4 Strings

The original Precisions had the strings through the body and so all the bridge had to do was, just that, bridge the strings. The tension of the string was directly relayed to the body by the metal string eyelets at the back. Vibration went through the saddles, the adjusting screws to the base plate which spread it through the body. Increasing the mass of the plate would have little effect other than providing some resistance to the vibration path. Only compression loads were required to be met by the bridge and string anchoring components and so light materials are entirely suitable, slight flexibility being beneficial to ensure even contact with the body. The later bridges have much more work to do to hold the tension of the strings as well as providing a path to the body. The screws that hold the bridge down are now dealing with shear loads and the bent bit with holes at the end being further bent by a bending moment. The tendancy is for the string tension to rip the bridge to be ripped off the surface of the body, and so strong fixing is required meaning a heavier base would help. The bent end is now required to anchor the string and the tension on it varies with the vibration. If this is flexible it will absorb energy from the string and so sustain will be lost. I would therefore suggest that for the string-through-body types a lightweight bridge is beneficial, for the top loading type a heavier bridge will be the better compromise (losing the benefits of the string-through-body design).

It's quite a bad buzz, almost making the notes unplayable. Good thought, I've had a listen towards the nut and all is ok there. It seems as thought there is a dip in the fret board around the 6/7th frets on the G side, but my straight edges appear to tell me differently. The 8th fret was definitely as little high and the stoing has helped, but it still buzzes quite badly. (It had quite a high action when I bought it - the action is quite low now, except for the G string!) If it was a Fender I'd take it to the experts, it just that for such a cheap guitar and its intended use I hadn't budgetted to pay for professional services. Any ideas gratefully received.

I bought a 'J&D Brothers' Precision copy for very little on the dreaded ebay. The body is made from solid alder, the neck from a very nice piece of maple, lovely rosewood fingerboard and a great sound from J and P pickups. Plays beautifully and I have really enjoyed using it. Not a Fender, but could easily be comparable for such little money. The plan is to leave it my church as a cheap bass for general (and my) use. However, it buzzes badly on the 6th and 7th fret on the G string and nowhere else. The neck appears to be straight (did the holding the string against the 1st and last fret and there is a bow of about 1-1.5mm in the middle on all strings. I have gone over the frets with a long straight edge and all looked perfect. I then used a short straight edge, to compare individual frets and, sure enough, the 8th fret stood a little high owards the G edge of the neck. I carefully dressed it down with a fine stone until the straight edge (across 3 frets) didn't rock. Took a couple of hours on this. I have also slackened the truss rod a little (tightening has the effect of raising the middle of the neck and made matters worse). Slackening helped but means the A string in particular is beginning to buzz on the very top frets. This has all helped but not solved the issue. Any ideas, anyone, would be greatly appreciated as this is all that is stopping what appears to be a great effort from the Chinese manufacturer being a very nice guitar. Many thanks for reading this far!

Warm, soapy water. Why use anything else on a plastic? Definitely no abrasives though.

The bass player with Paolo Nutini (Michael McDaid) uses a white semi (White Falcon?) , saw him on Jools. (also here - [url="http://www.life.com/image/93237588"]http://www.life.com/image/93237588[/url] ) A rathre strange choice in my mind, but nonetheless, very cool indeed, although I'd have to worry about what sound they (semi basses) make, rather dull I would expect, although McDaid makes it sound brilliant to me. Singer in my lad's band - The Fiftyfours - often uses an Electromatic [url="http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=416742115&albumID=1417586&imageID=19612713"]http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?...mageID=19612713[/url] . Great image etc but, to be honest, not the best sounding guitar although a good foil for his mate who mostly uses a tele.

I looked to see how I could buy this one, [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=55420&hl=sandberg"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...amp;hl=sandberg[/url] might still be for sale. Its beautiful.

Yep, nice 'woody' tone. Pickup output would have been boosted by the active circuit. Be good if you could rewire it through the circuit and get it working properly, be worth it in my opinion. Lad still plays it daily - I'm getting worried!

As I understand it, the parallel/series switch operates on both pickups and places the coil windings for the pickups either one after the other in line (series) or both together (parallel). This has a phasing sort of effect on the series setting.

Why would it be wierd to ask that? People ask what's best for other uses.

How frustrating, especially to get it back from an 'expert' not working! The jack is a little strange in that I had made up some leads using stereo jack plugs (all they had) and soldering the two 'stem' tags together. They work perfectly on all our guitars, except the Canyon. No idea why. It works fine with all the other leads are fine so must be something different about the jack socket. Hope you can sort it out without too much hassle, Its still being played everyday and the lad is becoming more enthused as time goes by. The lighter strings part will be solved on Christmas morning(!)

Just to add a +1 to the advice of putting the guitars in last and taking them out. My Jaydee spent a week in a cold basement and needed truss rod attention (slackening). the neck recovered when I got ot home and I had to readjust it. I just never risk the guitar, its too personal. Greg

There's no reference to Curbow on the bass (apart from its obvious shape!). However, present impression is that its a decvent bass in its own right, even if the soldering was poor. Currenlty gets played every day and that can't be a bad thing. Yet to be used in anger. There's a couple on the dreaded ebay at the moment going for a song (certainly less than I paid anyway!) Greg

Perhaps the use of wood means a total redesign and production tooling/setting up, even if based on shapes used by Curbow. The electrics will be different too, as well as the truss rod, joints, routing etc.

Response from Tanglewood to my mail, asking of their origin: "Dear Greg, Thank you for your email. The basses are designed in the UK, the parts are sourced from Various countries and the basses are assembled in the Far East. They are given a further inspection before leaving our stores in Kent. Kind Regards,"

[quote name='Doddy' post='683035' date='Dec 13 2009, 02:43 PM']When the Cort Curbow was first released,it was actually branded as the Tanglewood Curbow-in the UK at least. It wasn't long before it was rebranded as Cort though.[/quote] Not sure I understand this as they are featured on the Tanglewood website and are for sale as Tanglewoods (and Hudsons, apparently).

Just bought one of these for he lad. Comments here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=51922&st=0&p=682570&#entry682570"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...mp;#entry682570[/url]

Don't know if anyone is still interested in this thread, my lad needed a good bass and wanted one of these for Christmas. We found one in as new condition from the dreaded ebay for >£100 less than new price. I must admit I was worried about the finish adn build qality, the pick-ups and the general quality. The specs are elite and the materials, on paper at least, seem from the top drawer. So what's it like? Well I can give first impressions, maybe I'll come back in a while with a longer term view. First impressions were of an immaculate finish. Perhaps one guided by laser and computer aided technology in Korea than by a craftsman's hand in the Midlands. Either way, perfectly smooth transitions between the woods, beautifully smooth maple top with that 3D effect in the grain which has been shaped into a bowed top with a smooth ridge around the edge which gently blends into the cutaways. 5 piece through-neck again with perfectly smooth transitions into the body and to the small headstock. It is an amazing piece of work. Makes Fenders look crude and clumsy. Playing it is, of course, a little odd at first with that small body and amazing access to all 24 frets. After some orientation and getting the gist of where the neck actually is (seems more the left than, for axample, a Precision) it plays perfectly well. No buzzes, reasonably low action and allows a fast movement around the frets. The strings are closer than that Precision, which is fine by me, but not too close by any means. Hopefully the lad will change to some lighter strings (can never see the point of anything heavier than a 35 on the G) which will make it easier still. I'll certainly hope to be back on this issue. Sound? None at all to start with. Pulled off the back panel and saw some bare twisted wire joints and soldering done by a 4 year old. There had to be a snag and I found it. Soldered up the joints, wrapped it all up nicely with insulation tape and it worked. What was that about? Had the previous owner had a go at this or was this factory work? I'll never know. Half the soldering looked fine but half was awful. So, now it works, the sound varies between thin to huge. Crank up the bass and treble controls, leave the middle on flat and flat eq on the amp gives a massive sound. Very detailed and bright - excellent for slap - with some real weight. Couldn't find a middly Jaco sort of sound though, but its early days. Haven't tried for Precision type sounds yet, perhaps because we had so much fun with 'active' sounds. I have been pleasantly surprised by this bass, the lad is delighted. At the moment its a recommendation. Its not a character-filled vintage Fender, its a modern bass with a modern sound for a younger generation. Perhaps with (plenty of) use and time, it will begin to attain character.

[quote name='Spoombung' date='Dec 2 2009, 10:23 PM' post='672587'] When I was learning bass in the 70's it was always the guitarists who would say "you need a Fender Precision" and whenever I went out to a pub to see a band the bassist would usually have one - that or or a Rick. Jazz basses were rarer. So I will forever associate Fender Precisions with PUB ROCK, leather jackets and power chords... and I suppose treat them with indifference. My favourite P-bass player will always be Colin Hodgkinson Great tip, thanks, would love to go and see him play.

Valve amp, Hiwatt on Live at Leeds, and, more importantly in my opinion, are the 4x12s. Ported 15s and modern hi-fi type 10s will sound different to the largely mid range the 4x12s gave. Not having read the Whotabs thing (excellent as it is - I will one day!) John went on to more esoteric speaker configurations (Sun etc) after this period. Greg

Uninitiated here, what do the piezos do?

I think its great. These old guitars are interesting for their history not because they are like those in the catalogues, there are loads of Precisions in excellent condition due to hardly any use. Basses, especially Precisions, are tools of a trade and I prefer it when they're used as such. If they need modifying to perform as required, then they need to be modified. I agree it must have been carried out a long while ago and yet no-one has reverted it to 4 strings. I wonder what music he played to cause him to go to so much trouble? I wonder how much musical pleasure this old bass was able to give. (Having said that, its a bit of a bodge so he could have gone to a little more trouble!)

Might upset some people if you modify a 50s bass. Could always get a more modern Precision, they look the same after all! Definitely Frankenstien on Live at Leeds, it was white in those days so there's an easy start. However that's in reply to the original sound question. To look the part I think the mopst distinctive is the Thunderbird body and Precision neck basses (didn't he call them 'Fenderbirds'?) made for him by his favourite luthier - name escapes me. Doubt you'll find one of those and if you do it'll be £50k and in competition with some Hard Rock Cafe. However the reverse body was his fave look and, I think, will be better than a Precision (for which you'd need to find the pickup cover). Soundwise its Rotosound Swing Bass strings, plectrum on some ( Magic Bus, Can't Explain etc) and fingers on the others - You'll have to put your ear to find which. You'll have so much fun in a Who Tribute band, I'd love to do it. I grew up with Entwhistle in my ears, he was my earliest and biggest influence.

"I've said this many times, and in many places: in 40 years, I've never met a neck-heavy Precision." I have two, one better than the other, both neck heavy. The better of the two is fine, but relies on the friction of the strap on my shirt. The Jaydee just sits perfectly, no tugging at the shirt. Compared to this the Fender is neck heavy.

[quote name='OldGit' post='668954' date='Nov 29 2009, 10:32 AM']MarlowDK may disagree with you. [/quote] Think how good he'd be on a Jaydee!