hooky_lowdown

Out of curiosity - what (affordable i.e below £100) P bass pups would people recommend for an aggressive, slightly vintage (not too modern) tone and growl?

If you go for a Epi EB0, go for MIK not a China made one. What sort of budget do you have? If you want a decent short scale bass, many around here rave about the Squier SS Jaguar bass, they can be picked up second hand between £100 - £140. The stock P pickup on these are pretty decent. Roll off the tone 70% on the P pickup and you'll have something similar sounding to the EB0. EB0 necks have painted/gloss necks, which when your hands get hot you may find the neck gets sticky and difficult to play. The Squier Jag has a satin neck, which won't get sticky if you have hot hands.

Thanks fretmeister - that's a cool video. I should say I primarily play with a pick. I'm not sure what the body of my cheapo P bass is made of but it's ultra light. Weights not much more than a hollow bodied Dano I used to own. The sound I get is closest to the USA 1977 from the vid, with tone at 100%.

I have a missing inlay black dot/marker on my maple P bass neck - not sure how I lost it, but I can't find it. Does anyone know where I can buy a replacement, I only need the one?

I have a preference for P basses, I've owned many, I might be alone here - but I find it interesting I can get some to growl and others don't, despite using the same D'Addario flatwound strings and setting up the basses roughly the same on every bass I've owned. Some growl and other haven't. Interestingly (for me atleast) I've had expensive P basses which growled - others didn't, and I've had cheapo P basses (most didn't growl), but now I have a super cheap P bass by a brand (Arrow) which I've never heard of before and is about 10 years old - but this thing growls brilliantly - it's totally stock with the exception of the strings. So I was wondering why some P basses growl, and others don't. Is it strings, pickups, necks - or a combo of all three?

Why not get a custom pickguard made for your BB300 - I guess it would be a lot cheaper than a BB800?

Maybe... but the Toneriders work so well with this bass, and neck is the nicest I've ever played. Plus, I can chuck it about and not worry.

What model Delano pickups are you using? I've heard good things about their pickups. Love the large poles.

Some of the old Jap stuff is solid gear. Glad you like your Aria - is it stock or did you add upgrades. Got any pics?

Has anyone heard of a brand called "Arrow"? I've never heard of them, but after a few modest upgrades it's now my main bass and believe my gas for my ideal bass is finally over (after 15 years)! I've owned lots of basses over the years... Fenders, Squires, Yammies, Ibanez, Burns, Dano's, Gibsons, Epiphones and many other cheap brands. My favourite bass has always been my Jap Fender Precision '62 Reissue from 2002, great neck and sounds awesome - but now my favourite bass is this cheap P bass knock off by "Arrow", which I got secondhand on fleabay. I think the bass was made in China around 2008, it has been well used and nicely broken-in. The bass is very light, made from some cheap softwood, and it dents very easily (which is not a problem for me). The white pickguard has naturally aged to cream. When I got the bass, I polished and crowned the frets, lowered the action (which is now very low), slapped on some used flatwound strings, and replace the cheap wiring and pickups with Toneriders, CTS pots and a switchcraft jack. Now the bass sounds monster. And the neck is the best I've ever played. I added a new chrome bridge cover because with the lightweight body it had some neck dive. The bridge cover looked too new - so remembering something I read somewhere about removing the shine of cheap chrome parts by using a scouring pad and some WD40. This worked great to remove the bright chrome and take it back to normal metal colour, I then put it in a box full of screws, nuts and bolts, gave it a good shake around - this gave the bridge cover a natural looking and subtle used look. Did the same with the chrome knobs. Very happy with this cheapo P knock off - but only with the upgrades. For around 120 notes for bass and all upgrades it more than rivals my '62 Reisssue. For Rock and Indie/Alternative music which I play, it sounds and plays so good.

I did see your post EliasMoosebaster. I've owned an Epi EB0, and to me the old Kay has a nicer neck to play, and is significantly lighter (probably less than half the weight of the Epi), plus the Kay didn't have the neck dive of the Epi either.

I'm interested in people's thoughts on something I've been thinking of doing. My first ever bass was an old Kay KB-1 (sg style) bass from the 70s. A cheap, nasty bass, but have fond memories. Liked the short scale neck, fast to play, was super lightweight - good for my back, and was generally a fun bass to play. Although the microphonic pickup sounded really bad. Anyway, I've been thinking of buying one from fleabay, putting a Dimarzio model one pickup into it, and changing the electrics. Then I'd have a fun, lightweight bass, which should sound pretty monster, right?

Still enjoying this bass. Made a few tweaks since my original review - brown tortoise shell pickguard, gave it a light road worn look (thanks to my garden wall and the handle of a screwdriver), added white pearl inlay stickers (imported from Japan), filed down the nut by 1mm on all strings and lowered the saddles to 1mm high. Now has super low action, no fretbuzz, and plays a dream.

I was given a little peavey microbass amp, I like it, but it came without a nut/washer on the input jack - and it keeps cutting out as it moves around when I play. I brought a "Marshall" plastic 1/4 inch nut, which I thought would fit, but is too big. I understand there are "thin" 1/4 inch hex nuts, to fit fine threads. Does anyone know where I can buy just one hex nut and washer for this amp which is the correct size? Or does anyone have one I can buy from them?

UPDATE: I decided to change the pickguard (purely aesthetic reasons) on my HB pb20 and it strangely improved the sound. I brought a cheap aftermarket 3 ply pickguard on ebay, just $10 (£8.32) inc delivery from china (no less). I wasn't expecting the pickguard to be very good quality, however I was surprised when it arrived (took a week), as it was excellent quality. The pickup holes where a little small, had to file them a bit, using the original pickguard as a template. When I fitted the pickguard back onto the bass I had to force the pickups through the holes as they were a fraction of a millimeter too small, so the pickups are pressed tight against the pickguard. After I had tuned the strings I noticed the bass had much more sustain. Then when I plugged it into my small practice amp the bass sound bigger and "bassier" - is that a word? Also slightly darker as well. Not a bad thing, as it still sounds full and warm, just like a P bass should. Who knew, cheap (stock) pickups and a cheap pickguard sounded so good. Sidenote: I had to put a lock washer under the pickguard on both tone and volume pots, as both pots have little metal "ears" on one side only. Which fitted into little grooves in the original pickguard, but not on any replacement pickguards (must be a HB thing). [quote name='hooky_lowdown' timestamp='1497000824' post='3315175'] Wanted a cheap precision to mess about with at home, and read lots of good things about HB basses, so pulled the trigger on the cheapest full size P bass money can buy. And the reviews are not wrong, so thought I would share my thoughts on my new PB20. Overall its a really nice bass. It came nicely set up out of the box, D and G strings perfectly intonated, only needed slight tweaks to E and A saddles. Frets are all good, though nut is a bit rough, and needs a light sanding to smooth off. Neck has a slight bit of relief as it should, feels good and is nice to play, I fitted a new set of Fender flatwounds - 9050M (0.55 -.105) as a change to my normal go to strings of D'Addario flats. I had planned on changing the pickups, but when testing it out, I raised the pickup height slightly closer to the strings, and it sounds really good stock, lots of thump, full and round tone, so will keep them as they are. Added a thumb rest for aesthetic reasons and it's done. I've owned many MIM Fender P basses over the years and this sounds and plays as good, if not slightly better than all of them. For the money, its an amazing bass. I don't intend to gig with it, but if I was, then the only upgrades I would make would be the bridge and tuners, both feel and look cheap, especially the tuners, but for my needs they are fine. For just over £100, including flatwounds and thumb rest, it's a good precision bass. It won't compete with high end P basses, but is as good as anything I've played sub £400. [attachment=246963:Harley-Benton-PB20.jpg] [/quote]

I have a Harley Benton shorty p bass, fun little bass to play when traveling about, I've already upgraded the pickups, which sounds really good. However, I really like the neck on the Squier Bronco - would it be a simple swap to put a Bronco neck on the HB Shorty body? Anyone know if the dimensions would fit?

Nice @jrixn1 Where did you get the tort pickguard from, is it a direct fit?

Wanted a cheap precision to mess about with at home, and read lots of good things about HB basses, so pulled the trigger on the cheapest full size P bass money can buy. And the reviews are not wrong, so thought I would share my thoughts on my new PB20. Overall its a really nice bass. It came nicely set up out of the box, D and G strings perfectly intonated, only needed slight tweaks to E and A saddles. Frets are all good, though nut is a bit rough, and needs a light sanding to smooth off. Neck has a slight bit of relief as it should, feels good and is nice to play, I fitted a new set of Fender flatwounds - 9050M (0.55 -.105) as a change to my normal go to strings of D'Addario flats. I had planned on changing the pickups, but when testing it out, I raised the pickup height slightly closer to the strings, and it sounds really good stock, lots of thump, full and round tone, so will keep them as they are. Added a thumb rest for aesthetic reasons and it's done. I've owned many MIM Fender P basses over the years and this sounds and plays as good, if not slightly better than all of them. For the money, its an amazing bass. I don't intend to gig with it, but if I was, then the only upgrades I would make would be the bridge and tuners, both feel and look cheap, especially the tuners, but for my needs they are fine. For just over £100, including flatwounds and thumb rest, it's a good precision bass. It won't compete with high end P basses, but is as good as anything I've played sub £400. [attachment=246963:Harley-Benton-PB20.jpg]

Thanks Ghost_Bass. Could I use an Octave pedal instead of a Preamp pedal with EQ? Ideally I'd like to split the signal with lows to 115, and highs to 210 cabs, as this would (in my mind) get the best sound quality of both bass and (fake) guitar. Or would it not matter if some highs go to the 115, and some lows to the 210 if I ran a Amp head (single channel) > Cabs (without splitting signal)?

Thanks. So the consensus is that I'll need 2 amps, or best to use 2 amps. I can't split the signal using 1 amp head?

I've been playing for a number of years, but my technical knowledge of amps is very limited, so guess I'm a noobie in this field. Recently I've been jamming with a drummer friend of mine, and we're thinking of starting a bass and drums duo - just a fun side project. I'm really into bands like Royal Blood, The Carps and Death from above 1979, heavy overdriven/fuzz sound. So this is what I'm thinking, and correct me if what I want to do won't work: Bass > OD/fuzz > Boss LoopStation > Stereo chorus > A/B pedal > Amp head (2 channel) > Cabs (210 and 115) So, what I want to basically do is send all the lowend to the 115 cab, and all the highs/treble to the 210 cab - so can I do this with a head with 2 channels? Musically, what I want to achieve is (on some songs) play a simple bass riff, constantly loop it using the LoopStation, and then play heavy (fake) guitar OD/fuzz stuff over it, to make us sound more like a full band.

Many people say the early 80s Squires are as good as US ones (build quality and sound-wise), though I've not tried one myself. They normally go for the same price as used MIJ's, which is still a lot less than US ones. I used to have a '89 Squire P bass made in Korea (the early MIK basses were made from the same parts as the mid 80s Squire basses because when production moved from Japan to Korea, they just shipped all the necks, bodies and pickups across, and they were assembled in Korea instead of Japan. That bass played and sounded really good, far superior to any Fender MIM P bass I've played. I've read Fenders from the 70s and perhaps the 80s are not that good. I think large prices for these are paid because they look cool, and they do. If I had a choice between a 80s Fender P bass and a Squier JV 80s P Bass, I would choose the Squier, and treat myself with the cash I save.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1469358086' post='3097605'] Similar to Discreet here, for years I had a very simple set-up, no constant swapping things about for the tone nirvana, then I joined Basschat and all that went pear-shaped. I`m there on basses, there on strings, pretty much there on cabs (new ones on way from same manufacturer as current ones), amp-wise for some reason I want to be using Ashdown, so at some point will try one out if only to reaffirm that I`ve already made the right choice with what I currently use. So congrats hooky, very pleased for you, concentrate on having fun playing, that`s what it`s really about - tho must admit the endless GASSING has been fun along the way as well. [/quote] I hear you Lozz. I've been playing for over ten years, and have been gassing for all that time, always looking for that better sound or fun set up. I used to use my Fender Precision CIJ '62 Vintage Reissue PB62 with an Ashdown AMB 500 combo, and that set up I really liked. But wanted a light weight set up, to make gigging more fun, as lugging heavy gear around, especially during winter is not much fun. I really like Ashdown amps, though if you get a chance try the TC Electronic BG250, there's a BG500 head which is really good as well.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1469357611' post='3097602'] Great..... Tho it may depend if this translates to people who played or want to play with you. Poor sound is one thing that won't get you booked, imo. [/quote] Sound is one of those subjective things. But this rig sounds great, I nail the sound I want/like. So I'm a happy bee, hence why I posted my set up.