cameltoe

I wondered about this with my MIM precision, as I heard it can also give a bass more thump, as the full weight of the wood is behind the strings, if you will. I was quoted £100 by a local luthier and while I thought that was quite good, I decided against as I figured I could get replacement pickups and bridge for that price. I also figured it's probably better to leave the mexican as a mexican, as in time i'll probably get an American Precision.

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='754995' date='Feb 23 2010, 01:38 PM']I'm very happy with my Thumper.[/quote] That's good to know. The description of the pickup sounds what I'm after, but I think sometimes Pickup manufacturers have just as hard a time describing the sound the pickup will give, as I have describing what I want it to do. Did you upgrade the pots and wiring with it?

This is what it says on the Cort website about the C4H pickups: MBA4( B )-Alnico (F/R) No idea whether that means series or parallel. I'm also a bit chuffed off to realise both humbuckers are exactly the same. I had an inkling they were, seeing as I got the same sound but 'twangier' when I switched to the bridge pickup.

Ok guys good advice! I was always skeptical how much difference a bridge would make but sooooo many people seem to change them.... plus the Badasses sell so well new, second hand, etc etc. I'm (usually) pretty good at changing my strings regularly, but because it's such a gradual thing with bass strings I often go a few weeks longer than I should. Worn strings kinda creep up on me by surprise! Going to be going down the Wizard Thumper route by the looks of it too, so hopefully that'll add some colour to the sound.

Cheers for the help guys, I think I'll end up giving wizard a call. The series/parallel thing is definitely something I'm gonna look into though. I thought twin humbuckers would give me all the punch and depth I needed, but it hasn't worked out like that. With my precision, I need to EQ to make it sound clearer and less 'big' at gigs- this I need to EQ to make it sound fuller and more 'big', if that makes sense. Cheers

Are there any recommended bridge conversions for a precision that don't cost a lot? I can see a lot of cheap replacement bridges on eBay, but I've no idea what's good and what's chaff. I play with my fingers mainly, so ideally I'd like a bit more attack. The badass bridge has sharp angled saddles which it claims increases attack and tone, and that sounds like what I'm after, but they're £80-odd if you can find them. I had heard Gotoh mentioned, but really there's that many £10-15 bridges on eBay I'm hoping I can find something to do the job on the cheap. I would like a bit more mass in the bridge, as it's Mexican hence thru bridge stringing, and (if I listen to Leo quan) I guess I'm after a sharper surface for the strings than the rounded barrels of the fender bridge. Any suggestions? Cheers!

[quote name='7string' post='745447' date='Feb 15 2010, 12:47 AM']Try [url="http://www.wizardpickups.co.uk"]Wizard Pickups[/url] They've have a good reputation and they'll custom wind something to suit your needs if necessary. Prices are great as well. Definitely worth a phone call.[/quote] Nice one, I'll try them out. There don't seem to be a lot of aftermarket relacement pickups out there. I see Seymour Duncan and EMG do replacements, but they keep banging on about recreating the 'original musicman tone'. That might be a good thing, but it might not! Like I said, I don't really know what a musicman sounds like. I know I don't like my bass to lack low-end punch, and this one does. Sounds very thin.

I recently got myself a Cort Artisan C4H, and while I'm very happy with the way the bass feels and plays, I'm not overly keen on the way it sounds. It has two Musicman style humbuckers, so they should be easy enough to replace, but the question is, with what? The problem with the Cort is that it sounds way too 'middy' for me. With either pickup, or even both on together, I can't escape the strong high mids. I can fiddle with the EQ on the amp, and the bass/treble EQ on the guitar, but still it's the high mids that cut through. This bass also has active/passive switching, and while that's a great feature, it kinda just allows me to switch between really middy, and a bit cleaner really middy. I've no idea if this is Cort's attempt to replicate the sound of a Musicman, I've never played one so I'm not too sure how they sound, but I remember being told in the past that they can have strong high mids. My regular gigging bass is a Mexican P, and I love the way that sounds. While I don't want to replicate the sound of a precision, as I don't want two guitars that sound alike, it's the punchyness of the P that the cort really lacks. I could do with clearer, tighter lows, with nice low mids, way less high mids, and nice bright trebles but nothing too twangy. I know I'm kinda describing a P! I'd honestly like it to sound different to a precision, but I've got to get it sounding better, I'm just unsure which way to go with it. I don't mind it being a bit more middy than the precision, so I can get a bit clearer note definition, to then use it to gig at places where the precision can sound a little wooly, but at the moment it's really lacking some growl and thump, whereas the high mids are off the chart. It's not easy reading descriptions of pickups either, most Seymour Duncan ones all get described the same way on their website.

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='743945' date='Feb 13 2010, 01:13 PM']If i had my fretless here i could check for ya as i have a mighty mite neck on that and an Aria STB Jazz here, unfortunately it's at my tech's house being upgraded at the moment. If i get it back soon i'll let ya know! I replaced the pickguard recently with a generic one and only needed to do a little filing if that's any help They're really nice basses IMO, i love the neck on mine![/quote] I take it the mighty mite's are all standard Fender measurements? I know some copies of guitars are quite close to the real things in terms of measurements, and some are way off. No idea which category the Aria falls into. Should make a good bass with a decent neck. Pickups sound quite good but a bit low output.

Before I spend my hard earned on a neck for my project I better check it will fit. The original guitar is an Aria STB Jbass, body from solid Alder, so seemed like a good place to start. Have tracked down a Mighty Mite neck from a seller on here, any ideas if it will fit? Are the Aria's made to Fender measurements? Cheers if you can help.

I checked out the Fender SubLime, and that seems quite close to what I'm looking for. I've got a EHX double MUFF, but it's way too sharp to me and seems more of a distortion that a fuzz. I've used a standard Big Muff, the black one, and it didn't seem to quite cut through enough, It sounded OK on it's own but once the band was playing it kinda disappeared. I'm yet to try a bass big muff. What do you have silent fly?

Cheers guys, I'll check out all your recommendations. Glad you understood what I was on about, sometimes hard to describe 'noise'!

Hi guys, wanted your opinions on a suitable pedal to give me a really rich, creamy thick fuzz. I don't want anything too sharp really, I've used overdrive pedals before that have sounded more like distortion, and fuzz pedals that have sounded like overdrive pedals. What I really want, is a big thick sound, with a bit of a lazy fuzz feel to it, if that makes any sense at all! At the moment I get by using a Cool Cat fuzz (danelectro pedals always seem to work well with bass) coupled with a nobels Bass OD pedal, and the tone pot on my precision rolled halfway back. I don't crank the drive on the OD, i just use the DEEP switch to get the full bodied sound. So ideally i'm after a bit of an old-school, soft fuzz feel, nothing too sharp or queens-of-the-stone-age esque, but with alot of depth and maybe a bit of punch. cheers if you can recommended something!

[quote name='bassmachine2112' post='602710' date='Sep 19 2009, 08:43 AM']hiho,this might sound daft but you seem to be happy with your p-bass and your forever havin to eq your amp. Might I suggest that 300 quid might be better spent on gettin a good amp set up ?.Just a thought ,it can make a serious difference.A good pre amp can be a good investment as well. I,m goin to get shot down in flames here but here goes,try a behringer bdi21 s/h they are cheap and if you don,t like it not much lost but will transform your sound and if you like the direction it,s going then sansamp,hartke bass attack,mxr di80 and others are worth considering and you can use them as a DI box for PA and recording.You also have the option of goin ampless through a PA,no more heavy lifting. I know it will not satisfy the GAS but worth considering.[/quote] you have a point, but I already have 3 amplifiers, a 100w Ampeg, 200w AC EURO (the one that doesn't sound great) and the 350w Hartke. For most gigs, I use the AC. Pubs round here are small, and space is usually at a premium so it doesn't make sense to lug the big Hartke around unless I really need to. Having said that, it could be that most of the reason behind me not liking the feel of the AC comes from the single 15" speaker. Looking around, alot of similar amps use a similar set up, so I may be no better off. In hindsight, I should never have bought the Hartke combo and instead gone for a decent amp head and a 4x10 cab and a seperate 2x8/10 cab, then I could just switch speakers for the bigger gigs. The reason I'm focusing mostly on another bass, is because my P bass is my only bass. I don't have a spare, none of the guys in the band have one I can use, so if something were to go wrong at any point I'd be properly stuck. At the mo I'm gigging at least once a week, 3 times last week, and I wouldn't have time to sort anything before the next gig came along. On top of that, I really haven't played many basses, so I'm still at a stage where I don't actually know what I like and dislike, I'm just judging it on whether it feels weird or not. I read an awesome review of a peavey zodiac bxp in some guitar magazine, and as well as the millenium coming highly recommended looks like that's where the safe money could go. Although I'm still taken by the cort. Cort basses, anyone? I don't know much about them but I think I remember them being fairly well regarded.

Love the look of the Cort C4H. Can't seem to find anywhere that offers it with finance though.

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='602475' date='Sep 18 2009, 07:30 PM']Well active is like the sound of the ESP, lot of treble and definition, although i'm surprised you couldn't get enough low end and/or punch out of it because generally you also get that with an active curcit too. Maybe you could have turned the bass up and the treble down on the EQ?[/quote] I played with it quite a bit if i'm honest, and although there was no lack of low end if I needed it, it never felt quite as punchy as the P bass, and yeah, it all sounded a bit hi fi for me. I'm up for any suggestions, and I'm pleased how many people are recommending the Squier's. Any word on the Ibanez's? Oh and I will have to buy this bass new, as it's a finance job, so 80's ebay bargains are no good

Cheers.... Yeah I looked at the VM Jazz before, really like the look of that. Never got to try one out though. As far as the Yamaha's go, I've heard some really good stuff about their instruments, although for me, it's still a bit tainted with the stigma of Yamaha being 'school instruments' so to speak. I'd like to know more about the Ibanez SRX series (no idea what the differences are between the 360, 430 or any of that nonsense), and also more about the ATK series I've seen. The ATK's look really nice, but I'm a bit put off by the whole 'massive body and neck' description. I really don't want a behemoth of a bass, plus it's really pushing my budget. As for the SRX's, those big humbuckers look awesome, and I keep hearing the words 'big sound' and 'punchy' in their descriptions, so i'm also considering these options. Ideally, I want to get a bass I can get a decent sound of out my smaller (200w 1x15") amp with, as I'm forever EQ'ing it to get what I need, which I rarely do. As for passive or active, i'm still none the wiser. My mate swears by Washburn for all his stuff (although he's never played bass), and I love the look of the T24.

I posted on here a while back about wanting to get a second bass, around the £300 mark, to go with my P bass. So- first things first- I'm in a regularly gigging band, it's a folk/rock type affair, similar in feel to bands like dropkick murphys, flogging molly etc, and as such I like to get a nice punchy feel from my bass (which is why I went for a P bass in the first place), with clear tight low-end and a not-too-bright top end. But- it's my only bass. So, wanting to take advantage of the governments interest free credit 'take it away' scheme, I thought I'd reinvest the £40 a month I recently re-aquired after I finished paying my TV off, and use it to buy a spare bass. I've only had 3 basses my entire life, an Epiphone EB-0 (sounded ok, nice meaty bottom but not really enough note definition) Esp LTD B-405 (sounded OK, but a little Hi-Fi for my taste. not enough punchy power- was a bass you heard rather than felt, and I want both!) and my current Mexican P bass (which I love, if I can get the EQ right. Love it when I get that tight, punchy low end, but can sometimes sound a little dull, and sometimes not enough definition and clarity in the bottom end). I've also had the use of a older rickenbacker 4003 (didn't like the sound of that, just always sounded wooly or twangy to me). Thats all the experience I have of bass guitars. So.....I don't know if or why i'd need a passive or active, (I know the difference, but I don't know the difference it makes to the tone of the bass) , what bass I can get for the money, which brands to avoid, whether I need it to be thru-body or bridge stringing, or anything that will make a difference to trying to get a bass I like the sound of. Trying a load out isn't the answer- 1) I live in cornwall, and as such we have very limited access to music shops. There are really good ones near us, but they mostly stock Squiers and random second hand basses, as well as Ibanez entry-level stuff. 2) How good it's sounds in a music shop, will not reflect how good it will be playing in a full pub with the rest of the band, going through either a 350w 4x10 Hartke, or my 200w 1x15 AC EURO amp. So really all I can do is take a punt. I need a bass that I like the look of, that has 4 strings not 5 (couldn't get on with them on the LTD) and is easy to play like my P bass. That I can get a nice defined, punchy low end, can hear all the notes clearly and doesn't sound too dull but also doesn't sound too thin or Hi-fi. That can go through both my amps and I can get a good tone from. If it makes a difference, I far prefer the sound of my P bass through the Hartke than the AC EURO. For me, the AC makes the note definition too dull, and the bottom end always sounds too flabby. Make any sense at all? I've just had a drink.... Cheers if you can throw any suggestions my way! Oh and yeah I know that strings make a big difference- I usually like the sound of nickels, especially fender 7250's and the D'addario ones

right I'm getting a good groove going when I try both using my hand like a hitchhikers, using the pick up as a bit of an anchor, and using the E as an anchor on the other strings. I can also get a good rhythm going using the A as an anchor when playing the D and G. I have to decide which to go after now, as I feel comfy with them both but obviously need to stick to one to practice. Is there any advantage of moving to the A as an anchor when plucking D and G or is it just more faffing which will eventually slow you down?

Its finding a decent anchor I'm really struggling with. My pickups were quite low- I've wound them out a touch to see if I can use them as an anchor- not too sure yet. My gig on Friday was weird. I've now highlighted the problem, so all night I was struggling with making anything feel comfortable with my right hand. Should I have my thumb anchored to the side of my fingers- i.e, like a hitchikers thumb laid flat- or should I have my thumb underneath my fingers like a kind of weird claw shape- as if i was controling a puppet, so to speak! It all feels weird at the moment. Plus I think I may need to invest in a thumb rest to use as an anchor but I don't want to mutilate my bass before I know what will feel comfy in the long run

nice advice, cheers guys. There is alot of tension in my hand, and it happens more and more the more challenging the song is. I could play them with a pick, no problem, but using the fingers gives alot better control, when you can do it right, of course! Curling the knuckles like that comes from finger picking on my guitar, i've just taken the technique I use there and applied it to bass. Maybe I need a better anchor! I've only been using the very top of the neck on my p bass, just that little small bit of the fret board that juts out, then using the A string when I need to move down. I'll see if I can use the pick up if not I guess I could buy one of those thumb rests and put it exactly where it feels comfortable. It's the relaxed hand issue thats getting me! Can't get my head round it! How do you get any sound out of the bass? Getting the bass to lock in with the drums on 'Symapthy for the Devil' is the one I always get stuck on at gigs. I mean, I do OK, but it could be alot better. Like I said, the tension in my right hand with the curling fingers makes it feel like the strings are sticking almost.

Well i'm fairly new to bass anyway, and for the first year or so I used a pick. Since I bought my P bass though I have been using a 2 finger technique (which I might progress to 3) which has served me well. However, on faster tempo songs something isn't quite right, I can't get my fingers to move as quickly as I need them to do, and I'm convinced it's because i'm curling the fingers too much. My fingers feel like they're almost 'sticking' on the strings sometimes, yet whenever I try and straighten my fingers a bit I find I either have very little accuracy or i can't attack the strings enough. I've been looking at right hand techniques on youtube, etc, and it almost seems like I hit the strings with too much tension in my fingers whereas the correct way is a bit looser. I need someone to explain to me the dynamnics of playing like this. I can see what I'm supposed to do, but I can't make it happen. pic:[attachment=28076:15_1.jpg]

anyone?? tried it out t'other night and it has alot of balls for a little(ish) amp. Volume was close to max, but it had so much depth in the sound, plus the EQ seemed to really work well in shaping the sound.