LawrenceH

[quote name='molan' post='945716' date='Sep 4 2010, 09:23 PM']Here's the official new vid for Lowdown - if you can take your eyes off the stunning girl at the beginning then the Atleier is featured a fair bit here too [/quote] Highly embarrassingly I think I fancy Chaka Khan more :wacko:

I've only got second-hand reports of their bass combo being brilliant, but in terms of uncompromising sound quality in a tiny package AER make the best small monitor speakers for vocals and keys that I've ever heard. The mid-range was particularly detailed and sweet, the only stage monitors I've heard that don't sound dodgy around here. Their current bass gear (Amp One, Basscube 2) must be worth auditioning, not cheap though. Digital Village stock them if you've got one nearby?

[quote name='Jigster' post='967965' date='Sep 25 2010, 08:57 PM']cheers guys, keep it coming - LawrenceH - how did you find the neck on the J - I read one review that it's described as a slim neck but is actually quite thick??[/quote] To me it seems small and fast, but I don't have any modern Jazzers to compare it to directly. I certainly didn't have a problem with it despite coming from an Ibanez SR500 with those ultra-slim super-fast necks. In fact the profile is very comfortable for me and the finishing (although cosmetically not great at the nut) is otherwise very good and ergonomic (no sharp fret ends on a bound fingerboard!). My hands aren't huge either. I did used to play a couple of American jazzes that other people owned at a jam night, one standard, one deluxe, and I find the Classic 70s easier to play than I remember them being. The perceived difference may be down to the fret size/profile and set-up as much as anything else though. I guess the shape of the profile is quite rounded so it might seem a bit chunkier than some since it stays fatter closer to the edges, but the maximum front-to-back differences doesn't seem all that great, I certainly can't imagine it being much thinner on a non-laminate without having stability issues. IMO the narrow string spacing of a jazz means thickness of the neck is anyway far less of an issue than on a P or a 5+ string unless you have very small hands indeed. Hope that helps!

I find the black beauty coating very robust playing both fingerstyle and slap. It wears down on the bit that contacts the frets (which you don't see) but I haven't noticed any flaking and after a good 8 or 9 months I'm still happy with the feel and tone of them on my jazz, and I really don't like dead strings. A pick would probably be a bit much for them though.

[quote name='Lozz196' post='967344' date='Sep 25 2010, 09:32 AM']I`ve had the 70s Jazz, and the 50s P, and both were amazing quality. The Jazz was the only Jazz I`ve ever had, so no real comparisons, but the 50s P - well probably the only real difference from my US P-Basses, aside from neck size, was no string-thru-body. The rest of it, in terms of quality, playability, and tone, no real difference at all. As Burrito says, an amazing jump from MIM Standard to these guys. I`d thoroughly recommend them to anyone.[/quote] I have a Classic 70s. Bought secondhand with a bodged non-fitting scratchplate, so hard to comment on certain aspects of the set-up. But IMO it's very good, the only things that I noticed were first that up close the finishing around the nut was not as tidy as it should be (though the neck is otherwise lovely and feels very nice to play), and the neck pocket is not as tight as my CIJ Jap 75, however it's nothing dreadful either. There was also a pointless body route underneath the pickguard which would be a bit annoying if you fancied playing without a guard, however I stripped off the polyester finish and before respraying I filled this with Ronseal wood filler! I believe that the American jazzes at the moment also have this routing hole, and davebass5 (I think) posted a pic of one with really dreadfully over-sized routing around the neck pup so the Highway and Classic series instruments actually appear to be better in this respect. The pickups (Standard Vintage Alnico) sound very good indeed to my ears, much more lively and generally better than the rather dull-sounding supposedly American ones in the Jap 75RI. So much so that they now reside in that bass while the Classic 70s undergoes my apparently never-ending attempt at a refinish, but while it was all in one piece it had a lovely open, grinding growl to it. I can't decide whether I should get an extra set of the Standard Vintage or whether to try US 75 pickups, which thanks to basschat I discover are available separately. The frets, though supposedly 'vintage', are actually quite different in profile to those on the Jap 75RI (which are tiny and smoothly rounded) and I prefer them as I think they impart a bit more growl to the tone but are still a bit less mahoosive than medium jumbos which I find a bit awkward in comparison. Oh yes, it's also pretty lightweight with no neck dive, I think the tuners help here - they're MIM steel ones as far as I can tell and weigh a lot less than the (brass?) Jap ones, so technically they're probably less desirable but I think they're a boon. Having a bullet truss is very convenient too. Finally, A/Bing the 75RI with the Classic 70s, I can hear a real difference in the character of the sound with the two pickups on full, which I attribute to the 70s spacing (v the bizarrely 60s spacing on the Jap 75RIs!) rather than the diferent body woods (ash v alder). I say this because blending the pickups in and out I can hear a different set of frequencies cancelling/reinforcing. The 70s spacing sounds both deeper and crisper, maybe less warm but definitely not 'lifeless' or boring. I like it.

The 301 is a solid body colour yes? I don't know what wood those ones were, but the translucents like the 320 and 330 were apparently sen (there's quite a useful thread on the Bass Collection instruments on basschat somewhere) which looks a lot like ash but is very light. Reason I say this is because I have both a 320 and 330, the former has P/J and the latter soapbar but otherwise the hardware on each is identical. The 330 sounds a LOT richer to my ears than the 320, which I have to put down to the pickups. Long-term I will swap out the pickups on the 320 with wizards and see how it sounds then, but I suspect the biggest problem with the 301 is the pickups.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='966730' date='Sep 24 2010, 02:21 PM']It wpon't certainly. It might if you expect it to produce bass cab lows. Expect it to sound like a guitar cab and you are good to go. It's based on a Fender Bassman anyway. I wouldn't use it as a standalone, but as the top half of a dual amp rig, golden.[/quote] Hmm, not exactly, it might be ok or not depending on the application. Even if you run it as part of a two-part rig, unless you have a separate amp powering the bottom cab and high-pass filter the Peavey you still risk blowing the speakers at higher power. They'll move loads if you put much below 100Hz through them, even if acoustic output is negligible.

[quote name='Lozz196' post='959456' date='Sep 17 2010, 02:07 PM']Fenders website lists the various pickups they make, Clicking on each respective bass details the pickup that is fitted to that model. You can order most (if not all) of their pickups individually, however the only one that seems to be widely sold is the Vintage/Original, which used to be called the 62. Its a pretty good pickup, great for upgrading say a backup MIM Precision, if yr main bass is a MIA Precision. Its a "fatter" sounding pickup, so makes the MIM more comparable to the MIA (this is what I`ve done, and I`m very pleased with it).[/quote] Very useful! Thanks to this I've discovered you can buy the Vintage 75 pickups separately...I have a feeling my Classic 70s is gonna get pimped (especially given that it's pickups have been thrown into a CIJ 75RI!)

Going back to tonewoods, apologies if this has been posted before but I was bored and found the patent for the Yamaha ARE technology which according to their marketing mimics wood ageing and improves the acoustic properties. I thought it might be of relevance to this topic: [url="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6667429.PN.&OS=PN/6667429&RS=PN/6667429"]http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?...p;RS=PN/6667429[/url] Basically a high-pressure steam treatment.

[quote name='Chris2112' post='966064' date='Sep 23 2010, 08:41 PM']"just think, when do you ever solo the neck pickup on a jazz bass?".[/quote] Funnily enough, that's one of my favourite tones but only on more 'substantial'-feeling jazzes. The neck pup on a chunky jazz bass like my ash CIJ 75 is firkin' lush!

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='965485' date='Sep 23 2010, 12:26 PM']Yeah I known but you've shielded earthing wires. Nice touch but pointless unless you were experiencing specific problems. I like the old [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle"]KISS principal[/url]. It's worth a pop but LawrenceH does have a point. I think you've just installed a new wiring kit. Try the cap from your old setup. Everything needs to be earthed.[/quote] If the orange drop is 0.047pF then I think I see where the issue is...but I'm guessing you mean microfarads? In any case try the old cap first as suggested

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='965438' date='Sep 23 2010, 11:40 AM']That's a very interesting link. Cheers. What the link is saying is that in an overly cautious shielding job (which the you have carried out on the advice of someone here) you add approximately 90 pF of capacitance. To compensate for this you need to put in a cap with a value 90 pF less than that of the one installed. Yes earth that wire.[/quote] Hmm, that sounds like a rather piddling amount compared to a 47000 pF cap.

I have wondered this same thing. A quick google brings up this from Audere, see about a third of the way down: [url="http://www.audereaudio.com/FAQ_PUNoise.htm"]http://www.audereaudio.com/FAQ_PUNoise.htm[/url] Although they're talking about their pre-amp, in HiZ mode as far as I understand it's mimicking the loading of passive pups straight into an amp, so the same would apply. They refer to compensating, I don't know how they'd achieve this though - any ideas anyone?

I suspect white spirit won't do anything except as a lubricant for sanding. It depends what the paint is, but it does b***er all to rattlecan acrylics from Halfords in my experience. Acetone is a more likely solvent and it'll evaporate fully with no residue.

[quote name='Machines' post='964738' date='Sep 22 2010, 06:11 PM']Ok nice one - will one grade be enough or do I need to work through a few ?[/quote] Depends how bad the peel is. I'm just using 1200. If it's bad then an 800 or even 600 might be worthwhile. But if you can get a (decent) 1500 and 2000 then that'll save you a bit of effort with the compound. 3M make good stuff I believe, but have had trouble finding it locally and can't be arsed buying sandpaper on t'internet!

Hi all, I have a j-retro acquired in trade that I'll be fitting once my bass is painted and ready for rebuild. Assuming I get on with it tonally, I'd like to do something about making the control plate look a bit more like a 'proper' jazz again. Anyone know where I can get the plastic skirted-style knobs in dual-concentric form, as used on the deluxe basses, and whether they'll fit the j-retro? I've seen lots of metal knurled knobs but that's not what I'm after. The only places I've found seem to sell them for about a tenner each which seems ridiculous! I don't mind aftermarket replicas. I can import them from buzzard in the states but with shipping it still comes in at over £30. Thanks for any suggestions! Lawrence

[quote name='Machines' post='960927' date='Sep 19 2010, 08:57 AM']First gloss coat done, looks good - managed to get it in yesterday before it hammered it down. Anyone got any suggestions on how to finish it better to try and get rid of the 'orange peel' ?[/quote] Just sand it out using a good quality wet'n'dry from an auto shop, preferably not Halfords since anything 800 and up from there seems a bit sh**. I'm currently using 1200 for this purpose. Use it wet and with a block on any flat bits. You can bring back the shine later by using rubbing compound and T cut original.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='962345' date='Sep 20 2010, 04:17 PM']Anyone got any ideas on how to sort that?[/quote] Just flooding the offending areas with nitromors doesn't help then? Possibly 'watered' down with whatever solvent would be appropriate (something like acetone?!) to help it penetrate? I realise you'd have to be pretty careful in how you contain this to avoid damaging the binding. I'd be surprised if the undercoat at least was a catalysed paint, much more likely it'll dissolve out if you find the right solvent. Perhaps if you do this though you should feed the wood a little oil after to avoid over-drying and cracking it.

It usually makes more sense to measure from the neck end, since you get variation in bridge types etc and probably precise placement of Fender bridges since they don't have to be as careful if it'll be intonated anyway. A hopefully more useful contribution...I've just taken a ruler to the body of my 70s Classic which is currently dismantled (this bass has 70s bridge pup position). From the end (middle) of the neck pocket it measures 206.5mm to the centre of the bridge pickup route. From the centre of the middle screwhole on the (5 screw) BBOT bridge to the centre of the bridge pickup route it measures 79mm. If that doesn't match up with your bass when you mark it out from each end, then go with the neck measurement as I don't know if the bridge position on these basses is out as the Bass Doc says it 'should' be. I hope that helps! Btw I'm starting to realise how important pickup position is for the tonal characteristics of a particular instrument. I think a chart showing the centre-positions of various pickup positions as measured from the nut of a 34"-scale bass would be dead handy for a lot of reasons. Anyone know of one or fancy putting one together? I've only got jazzes but I'd be very interested to see where a P or a Stingray pickup would sit. Or the various models of Yamaha BB. Or Warwicks.

[quote name='Lozz196' post='960440' date='Sep 18 2010, 02:53 PM']Another easy thing to consider, but may be difficult to put into operation, either by discussion or when the guitarists aren`t looking (you`ll know which is more likely to work), drop the bass on their amps by 1, eg if they were on 7 before, drop `em to 6. Too often, you can find that the bass can`t be heard cos the guitars are doing the bass as well, and yr competing with their distorted, compressed many strings and speakers, with your one string/speaker. Another cab will help, but adjustment of eq from all of you could have a major impact on this issue.[/quote] This is an excellent thinking-like-a-sound-man type point. I often used to find when doing gigs that if I could persuade the guitarists to drop the bass on their amps it would really help, too many of them would get a sound that was chunky and full in isolation forgetting that a band achieves that sound (but better) as an ensemble. Too many bedroom tweakers! (The same people often really overdo distortion, where less really is more)

Personally I think tone makes an enormous difference to perceived playability - think about how much harder work it seems playing a passive bass straight through a line input versus DI, even when you adjust the levels to compensate, just because of the difference in how the pickup reacts with one versus the other. So I'd think nine times out of ten tone and playability to an extent go hand in hand. And if a bass sounds great and plays lousy then I'd usually look to a decent set-up to sort it out. Beyond that, and any really gross ergonomic issues like massive chunky necks with heavy dive, I'd expect to be able to adapt to the smaller differences given time. I found jazzes strange having moved over from Yamaha/Ibanez but now I'm able to do what I could before on my jazzes. Not sure I could replicate it on anyone else's though!

[quote name='King Tut' post='962715' date='Sep 20 2010, 08:50 PM']OK Laurence thanks - I checked for resistance and there's nothing. That's the second blooming driver that's gone in this pair - not sure if it's the same actual one - could something be wrong with the crossover or have I just hammered them too much? The speakers are pretty much redundant to be honest so guess it'll make a nice big paperweight!! Now - what to do with the other driver? Are these speakers good for bass cabs?[/quote] If you're getting repeated problems with blowing drivers you may be pushing them with too much bass. I re-read your original post and see that you say you put the Kappas in there yourself. If the reflex tuning is suited to a speaker with different specs then you may well have a complete mismatch which first means the bass response will be screwed (perhaps forcing you to turn up too much and burn out the voice coil) and second means that probably the speaker isn't being protected from overexcursion at the correct frequencies when you do drive it hard. You can't just mix and match speakers and cabs without tweaking the cabs to suit the drivers, by changing the size/length of the reflex ports. I think the kappa pros are probably quite good for bass cabs - get something like WinISD and have a play around, or have a look online for reflex cab designs built around them. Eminence may publish some designs themselves. Apologies if this is a grandma-sucking-eggs type post!

[quote name='charic' post='963124' date='Sep 21 2010, 11:14 AM']In the acg for a while I actually quite liked the distortion I got from a dying battery... Is that weird?[/quote] Yes. Pervert!

[quote name='King Tut' post='962611' date='Sep 20 2010, 07:30 PM']Not strictly backline but . . . . I got a pair of Peavey PA speakers that I've loaded with Kappa 15 pro's. One of them is putting sound out of the tweeter but not the woofer. I've put a multimeter across the terminals - can't find any voltage but there seems to amps there (sorry I'm not much of electricity buff!). However - whichever way I put the probes on the terminals - the amps are popping the needle against the stop. I'm assuming that as I'm reading 'something' at the speaker terminals, then it must be the speaker that's gone kaputt? Would that be the considered opinion of the experts out there? And I'm assuming that if the speaker is shot, there's nothing I can do about it except replace it? Any thoughts? Cheers![/quote] You need to check for resistance across the speaker terminals, not voltage! Should read about 5 or 6 ohms. If nothing, then most likely the speaker is toast, unless you can see a break where the wires join the terminals which might be repairable. If it's fried, you could probably get a recone, depends how much the kappas are versus the cost of reconing. EDIT: Oh, and do it when the speaker's not plugged into an amp.

[Hijack] I'd be very interested to know the pickups fitted to various Fender basses, and how they relate to the ones available for sale separately. Is there anywhere giving definitive info, or does anyone here know? [/Hijack]