| Experience: New Pups, Shielding, Strings, Tube
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I had rare personal time over the weekend to do several things to my setup--shielding a P and a J, new pups in the J, new strings and test a new tube in a pre. Thought my experience might be useful to someone.
I followed instructions found here for shielding. Timing was good because I was changing pups in the J. I bought shielding tape--about 3" wide by about 3 ft long--from Rudy's in NYC. It was in a D'Addario package for $12. Pretty straightforward. Cleaning the cavities of debris was important to get the tape to stick. Net effect was a huge reduction in buzz, but not 100%. On the J, even with quiet Nordies, I still get a slight buzz when not touching the strings, bridge, pots. It's very slight, but think that having all my grounds go to pot cases may be the cause and will remove the grounds to a brass screw in the cavity next time. The shielding was super easy and a fun way to spend a few hours. If you're considering it, just do it. $12, a little solder, a little time...huge difference.
Changed from S/D SJB-3 to Nordstrand NJ4SE. Found them to be a little brighter, growlier and hotter than the QPs. The biggest changes however were putting the pups at a different height. I found that Nordies were very sensitive to height and the bottom goes away if they're too far from the strings. The vintage P pickups in my P, circa 78, also benefitted from new foam and being at the right height.
By far the biggest difference in sound on both basses however was strings. I used DR Sunbeams on the J, changing from D'Addario flats, and of course this was a huge change. Brighter, more aggressive. I went with Hi Beams on the P, and again it was like a new bass. No other changes I made were as big a difference as strings, and I think strings are maybe the most important part of whatever sound I put out.
On the tube side, I have a tube pre--it's a TrueVoice. I'd read that many like to try other tubes besides the stock 6SN7 it ships with (or at least that's what mine shipped with). I bought a vintage TungSol 6SL7 on recommendations I'd gotten. Swapped it out with a lot of anticipation. No real noticeable difference. Maybe slightly smoother, but really not that noticeable.
Anyway, maybe no huge insights, but a fun weekend.
Neal | 
