The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!

[ped]

Bruce’s neck pickup is definitely moved right up to the neck, and I think the location of the pickup (prob a humbucker) qualifies it for mudbucker vibes. 

[msb]

Some seem to think any Gibson humbucker close to the neck is a Mudbucker, but it really was a specific pickup.   
And despite the nickname , has quite a lovely deep thump. 

[tayste_2000]

They look like the standard Guild Humbuckers to me (So not the Bi-Sonics)

[ped]

Looks like he's changed the control plate for a Jazz bass one too (three holes, and it's not slightly bent like the 'stang one). Either way he's on the right track, modded mustangs are cool

[martthebass]

I’m thinking of a humbucker upgrade to this one. The tone on the stock is ok but I find it a bit weak against my Fallout and I occasionally swap about in a gig. Anyone any suggestions?

[ped]

4 minutes ago, martthebass said:

I’m thinking of a humbucker upgrade to this one. The tone on the stock is ok but I find it a bit weak against my Fallout and I occasionally swap about in a gig. Anyone any suggestions?

This is what’s in mine

https://www.geminipickups.co.uk/bass/thunderbird-bass/degenerate-tb

 

I really like it; having one extra hot coil gives a nice wide range. 
 

Worth checking out their full range, they’ll do you a custom job too. Some of their offerings look like the same case/cover as your stock pickup (could be wrong)

[ezbass]

30 minutes ago, martthebass said:

I’m thinking of a humbucker upgrade to this one. The tone on the stock is ok but I find it a bit weak against my Fallout and I occasionally swap about in a gig. Anyone any suggestions?

Serek LZN- B90

[tayste_2000]

6 hours ago, ezbass said:

Serek LZN- B90

 

I was thinking of buying this bass purely for this purpose

[Osiris]

11 hours ago, martthebass said:

I’m thinking of a humbucker upgrade to this one. The tone on the stock is ok but I find it a bit weak against my Fallout and I occasionally swap about in a gig. Anyone any suggestions?

 

I'm sure I read about a simple mod that can be done to these to add a series/parallel switch, or a push/pull pot. Can't remember where I read it but it'll hopefully turn up from a Google search, but it was claimed it makes the pickup much bigger and more aggressive sounding if I remember correctly. 

It's be a quicker and cheaper upgrade if nothing else! 

[martthebass]

1 hour ago, Osiris said:

 

I'm sure I read about a simple mod that can be done to these to add a series/parallel switch, or a push/pull pot. Can't remember where I read it but it'll hopefully turn up from a Google search, but it was claimed it makes the pickup much bigger and more aggressive sounding if I remember correctly. 

It's be a quicker and cheaper upgrade if nothing else! 

Cheers, I’ll check that out 😁

[No lust in Jazz]

12 hours ago, ezbass said:

Serek LZN- B90

I wouldn't overlook the standard Serek B90, or the Curtis Novak Bisonic.

1 hour ago, Osiris said:

 

I'm sure I read about a simple mod that can be done to these to add a series/parallel switch, or a push/pull pot. Can't remember where I read it but it'll hopefully turn up from a Google search, but it was claimed it makes the pickup much bigger and more aggressive sounding if I remember correctly. 

It's be a quicker and cheaper upgrade if nothing else! 

I have John (KiOgon) building me something very similar to this.

[EssentialTension]

22 hours ago, ezbass said:

Bruce Thomas gets an awful lot of love, quite rightly, here and is always associated with the P bass. However, I just found this image, whilst searching for info on another player.

 

 

Good on yer, Bruce.

The pickups look like De Armond Gold Tones.

[Baloney Balderdash]

33 minutes ago, EssentialTension said:

The pickups look like De Armond Gold Tones.

As far as I can tell they look exactly like any standard Gibson PAF style guitar humbucker pickup, just except for only having 4 exposed pole piece screws, with regular bass string spacing, instead of 6, with guitar string spacing, and then having an extra pickup adjustment screw attached to one of the sides of the pickup rings, but in every other aspect otherwise, visually at least, practically being perfectly identical. 

 

Edited May 18, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[bnt]

I'm seriously considering a Höfner Club Bass, probably the Ignition SE. I looked at the violin body, but that's a little too small for a 6" bloke, maybe. Not that the Club Bass is much larger; it looked "normal" on Tina Weymouth, who is at least a foot shorter. 

It's got the Lightness, being a hollowbody, and I'd like a little acoustic volume for playing by myself. It would probably get flatwounds fairly quickly. Yay or Nay?

[Baloney Balderdash]

38 minutes ago, bnt said:

I'm seriously considering a Höfner Club Bass, probably the Ignition SE. I looked at the violin body, but that's a little too small for a 6" bloke, maybe. Not that the Club Bass is much larger; it looked "normal" on Tina Weymouth, who is at least a foot shorter. 

It's got the Lightness, being a hollowbody, and I'd like a little acoustic volume for playing by myself. It would probably get flatwounds fairly quickly. Yay or Nay?

How do you think Stanley Clarke looks then?

 

And what is your stand on tall big people playing guitars, or even violins?

 

If I may give you a tip that might safe you some confusion in the future then remember that you need to use your ears not your eyes in everything related to music.

 

Also if it is any comfort I am 6"4' and my main instrument of choice is a just 28.6" scale Ibanez Mikro Bass.

 

Why?

 

I tell you, it's not because I expect to win any beauty contest, but because I really like how it feels to play in my hands, and how it sounds as well.

 

Edited May 18, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Paul S]

23 minutes ago, bnt said:

I'm seriously considering a Höfner Club Bass, probably the Ignition SE. I looked at the violin body, but that's a little too small for a 6" bloke, maybe. Not that the Club Bass is much larger; it looked "normal" on Tina Weymouth, who is at least a foot shorter. 

It's got the Lightness, being a hollowbody, and I'd like a little acoustic volume for playing by myself. It would probably get flatwounds fairly quickly. Yay or Nay?

 

I had one of those exact basses, a Club Ignition.  At the same time I had a Danelectro 56 single cut short scale and the Dano kicked it out of the park - way, way better in every respect.   An unfair comparison because the Dano is a more expensive instrument but, in and A/B comparison, for me there was no comparison.  So if there was room in my life for a short scale single cut hollow body bass it would be a Dano all the way.  Or maybe I'd try the Epiphone Rumblecat, purely because I haven't yet.

[Waddo Soqable]

4 minutes ago, Paul S said:

 

I had one of those exact basses, a Club Ignition.  At the same time I had a Danelectro 56 single cut short scale and the Dano kicked it out of the park - way, way better in every respect.   An unfair comparison because the Dano is a more expensive instrument but, in and A/B comparison, for me there was no comparison.  So if there was room in my life for a short scale single cut hollow body bass it would be a Dano all the way.  Or maybe I'd try the Epiphone Rumblecat, purely because I haven't yet.

I also had one, fairly briefly, they're a very cool looking little thing, but it really wasn't very useful as a player, and tbh didn't sound great, so it went. 

[meterman]

On 17/05/2023 at 19:34, martthebass said:

I’m thinking of a humbucker upgrade to this one. The tone on the stock is ok but I find it a bit weak against my Fallout and I occasionally swap about in a gig. Anyone any suggestions?

That’s weird, I remember really liking the pickup on the MW Mustang I had. It seemed to have a fatter sound than the other Mustang basses I had. Probably should have kept mine!

[martthebass]

3 hours ago, meterman said:

That’s weird, I remember really liking the pickup on the MW Mustang I had. It seemed to have a fatter sound than the other Mustang basses I had. Probably should have kept mine!

Don’t get me wrong, I like the base sound it’s just that the Fallout has so much ‘more’ that I’d love to have some of the same in the MW.

The price of the MW Mustangs does seem to have rocketed!

[msb]

I’m thinking of getting one of these , and dropping a Tbird pickup where the Jazz pickup is. And dropping a real mid 60’s Pbass pickup in the front. I was given the pickup over 40 years ago after someone pulled the stock pickup and dropped in a DiMarzio. I would like to actually use it again. I hear the taper on the stock pots is off so I may well change them too.

I like the shape , it kinda reminds me of some of the designs Paul Barth made in the late 50’s. And it’s said to be well made , for the price. I’ve never been one to mod things so this might be fun.

 

edit … looks like my Pbass pickups are mid 70’s … six digit , grey bobbin 

Edited May 19, 2023 by msb

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, martthebass said:

Don’t get me wrong, I like the base sound it’s just that the Fallout has so much ‘more’ that I’d love to have some of the same in the MW.

The price of the MW Mustangs does seem to have rocketed!

You could drop a G&L pickup in it, although that is probably covering the same ground.

[Obrienp]

2 hours ago, martthebass said:

Don’t get me wrong, I like the base sound it’s just that the Fallout has so much ‘more’ that I’d love to have some of the same in the MW.

The price of the MW Mustangs does seem to have rocketed!

If the pickup has a 4 conductor lead you can add a 3 way DPDT switch to get series/single coil/parallel options. I did this on my Squier Jaguar H bass and it really opened up the available tones. An alternative would be to use 2 push/pull pots: one to provide a coil tap and the other to switch between series and parallel wiring of the coils.
 

Series is louder and fatter, with prominent mids; parallel has scooped mids like the classic Stingray tone (and is not as loud); single coil is more like a Jazz pickup but the exact tone will depend on which coil you keep active. You may not be able to get the full Fallout tone this way, as I believe they use some resistors, in addition to series wiring, to shape the tone.

 

Apologies if this is teaching you to suck eggs: there are plenty of wiring diagrams online for these mods. I found the Bartolini diagrams very useful but bear in mind that there is no standard for the conductor colours, so you will have to figure out which colours your pickup uses. You need to identify start and end conductors for each coil, or do it by trial and error. There are some online guides on how to work out which conductor is which, if you don’t have the patience for the trial and error method.

[meterman]

4 hours ago, martthebass said:

Don’t get me wrong, I like the base sound it’s just that the Fallout has so much ‘more’ that I’d love to have some of the same in the MW.

The price of the MW Mustangs does seem to have rocketed!

I know! I missed a MW Mustang by about an hour on a local classifieds site earlier this year for something like €130. Bah! 

[EssentialTension]

On 18/05/2023 at 10:43, Baloney Balderdash said:

As far as I can tell they look exactly like any standard Gibson PAF style guitar humbucker pickup, just except for only having 4 exposed pole piece screws, with regular bass string spacing, instead of 6, with guitar string spacing, and then having an extra pickup adjustment screw attached to one of the sides of the pickup rings, but in every other aspect otherwise, visually at least, practically being perfectly identical. 

 

 

This is what they look like to me ...

 

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

1 hour ago, EssentialTension said:

 

This is what they look like to me ...

 

 

You might very well be right, but to me it just doesn't look the pickups in that picture are textured with a blank middle bar as these ones, but honestly hard to tell from the size and resolution of the photo, and it does add up with the one pickup height screw on one side of the pickup rings and then two on the other.

 

Edited May 19, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash