New modifications day. Pickups / loom / tuners / jack

fretmeister

A dirt cheap short scale "Jim Deacon" P bass originally with really crappy fretwork, all the neck dive in the world, awful scratchy pots that didn't seem to have anything other than full or none, and a very special jack socket that would randomly fire out the cable when I wasn't expecting it.

Work done:
1. Hipshot Ultralight tuners. No more neck dive.
2. Frets sorted. No more sharp edges
3. New wiring loom with Bourns pots and a Switchcraft jack
4. Dimarzio Relentless pickup.

First time I've used the Relentless. The output level is astonishing. Far higher than any passive pickup and actually higher than any of the active basses I have used. Plugging it into my rig was a bit of a shock! Needed to lower the input gain by about 50%.

There is more bass than on a trad P pickup so to get a traditional P tone the bass on the amp needs to be backed off quite a bit to restore the usual mid hump that makes a precision sound like it does.

The top of the pickup is unique. It is asymmetrically curved so the 2 parts can match the string radius and be used as a finger ramp. It can get very close to the strings. I like ramps and since my finger injury I find them pretty much essential to be able to play the way I did pre-injury.

I've got Thomastik Ti flats on it and it sounds great. I'm really getting into shorter scale basses to the point where I have more medium and short scales than long. I have 2 longs and 1 of those will be getting sold soon too.

Funkfingers

fretmeister said:

a very special jack socket that would randomly fire out the cable when I wasn't expecting it.

Luxury! I know a Rickenbacker 4001 that does that - especially to Planet Waves jack plugs with those little sprung fins on them.

IIRC, under the hood, the DiMarzio Relentless Middle pickup is not vastly different to the Will Power Middle pickup that it superseded. Definitely, more Rock than Soul.  

fretmeister

I think you are right. I've had the Will Power before.

It's more versatile than people might think as long as the player is willing to actually use their amp EQ properly and not have that weird "I don't want to adjust it too much" mindset that so many people seem to have.

Ok, it's never going to sound like a 60s wind Aguilar but it certainly can get close enough with the right EQ.