funkle

Ah, you are a star, thanks for that. That’s about where I planned to try the butt joint. However the belly contour on the upper part of the bass is a challenge. I might opt for the overlap after all.

Where did the overlap land on the back? Beyond the line of the belly contour, or even further in than that?

Very cool wraps guys! @Adee is that wrap front and back?

Oh, and I think a gloss pattern is both cheapest and easiest to get hold of. 3M looks like a clear winner in this arena. Can get 1m x 1.5m for £25-£30. So much cheaper than a refinish...

Great answer! Thank you. I was going to use knifeless tape to create a butt joint along the sides of the instrument. Hopefully not a high wear area. There’s a great video on how to do a good butt joint with 3 line knifeless tape - probably use this technique to get a perfect butt joint. It would be easy enough to lay another 3 line tape to mask off the butt joint, remove the centre filament and tape, and then use nail varnish in that perfect line to seal it.

Is it possible to do a non-overlapping seam along the side, using e.g. 3M knifeless tape? Or does there always have to be an overlap to prevent peeling at the edges if there is a seam at the side? I've seen some impressive butt joints using vinyl but wasn't sure if the butt joint then had to be covered over.

I’m contemplating trying this technique on a bass with 3M vinyl wrap. I plan to either make a butt joint at the sides of the bass, or overlap the front slightly on to the back after doing the rear of the bass first. Does anyone know...if I create a butt joint on the side of the bass using the 3M knife less tape, can I leave the join uncovered, or is it better or have an overlap?

Thanks @PlungerModerno for linking to my thread. My investigations are obviously ongoing, lol. Reverse P sounds quite different to me at the bridge position. I tried it ‘usual orientation’ there first and did not like what it did to the D/G strings. So I had to modify. Reverse P sounds quite different to me at neck position as well, though my goal for the project bass I’m working on is currently to keep the ‘usual’ orientation at the neck position. In have other PJ basses I have taken detailed measurements from in that thread as well. I am reasonably convinced that pickup positioning is absolutely critical, in addition to the orientation, pickup type, etc.

Ooh, very interesting, yes, if that is the SPB-3, I had been waiting for one of those to pop up secondhand to see if it worked at the bridge. I’ll PM you

Ok, long time since last post, but I’ve been doing a reasonable amount of experimenting. First thing to say, I definitely prefer a reversed bridge P pickup. It’s not quite as pretty as it was to start off with, but this set-up lets me flip the pickups back around should I wish to. So far, I don’t wish to. I contemplated shifting the bridge pickup up further towards the neck one, but it eats into the pickguard. I have had a lot of learnings from this project, and I will share them, so others do not make my mistakes. I ended up not liking the DiMarzios for this. I am still experimenting with pickups as I slowly accumulate secondhand stuff from the marketplace, but so far I really like the Seymour Duncan SPB-1 at the front, and a Kent Armstrong Hot Precision PBE-1 ceramic (enclosed) at the rear position. Similar pickup resistances and easy to balance outputs. I will see what else comes up in the marketplace and continue my footering, for now. Main takeaway is that the mid scoop/bass boost that comes with both pickups fully on, changes quite drastically with the pickups installed. Not surprising. It really it not terribly predictable, though, and it seems to me the best bet is to try and at least get pickups with similar resistances/outputs. Or look for people who report combinations that do well together for them already. Another lesson. A solderless loom has been absolutely invaluable. Worth paying for and no doubt about it. It just makes the process so much easier. However, I did make errors here. My mistakes here were two fold. One, the dual V/T setup is largely pointless. Either tone affects both pickups when the pickups are fully on, fun but not necessary. V/V/T is cheaper and simpler and would still give me exactly what I want. Two, having 4 x 250k pots in a passive circuit dulls the high end, absolutely no doubt, and you can’t EQ it back in. I would go for a V/V/T, possibly 500k, if I were to buy again, though one less potentiometer would brighten up the circuit and I could probably get away with 250k in that circumstance. Another thought. The series/parallel switch is nice but not essential. It’s a very fun ‘voice’ to play with on the bass though. I’m waiting to see if another Seymour Duncan SPB-1 comes up secondhand in the classifieds. Might snag it and experiment if it does. I’ll have to have a Precision bass pickup clear out in not too long. It is now clear to me why Precision basses with dual pickups (P-J, P-MM, P-P) often move the front pickup to another location. Yes, even a few mm seems to me to be a key change.....A single P pickup bass in the classic spot gives a really beautifully rounded and complete sound. It is really easy to subtract too much away from that sound with a second pickup and the midrange phase cancellation that goes with that. It’s really hard to get the dual P setup right, the results are just difficult to predict. Knowing what I know now, I’m not sure I would undertake this experiment again, although it has been fun and I am continuing it. I would probably just stick to a PJ bass, or any multi-pickup P bass where someone else had done the research and built it already. It’s a very tricky business to do it right.

Just bought a Seymour Duncan SPB1 pickup from Ash. Easy transaction, arrived quickly, good communications. Installed already and sounds great. Brilliant! Thanks. Pete

Just sold Andy some Hipshot Tuners, the transaction was painless and good communications throughout. A pleasure. Deal with in good confidence! Pete

I think you do suffer faster fret wear. But if I can keep a bass that long, I’ll pay up for the refret.

Sold some EMG pickups to Chris - painless transaction. I have no problem in recommending dealing with him! Pete

The biggest problem I’m looking at now is I have 8 basses and might want steels on all of them 😂 Anyone have a good supplier for D’Addario?

I never realised how much I didn’t like the mids on nickels. How odd. I mean, they have a place, but, I really do prefer the sound of these steels. D’Addario wins my favourite string brand as well.

Obviously I am an idiot. But I’ve been playing bass for 25 years and never really understood the fuss about steel roundwounds, until now. I’ve been used to nickels all my life. I think I flirted with steels once about 15 years ago, and for some reason decided they weren’t for me. Just put some D’Addario Pro Steels on my Celinder PJ. It’s a match made in heaven. Where on earth have I been? Much clearer bottom and top, top easily tamed by EQ knob if needed, and the roughness of these Steels isn’t too bad. Incredible thump and punch, beautiful. You probably had my epiphany already. But damn, I might put these on all my basses now. So good.

Just sold Tomasz a Duo Strap. Painless transaction, can deal with in good confidence!