Fender P bass surprise

[dmccombe7]

My Sandberg VM4 that i always use with the 70's Glam covers band had duff E & A strings after the last gig so i decided to take my P bass to rehearsals last week and WOW i was so surprised how well it sat in the mix and with the EBS HD360 amp almost flat it still had lots of depth of tone.

I was worried that it wouldn't give me the clarity i like from my VM4 but it did a fantastic job and i could hear every note clearly.

Gonna take it to the punk gig on Sat night to see how it compares to using my MarloweDK.

Just goes to show that you should never rule out a good old P bass.

Dave  

[Lozz196]

Definitely, they might not be the most refined of basses but a good old P-Bass will work nicely for many/most genres. 

[dmccombe7]

3 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Definitely, they might not be the most refined of basses but a good old P-Bass will work nicely for many/most genres. 

Its a Vintera P bass so not a top of the range bass but it sounds wonderful. It has that warmth of tone. The neck isn't the best fit for me but i can cope with that.

I've managed to get string height down to 2mm but the neck has a weird "kink from the neck joint. I can get the neck straight from nut to neck joint and then it kinks up very slightly. Its a weird thing. It means i get choking on the 14th / 15th fret if i lower the strings any further. 

To be fair 2mm string height is pretty good anyways.

Its the blonde one with maple neck.

I have tried the £2k fender P basses but the Vintera ones just seemed to suit me better. I found the fret height were slightly lower than the more expensive P basses.

I can see me looking for another P bass just for a change if it sounds as good in the punk band on SAt night. I play solely with fingerstyle.

Dave

[peteb]

1 minute ago, dmccombe7 said:

Its a Vintera P bass so not a top of the range bass but it sounds wonderful. It has that warmth of tone. The neck isn't the best fit for me but i can cope with that.

I've managed to get string height down to 2mm but the neck has a weird "kink from the neck joint. I can get the neck straight from nut to neck joint and then it kinks up very slightly. Its a weird thing. It means i get choking on the 14th / 15th fret if i lower the strings any further. 

To be fair 2mm string height is pretty good anyways.

Its the blonde one with maple neck.

I have tried the £2k fender P basses but the Vintera ones just seemed to suit me better. I found the fret height were slightly lower than the more expensive P basses.

I can see me looking for another P bass just for a change if it sounds as good in the punk band on SAt night. I play solely with fingerstyle.

Dave

 

To be fair, that sounds like one of the bad ones!! 

 

[dmccombe7]

Just now, peteb said:

 

To be fair, that sounds like one of the bad ones!! 

 

It doesn't choke with the way its set up now. I would have thought 2mm string height with no fret buzz or choking is ok. ?

I'm no expert on P basses but is that not ok

I could probably get a pro set up done and have the nut height reduced but that's not something i would tackle myself.

Dave

 

[Lozz196]

6 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

I have tried the £2k fender P basses but the Vintera ones just seemed to suit me better. I found the fret height were slightly lower than the more expensive P basses.

Dave

Yes I`ve got - and am selling - a US Professional, it`s the tall frets that I`m not keen on as well, other than that a really nice bass but those frets........

[dmccombe7]

1 minute ago, Lozz196 said:

Yes I`ve got - and am selling - a US Professional, it`s the tall frets that I`m not keen on as well, other than that a really nice bass but those frets........

I think its because i generally play hard with my right hand fingerstyle and instinctively play hard with my fret hand and therefore tend to push strings all the way down to the neck rather than just lightly enough to touch the fret. The further i need to press the string down can give me some aches and pains when playing longer gigs.

I'm comparing them to my Fender Geddy Jazz, both Sandberg basses which have lower frets and they are far easier to play. Vintera P is slightly higher fret height but not a lot so it works ok.

Dave

[peteb]

22 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

It doesn't choke with the way its set up now. I would have thought 2mm string height with no fret buzz or choking is ok. ?

I'm no expert on P basses but is that not ok

I could probably get a pro set up done and have the nut height reduced but that's not something i would tackle myself.

Dave

 

 

I would get someone who knows what they're doing to have a look at it. It sounds like the neck might be f***ed - it certainly shouldn't be like that, but maybe a pro can sort it. 

 

[EBS_freak]

A P bass is a bass that I loathe playing. I hate the sound of it in isolation.

 

In the mix...? Killer. Just works every time!

[peteb]

24 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Yes I`ve got - and am selling - a US Professional, it`s the tall frets that I`m not keen on as well, other than that a really nice bass but those frets........

 

18 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

I think its because i generally play hard with my right hand fingerstyle and instinctively play hard with my fret hand and therefore tend to push strings all the way down to the neck rather than just lightly enough to touch the fret.

 

Perhaps a little bit of work on your technique lads?? 

 

Dave - that doesn't sound very efficient and must be tiring. I haven't got a really light touch or anything, but never had any issues like that. 

Loz - if you like the bass, why not get a pro to do some fretwork on it? I'm sure that it will sort any issues out, although it's not something you want to do yourself. 

 

[Lozz196]

I have to admit I`ve considered that Pete - I had one a couple of years back and asked our very own Gary Mac if he could swap out the frets for medium jumbos as per my others and he said he could easily enough, but I then thinned the herd back so never got round to it. 

 

With this one I`ve similarly considered it, but I`ve just got too many basses - I`ve been through a "buy many to find the right ones" kinda thing. I`ve got there now so am just selling off the ones that didn`t make the grade so to speak. 

[police squad]

Mu old '73 has very low and wide frets. I bought it 32 years ago and sent it to my mate Andy Crocket for a set up. It came back amazing and I haven't adjusted the truss rod in 32 years.

I have never played another P bass with the same feel (my JMJ Mustang has the most similar neck profile that I have ever played). I have played P basses since I bought my first in 1988. 

I find they always deliver a great sound

Here's a gratuitous picture of it with my musch missed Tobi cat

 

[ezbass]

49 minutes ago, police squad said:

Mu old '73 has very low and wide frets. I bought it 32 years ago and sent it to my mate Andy Crocket for a set up. It came back amazing and I haven't adjusted the truss rod in 32 years.

I have never played another P bass with the same feel (my JMJ Mustang has the most similar neck profile that I have ever played). I have played P basses since I bought my first in 1988. 

I find they always deliver a great sound

Here's a gratuitous picture of it with my musch missed Tobi cat

 

How do you find the JMJ compares tone-wise to you P?

[skankdelvar]

6 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

the neck has a weird "kink from the neck joint

 

Congratulations, Dave; you are the proud owner of a neck with a 'ski jump'.

 

image from https://hazeguitars.com/blog/neck-shimming-and-ski-jumps-the-latest-research

 

 

Opinion is divided about the cause of ski jumps; some say it's caused by shimming. Others disagree and as one might expect there's a 19-page thread on Talkbass about it.

 

The solutions include (i) progressively reducing the fret height or if it's really bad (ii) pop the frets, plane the board level and put in new frets.

 

Or crank the action skywards and put up with it, ache-y hand and all.
 

Edited August 26, 2022 by skankdelvar

[nilorius]

I don't see a problem here. If you think your old p bass rules - use it and just be happy! End.

[dmccombe7]

3 hours ago, skankdelvar said:

 

Congratulations, Dave; you are the proud owner of a neck with a 'ski jump'.

 

image from https://hazeguitars.com/blog/neck-shimming-and-ski-jumps-the-latest-research

 

 

Opinion is divided about the cause of ski jumps; some say it's caused by shimming. Others disagree and as one might expect there's a 19-page thread on Talkbass about it.

 

The solutions include (i) progressively reducing the fret height or if it's really bad (ii) pop the frets, plane the board level and put in new frets.

 

Or crank the action skywards and put up with it, ache-y hand and all.
 

Yep that's it almost spot on altho not quite as bad as that. The ski jump actually starts around the point where the neck joins the body but its straight from there to the 21st fret. The bass isn't that old tho and altho i haven't checked to see if its shimmed or not i wouldn't expect shimming to have done this in such a short space of time.

Its not bad enough that i would worry too much about it but i might take a look to see if its shimmed next time i change the strings.

I've just put a shim in my MarloweDK and now i'm worried it might cause this exact problem. I can see how it might with a shim at the heel and a 6 screw fix to the body i could see the middle screws pulling down on the neck towards the body as there will be a slight gap there now.

If it bothers me enough i'll put it into a pro but at the moment its fine.

I might now look at a rethink on the shim i've just put in my Marlowe as i dont want that neck to have a major issue. like this.

Dave

Edited August 26, 2022 by dmccombe7

[dmccombe7]

I've read a few things now about why not to put a short shim in the end of the neck pocket and preference being a tapered shim.

If the short shim is a risk to damaging the neck why not put a slightly thicker full pocket shim in and raise the full neck in pocket height.

The shim i used was only 0.3mm thick but if i just put a full pocket shim of say 0.5mm the full length of the pocket that would raise the full neck height albiet level rather than angled. That would protect the neck in same way as a tapered shim and it would negate any air space between the fixing screws.

I literally only need to drop the string height about 0.5mm to get where i want it to be.

I understand its a thicker shim than if tapered. 

Where can i get a tapered shim for a 6 bolt Sandberg neck ? 

Dave