Bad tone

[vondran]

Fix the Charvel.

As long as you are smart enough to know the correct end to of the soldering iron to hold, you can fix it yourself. (HINT: It's not the hot side).

Spend $5 and get a jack from your local music store, or Radio Shack: 1/4" Jack. And $17 for a soldering kit: soldering iron.

Just swap the wires from the old jack to the same location on the new jack. Done.

[bootsox]

Originally Posted by vondran

Fix the Charvel.

As long as you are smart enough to know the correct end to of the soldering iron to hold, you can fix it yourself. (HINT: It's not the hot side).

Spend $5 and get a jack from your local music store, or Radio Shack: 1/4" Jack. And $17 for a soldering kit: soldering iron.

Just swap the wires from the old jack to the same location on the new jack. Done.

radio shack's entry level soldering kits are pretty nice these days, I've been using one for a few months and it's just as good as the weller it replaced. they're like half the price of the big name ones too

[bassbenj]

Originally Posted by darkstorm

If it sounds bad even with the active emgs and emg preamp, then yep, get rid of the bass. Prob has poor grade woods in it. I assume you have put new strings of choice on it and still bad tone?

I had an Aria Pro II magna that I tried all kinds of pickups and things and ended with EMGs with a BTC and nothing ever fixed it. It was one of the few basses I ever got rid of. Some basses are just a lost cause.

[benthughes]

Nothing wrong with basswood if everything else is quality. My only beef is that it's soft and strap locks can strip easily.

You also just may not be an EMG kinda guy, you may want to try the Spector before you buy. That being said , the Euro Spectors do kill!

[Pills Are Yummy]

Thanks for the advice everyone, and I know how to solder lol, I grew up working in an auto shop

[spaz21387]

And fuzz pedals sound awesome with all tube amps. good ones to look into are russian big muffs preferably green, blackout effectors musket.

[chiron_griffin]

Originally Posted by Pills Are Yummy

You can literally balance this thing on one finger

I saw Daisy from Foxy Shazam balance his Jazz on his chin, so I don't know if that could be counted as an indication of quality.

[sloppy_phil]

Originally Posted by Pills Are Yummy

Thanks for the advice everyone, and I know how to solder lol, I grew up working in an auto shop

Then this will be a really easy fix. Basically have to wire 2 or 3 wires to the jack on the correct lugs, and you're set.

I totally agree that it is worth ditching the Dean, but I've seen a really solid EQ pedal make even the worst basses sound not like total poo. Still not a sound I'd ever use, but at least had a little guts to it. Although if you don't own an EQ pedal, I see no point in spending that kind of dough when the new input jack will cost a fraction as much.

[vondran]

One last thing to try on the Dean is get the neck and string height set perfect. I've found some guitars slowly becoming tiny over time and it was simply the guitar just needed the setup adjusted. I think it's a fret other than the one being fretted is just barely touching the string and adds clashing harmonics that give it a thin sound. In every case getting the neck relief and string height adjusted opened up the sound and got a much fuller sound out.

I just found this article that walks through the procedure exactly how I do it - setting up a bass. It's critical that you first get the neck relief set to near flat as discussed in the article. Then I raise the saddles on the bridge a little past where the string rings clean in all fretting positions when plucked moderately (remembering to retune the string after each saddle adjustment). I then back down the saddle to just above were it loses that clean sound with moderate plucking. This gives low action and the notes seem a lot fuller.

[Ric5]

Bad tone

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Change the tone knobs ... if your tone is bad then dial in a good tone ... try new strings, try effects.

[Pills Are Yummy]

Originally Posted by sloppy_phil

Then this will be a really easy fix. Basically have to wire 2 or 3 wires to the jack on the correct lugs, and you're set.

I totally agree that it is worth ditching the Dean, but I've seen a really solid EQ pedal make even the worst basses sound not like total poo. Still not a sound I'd ever use, but at least had a little guts to it. Although if you don't own an EQ pedal, I see no point in spending that kind of dough when the new input jack will cost a fraction as much.

I have a graphic eq on my Ampeg and my VT bass also acts as a secondary eq...neither help

[Pills Are Yummy]

Originally Posted by vondran

One last thing to try on the Dean is get the neck and string height set perfect. I've found some guitars slowly becoming tiny over time and it was simply the guitar just needed the setup adjusted. I think it's a fret other than the one being fretted is just barely touching the string and adds clashing harmonics that give it a thin sound. In every case getting the neck relief and string height adjusted opened up the sound and got a much fuller sound out.

I just found this article that walks through the procedure exactly how I do it - setting up a bass. It's critical that you first get the neck relief set to near flat as discussed in the article. Then I raise the saddles on the bridge a little past where the string rings clean in all fretting positions when plucked moderately (remembering to retune the string after each saddle adjustment). I then back down the saddle to just above were it loses that clean sound with moderate plucking. This gives low action and the notes seem a lot fuller.

Very interesting. There is a little contact with the string to the frets when playing open notes. I'll look into it. No saddle here, it's a string through bass

[pklima]

If it's really really thin, you might have something wired out of phase... I've seen that happen where something was "broken" and it turned out it was just a four-conductor humbucker with the two coils wired out of phase.

[Pills Are Yummy]

Originally Posted by pklima

If it's really really thin, you might have something wired out of phase... I've seen that happen where something was "broken" and it turned out it was just a four-conductor humbucker with the two coils wired out of phase.

Well I guess I'll just have to ask a tech to give it "the works"

[pklima]

You can do a quick phase check yourself. The EMGs should have a bundle of four wires coming out of each pickup, and the black and white wires for each pickup should be soldered to each other. If they are, the pickup's coils are definitely in phase with each other. The neck pickup might still be out of phase with the bridge pickup, but if that's the case then the neck pickup alone should not sound thin.

So if none of those things are true, then you can eliminate ouf of phase wiring as a possible cause and will know your problem lies elsewhere.

[franksgbass]

Or, maybe your just one of the many of us that think active basses sound crappy (witha few exceptions, take it easy, take it easy). I bet a P or J would sound awesome through that ampeg and VT.

[spade2you]

Originally Posted by franksgbass

Or, maybe your just one of the many of us that think active basses sound crappy (witha few exceptions, take it easy, take it easy). I bet a P or J would sound awesome through that ampeg and VT.

Active basses don't have one singular tone. Saying they sound crappy is like saying that all passive basses sound the same.

[vondran]

Originally Posted by Pills Are Yummy

Very interesting. There is a little contact with the string to the frets when playing open notes. I'll look into it. No saddle here, it's a string through bass

The saddle is last point the string contacts coming off the bridge, and where you adjust the string heigth and intonation. All bridges have them even string through bridges.

If it's contacting the frets when you play the open string that can really kill the tone of the bass. It's fine when you're playing hard, but when plucking moderately, the strings should ring clean. Getting that setup correctly really helps tone and sustain. The key is to get the neck relief setup first as then you can adjust the string heigth to have the string ring clean even with low action.

[BobaFret]

new hands? Tone is all in the hands.

[amimbari]

strip the parts out of the Dean and throw the carcass away. The Charvel?.....sell it to me.
THEN, go out and buy something you REALLY like.