I've been playing with my NXT for a couple of months now and like many here I have found the tripod a little underachieving. I bought the endpin stand and I have one major beef with it and I'm curious as to whether or not anyone else has this same problem or if it's a technique issue. When I play it, the bass turns around on the single screw no matter how tightly I tighten it. I have half a mind to hack some kind of locking mechanism to keep it from twisting while in the middle of, as Stewthebassman said, banging away on a blues (or playing rockabilly or funk or anything else that takes a bit more juice than your average cocktail set).
Hi Bassfetish,
Can you take a photo of the screw? Shouldn't it have some sort of bushing to keep it from slipping?
So I played both basses last night, my pianist came over. Started with the NXT but then I switched to the URB....definitely easy to see the advantages of both. For instance, we were playing a sort of dreamy modern version of a Beatles song, "For No One". The NXT sounds very "ECM"ish on it. The sustain and occasional mwah work well.
But then for the straight ahead tunes the URB really kicks it....hard to deny!!
I'm uploading some youtube right now for your viewing and listening pleasure. URB and NXT.
As a quick and dirty experiment I plugged both my double bass and NXT directly into my computer to record the sound from both without being shaped by the amp. The upright has Helicore Hybrid strings and the NXT has NS Traditionals but with a lower action. On the recordings the direct sound of the Shadow pickup on the upright and the NXT on the pizz setting with the both controls fully open were very similar.
String choice for modification: NS610 Traditionals or Helicore Pizzacatos?
Use is almost entirely jazz combo setting, pizz playing only.
Also, do you know if the HBC6 Hipshot Ultralite tuners work as well as the HBY6 tuners? The HBY6 are the modern looking "Y" tuner, the HBC6 is the cloverleaf tuner.
So could someone summarize the most useful changes/mods they've done to their NXT's and WAV's?
Like: I see several people have swapped the Hipshot Ultralights for the stock tuners. And I'm sure several have added some kind of piece to protect the bottom end of the bass where the strings wrap around, but I haven't actually seen many of those. I remember one guy who made sort of a 'prosthetic D-heel and shoulder' to make it feel more like a DB.
What else are people doing and what would be good to try.
Mine is a WAV that I'm thinking of having someone make a heel for and I was wondering if I was missing the boat on other smart changes while I was making that one. Obviously I'd beel thrilled with electronic upgrades. But it looks like that's probably a non-starter. Which is a shame, because there is a lot of room in there to add a preamp.
__________________
If my posts can possibly be taken as bitterly cynical, horribly sarcastic, deeply contemptuous of my fellow human, and maybe somewhat humorous, then that's your safest bet.
Last edited by Bard2dbone : 04-25-2012 at 08:04 PM.
Adding a preamp would be easy but I'm not sure what the benefit would be vs. an external preamp. A blend knob for arco/pizz could be interesting, though...
Passive electronics (volume, sound) wih a piezo is a bad idea unless the piezo signal is buffered. Found that in my old used Clevinger and didn't like it. So adding a simple impedance buffer between piezo and electronics is a good idea. Just a battery a JFET, one or two capacitors, two resistors and a 9V battery. Look at Fdecks Quick 'n' dirty buffer. It's great and might fit inside.
hi there folks, can anybody advise where the best place in the uk is for buying replacement bass strings for my ned steinberger nxt5 5 string EUB.. sometimes find companies very very expensive for either single or sets of strings, I much value you guys expertise out there, many thanks,spiritualbassman.
I returned my new NXT on the 11th of march to the guitar shop.
They agreed : the A string had a clear lack of sustain and sounded thinner than the other strings.
So they returned it to the distributer in Holland.
And now, two months later, I received a message that it has been fixed.
They tell me they had to ship it to a specialist luthier. (don't believe they did that!)
The problem was in the bridge.
They repaired or replaced it and had the thing tested by severel players and they all agreed it OK now.
I sure hope so, cause upto now I am not satisfied at all with the service!!!
I will complain and ask them to extend my warranty with 2 monts.
Thats the least they can do I think.
Has anyone noticed with their NXT bass that there is some distortion, you know, fuzziness in the lower notes? I have a Fishman Pro Platinum and I couldn't get rid of the distortion with that. The distortion came out with all my amps. Tried different settings as well on the bass, but to no avail.
Plugged it into my Phiil Jones Flightcase "Passive" and "active" plugs, well that's no use cause you can hardly hear the bass in active.
Is my Fishman busted perhaps, too old? The battery was/is brand new.
Should I get a different preamp, like the one Buffalo Bill uses?
Has anyone noticed with their NXT bass that there is some distortion, you know, fuzziness in the lower notes? I have a Fishman Pro Platinum and I couldn't get rid of the distortion with that. The distortion came out with all my amps. Tried different settings as well on the bass, but to no avail.
Plugged it into my Phiil Jones Flightcase "Passive" and "active" plugs, well that's no use cause you can hardly hear the bass in active.
Is my Fishman busted perhaps, too old? The battery was/is brand new.
Should I get a different preamp, like the one Buffalo Bill uses?
Thanks!
Now that you mention it, yes! Only on the B string, though, some kind of a rattle. It goes away when I lower the instrument volume or the pre-amp gain.
Endorsing Artist: Samuel Shen Basses, NS Design, D'Addario Strings
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Texas
Hmm... I'd have to hear what you're talking about. I do know that if I roll off the low bass a little, I don't get any disturbance (that's a BIG B string). And my sound is pretty fat... or as old school as I can make it. If it is a bona fide distortion, the instrument may need attention. Got any clips of this problem?
So I was looking for a new set of strings to replace my 2 year old set of d'Addario Helicore orchestrals medium. I was looking for good bow response and I went ahead and tried the new Kaplans. I got myself a set of medium.
Been playing for about an hour. I like them a lot so far.
They have less tension and feel real good on both the left and right hand. The bow response is awesome! Even with the low tension I managed to keep a low string setup and still be able to dig in.
The sound is bright, because they are new but they are not scratchy. The low end is round and well defined. They have this low-mid range crunch that I really dig.
To sum it up, it makes my NXT5 even more playable (!!!) while sounding organic / not electric.
Here's a couple of soundcloud clips I put together real quick. Recorded with my ipad2 / irffport. All EQs set to flat.
ned steinberger bass strings 
