Paolo85

1 hour ago, TheGreek said:

Thanks guys but still not much wiser.

as a person that does not really know how pickups work, the way I understand it is that at the end of the day you do not chose the pickup based on that. You want pickups that you like the sound of, or people say you'd like the sound of. That's all 😁

18 minutes ago, neepheid said:

You've kinda outed yourself by alluding to the fact that there's a degree of personal preference to this issue - I would have neglected to mention that if I was pitching this

 

I am not very good at this! I guess that's why lawyers exist😁

What is Basschat'opinion on this: in December I managed to bring home an old Cort bought when I was 18. Until this week I could only play it in a practice amp but now I find that I really do not like the preamp. I did not like it when I was 18 either but now I suspect it may not even be in great shape (volume goes down when I switch to active, which is a bit unusual). Eventually I'll treat myself to a preamp replacement but in the mean time I was thinking I could just get a KiOgon loom, take the preamp off and play passive. While this is not an upgrade technically, it would however introduce a passive tone control that is not there.

Is this "new gear"?😁

35 minutes ago, Che said:

As Im a dad-at-home with a 2 yo son who roams all over the place I need this rig to be very compact. Just a small bass combo and a bass guitar that has it all. 

 

 

Ha! My 2yo gives me just a few seconds before she demands that I put the bass away. It could be because she wants my full attention but there is a chance she just finds I am not very good😁

I can negotiate ten minute slots sometimes

Just want to quickly mention that, while an onboard preamp is very convenient, especially for adjustments on the fly on stage, in terms of sound I think they are no different than a preamp pedal. So for playing at home (if that's what you want to do) you could just use any bass you like (maybe those you have already) and a preamp pedal. Please somebody correct me if that's not right

12 hours ago, Che said:

 

Im looking at Marcus Miller M2 and even the V3 active as well as the CORT B4 Element (Bartolini pickups and preamp however I read QC can be hit and miss).
There is also the cheap Harley Benton MM-84A bass. (I do not want a heavy bass as in weight)
Ibanez SR300EB active bass might also be of interest.

 

 

If that helps, I had a Cort B4fl from 2013. That was the generation before the Element. It was a great quality build, great hardware. But I was not so keen on the preamp, to the point that I had a passive tone control installed and I would always play passive. Pickups are not the famous Bartolini that cost a fortune, they are a cheap licensed version. I think they were ok, not great.

I also have a Cort GB54 with M-J and I find a similar situation: great build quality for the price, ok pickups, preamp meh.

I tried in a shop the new Cort B5 element (the 5 string). Again, great build. They have introduced a neck shape thay is thinner back to front at the bottom and feel super easy to play. I would not comment on the sound as the amp used was clearly not great. Probably similar though.

I had a Sire V5 and a V7fl (the latter is active, but I only had it for a few days before returning it). Contrary to reputation, I had terrible QC experiences. Unlike the Cort basses, the Sires were heavy. I did not particularly like the pickups in both cases but the preamp was brilliant and I think the V3 has the same preamp (in favt, I think all Sires have the same preamp but maybe I am wrong).

I had two Ibanez in my life. A cheap GSR205b as well as an an Ergodyne many, many years ago. Extremely comfortable instruments, great build for the price, and a tight string spacing which I would imagine would be good for a guitar player. SR-shaped basses (which includes the Cort Bs) tend to be light. The GSR did not sound great but at that price what can I say.

I think the Harley Benton MM has a reputation of being heavy. I had two HB (a Jazz fretless and an HBZ2005fl). Overall, while they were certainly great value for the money, so far I have not fallen in love with HB largely because of weigh issues. Plus one should be aware of other things such as the fact that in many cases necks could be chunkier back-to front than one might expect (eg compared to Squire equivalents) and tuners may need replacing although that's often the case for cheap basses.

From March 18 until the end of last year on average I bought a new bass every 32 days. After a fair bit of thinkering, selling and returning, I was left a month ago with the three beauties in the first picture - all cheap but modded, very different necks, and with flats-rounds-tapes.  After swapping some pickups, I remember thinking that, honestly, I had all I needed and some. Then two days later GAS was back and for some reason I was thinking that for as much as I love Ps I should also have something more funky, maybe a Stingray copy or a J.
Then the blue Cort in the second picture literally popped back into my life and now I have that as well. I have only managed to try the Cort through a small practice amp so far, and already for some reason I find myself thinking about possible pickup or preamp replacements.
So, yes, maybe I do need a good period of abstinence

However, I have decided to make it into a slightly different game for myself.
After I
-1) learn, well for my skill level, 30 new songs - a random and meaningless number as not all songs are equal but better than nothing
2) finish (with exercises and everything) at least one of the two courses I started on Talkingbass, either walking bass or chords for bass
3) Try to do a full fret dressing - not hoping to be a pro but I'd like to get to the point that fretwork is not really a worry anymore when I buy my next cheap bass
4) get myself to find the right drill bit and finally replace the tuners of the PJ and one of the Ps with some Hipshot Licensed Ultralight I have already
5) lacquer the neck of the PJ

...after that, I consider myself free to buy something

I had a similar situation, funny enough it was in a famous shop in London, except the bass was much cheaper and repairs on paper were much simpler. It was so bad that I decided from them on that if works are doable I will always do it myself, even if tools cost more than the luthier doing it. And that if at some point I will need a tech I'll definitely go out of London, to people that need returning customers

16 minutes ago, polvo said:

Does anyone know what the difference is between the Cort Artisan B4 plus and the B4 element? And is there a third type of Artisan B4 (maybe older) which is neither Plus nor Element?

 

I'm tempted by this beauty, which is just listed as "Cort Artisan B4", but can't quite tell what model it is exactly. Any clues which model this might be, and whether £230 would be a good price?

 

I think they have different string spacing. Not 100% sure which is which. I think the oldest of the two is 17.5 and the newest is [edit 19mm]. Also, nowadays B4 have that smart neck shaoe that is thinner back to front on the treble side, while older ones have more of a traditional skinny jazz neck

3 hours ago, Bassfinger said:

Thats a bit unfair to the venerable Monsignor Harley Benton. My MB4 does more than merely allow me to cope 

That was actually meant as a compliment as they seem to be winning in the low-cost segment of the market

53 minutes ago, Pirellithecat said:

 I do spend more time up in the dusty areas on my Jazz Neck (38mm) profiled bass than my others (39.5, 40mm) when I'm "noodling" - it just invites you to explore!       

Totally agree. The difference is not much in how you "cope", but in how the neck gives a subtle nudge to what you do. That's why I love a P neck. I can play simple, fat, slow parts and feel fully satisfied. With a thinner neck the slightly more bent muscles of my fingers seem to tell me that if I played a bit faster it would be more fun

24 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

Just weighing in as the voice of reason here, I don't think I've actually measured the nut on any bass until a couple of minutes ago.  When you're all going on about how the odd 2mm making all the difference I do wonder how you cope up the dusty end.

 

 

You make a good argument but that's like the usual reminder that in a pub nobody can tell the difference between a Squier and a Fodera. If bass players were only intetested in "coping", Basschat would not exist and Harley Benton would soon become the onky bass maker in the world.

Different necks feel different to most people, and that just boils down to some 2-4mm at the nut, and probably similar differences back to front. In my case, this mostly means that I get more satisfaction from a wider neck. But it can be different depending on what I am playing. How do I cope at the dusty end? It depends, I am not a good player

13 minutes ago, MichaelDean said:

The Harley Benton JJ-45OP and JP-45OP plus the Aria equivalent are 40mm. Not sure of any others.

Too bad I don't like the design. HB seems to have done everything right with those!

I own two basses with 40mm nut width. As it happens, neither is still in production. I love a ~42mm P neck, but I am starting to think that if I have to look for a "faster" neck, thinner at the nut, 40mm is right for me, I probably prefer it to the widely popular 38mm. Just I am not aware of any 40mm bass currently under production except for the Yamaha BB.

Any other bass you are aware of? Especially low-cost basses?

I am not looking to purchase one right now but I'd love this thread to become a great reference for people that feel like me

Thanks

This is a Newly Found Bass Day. I actually bought this one in or shortly after 2003. But... I now had not played it for around 10 years and I thought it was lost! Yes, lost.
I am at my parent's flat in Italy, visiting for Christmas (I have been living in the UK for a while now) and they found it somehow. Since buying the bass I stopped playing music because of a tendinitis that continued to come back, moved city and then country, and the bass was just abandoned. I looked for it last summer as I had started playing again in January and thanks to Basschat I have developed an unhealthy obsession for cheap basses. But I could not find it. Nobody could, until a few weeks ago.
I now have put some D'Addario ProSteels on (taken off a P bass, cut a bit short for this) and given it a full setup. There's a slightly bumpy fret that will need to be addressed. The neck will need a good clean as it was hanging for years and it has black stains there (not top quality hanger I guess..). Apart from that, all seem to be working great, from what I can hear from the old practice amp also abandoned at my parents'.
Funny enough I never bonded much with this bass. The colour and shape were unexciting for the purpose of my metal band at the time. Still, I felt that for the price it was a great bass (I believe it cost some 275 Euros, although I may be wrong). I was always playing passive and it would sit in the mix much better than the Ibanez Ergodyne I had before (although I imagine more knowledgeable people would have been able to eq the Ibanez just right). The wider string spacing gave me more satisfaction than the Ibanez's. It feels really good to play, the ergonomics work great for me. I can totally see why I chose this bass in that shop back in 2003 or so.
This is coming back to the UK with me!

2 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

It hadn't occurred to me consider bought-and-returned as worthy of being mentioned - for me it's just a sale that hasn't completed. I did it twice in 2022, not a figure I'm very proud of, tbh, but necessary as, too my dismay, neither was right for me.

Well, for me these were meaningful events in that I learned from them (one of the things learned was that post-sale assistance is better provided by Thomann from Germany than by one popular shop here in London). To be fair, in all three situation I would have kept the bass or EUB had they not been defective (the Stagg had a unusable lumpy neck, a knob in the Sire was not working and the height of a pickup could not be adjusted, the PJ did not have a fully functioning truss rod). Still, sometimes having to return a defective instrument is an opportunity to reconsider whether GAS was fully justified

Bought 10

Stagg EUB

Sire V5

Sire V7

Ibanez GSR205b

Harley Benton HBZ2005

Harley Benton JB75fl

Squier Affinity PJ (twice)

Squier P Made in China in 2008

Squier P Affinity made in Indonesia in 2000

Sold 5:

Cort B4fl

Sire V5

Ibanez GSR205b

Harley Benton HBZ2005

Harley Benton JB75fl

Returned 3:

Stagg EUB

Sire V7

One Squier Affinity PJ

Balance: +2

At this stage I'd say £300. Should I start gigging I could probably in principle stretch to £600-800 if the money is there. But that's assuming I feel the need for it. I have spent the past year trying to fugure out/put together my ideal low-cost bass (a process that, with all the trial and error, has actually not been low cost at all, but lots of fun) and I plan to continue doing that. Spending a lot of money on a bass might feel like defeat

27 minutes ago, itu said:

I was wondering why are you wanting two pickups: cheap and good? Wouldn't the good one be enough?

Uhm, I meant one pickup that is both cheap and good There is plenty (I personally like Wilkinson Ps, both ceramic and Alnico, and Toneriders - the P more than the J. I also liket the Rosewell J pickups in a Harley Benton I sold)

14 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

The sound of the bridge pickup on a J bass has much to do with its positioning. I once played a bass with 2 P pickups and the one nearest the bridge sounded very different from the one nearest the neck. I think you may struggle to find what you are after, especially as you are looking for a single coil with only two connectors.

Thanks! It looks like I'll have to try again when I'll have a soldering iron

I am all ok with selling basses. I do not like to keep them there doing nothing. One I have been struggling with is a Squier P Made in China from 2008, paid jusr £120 and from my point of view amazing for the money. It has a great neck but with 40mm nut width. I have two other Ps and I always find myself playing those as I normally prefer the 42mm width.

Still, I cannot get myself to sell for ~£120 a bass that is better than more expensive basses I had

Hi all. I am looking for suggestions dor a good cheap J bridge pickup that does not sound like a traditional J but has lots of bottom end (and high output).

I have a PJ with Tonerider plus P pickup. It also had a Tonerider J but as an experiment I tried to replace it with a £15 Wilkinson ceramic, to see if I could avoid any thinning of the sound when adding a little bit of J. The Wilkinson was advertised as having lots of bottom end. And that's certainly true but unlike the Wilkinson P ceramic pickup, which I liked a lot, I just think it is not very good. The tone is not very inspiring but beyond that, it has a strange system with two different sized ceramic bars and the E has much higher output than any other string and it's as if the sound came from a completely different pickup.

Despite all that, the experiment is successful. If I add a little bit of J (and keep the J quite slanted), I get a tone that I like. The sound remains fat, just more scooped and makes my flats a bit more thumpy.

So I am looking for a similar J pickup: higher output than an alnico (even a hottish alnico) lots of bottom end, maybe less high end than a normal J bridge, but also a nice sound that I may on occasion want to have to full volume. I read good things of the Entwistle JBXN. Would they fit the description?

Also note that I use a KiOgon loom, I do not have a soldering iron so stacked hunbuckers that require conneting more than hot and ground would not work for me at this stage

Thanks

You should be happy in that sense. The Hi Beams have a round core as the TI's, which gives a bit of that rubbery/bouncy feeling

I agree ProSteels 45-100 are extremely pleasant. Plus they have a massive growl. To me they did not feel as soft as TIs though. You may get closer to that with DR Hi Beams (very bright, nit as growly as the ProSteels) and even more the supersoft DR SunBeams (very dark though, not sure how much extra bite you would get)

Pmd