Essex Bass Club - Part 14

[aussietc]

Cool.

[fourstringbliss]

Here are sound clips of my SX MM/J. I'm playing them through a Zoom B3 on the Hartke setting and it's strung with Sadowsky flats.

60's spacing both pups

70's spacing both pups

MM/J both pups

60's spacing both pups in series

70's spacing both pups in series

[aussietc]

Thanks for the sound clips. Sounds great!

Do you know what the fretboard radius is?
I was thinking of either picking up an Aluminum Radius-sanding Beam
or a Steel Fret/Fingerboard Leveler from stewmac.com

The first one has a radius, the latter is flat. Not sure which one would be better suited to level frets?

[fourstringbliss]

Originally Posted by aussietc

Thanks for the sound clips. Sounds great!
Thanks about the clips! The pickups are good sounding, huh?

Do you know what the fretboard radius is?
I was thinking of either picking up an Aluminum Radius-sanding Beam
or a Steel Fret/Fingerboard Leveler from stewmac.com

The first one has a radius, the latter is flat. Not sure which one would be better suited to level frets?

I believe the radius is 15" - super flat. I like it that way. I leveled my frets using a fret rocker and a crowning file.

Here's what I used:

I bought one of these:

to check for high frets

and one of these:

for leveling and crowning

Rather than flattening all of the frets I just checked to see if I had high frets and then lowered the high ones in relation to the others around it. Lots of frets didn't get messed with at all. The fret sanding stick has a flat part on the tip that I used for leveling a whole fret and I used the other end for lowering spots. I periodically crowned as I went so that the fret stayed round.

[aussietc]

How many frets did you need to adjust?

[fourstringbliss]

Originally Posted by aussietc

How many frets did you need to adjust?

I think I adjusted six or seven, but I have another one where it was only three. After I adjusted the ones on the MM/J I now have the strings pretty darn low with no buzzes and I suspect that every bass I have owned (even the really nice ones) had a high fret or two. Some of the frets were only high in one area. I'm now wondering if I'm going to need another bass. Want one - yup. Need one - nope. It kind of stinks too, 'cause that natural one eleven posts up has such nice grain, but it's going to sound just like this one. I don't need two basses that sound the same. Maybe I should make it a P/J, but the series setting on my MM/J sounds enough P'ish that it would be redundant too. Not sure what to do about that one.

[CnB77]

Hopefully the parts for my pickup swap will get here today!
I might very well practice some fretwork, I have a bunch of cheapo guitars that nobody plays to use as practice fodder...

Does anybody here have a dream SX bass that isn't being made? Something unusual.
Personally I'd love it if they made a Steinberger clone but in untraditional colors. Like an arctic white with maple neck and cream PJ pickups. Mmmmmmm

[BillyB_from_LZ]

Originally Posted by CnB77

...

Does anybody here have a dream SX bass that isn't being made? Something unusual.
...

5-string P-Bass, 2 in. wide nut, no J pickup, either Rosewood or Maple fingerboards, nice assortment of colors. Olympic White/Tortoise/Rosewood or Walnut/Black/Maple would be my preference.

5-string fretless P-Bass, 2 in. wide nut, unlined Maple fingerboard, nice assortment or colors. Walnut/Black/Maple would be my preference...although Metallic Purple/White Pearl/Maple would be pretty wild too!

[CnB77]

Welp, my parts didn't come :C
Guess the pickup swap has to wait til next week

[fourstringbliss]

Originally Posted by CnB77

Hopefully the parts for my pickup swap will get here today!
I might very well practice some fretwork, I have a bunch of cheapo guitars that nobody plays to use as practice fodder...

Does anybody here have a dream SX bass that isn't being made? Something unusual.
Personally I'd love it if they made a Steinberger clone but in untraditional colors. Like an arctic white with maple neck and cream PJ pickups. Mmmmmmm

I'd really like a Swamp Ash 4-string P with a bound/blocked J neck, their new MM/J pickups but with the MM in the Sterling sweet spot, and the same tuners/fretwork as they did on their "American Alder" J's. That would be excellent.

Heck, all of that with an double-buck pup combo. The new MM pups they are putting on their basses are 4-wire + shield so you can coil tap. If they did a double-buck we could wire in switches for all kinds of stuff.

[Tmw2011]

A few years ago when I was getting back into playing, a good friend of mine who has helped and inspired my playing a ton through the last 26 years, kept telling me to check out SX. I ended up getting a used MIM Fender P instead.. Then an Am Std P... And Squier VM Jazz, and a Squier VM Jag Special, all strung with rounds.

I've been playing Rocksmith a lot lately (fun fun fun) and started trying to choose which bass I'd throw some flats on because I've been enjoying the sound and feel of Jamerson songs, and wanted to explore more of that type of music/playing outside of the game. I came into a small windfall, cash-wise, and after paying off a few things, decided that I'd drop the cash on an SX URSA 1 P. Keeping with Jamerson 'Vibe', I went with the 3ts MN with the plan to toss a tort guard on there along with flats. It'll be a first for me because at some point in my life I swore to myself that I'd *never* own a 3ts or a put a tort guard on anything because I didn't find either appealing at all. But the look has really grown on me lately.

Unfortunately, I ordered the bass a week ago and the Thanksgiving holiday threw a wrench into the delivery schedule since UPS ground wasn't running yesterday. It's killing me waiting for this thing to get here. (Wife said I'm acting like a kid on Christmas eve). I even called to see if I could just pick the thing up today, but I was told it was already on a truck for delivery for Monday and wasn't accessible for pick up. Blah...

And I've recently had an 'Oh, shiny!' ADD moment, and I'm second guessing the 3ts selection, wondering if I should have gone with white... I've been captivated by the thought of getting a baltic amber pickguard as a change from tort and I don't think it'd mesh well with the 3ts... So, if my first foray into SX's goes well, I may be placing a follow up order for another, this time in White with a RW neck.. :P

TLDR - Finally got around to getting a SX bass, not here yet because of the holidays, the anticipation is driving me nutty, and I'm already thinking about getting another one, just to put a pickguard on it that would cost me almost as much as the bass. :P

[fourstringbliss]

Originally Posted by Tmw2011

'Oh, shiny!'

Firefly?

[eli]

Originally Posted by aussietc

Do Warmoth necks fit on SX basses?
Or Squire or Fender necks?

Well, ya gotta be careful...



This is an SXJ5-62. This is NOT an angle illusion -- the screws lean toward the B-string side of the bass at a good 5 to 10 degrees. Clearly, this particular bass was drilled by hand after the neck was put in place. I quite doubt any pre-drilled neck would fit this instrument. Fortunately it tweaked in nicely so I will never have to replace it. If I did, i would certainly have to drill out the holes in the body.

All SX screw holes appear to me to be match-drilled with the two components in place, so getting anything else to fit generally requires doctoring of some sort, be it drilling out or fill and re-drill.

[dabbler]

Originally Posted by eli

Well, ya gotta be careful...

This is an SXJ5-62. This is NOT an angle illusion -- the screws lean toward the B-string side of the bass at a good 5 to 10 degrees. Clearly, this particular bass was drilled by hand after the neck was put in place. I quite doubt any pre-drilled neck would fit this instrument. Fortunately it tweaked in nicely so I will never have to replace it. If I did, i would certainly have to drill out the holes in the body.

All SX screw holes appear to me to be match-drilled with the two components in place, so getting anything else to fit generally requires doctoring of some sort, be it drilling out or fill and re-drill.

Yes, I agree with your assessment of how SX mounts its necks. The guitars are the same way. I just finished filling and refitting a neck on a hawk, but I used inserts (8-32).

[CnB77]

Well, half my parts did come after all! They got into the neighbor's mail so now I have a set of Fodera SS strings, some foam to put under the pickups, and new screws because the SX ones got stripped to hell and back.

Will drill for pickups tonight, and hopefully Monday I'll have my control plate!

[C.Linton]

Originally Posted by Tmw2011

And I've recently had an 'Oh, shiny!' ADD moment, and I'm second guessing the 3ts selection, wondering if I should have gone with white... I've been captivated by the thought of getting a baltic amber pickguard as a change from tort and I don't think it'd mesh well with the 3ts... So, if my first foray into SX's goes well, I may be placing a follow up order for another, this time in White with a RW neck.. :P

:P

I don't know if it's true of all SX 3TS finshes, but mine was much less of the black, yellow, red burst (clownburst), and looked to me more like a vintage 2 tone Gibson-style black/amber burst. With a black pickguard and a maple board, it looked awesome to me. This is a pic, but it doesn't do it justice, it looks mucn better IRL.:

[dewbass4]

Originally Posted by fourstringbliss

Here are sound clips of my SX MM/J. I'm playing them through a Zoom B3 on the Hartke setting and it's strung with Sadowsky flats.

60's spacing both pups

70's spacing both pups

MM/J both pups

60's spacing both pups in series

70's spacing both pups in series

Thanks for the sound clips. I notice more tonal difference between series / non-series clips than any of the others.

[Tmw2011]

Originally Posted by C.Linton

I don't know if it's true of all SX 3TS finshes, but mine was much less of the black, yellow, red burst (clownburst), and looked to me more like a vintage 2 tone Gibson-style black/amber burst. With a black pickguard and a maple board, it looked awesome to me. This is a pic, but it doesn't do it justice, it looks mucn better IRL.:

That does look quite nice... Can't wait for mine to come in. I'm hoping the red is subtle like yours. I find I dig 2TS more than the three and yours is pretty close to that... I also saw a tobacco sunburst on a Fender CS bass at Sweetwater that I find quite attractive, where it looks like they did the red and yellow, but left out the black of a 3TS. I'm still trying to figure out how the baltic would look on the 3ts.. I might just try shopping the pic of yours to get an idea.. Hehe

[C.Linton]

The red on mine subtle? I was hard pressed to find ANY red at all! It really was more of a 2 Tone burst than the 3 tone it was supposed to be. I suspect the factory had run out of red paint the day they made mine and just they said, ''Ah, screw it, just let it go through, it's not 3 tone, but it looks nice enough."

[BillyB_from_LZ]

Originally Posted by C.Linton

I don't know if it's true of all SX 3TS finshes, but mine was much less of the black, yellow, red burst (clownburst), and looked to me more like a vintage 2 tone Gibson-style black/amber burst. With a black pickguard and a maple board, it looked awesome to me. This is a pic, but it doesn't do it justice, it looks mucn better IRL.:

If it looks even better than that in person, then . I think it looks great!