Baloney Balderdash

Final update (now with audio sample) : Original post : Just got my yearly revenue of streaming/playback money from my music production and it excelled all expectation, almost thought that it might had been a mistake. I am not complaining though. So I decided to use most of the money on musical gear, among that a 6 string bass, which is the Ibanez SR306EB in the weathered black finish. This is going to be my first 6 string bass, and I am really looking forward to get it. I am going to tune it in D standard tuning though (D - G - C - F - A# - D#), as in 2 half steps bellow regular E standard 4 string bass tuning, and I've ordered strings to accommodate that too. I'd imagine it will be very useful both for my progressive psychedlic stoner rock bass/vocal and drums duo that I have with a drummer friend of mine and for my drone/ambient solo project. Generally it gets really good reviews and the demos of it I have been able to find on YouTube sounds great too. Looks like this (Nyatoh body, 5 piece Maple/Walnut neck, 24 medium fret Jatoba fretboard, 54mm nut, 16.5mm string spacing) :

Well, that certainly got me reconsidering. Luckily my yearly revenue of streaming/playback money from my music production excels all expectations, just checked my bank account and got a minor shock of how much it was. Almost thought it might have been a mistake. Anyway that means that I can easily afford the Ibanez SR306EB, plus some other musical equipment I have been wanting for a long time, so I think I'd likely end up getting that Ibanez 6 string bass, in the weathered black finish with black hardware.

Don't use gorilla glue! Fill the hole with wood glue, then squeeze in as many wooden tooth sticks, matches, or similar thin wood sticks that will fit into the hole, as you can into the hole so they sit tight, break or cut them off at the surface of the hole and wipe off excess glue with a moist cloth, then screw the strap nut back in and let the glue dry (usually wood glue will take 24 hours to completely dry), this will with guarantee make the strap nut sit more securely in the bass than it even did before.

I Remember (by Low)

Another option is buying the Zoom B1 Four or G1 Four, and by staking 5 of the fully parametric equalizer models in a patch you get a 5 band fully parametric equalizer much much cheaper, and since it is just an EQ I wouldn't think there would really be much of a difference quality wise, at least not something you will be able to hear, not even with the bass soloed and specifically focusing on listening for differences. So if 5 EQ bands is enough for you and you don't need any of the other functions unique to the Source Audio I know what I would get, you could even program several 5 band parametric EQ patches with the Zoom and swap between them if you need different presets.

I consider getting the Harley Benton B-650 Progressive Series 6 string bass in black finish. Would be my first 6 string bass, though if I get it I will tune it in D standard tuning, as in the lowest string just being 2 half steps bellow regular E 4 string bass standard tuning. It gotten some great reviews and I like the fact that it got a more narrow fretboard than most other 6 string basses on the market (unless you go shortscale Fender Bass VI type instruments, but that is too narrow string spacing for my taste, and I actually want to go regular 34" scale too), with a just 51mm nut width and 16mm string spacing. Not too pretty though in my opinion, but honestly not something that really bothers me much :

Elevator to Hell :

Yes, exactly. The relation between scale length and a perceived tension (aka stiffness) is easy to understand intuitively though without much explanation, just think of a wooden stick laid out between two raised points (sort of like a simple bridge (not a string bridge but an actual bridge)), the longer the distance between the two points the stick rest on are the less force it will require to bend the stick on the middle (the less stiff it will be), which of course applies in reverse too, the closer the distance between the stick's two resting points are the harder it will be to bend (the stiffer it will be). In terms of strings on an instrument this translates to not only how easy a string will be to actually bend but also how much force is required to fret it, and just in general the overall perceived tension, which equals the actual physical stiffness, of the string (the two raised points here of course being respectively the nut and the bridge saddle, and the stick the string in question).

Honestly I like how it looks. Not that I would buy it though for that price, even if I had had that kind of money.

I have never been a big fan of basses and guitars with a blue finish, always though it looked kind a tacky and smarmy, but man I absolutely love that Midnight Blue finish. Absolutely gorgeous, might even prefer it to my otherwise number one favorite finish: matte black. I hope other companies will copy the Midnight Blue finish, cause the only Fenders I could imagine I'd ever might actually buy and own would be a Telecaster guitar, and that exact design might actually be one of the few I'd imagine that Midnight Blue wouldn't suit too well, and beside I'd love to own a bass in that finish, and that is definitely never going to happen with a Fender. And yes, definitely with black hardware and a very dark fingerboard.

I just played the bass again, still with the "baritone slide guitar" strings and tuning, through the ampless setup I made for my Ibanez Mikro bass, and just using the neck (really more like middle position) humbucker P like pickup (did some more research and it's not actual wound as a P, but like a full big soapbar humbucker (or slightly bigger actually), with 2 bar magnets, I think ceramic, though I can't find any information about it on the iinternet, on each side and the full length, just with the pole pieces setup like a P pickup), and it sounded absolutely amazingly awesome playing on the lowest string, tuned to C2 (3 half steps above the low A string on a four string bass tuned in E standard tuning), even if the strings on it is years old and already was used when they were installed and long gone completely dead. So think, at least in the first instance, will just ignore the bridge J like pickup, since the neck P like humbucker fits my tonal preferences so spot on perfectly, actually with some of the same qualities that I like with the DiMarzio Model P installed in my Mikro Bass, just much better, fuller, more articulated and defined (and mind this is with completely dead strings, unlike those on my Mikro), but about equally aggressive, and I think, though it is hard to judge with the strings being raised so insanely high, actually even higher output. I count on getting the D'Addario NYXL gauge .095 to .040 string set that I ordered with the mail service either Thursday or at latest Friday, if I am unlucky. Damn, really looking forward to be able to play it properly, can hardly wait. Seems Christmas will come early this year. These basses are absolutely astonishing quality for the totally ridiculously used prices they go for, and probably already was back when they were released for the price they asked from new. As said I might be biased since this was my very first bass ever, and main for about 10 years forward, but it beats the 3 1000$+ basses I've owned, admittedly with the exception of the Jerry Jones Longhorn, that one was a truly amazing bass too, and I regret much being stupid enough to sell it. I guess I should consider me lucky from way back having stepped on a jack plug that was plugged into my Aria Pro II, breaking a small hole in the thin layer of wood above the control cavity around the front mounted jack output socket, which naturally got ripped out as well in the process (miraculously no harm was done to the actual jack socket or the soldered on wiring), which I in usual impulsive haphazardly style fixed by super-gluing a cut out piece of a tobacco tin box lit and a piece from the lid of a plastic medicine glass together, and then after drilling a hole in the middle of this hack lo-tech patch, to be able to fit the jack socket in it, super-glued to the control cavity side of the hole, which I assumed would make the bass close to impossible to sell for an even remotely reasonable price, or else I by far most likely would have been stupid enough to part with that as well, and while my repair works absolutely perfectly, without any issues whatsoever, and even actually seems to be a quite resilient and sturdy solution (so far it has worked flawlessly for something like about 13 years or so), it isn't exactly pretty, to say the least, and is without doubt an absolutely haphazardly hack job, that just accidentally happened to turn out well as a workable lasting solution, despite the look of it and the unconventional hack job construction.

Was my first bass ever, and I just fell in love with it all over again. Rock solid quality. The neck is a 3 piece maple with the grain going the opposite direction in the center part, making it highly unlikely to ever warp or twist and extremely stable. Rosewood fretboard and ash body. Also sounds no short of awesome. One of the last Aria Pro II basses actually made in Japan, on the highly praised Matsumoku factory, before they moved the production to Korea. The used prices of these basses are absolutely ridiculously low compared to the quality you actually get.

I ordered a gauge .095 to .040 set of D'Addario NYXL strings, as I like low tension strings and a tone that leans towards the brighter end (even though they will still end up having more tension than the ones I use currently for my Mikro, but the longer scale length will help them not feel quite as stiff still), and as I was really impressed with the tone of the NYXL's I tried on my Mikro Bass, sort of a fuller, maybe with a bit more mids than usual XL strings, sort of more linear or in a way more hi-fi tone.

Well the Entwistle JBXN J pickup got screw pole pieces so if I go for that it should be possible, even if the pole distance turns out to be slightly different and doesn't fit the holes in the cover at least I will be able to raise the middle pole pieces according to the arc of the original pickup cover.

Found this doing a Google search on "Aria Pro II Replacement pickups" : https://www.rautiaguitars.net/aria-pro-ii.html The MM/MB-pickup seems promising and should fit perfectly in the bridge cavity.

My guess is that having the pickup rewound would end up costing more than buying a new one, but then again I never had this done, so I might be wrong in that assumption, also I would guess it would need a new magnet as well, as testing the magnetic pull on respectively the P like humbucker neck pickup and the bridge J like pickup in comparison the pole pieces on the J has a much weaker magnetic field. Finally I would rather want something that adds more snap and bite than something that tame down the humbucker neck, and as I said I don't really mind some space of the bridge pickup cavity eventual not being filled out completely by the new pickup at all. I appreciate your suggestion though. I didn't think of that, brilliant idea, thank you. That might actually turn out to be the best possible solution, if it is doable that is, haven't actually ever had the pickups out to have a look. Though the covers does have an arc, approximately following the fretboard radius, but I guess that technically will make no difference on whatever J pickup it might be possible to fit inside it anyway (except slightly limiting how close I can raise it towards the strings (the pole pieces of the stock bridge pickup, unlike the flushed pole pieces of the neck, are staggered and sticking out a bit)). In case this is actually possible I might consider either the Seymour Duncan STK-J2 Hot Stack Jazz Bass J pickup, or eventual, for a much cheaper solution, but one that seems to get a lot of praise on the internet, the Entwistle JBXN J pickup, utilizing neodymium magnets.

Thank you. Though personally I am not too fond of it's looks. I never really liked white basses, and don't quite understand why I chose to buy it back then, guess it was just the first and best used bass that fit my budget and felt nice to play, and frankly the metallic star stickers and green neon tape treatment that I, as an ironic statement ( ), added back when I was about 18 years old () doesn't exactly make it any better looking, to put it mildly. Add to that that time has not been too kind to the stickers and that it looks much worse than on that picture at the moment. But I can live with that, the way a bass plays, feels and sounds has always had way higher priority to me than looks, though if I ever pull myself together to do it I would love to strip off the paint and give it a matte black finish (I don't see that happening anytime soon though, if ever). However, before I install the new strings and set the bass up, as soon as I receive the strings I've ordered, I am going to give the body a good cleaning with a universal cleaning agent, water and a raspy sponge, and the fretboard with first a moist raspy sponge, and then a cloth with fretboard conditioner, cause it gathered a lot of dust and dirt since the picture in my OP was taken.

So as I wrote in another post last night I fell in love with my first bass ever and old main an Aria Pro II Laser Electric Classic last night. But while the neck/midle position pickup which is an about big soapbar size humbucker, I assume split coil reverse P like pickup judging from the pole pieces, has a quite high output, a nice fairly aggressive character and sounds amazing the bridge J type pickup sounds really weak, thin and anemic, so I am pondering on replacing it. However a regular J pickup won't fit into the cavity as the screw holes on this is at the ends of the length of the pickup, missing room for the screw hole ears on the side, though, except for missing the side screw hole ears, the cavity is slightly wider and longer than a regular J pickup cavity. To be exact the bridge pickup cavity is about 26.5mm (1.043") wide , 119mm (4.685") long, and the string spacing at the bridge pickup placement is about 16.5mm (0.65"). This as far as I have been able to conclude makes room for either a Tele bass type pickup, though the pole spacing of those will be way too close together for the actual string spacing of my bass at the bridge pickup cavity, or a Strat guitar pickup, which, to make sure it covers the strings, would have to be a blade style one, I have checked and the blade would typically be just about 60mm long, while the overall string span at the bridge pickup on my bass is just about 50mm (I don't actually care about some of the cavity being left not filled out by the pickup at all). So far having looked through Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio's offerings for blade Strat pickups, particularly judging from the DC Resistance/Output and tone profile information on the home pages, the DiMarzio DP182 Fast Track 2 blade humbucker Strat guitar pickup seems to be closest to the the kind of pickup I would be looking for, which is high output, pronounced mids and not too pronounced highs, but I am definitely open to other suggestions that'll fit those criteria and will fit the pickup cavity. So anyone got any suggestions to alternatives I should look into for this? Here's a pickture of the pickups in my Aria Pro II Laser Electric to give you a better idea :

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.