The Aerodyne Fender should have made?

[Geek99]

On 01/04/2024 at 12:10, Chienmortbb said:

I am the same, do I need another bass or more importantly how many more basses do I need?

“Yes” and “lots”

 

there you go.
sorted 

[Chienmortbb]

14 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

“Yes” and “lots”

 

there you go.
sorted 

For  me it is always one more.

[Geek99]

I focus this in an alternative way. 
I don’t need a new bass to get better at X. This bass is better at being a bass than I am at playing it. It is I would need to get better at X. 
 

for X substitute “timing”, “note choice”, “showmanship”, “talent” or bete-noire du jour 

[LowB_FTW]

11 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

I focus this in an alternative way. 
I don’t need a new bass to get better at X. This bass is better at being a bass than I am at playing it. It is I would need to get better at X. 
 

for X substitute “timing”, “note choice”, “showmanship”, “talent” or bete-noire du jour 

But … but … NEW BASS!

 

Mark

[neepheid]

Anyone want to post up some nicely lit pictures of theirs to soothe my anticipation/make it worse (cos it won't arrive until Tue/Wed)?

[Geek99]

12 hours ago, neepheid said:

Anyone want to post up some nicely lit pictures of theirs to soothe my anticipation/make it worse (cos it won't arrive until Tue/Wed)?

Invent a Time Machine, my dear Scottish brother from another mother and make it tues/wed earlier than it should be. Then you need not “get by” with mere images 

 

Simples

[Geek99]

On 30/06/2024 at 23:43, LowB_FTW said:

But … but … NEW BASS!

 

Mark

I’ve not had that feeling in 15 years, the memory grows dim

[neepheid]

9 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Invent a Time Machine, my dear Scottish brother from another mother and make it tues/wed earlier than it should be. Then you need not “get by” with mere images 

 

Simples

 

Why not, we invented damn near everything else

[Geek99]

53 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Why not, we invented damn near everything else

I forgot to say thanks for creating porridge …

[neepheid]

Mine arrived yesterday.  Me (mostly) likey - enough to keep it at least.

 

Good:

 

For the most part, well enough screwed together (but see bad/amusing points below)

I like how it looks (even though I didn't win the flamed maple lottery, mine is more about wood grain than flame)

Neck is well proportioned, and the satin finish is nice (couple of rough spots but acceptable for the price)

The roast on the neck is light but appreciable

I've always fancied a bound P bass so box ticked there

It sounds like a P bass (is it possible to get that wrong these days?)

 

Bad:

 

Tuners are garbage (the D tuner in mine in particular is probably faulty - it gets really stiff and difficult to turn when the string gets up to tuned tension regardless of how backed off the screw in the button is)

The pickup has a comically low output (when I first plugged it into my headphone amp set flat (half input gain, half volume) I thought the bass was dead, had to crank the input gain and volume up for it to be heard)

A couple of quite nasty fret ends

String tree wasn't fully screwed down

 

Amusing:

 

One of the bridge saddles was installed the wrong way round

The binding is a tad "wobbly" in places

 

But for all that, it's pretty good - certainly commensurate with its price tag of £150.

 

Last night I addressed most of the shortcomings:

 

Stock strings off (and in the bin)

Stock tuners off (and in the bin) and replaced with a set of black Grover minis I had hoarded for years (yay for hoarding!)

Bridge saddle removed and flipped round the right way

Swarf removed from the nut slots

Nasty fret ends ground back (tbf there were only 3 that needed attention)

New strings on, full setup (needed a the truss rod slackened off a quarter turn - for a horrible moment I thought I had a high fret but it was that the neck was dead flat)

 

It's playing really well now, I'm pretty pleased with it.  The plan is to put an "interesting" pickup in there, currently eyeing up a Lace Aluma-P or a Herrick multicoil.

 

Some pics from last night's fettling session:

 

[Geek99]

Looks pretty good. Thumbs up 

[neepheid]

I took my G4M P bass to a band rehearsal last night.  It played pretty well - in that the neck, post fettling, was very nice and I was quite happily whizzing around it.  But I did uncover another entry in the "Amusing" fun facts - the pickup is comically badly made.  It's not that it doesn't make bassy sounds, it does.  But one half of the pickup is microphonic, and the other half isn't!  Never encountered this in my life.

 

Doesn't matter as I intend to replace the pickup, but it made me chuckle!  I think it'll be a fine bass once I change the pickup.

[neepheid]

So, a Lace Aluma-P arrived and I put it in the G4M P bass.  Eventually.  Be warned, either Lace don't know the standard dimensions of a P bass pickup or whoever made this bass doesn't (my money is on Lace knowing what's what), because the cutout is about 5mm too wide (both halves) and I had to make a new screw hole on the right side of both halves of the pickup.  Doesn't matter from an aesthetics point of view, it's a rat bass, it knows what it is.

 

Also, the pickup cavity is deeper than normal, because the stock pickup has the bar magnet crudely glued to the underside of the bottom bobbin, so needs a deeper cavity to accommodate this.  The Lace Aluma-P has no appreciable mounting lugs (unlike a regular P bass cover) so the screws sit lower relative to a regular pickup.  So there's a risk that if you use the existing screws, you could screw through the back of the bass.  Now Lace know this and supply short screws.  Trouble with that is that then the pickup sits far too low in this extra deep cavity.  To work around this, first I used the original screws with the springs above the pickup mounting lug acting as improvised spacers, but then I had a brainwave and borrowed some screws from a bridge humbucker pickup ring (being 2.5x16mm - the Lace screws are 12mm) to get the pickup up to the correct height.  I've ordered some screws (2.5x18mm - which are actually intended to be string tree screws) so things will be a bit more secure and I'll be able to return the screws I borrowed to the thing I borrowed them from.

 

Original, super janky mount with original screws and springs acting as spacers (foam pushing up from the bottom):

 

 

And done properly (albeit with borrowed screws - to be replaced)

 

 

Sounds great BTW - really punchy, tight sound but not sterile.  Great upgrade.  Looking forward to giving it a proper razz at a band rehearsal this week.

Edited July 8 by neepheid

[neepheid]

Fitted a little quality of life/aesthetic improvement - Sire style 3 string retainer, and thank you to whoever made this bass for putting the original string retainer in front of the A tuner, so could use existing hole and no holes to fill 

 

Edited July 9 by neepheid

[Bassassin]

If it's like my Cheapo SuperStrat, that G4M logo's just printed over the finish and should come off with some T-Cut & a bit of persistence. If you're bothered by such things.

 

[neepheid]

11 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

If it's like my Cheapo SuperStrat, that G4M logo's just printed over the finish and should come off with some T-Cut & a bit of persistence. If you're bothered by such things.

 

Eh, it's a rat bass, I'm not that bothered what's on the headstock. Thanks for the info though.

[Chienmortbb]

I am still having trouble getting the string height/action down far enough. The truss rod adjusts well so no worried on that score but its way to high to play for long. I have filed down one of the saddles, as advised above, but it is still too high. The individual bridge pieces are no taller than any others so replacing them is not the answer. I will try various shims next week to see if that works.

[neepheid]

2 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

I am still having trouble getting the string height/action down far enough. The truss rod adjusts well so no worried on that score but its way to high to play for long. I have filed down one of the saddles, as advised above, but it is still too high. The individual bridge pieces are no taller than any others so replacing them is not the answer. I will try various shims next week to see if that works.

 

Yup, shim the neck then.  You won't need much - a little goes a long way.

[Stub Mandrel]

3 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

Yup, shim the neck then.  You won't need much - a little goes a long way.

 This is the only circumstance where shimming is the right way to go.

[Chienmortbb]

On 08/07/2024 at 12:29, neepheid said:

So, a Lace Aluma-P arrived and I put it in the G4M P bass.  Eventually.  Be warned, either Lace don't know the standard dimensions of a P bass pickup or whoever made this bass doesn't (my money is on Lace knowing what's what), because the cutout is about 5mm too wide (both halves) and I had to make a new screw hole on the right side of both halves of the pickup.  Doesn't matter from an aesthetics point of view, it's a rat bass, it knows what it is.

 

Also, the pickup cavity is deeper than normal, because the stock pickup has the bar magnet crudely glued to the underside of the bottom bobbin, so needs a deeper cavity to accommodate this.  The Lace Aluma-P has no appreciable mounting lugs (unlike a regular P bass cover) so the screws sit lower relative to a regular pickup.  So there's a risk that if you use the existing screws, you could screw through the back of the bass.  Now Lace know this and supply short screws.  Trouble with that is that then the pickup sits far too low in this extra deep cavity.  To work around this, first I used the original screws with the springs above the pickup mounting lug acting as improvised spacers, but then I had a brainwave and borrowed some screws from a bridge humbucker pickup ring (being 2.5x16mm - the Lace screws are 12mm) to get the pickup up to the correct height.  I've ordered some screws (2.5x18mm - which are actually intended to be string tree screws) so things will be a bit more secure and I'll be able to return the screws I borrowed to the thing I borrowed them from.

 

Original, super janky mount with original screws and springs acting as spacers (foam pushing up from the bottom):

 

 

And done properly (albeit with borrowed screws - to be replaced)

 

 

Sounds great BTW - really punchy, tight sound but not sterile.  Great upgrade.  Looking forward to giving it a proper razz at a band rehearsal this week.

Expensive upgrade for a lor cost bass?

[neepheid]

1 hour ago, Chienmortbb said:

Expensive upgrade for a lor cost bass?

 

It was always the plan to use the G4M bass as a mule to carry something unusual/exotic, and defy expectations.

 

Bass cost £150, pickup cost £135.  It plays nicer than the sum of its parts, imo.

 

I kept the stock pickup if I ever need to offload, but it won't be worth very much second hand and therefore not really worth selling, so I think it's pretty safe.

[Chienmortbb]

I have some Hipshot machine heads going on mine so I am also guilty..

[neepheid]

8 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

I have some Hipshot machine heads going on mine so I am also guilty..

 

There's nothing to feel guilty about.  Taking a bass such as this and turning it into something greater than the sum of its parts is a noble endeavour.  Just remember to keep the stock bits lest you ever need to sell...

[Chienmortbb]

11 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

There's nothing to feel guilty about.  Taking a bass such as this and turning it into something greater than the sum of its parts is a noble endeavour.  Just remember to keep the stock bits lest you ever need to sell...

I did that with my Site M2 but to be honest I am not sure I could sell it with those pieces of scrap metal fitted. 

[lemmywinks]

11 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

There's nothing to feel guilty about.  Taking a bass such as this and turning it into something greater than the sum of its parts is a noble endeavour.  Just remember to keep the stock bits lest you ever need to sell...

 

Earlier this year I stuck an East Uni Pre in a bass I picked up for £130, gigged it and it sounds incredible. Did win the "cheap bass with a great low B" lottery wth it and the neck is fantastic so thought it was worth getting it to where I wanted sonically.