Paul_S's Sterling 5

[Andyjr1515]

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1479545444' post='3177319']
Just to top this off - I picked up the bass on Wednesday and it looks amazing - just like it had come out of the factory. Cosmetically perfect. Used it a last night's gig and the sound has blown me away! The Aguilar P pickup is also perfect - mellow and old school exactly as I had hoped. Interestingly (or maybe not? I don't know enough) the MM pickup has been tamed by making it passive - nowhere near as aggressive as it is with the preamp driving it along and thus, for me, more useable. The blend will get some welly, too - it adds a bit of bite to the P in a very interesting and useable way. Different to a PJ, as you would expect. I really couldn't be happier.
[/quote]
Great to hear, Paul

It's also worth experimenting with tweaking the bridge volume a tad when you're in the P-J middle position. Although it is still very sensitive even with linear volume pots, changing the bridge volume knob across the range of 8.5 to 10 produces a whole spread of quite different sounds. I'm not entirely sure what is going on with the interaction of the two circuits but I think it's akin to the old 50's wiring of a Les Paul single pickup junior where you can get from deep jazz to acoustic clean to roaring overdrive just with subtle tweaks of the guitar volume and tone without going anywhere near the amp...

[Paul S]

Thanks for the tip!

Still smiling

[fretmeister]

This is a great thread.

I've got one of those pickups incoming and I'm going to do something similar to my ray5.