The bass Fender should have made (IMHO)

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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24579
    TTony said:



    I like the semi concept, but - to my eyes - the ornate F hole always looks out of place on a modern instrument.

    Fine if you've got a c17th violin, but on a c20th instrument design, surely there's a better design?

    That said, I've still bought them!   
    You’d best stay away from mandolins ;)
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  • needs one more string

    and needs to be in the shape of a musicman sting ray :-D
    The Bigsby was the first successful design of what is now called a whammy bar or tremolo arm, although vibrato is the technically correct term for the musical effect it produces. In standard usage, tremolo is a rapid fluctuation of the volume of a note, while vibrato is a fluctuation in pitch. The origin of this nonstandard usage of the term by electric guitarists is attributed to Leo Fender, who also used the term “vibrato” to refer to what is really a tremolo effect.
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24579
    needs one more string

    and needs to be in the shape of a musicman sting ray :-D
    Enough of this heathen talk. 

    Some of of us enjoy living in the 50’s/60’s - things were simpler then. 
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24579
    edited May 2018
    Right. 

    I’m back on this. It’s sat on the side for too long and it needs doing. 

    I have decided black hardware. I have a bridge (heavy for balance) and knobs, and will be getting black lightweight tuners, a neck plate and some strap buttons. 

    It will most likely be a split coil pickup - either a Lindy Fralin, or a custom wind - any of our residents do one? 

    The final question is - colour. I’m thinking amber stain or yellow stain and then Tru or eeze oil. 

    Or something else?
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  • TeyeplayerTeyeplayer Frets: 3132
    Tru oil would naturally amber a bit and would be cracking with that grain. It’d be out of place on this build but I’ve always fancied trying the tru oil walnut stain -seeing how 70s Gibson it turned out.
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24579
    Tru oil would naturally amber a bit and would be cracking with that grain. It’d be out of place on this build but I’ve always fancied trying the tru oil walnut stain -seeing how 70s Gibson it turned out.
    I’ve done a lot of Tru Oil finishes. I like it. 

    Thing is, I was considering a stain first for something a bit different
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  • mr-macmr-mac Frets: 200
    ICBM said:
    Wrong pickup  
    +1

    A WRHB is the right one for these. If you get a modern one with 4-conductor cable you can wire them in parallel, which makes them less overpowering - I did that on my recent Pawnshop Mustang Bass.

    I've played in a couple of places where a non-humbucking single pickup would make the bass almost unusable, so I would automatically avoid that now.
    Spot on the amount of electrical hum some bass single coils seems to pick up is silly
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24579
    mr-mac said:
    ICBM said:
    Wrong pickup  
    +1

    A WRHB is the right one for these. If you get a modern one with 4-conductor cable you can wire them in parallel, which makes them less overpowering - I did that on my recent Pawnshop Mustang Bass.

    I've played in a couple of places where a non-humbucking single pickup would make the bass almost unusable, so I would automatically avoid that now.
    Spot on the amount of electrical hum some bass single coils seems to pick up is silly
    I’m 90% going to get a Lindy Fralin split coil. No hum
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71959
    mr-mac said:

    Spot on the amount of electrical hum some bass single coils seems to pick up is silly
    It's partly because the bass range includes the hum frequency - 50Hz in the UK, or just sharp of the bottom G on a 4-string bass. This means that it can't be rolled off as it can to some extent with a guitar.

    Thus in my opinion *all* professional-quality basses need to have some form of hum cancellation, or you're risking a very unprofessional amount of noise in your sound, especially if you use any kind of overdrive or fuzz.

    Bridgehouse will love this ;) but it's one of the things I like least about Rickenbackers - the 4001/4003 is one of the only pro-quality basses I know of which still has no hum cancellation as stock. On my previous one I RWRP'd the bridge pickup so at least the middle position was hum-cancelling - on my current one I have fitted humbuckers, and stuff the purists... it still sounds great.

    Bridgehouse said:

    I’m 90% going to get a Lindy Fralin split coil. No hum
    I wouldn't consider anything else in that bass.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • mr-macmr-mac Frets: 200
    Ah great, Was bloody crazy how bad bass was with single coils in bass were in venue i helped run and do sound in... Repeatable in more than one bass and amps.  Even tried di'ing before amp with a transformer based DI to remove all direct connection (was just as bad).  Would never ever have or recommend a single coil bass 
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24579
    @ICBM - :D
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71959
    Yes, it's purely hum coming from the pickup, nothing to do with grounding or the amp. I'm almost certain this was the driving force behind Leo Fender's adoption of split pickups or RWRP pairs in all the basses and guitars he designed after the Strat - the first being the upgraded 1957 P-Bass - apart from the few 'student' guitar models with only one pickup. Quite ironic, considering how Fender is so associated with 'single coils', as in not humbucking...

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • mr-macmr-mac Frets: 200
    Yeah proved it wasn't grounding (in my eyes when i used a transformer based DI straight from bass to 100% decouple it) in everyone else's eyes cos they could accept the obvious when i repeated it with a higher qual single coil and a totally diff amp.  

    even most experienced bass players looked at me like i had three heads when i looked at their bass and went ooo single coils get ready for some noise and interference.... Usually got "well I've never had a problem before".... 10min later must be you power or not earthed "plug in tester, nope look all connected right.... Then must be.... At that point i usually snapped back... It's the bloody single coil pickup and the interaction between that and where power cables run or electrical equipment near by like fridges.  Only got snippy cos did tell people single coil basses would pick up interference and recommend a humbucker. that's when you'd get aye but it hasn't happened before so i just assumed it would be alright....


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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71959
    mr-mac said:
    Yeah proved it wasn't grounding (in my eyes when i used a transformer based DI straight from bass to 100% decouple it) in everyone else's eyes cos they could accept the obvious when i repeated it with a higher qual single coil and a totally diff amp.  

    even most experienced bass players looked at me like i had three heads when i looked at their bass and went ooo single coils get ready for some noise and interference.... Usually got "well I've never had a problem before".... 10min later must be you power or not earthed "plug in tester, nope look all connected right.... Then must be.... At that point i usually snapped back... It's the bloody single coil pickup and the interaction between that and where power cables run or electrical equipment near by like fridges.  Only got snippy cos did tell people single coil basses would pick up interference and recommend a humbucker. that's when you'd get aye but it hasn't happened before so i just assumed it would be alright....
    It can be just some venues - placement of equipment can make the electrical environment very noisy. What made me determined never to own a bass without some form of on-board hum-cancellation were two venues where noise was such a problem that a single-coil guitar or bass without RWRP pickups was unusable, especially with any kind of distortion.

    At one of them, the PA power amp rack was right at the side of the stage next to where the house bass amp was put - possibly because they'd had more problems with the guitar amps so they were on the other side, I don't know. I played a gig there with my 4003 - the last pre-RWRP - and I had to stand at an awkward angle to the stage in order not to have the hum louder than the bass signal, if I turned my fuzz pedal on. At the other, there is a lighting rig with the controller mounted on it right over the stage - any single-coil instrument is a nightmare there, even when playing clean. So if anyone tells me that you don't need hum cancellation because you can't hear the hum when you're playing... bollocks. You just haven't come across a bad enough case yet.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • normula1normula1 Frets: 639
    In one place I worked at a particular office had a computer monitor that was going absolutely crazy. It turned out that the desk had been moved and the monitor was now next to a big mains riser on the other side of the partition wall.
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