically a change anyway, and beside the changes started to happen even before I started to use that Zoom effect in my setup.

I have struggled for quite a while with my tone changing from time to time I plugged my bass in, sometimes while it was plugged in as well, and sometimes quite radically, and after having tried to source down the problem, changing instrument and patch cables, leaving out effects one by one to determine if they were the source to the problem. I am at a loss. No idea what causes the issues with the tone of bass changing randomly with random intervals. Sometimes it will stay good for a longer period, and I can turn my setup on and off and come back to it and it will still sound good, other times it will change several time while I practice, but usually the change happens after turning my setup off and coming back to it later. Sometimes there is way too much bass and subdued highs, other times it has piercing high end without much bass, sometimes it is just perfect, snappy and punchy, but well balanced, and other times it is thin and dull. A huge mystery to me what could possibly cause this, especially since I think I've been through all the usual suspects, as said, cables, pedals, as said even changed the barrel jack input socket on my bass for a new one and completely re-soldered the pickups, heck I even experimented with how I power my pedals, but to no avail. What really puzzles me though is that it will randomly change between several different kind of tones, and that sometimes it will sound awesome or only require minor EQ re-adjustments to do so, while other times it will sound absolutely horrible, and just about everything in between those two extremes. Anyone got any ideas what could possibly cause this?

Update!!! Huge failure! The Geezer P for some reason had even less output than usual, and the tone was really thin and anemic. . And no it wasn't because the magnet field choked the strings, as said it weren't stronger than on the Model P pickup, and the sustain was actually fine. Also I am not even that sure it's the Model P pickup that is the cause to my issue, doesn't seem like it would be the sort of issue you would get from a faulty pickup. I am at a loss. No idea what causes the issues with the tone of bass changing randomly with random intervals, sometimes quite radical changes even. Sometimes it will stay good for a longer period, and I can turn my setup on and off and come back to it and it will still sound good, other times it will change several time while I practice, but usually the change happens after turning my setup off and coming back to it later. Sometimes there is way too much bass and subdued highs, other times it has piercing high end without much bass, sometimes it is just perfect, snappy and punchy, but well balanced, and other times it is thin and dull. A huge mystery to me what could possibly cause this, especially since I think I've been through the usual suspects, cables, pedals, as said even changed the barrel jack input socket on my bass for a new one and completely re-soldered the pickups, heck I even experimented with how I power my pedals, but to no avail. What really puzzles me though is that it will randomly change between several different kind of tones, and that sometimes it will sound awesome or only require minor EQ re-adjustments to do so, while other times it will sound absolutely horrible, and just about everything in between those two extremes. Anyone got any ideas what could possibly cause this?

I use an always on 1 octave up effect from my TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini for a bass/vocals and drums duo I got with a drummer friend of mine, the Sub'N'Up in my opinion got the most natural sounding octave up effect on the entire market of octavers (though pitching up a whole octave will always sound somewhat artificial), using the default polyphonic octaver Toneprint template, though to get it perfect you will need to play with the EQ option the Toneprint editor offers you, also got as good as perfect tracking and a pretty insignificant latency. This will give an effect similar to that of an 8 string bass, with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings and fill out a lot of sonic space. If you decide to go for my recommendation just PM me and I will mail you the settings I use, which I personal think sounds remarkably natural without any obvious odd digital artifacts (will still sound artificial isolated, but as said that is inevitable with this kind of effect, and mixed with your regular uneffected bass signal, and especially in the band mix, you won't hear that at all).

The trussrod really shouldn't offer much resistance either way except for at it's maximum travel length, also you don't adjust the action with the trussrod, you do that by adjusting the height of the saddles, down by the bridge, the trussrod is used to adjust neck relief, as in how much the neck bends (usually you would want it to bend just ever so slightly forward to give the strings more space to vibrate). And the trussrod in an Ibanez GSRM20 have a 1 way trussrod to clear that out for you as well.

After having struggled for quite a while with my tone changing from time to time I plugged my bass in, sometimes while it was plugged in as well, and sometimes quite radically, and after having tried to source down the problem, changing instrument and patch cables, leaving out effects one by one to determine if they were the source to the problem, and even installing a new barrel jack plug in my bass and completely re-soldering the DiMarzio Model P pickup that I have currently installed in it, I came to the conclusion that the issue unfortunately have to stem from some fault with the pickup it self. So as I don't have enough knowledge and skills to be able to source the issue down further and even less fix it, and that I don't have the money right now to buy me a new Model P P pickup, I decided to conduct an experiment with adding a neodymium bar pickup right down under the pole pieces of each of my EMG Geezer Butler P pickup's two halves (that is on the bottom side of the pickup plastic enclosures, since these pickups are completely sealed), hoping to make it as hot, aggressive and hopefully overall more similar feel and tone-wise to the Model P pickup, the Model P being wound to have just ever so slightly higher DC resistance than the Geezer, but with a much stronger magnetic field from it's ceramics pickups than the Geezer's Alnico V magnets have. I haven't actually installed the modified Geezer P in my bass yet, but testing the magnetic pull with a piece of iron against the pole pieces of respectively the Model P and the Geezer P it seems that they now are very similar in magnetic strength, and with the neodymium allegedly supposed to have tonal characteristics to what some describe as ceramic magnets on steroids I hope that the combination of the stock Alnico V and the added neodymium magnets in the modded Geezer P has resulted in it becoming at least somewhat in the ballpark of the Model P in terms of feel and tone. I will update this thread with a summarize of how the experiment actually went when I have installed the modded Geezer P and tested it out, and I'll try to get an audio clip recorded that I'll then post a link to as well (even if I guess it would have made more sense with an actual before and after clip). Anyway this is how it looks (having used hot glue to attach the added magnets, that way making them fairly easy to remove again if the experiment turns out to be a failure or that I at some point would want the standard Geezer P tone) :

A bit pretentious though, especially considering it by far most likely is actually a budget instrument. Kind of like a now bankrupt and closed big Danish music gear chain that had a series of budget musical instruments and music gear called "Supreme" (kind of like how Thomann got Harley Benton). The Supreme tube condenser mic that I bought from them though is no short of amazing though, and has served me well for 18 years or something in that ballpark, it actually even wasn't exactly that cheap, but compared to other tube condenser microphones on the market it would still be considered budget. But yeah, "Shite", "Mediocre" and "Wannabee" are probably brand names you'd want to avoid regardless of what business you are running or what you are trying to sell.

If you are just interested in comparing it's output to other of your basses you could simply record the different basses if you got a DAW installed on your computer and a sound interface, just using the same settings on whatever gear you eventual use between the bass and sound interface (like a preamp, EQ e.t.c), and playing the exact same with about an equal amount of force behind your picking on the different basses you want to compare, that way you would get both a dB measurement of the difference between the output of your different basses and you would get a visual idea of it by comparing the graphic representations of the recorded bass signals in your DAW.

Dial in more mids on your amp's EQ, if it's a more general issue. Or get a clean boost pedal you can kick in and out as you desire, if it is a question of your bass drowning because the guitars actually gets louder in some parts of the songs you play (typically distorted parts, where setting the volume of the distortion higher is part of what makes up the song's dynamics).

Nothing Left to Die (by Jex Thoth)

I love my 28,6" scale Ibanez Mikro Basses. I got a both a 4 string Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass, which is actually my main bass, and a 5 string GSRM25 Mikro Bass. Both has as good as perfect fretwork from the factory and the neck on my 4 string Mikro is the most syable neck I ever had on any bass or guitar. I've replaced the pickups on the 4 string with first a P/J set of EMG Geezer Butler pickups, and since with a just a DiMarzio Model P P pickup wired directly to the outpur jack socket and the J disconected, which is what is installed in it currently. The 2 J pickups on the 5 string though is the stock ones, and they sound right out horrible in my opinion, so need to have them replaced as some point, as well as I need to have a new nut cut for it to accommodate the fact that I tune it E (as in the low E of a 4 string) to C and the resulting thinner string gauge. Ponder on maybe having the J pickup cavities routed to take Thunderbird pickups so I can install 2 Gemini 5 string Devastator Thunderbird soapbar pickups in it instead. Sounds too horrible for me right now to really play, but as said it got as good as perfect fretwork and sounds good acoustically too, so I know it would be worth it. Here they are : First my main Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass (mahogany body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, DiMarzio Model P wired directly to output jack socket, J pickup disconnected and lowered, various visual mods) : And then my 5 string Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro Bass (poplar body, maple neck, jatoba fretboard, stock J pickups, various visual mods) :

Dead And Lovely (by Tom Waits)

There you go: https://www.thomann.de/gb/source_audio_sa_270_one_series_eq2.htm

Electro Harmonix has announced a new analog Vibrato and Chorus pedal they call Eddy : Here's the manual on EHX's homepage: https://www.ehx.com/products/eddy/instructions And here's a short article about it: https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/31134-electro-harmonix-introduces-the-eddy-analog-vibrato-and-chorus Looks really promising and the above article says that the street price will be just 99$ (equal to about 74£/600 Danish Kroner), about half of the price I thought it was going to cost after watching the video. I might need to get one of these. Judging from the video the vibrato sounds beautiful, but would like to hear a bit more of the chorus side, and ideally a demo of it on bass, before I decide to pull the trigger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Math_rock Basically progressive rock for hipsters.

You Set the Scene (by Love)

Beside my high gain distortion bass setup, which does have a somewhat fuzz-esque quality, consisting of a Joyo Orange Juice, which is an analog emulation of an Orange amp like overdrive, stacked into a Boss MT-2 Metal Zone mixed in parallel via my Boss LS-2 with a Mosky Black Rat, which is a Rat clone, in the Turbo Rat mode, stacked into a Joyo Orange Juice, and this, even if I realize that it might sound unnecessarily complicated and some might think why not replace it with 1 or 2 proper quality pedals, works absolutely spot on perfect for my high distortion tone, my "real" fuzz tone in my bass pedal effects setup is handled by a Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz, which is a pretty accurate Boss FZ-2 clone, which again was a take on the Univox Super Fuzz octave fuzz, and while this also actually works great I feel that there, unlike my high gain distortion setup, still would be room for improvements. But damn, just watched a demo of the Orange Fur Coat octave fuzz, with control over the switchable octave up, and man does it sound absolutely monster massively incredible sublime for bass. Might have to put a few bucks aside on my quite tight budget to get one of these to replace my Behringer Super Fuzz. So massively thick, with a monster crushing crunchy rasp to it, and with the capability to get quite spluttery too, while still retaining fairly good low end and overall definition. Here's a demo of it: The Behringer Super Fuzz is a great bass fuzz pedal, and not just for the money, but the Orange Fur Coat in my opinion still manage to beat it by miles. Might be the absolute best fuzz for bass I ever heard, judging from the above YouTube demo at least, and I am quite certain this would deliver the absolute spot on perfect fuzz tone for my bass pedal effects setup.