LawrenceH

I'd still much rather hear the live band than the sequenced studio recordings... but, from the clips I honestly don't hear much interesting from the rhythm section, the arrangements are quite boring from a groove perspective (though, nice vocal parts as I said before). Beyonce's influences supposedly include some of the most awesome acts,but I don't think these arrangements are a patch on the live bands of MJ, Fela, Diana Ross, Prince etc. In comparison it just sounds generic, albeit well-produced and executed.

I think it's great to really nail a part, getting the fine detail of a good line teaches me so much about another player's style and improves my own playing. BUT having done that, on a gig I'd do my own thing! I can't ever see myself playing slavish covers, may as well just put the record on.

[quote name='Pete Academy' timestamp='1327500040' post='1512365'] A customer of mine has a Mex Fender Jazz fitted with an East Retro preamp. He played someone's 1970s Jazz and was blown away by the sound. He's thinking of replacing the pickups on his Jazz to get a similar sound and has narrowed choices to Bare Knuckle PE series or Seymour Duncan Antiquity. [/quote] Afraid I haven't tried these, but my first port of call would be the Fender 75 Reissue pickups. They are available as a replacement part and are quite cheap, but more importantly they are a very good pickup with that aggressive top-end bite characteristic of 70s jazzes. It is different from the 60s repros that have a more mellow sound.

[quote name='ikay' timestamp='1327432918' post='1511183'] Just inserting an inline resistor won't have the same effect. Although what effect it will have I'm not sure! [/quote] A pair of inline resistors are used in the stack pot circuit to isolate the effects of each capacitor to one pickup, so even with the volume on full the signal is still going through the resistors.

I may well be misunderstanding the switch, but shouldn't one side of the resistor go to earth? And then to make the cap work separately for each pickup you need an extra resistor on the output of each pickup before it connects to each other/to the jack.

You get more bass and low mids from multiple large speakers as opposed to a single, but with a more complex comb filtering in the treble mixing addition and subtraction dependent on angle. Net result is 'bigger' sound as it's weighted more towards the bottom.

Great! I forgot to say, I haven't figured out how it works in your set-up but if you go with the low-pass capacitor then you need to wire it in such a way that it doesn't act as a master tone but is isolated for each . I think the Fender schematic for the 62 reissue is not correct compared to the original setup because it lacks the resistors that isolate each tone control.

Hmm, it's not something I've played with myself and corner frequency will depend on the particular pickup inductance, but I'd guess a 0.1uF or even 0.2ish would be a good starting point (I'm assuming you meant 0.047uF?) You'd probably still want to try the VR due to resonance making the neck pickup low-mids louder. Depends on the pickup and corner frequency really

If you just want a bit more bottom end without colouring the tone of the bridge pickup too much, how about wiring a relatively high-value cap in as well to roll off the neck pickup top end separately from the bridge (ie fixed-position but mimicking the stack knob setup)?

Are you after the thing just for the sounds, or do you plan to play the piano voice via its keyboard? (ie not sequencing or using a separate controller). I ask because I've come to the same conclusion a pro piano player once told me, that if you're concerned with actually playing it then more important than the piano sound per se is the quality of the action on the keyboard. Playing piano parts on semi- or unweighted keys is rubbish and feels unmusical IMO. Even with weighted boards, a truly decent hammer action mimic is hard to find and a personal thing. Synth bass is fine for me on a cheap sprung board tho!

[quote name='kevin_lindsay' timestamp='1327293276' post='1508915'] I was thinking about doing the headstock, but I'm not sure if I want to strip and refinish the whole neck. [/quote] Could you not just spray over what's there already, assuming the lacquers you're using are compatible?

I've got an aerodyne without any front markers, and I've never noticed it being a problem. Pretty sure I use the side dots for reference as well.

Turns out I already had a feedback thread started for me!

Bought a jazz body from Mike, all sent very promptly with speedy communications throughout too, wouldn't hesitate to deal with him again. Cheers!

This is a superb thread, I salute you Linus27! Pointless debates about the nature of meaning are guaranteed to go on and on... I've decided that a Jazz bass is whatever Fender choose to call a jazz bass. Except the Mark Hoppus. No others count, except those used to play jazz. Come on guys, get really heated about your arbitrary stance! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantics

Definitely go pickups over pre-amp IMO. Changing the passive electronics set-up can also have a big effect on the sound and it tends to be cheap, as well as reversible. Switching all the pots from 250k to 500k will enhance the pickups' resonant peak (= more treble 'bite', very noticeably in my recent experience!). Adding capacitors in series with the volume will lower the frequency of this peak giving it a different character, while changing the tone pot capacitor will alter the range the tone control works over. You could even go a bit mad and try a varitone which allows switching between different capacitor values, with or without an inductor which allows quite complex filtering effects like scooped mids and giving a very broad tonal range.

Controls being 'all or nothing' is a fairly common problem normally due to the 'taper' of the pots. Google linear versus log taper pots to find out what that's all about. But also bear in mind that the 'log' tapers commonly used for volume controls are actually an approximation that can be more or less good depending on the quality of the pot. CTS are generally recommended as good upgrade pots, I've used Alpha brand pots recently, which work well but have smaller carbon tracks so I don't expect them to be as rugged. Blending is potentially a more complicated issue, are you using 2 separate volume controls, one for each pickup, or it a master volume plus blend setup? This latter can be a bit annoying on passive basses apparently (not something I've ever used). Blending between a P and a J can have particular problems unless the pickups are well-matched. To get really fine control over individual pickup volumes in a 2-pickup setting then a buffering preamp is probably the way to go. Having said that, it's perfectly possible for a passive setup to work well enough, those on my P/J Aerodyne wired VVT are very usable. Tone control on all my basses functions right across the pot range. Volume controls do too as long as only using one pickup at a time.

The vocals are superb...but not overly fussed about the rest of the band, competent but not exactly the NPG!

I'd suggest when playing with the frequencies on the EQ that you start with all shape/deep controls switched out, to give you a better idea of what each one does in isolation. Really cranking up one of the mids and then sweeping as Mr Foxen says, lets you identify both desirable and undesirable freqs more easily. Use extreme settings to identify these things but much less once you know where they are...it's easy to over-EQ a sound! IME a good 'generic' EQ for a jazz bass is a little boost around 100-200Hz for extra solidity, a slight cut the octave or so above (250-500Hz) to remove boominess, and then a boost around 2-3kHz for some extra grind to go with your bump. Incidentally I suspect the J retro pre has a similar 'natural' contour to this, which tends to accentuate the natural character of a jazz with both pups on full. Whether you like this or not is up to you!

The F1 is a very flat amp. I'm surprised if it's not popular for double bass, though I suppose it lacks things like notch filters. Sure it'd sound good through the right cabs though.

[quote name='leftyhook' timestamp='1327055335' post='1505643'] Tis True, Youtube is full to the brim with bass lesson. i.e. Marlow DK is a top guy (sure he will have been mentioned) No need to sit in front of someone to learn to slap. [/quote] Youtube is incredible for lessons, but to make use of it in this way you have to be able to dissect your own technique, not everyone can do that especially while they're concentrating on something they can't do. Always worth having a few lessons to pick up on problems. Whether it's youtube or a teacher though, you need to learn from someone with a thorough understanding themselves or you just learn someone else's bad habits.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1326967520' post='1504316'] Learn about EQ'ing a bass and you'll get more than close to that sound, IMO. [/quote] Absolutely agree. With new-ish strings and the right amp/EQ you can get that sound out of a jazz, no problem. Of course, you need some way of EQ-ing it...

It's a bit trite but tone is indeed in the mids. Monitors can do a fine job of bass reproduction often using identical drivers to many bass cabs but usually with better crossover/tweeter implementations for a given price. As always though, you get what you pay for. If you want really heavy bass then you need dedicated high-excursion woofers...but look around and most of these are actually designed as PA drivers. Alternatively acres of speaker or a more exotic speaker design will do it! Again, the latter at least is more often seen in PA. Main disadvantage of angled monitors for bass IMO is that they reduce cab internal volume for a given footprint. Often worth it to hear yourself clearly though

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1326895020' post='1503328'] something that disperses sweat would be required on the coarser grades of steel because a cloth won't get into the microscopic nooks and crannies... [/quote] I suspect that's right, which is why I wondered about a solvent perhaps followed by a lubricant like fast fret to fill the holes and help prevent the sweat getting in in the first place. FF definitely leaves the strings coated in something. I guess, if you find strings are helped by boiling/soaking in solvent, then gunk physically impeding the strings plays as big a part as actual corrosion. If you used a coating agent then it'd have to have appropriate viscosity etc not to do this.