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Them giving me a sweetwater card was a big mistake for everyone involved. But I did get a JHS Colourbox v2 yesterday. Put it on the board and was really disappointed. Then I turned off the sans amp that was right after. I normally have that “always on” and pretty much all at noon except the presence and drive. Good lord, with the sans amp out, that thing is amazing. Barely driving it at all I had to use the two available pads on my amp to get it to not rattle the room. There is a bananas amount of gain stages in that thing. The hi-lo nearly doubles what is there. It sound phenomenal. Especially because with basically top dead center settings, it has an amazing warm tone with the pre a bit overdriven, but still sounds incredible with popping. Its totally gonna be an always on guy and basically my new DI/pre. Just stunned even at low volume how well it “cuts through the mix” which I am not even sure I fully understood till now. Its not cheap, but for anyone looking, worth every penny. Around $450 us and a lot cheaper than a Noble.
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May 9, 2023 20:55
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Discussion Quorum posted:
I would absolutely take a CV over the Affinity. And as an owner of a CV 70s Jazz, I can't recommend it enough. I love that thing.
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May 9, 2023 23:46
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Does anybody know of any good resources for doing a home setup of a 5 string bass? I purchased a Jackson CBX V and there's some fret buzz that I'm trying to get rid of. I'm thinking the whole thing just needs to be set up since it was shipped from California to South Carolina and the climate difference is pretty large.
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May 11, 2023 13:44
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I like the Fodera playlist for detail, but it's pretty long: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhgArppckUoHUaOzvUaLeLlyG4xWNEKJb The Dingwall playlist is less in depth but still well put together and less time consuming: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwIf_jr1I1uqUiq0umkQ_OJRlM6hSpyqR Regardless of what resource you use, watch/read the whole thing before you start tweaking settings like mad! A setup is a big series of compromises across all the parameters, with the goal of finding the best middle ground for your particular instrument and your particular playing style - if you never play above the 10th fret, there's no need to focus on playability from the 15-20th frets, for example.
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May 11, 2023 14:33
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Thanks for that. One of my problems is that I tend to hit the strings very hard with my playing hand and that's causing some buzz. Hoping to get things set up for metal style playing, so I'll probably need some decent range up top. Going to go to the hardware store today and get a feeler gauge and a straightedge so I can do everything right.
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May 11, 2023 14:48
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Discussion Quorum posted:
You'd have to have a pretty drat strong magnet to gently caress up a pickup, the magnet in it is right in the center and wrapped in wire, you don't even need to remove the strings, just detune it enough to wiggle the pickup out (Watch for the springs, tho, they can really fly). Alternatively, I would absolutely recommend a CV over an Affinity. But the scratchplate shouldn't be thinner because it's cheaper, there is a standard thickness. If you can find a cheap G&L Tribute I would recommend it highly over a Squier, they're Indonesian but better than Mexican Fenders.
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May 12, 2023 13:00
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The scratchplates are not all the same. I don't have an Affinity to measure with a caliper, but Affinity models often have a single-ply pickguard, and pretty much everything else uses a three-ply (except for the anodized aluminum ones, of course). It's very possible that they are different thicknesses, although that shouldn't cause the issues described. And I'd also go with CV over Affinity any time I had to choose between the two.
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May 12, 2023 13:06
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Vargatron posted:Does anybody know of any good resources for doing a home setup of a 5 string bass? I purchased a Jackson CBX V and there's some fret buzz that I'm trying to get rid of. I'm thinking the whole thing just needs to be set up since it was shipped from California to South Carolina and the climate difference is pretty large. Look along the neck, from top and bottom. It should be flat as. If you see a slight bow, you'll be getting buzz. -Loosen off the A string so you can get to the truss rod. If the bow is arching backwards, give it a wee half-turn to the left with a hex key. If the bow is arching frontways, same but to the right. Don't be afraid to put some pressure on it to move, you really have to overwind them to gently caress em up. Do a little at a time and check look down along the neck to see progress. If the neck is straight, it might be a matter of adjusting the bridge. -The saddle can move back and forth, lower strings in lower tuning usually benefit from being closer tot he bottom of the guitar, higher strings to the top, but not a whole lot on either depending on the guitar, so try little bits at a time and see if there are improvements. (Usually done from the bottom of the bridge with a phillips head) It might also be string height. - Using one of the smaller hex key, adjust the grub screws on the saddle of the offending string. If it goes way too high before sounding ok, find a nice middle ground. If you are hitting the pickups. -A mix of string height and pickup height might be a problem, use a phillips head to adjust the pickup height with the two screws on either side of it. Just get them out of reach, you'll lose a bit of punch if you put them too low. If none of these work, well, some basses are just jerks.
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May 12, 2023 13:13
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tarlibone posted:The scratchplates are not all the same. I don't have an Affinity to measure with a caliper, but Affinity models often have a single-ply pickguard, and pretty much everything else uses a three-ply (except for the anodized aluminum ones, of course). It's very possible that they are different thicknesses, although that shouldn't cause the issues described. Single-ply or three-ply are generally aesthetic choices these days (I think people like the pinstripe on a three-ply), they're basically as thick, but not different enough for there to be a massive enough difference to make a standard jack not fit. I had an aluminium one on an 86 G&L SB-1 I had, which was weird and very difficult to remove when I put the original pickups back in it. It was also much heavier than a standard guard. Lucky the bass was fairly light, but there's some it wouldn't suit because of that. Maximum Sexy Pigeon fucked around with this message at 13:18 on May 12, 2023 |
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May 12, 2023 13:16
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Maximum Sexy Pigeon posted:You'd have to have a pretty drat strong magnet to gently caress up a pickup, the magnet in it is right in the center and wrapped in wire, you don't even need to remove the strings, just detune it enough to wiggle the pickup out (Watch for the springs, tho, they can really fly). Turns out that a) the washer was indeed magnetic and b) no magnet I had readily at hand was able to wrest it away from the pickup magnets. I got it out by taking advantage of the fact that any metal I put near the pickup got magnetized as well... used a twist tie to raise it up and the end of a binder clip to pin it in place so that I could get my hands around it. If it's stupid but it works... tarlibone posted:The scratchplates are not all the same. I don't have an Affinity to measure with a caliper I'm measuring roughly 1.5mm (like 1.55 to 1.58). No idea if it's what originally came on the guitar or not. I'm assuming the kind of person who buys a beginner bass in 2020/2021 and turns it back in to Guitar Center a year later isn't doing a lot of customization.
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May 12, 2023 15:19
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Anyone got experience with true fire for bass lessons?
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May 13, 2023 02:12
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Discussion Quorum posted:Turns out that a) the washer was indeed magnetic and b) no magnet I had readily at hand was able to wrest it away from the pickup magnets. I got it out by taking advantage of the fact that any metal I put near the pickup got magnetized as well... used a twist tie to raise it up and the end of a binder clip to pin it in place so that I could get my hands around it. If it's stupid but it works... Well, going by that capacitor wired to the jack, I'd say it's had some sort of mod done to it, hence the wrong jack. I don't think there were any Affinity series that came with anything but bare basic passive wiring with two wires going to the jack, that looks like there are three in your pic, but two are going to the tip there.
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May 13, 2023 04:07
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Weird. It's from the output of the tone pot to the sleeve of the jack. I'm not up to speed enough on guitar circuits to make much sense of that but it's 47nF which seems standard-ish in value, just not in its typical position within the circuit? Anyways I've decided the Affinity is getting replaced with something that has more staying power. Maybe new bass pics tomorrow 
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May 13, 2023 05:15
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Discussion Quorum posted:Weird. It's from the output of the tone pot to the sleeve of the jack. I'm not up to speed enough on guitar circuits to make much sense of that but it's 47nF which seems standard-ish in value, just not in its typical position within the circuit? Yeh, capacitors are usually between Vol and Tone. No idea what the idea for that one came from.
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May 13, 2023 06:09
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The tone circuit works by having a volume pot and a capacitor, and there are a lot of ways you can hook it up that are all electronically equivalent. The long and short of it is, the hot signal (usually coming off the volume pot, directly from the hot from the pickup(s)) goes to one of the side lugs (1 or 3) on the tone pot. The wiper is connected to one leg of a capacitor, and the other leg is grounded, usually to the pot. The thing is, as long as the wiper of the tone pot is connected to a capacitor, the other end of the capacitor can be grounded to any viable ground, and the tone circuit will work fine. In a standard wiring setup, the bridge, pot cases, and sleeve of the output jack will all be a common ground. So, you could definitely connect a capacitor between the wiper and the sleeve of the output jack. It would work fine, assuming everything else is wired correctly. Now, if you take the hot from the pickups or volume pot and connect that directly to the sleeve of the output jack via a capacitor (as opposed to going hot > Lug 1/3 and Wiper > Cap > Ground), you've wired it to always attenuate the high frequencies. Unless you're doing that on purpose, that's a mistake.
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May 13, 2023 18:28
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Friendship ended with Affinity. Now Sterling is my best friend. Was all set to pick up this when this popped up for the same price. While I was dithering whether I wanted the J bass or that blue/tortoiseshell P  I came across this Ray24 for basically SUB4 pricing. Only thing wrong with it besides general playing wear is I wasn't sure about the butterscotch but I really like it in person. tarlibone posted:The thing is, as long as the wiper of the tone pot is connected to a capacitor Yeah I was fuzzy on my electronics terminology. It was from wiper to sleeve. The bass sounded pretty normal to me, not that my playing would be any indicator but the employee play-tested it when I traded it in and it sounded like a J-bass.
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May 13, 2023 20:25
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That p bass is tempting as gently caress
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May 13, 2023 23:41
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Cross post from the new instrument thread because the setup was just so LOL bad. Picked this up on the cheap yesterday and took a few extra bucks off for the wacky bowed neck. It ended up flattening fine but still. Original clearance. Could sail a tall ship through that gap of fretboard to strings 
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May 14, 2023 11:51
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Speaking of tempting P's, you can still get great MIJ Fender P's. I got this for around $USD830 1993 FujiGen Q series (one of the last MIJs).  Not as obsessively spec'd as the later CIJ series, but the pups are great the knobs look pretty good, and its one of the most resonant basses I have, very clear harmonics. Some of these basses occasionally come with USA pickups but the original spec are just fine, great bitey P sound with rounds. Can't wait to put some LaBellas on it. ewe2 fucked around with this message at 01:15 on May 16, 2023 |
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May 14, 2023 12:22
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Are you buying your Japanese basses physically here (Australia) or online from overseas? From memory, you had photos of a Motion IIIB or something just recently.
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May 14, 2023 13:21
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Anyone here in the NYC area and know a good spot to fix a severely damaged upright or double bass? I've had it for yrs from another bassist who gave it to me and I owe it at least the attempt to fix it.
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May 15, 2023 21:55
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Shageletic posted:Anyone here in the NYC area and know a good spot to fix a severely damaged upright or double bass? I've had it for yrs from another bassist who gave it to me and I owe it at least the attempt to fix it. David Gage or Kolstein are the big ones around there, but you might as the DB section on talkbass and they can recommend you a luthier. Wanna know about the bass and see some pics, since there's not much upright talk here.
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May 15, 2023 22:33
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Discussion Quorum posted:Friendship ended with Affinity. Now Sterling is my best friend. Very nice, I had a S.U.B and the build was fantastic, but drat they are POWERFUL. I don't know how the electrics go on the 34s but you may want to treat 6 or 7 on the dials as 10 with extra headroom. tarlibone posted:Unless you're doing that on purpose, that's a mistake. My thoughts exactly, I know having the capacitor there wasn't going to be an issue but it's just... weird. But also considering it doesn't look to be bypassing through it is weirder. Maybe it does do something. Maybe it's some genius tone-polishing move we don't know about yet. But speaking of MMs above, I understand there was a similar mod for the SUBs that made them stop overloading the signal. So... quote:Japanese bass talk Hell yeah, my jam! But thanks to the current financial crisis I am in, I am down to four MIJ basses (And one MIJ guitar) which is just pitiful.  L-R: 82 Cimar 2072, 76 Ibanez 2452DX, 82 Ibanez MC924, 87 Greco RB700
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May 16, 2023 00:39
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Elissimpark posted:Are you buying your Japanese basses physically here (Australia) or online from overseas? I buy them online from a guy in Brisbane (who only does pickup by appointment) but there are other Australian sources on ebay which may have a physical outlet. It seems Australia is a good source of MIJ basses particularly of Yamaha and Fender and more elusive Japanese brands like Aria Pro II. So I have the fretless Yamaha Motion IIIB, the Aria Pro II Cardinal CSB-380, and the Fender Precision which is a very odd collection but they're all wonderful and different. I found the Motion B on ebay took a risk on buying it because it was inexpensive and fretless and the photos were unusually good for an ebay item. That's how I found my source of basses. It's very easy to pickup a good quality MIJ Jazz here, the Precisions are harder to find, everybody wants the 80's-90's FujiGen vintage or at least pre "Crafted In Japan", not that those basses aren't great, it's just vintage GAS. Maximum Sexy Pigeon posted:Hell yeah, my jam! Yeah the trouble is stopping myself wanting a complete set. There's so many weird Yamaha variants of Motion-B and RBX's out there: shortscale, medium and full-length, everything in pickup configurations from soapbar to PJ, one I'm looking at right now has a soapbar and 2x J's like a superstrat bass. ewe2 fucked around with this message at 04:40 on May 16, 2023 |
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May 16, 2023 01:15
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If you crank the EQs on Stingrays of course they’re going to clip, that’s how active electronics work. The flat position is about halfway up, most modern ones should have a center detent but I don’t know if the cheaper two band ones are like that or the more vintage Music Man style.
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May 16, 2023 02:26
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The Wiggly Wizard posted:David Gage or Kolstein are the big ones around there, but you might as the DB section on talkbass and they can recommend you a luthier. Thanks. It all depends on a number of factors, if it actually works, if I get some lessons so I don't gently caress up my fingers, etc. But yeah I'd love to post about it.
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May 16, 2023 03:16
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DrChu posted:If you crank the EQs on Stingrays of course they’re going to clip, that’s how active electronics work. The flat position is about halfway up, most modern ones should have a center detent but I don’t know if the cheaper two band ones are like that or the more vintage Music Man style. The Ray24 I posted above has center detents. The SUB apparently uses the same preamp so presumably has the same knobs.
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May 16, 2023 03:38
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The sub has the detents too... Tho mine no longer does cause I have done a lot of things to it
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May 16, 2023 03:44
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DrChu posted:If you crank the EQs on Stingrays of course they’re going to clip, that’s how active electronics work. The flat position is about halfway up, most modern ones should have a center detent but I don’t know if the cheaper two band ones are like that or the more vintage Music Man style. I have three active basses and they don't clip out like the SUB did. I've owned a few other actives that never have, too. It's the way them MMs are, up to 11. Maximum Sexy Pigeon fucked around with this message at 08:49 on May 16, 2023 |
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May 16, 2023 08:47
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When I was debating what to buy I did a bit of a dive into teardowns of the lower end MMs. The SUB and Ray24/25 have the same preamp but a different pickup. The consensus is that the SUB pickup is much hotter and leads to clipping/distortion where the Ray24 (and presumably the higher end models with different electronics entirely) wouldn't. All secondhand info of course but it tracks with what you're saying.
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May 16, 2023 12:19
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The bridge on that Jaguar was not drilled square to the neck, so when I slapped on the longer Hipshot it just amplified the issue to where I could notice it. It pushed the lighter strings closer to the fretboard edge. The holes were actually drilled on a slight angle as well as about 1/8” off centre.  So after a bit of drilling, doweling, and then redrilling the next day. Things are much better now.  The gang’s all here 
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May 16, 2023 13:32
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I didn’t think I had the image saved, but here it is for the sweet double post. If you look at the A string versus the saddle groove, you can spot the angle issue better and my sexy gray sweatpants. 
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May 16, 2023 13:35
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Discussion Quorum posted:When I was debating what to buy I did a bit of a dive into teardowns of the lower end MMs. The SUB and Ray24/25 have the same preamp but a different pickup. The consensus is that the SUB pickup is much hotter and leads to clipping/distortion where the Ray24 (and presumably the higher end models with different electronics entirely) wouldn't. I went to an open jam the other day and some other folks tried to play my SUB Ray 4. It was fun to see them struggle a bit to tame it. Eventually one of them managed to and played Higher Ground basically exactly like the record (dude was the real motherfucking deal). It's a wild horse that at this point I've adapted my playing to unconsciously based on repetition so it's perfectly suited to me. But there's a learning curve compared to a more conventional bass. E: I love that distortion by the way. Really is a fun way to do leads.
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May 16, 2023 15:55
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ewe2 posted:I buy them online from a guy in Brisbane (who only does pickup by appointment) but there are other Australian sources on ebay which may have a physical outlet. It seems Australia is a good source of MIJ basses particularly of Yamaha and Fender and more elusive Japanese brands like Aria Pro II. So I have the fretless Yamaha Motion IIIB, the Aria Pro II Cardinal CSB-380, and the Fender Precision which is a very odd collection but they're all wonderful and different. I've been playing around with Japan Yahoo! auctions through Buyee and Japan Rabbit, partly because its interesting to see all the Japanese brands and partly because I wanna get something cool relatively cheaply. I've got a couple Fresher basses (a P and a J) and a Stewart P (Matsumoku apparently) waiting to get shipped already. I think I paid about $250-300 total for all three - shipping likely works out to about $80 each, once they've been disassembled. I've definitely been GAS'ing for those 70's-80's P basses - its interesting what brands people are bidding for. Greco and Tokai are pretty competitive, as is Yamaha, especially Pulser basses. Which is a shame, because I'd love a Pulser in natural with a maple neck. Aria Pro II can be hit and miss. Fresher seems to be less popular. I saw a Campbell P bass, a MIJ brand I hadn't heard of and could find little information about, get a whole lot of interest. Same for Joodee, again a brand there's little information in English about. I think I'm enjoying the detective work a bit too. Definitely learning about the history of guitar manufacturing in Japan. This guy's Youtube channel isn't helping me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX9pNllJwG8 He seems to specialise in restoring MIJ basses
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May 16, 2023 19:00
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Elissimpark posted:I've definitely been GAS'ing for those 70's-80's P basses - its interesting what brands people are bidding for. Greco and Tokai are pretty competitive, as is Yamaha, especially Pulser basses. Which is a shame, because I'd love a Pulser in natural with a maple neck. Aria Pro II can be hit and miss. Fresher seems to be less popular. I saw a Campbell P bass, a MIJ brand I hadn't heard of and could find little information about, get a whole lot of interest. Same for Joodee, again a brand there's little information in English about. Yeah its a minefield  The stuff they made for their own internal market is mostly unknown, part of the difficulty is when you realize that companies would build parts for each other and share parts between each other so some Japanese market instruments were a combination of parts left over from whatever they were selling for other markets and even relatively well-known brands would be built from cheap processes like compressed woodchip and pot metal casting. It doesn't help either that the companies themselves tend to brush up their CVs and make claims about their involvement in the industry history that are untrue. I've seen a lot of rubbish about and from FujiGen for instance, who claim they were the first to use CNC machines when they were dependent on Matsumko who'd been using CNCs since the 70's to make the parts for them. This kind of interdependence is how Nippon Gakki got their start, same for Tokai and Greco. Many brands are imprints for others eg Aria Pro and Westone were brands for Matsumoko, unless the company bragged on the instrument itself it might be impossible to figure out where it came from. I think I've been most surprised about Yamaha's earlier basses and where they got their basses made, I had always assumed they'd had their own factory and it had just been a smooth in-house progression for them so to find that they'd been using outside factories and all these weird basses was a delicious shock. Particularly because these basses were really for the Japanese market, it's a side of Yamaha we never saw outside the whole BB thing. ewe2 fucked around with this message at 02:18 on May 17, 2023 |
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May 17, 2023 02:14
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Sockington posted:
Sweet set, you got a type I see. That one on the left is interesting, looks like it might be an old Greco body, real early 70's. (JB380 model). How do those old pickups sound?
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May 17, 2023 02:27
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To add to the fun are modern MIJ brands, a lot of which are boutique-y like Freedom Guitar Research and Moon, but there's ones like CoolZ, which sounds like a knock off brand from the 90's, but actually is apparently pretty decent. Or Bacchus, which does a whole bunch of Squier level jazz basses, as well as more expensive MIJ stuff. (If anyone wants to fall down this rabbit hole, use Buyee to look at auctions but order through Japan Rabbit who also do Blackship for shipping - Blackship are willing to remove necks from bodies to reduce shipping costs. I have a package with guitar necks and another with the matching bodies somewhere on a ship at the moment...)
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May 17, 2023 02:29
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Regarding Japanese P-Basses, keep an eye out for a Hondo Professional H-1120. While most Hondos are Korean, the Professionals were made in Japan, and the Fender copies were made by Tokai. They also sell for WAY less than a Tokai of the same age. I have a Hondo Pro Tele & Strat from 1979 that cost me less than half of what one of them would have cost if labeled Tokai.
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May 17, 2023 02:50
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Maximum Sexy Pigeon posted:Sweet set, you got a type I see. They sound like hot rear end. I installed a Darkglass preamp that gave it that little bit of sparkle it needed - then promptly put the 9v in backwards and fried the preamp. I still need to mail it out to them. The original neck was bowed but the neck pocket was smaller than Fender specs. So I plugged the neck holes and routed the pocket out to accept a Fender neck size and bolt spacing. The body is made from laminated chunks of mahogany with a veneer front and back. Weighs soooo much. It was setup with a Hipshot bridge at some point and that maple Korean neck I love. I need to cut a custom Precision/Jazz hybrid pickguard to cover some p-bass pickup damage it acquired at some point in the experimentation. 
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May 17, 2023 03:59
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Sockington posted:They sound like hot rear end. I installed a Darkglass preamp that gave it that little bit of sparkle it needed - then promptly put the 9v in backwards and fried the preamp. I still need to mail it out to them. I'm not surprised they sound like rear end, the early Maxon pickups weren't that great, but the pedals were awesome. They invented the Tube Screamer after all. I figured if you had the neck, it'd be hosed up, or it'd be on the bass.
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May 17, 2023 11:49
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