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I was really impressed with those coastline pickups.

I've just moved off Fender in general lately, especially with all the lawsuits they have been sending to everyone - but they did a good job on these PBasses and I think a lot of people needing a P will enjoy them.

I have the ibanez wired now as a LHZ Active blend with the Universal blend as the pot. It loads the pickups at 1Meg Ohm, they sound more like EMG pickups with extended treble response now. I kept the ibanez as series only in BEQ3 mode as VM3 has a little less bass/treble.

Heres a diagram integrating LHZ Preamps to the Ibanez power tap. It should show what you need to do to use the pickups with an aftermarket preamp

In my personal home studio, 90% of the time it's a Heil PR-40 moving coil dynamic mic up fairly tight on the speaker grill.
The other 10% of the time -- when I'm looking for a bit more "air" (or "hair") in the sound -- it's an MXL 2001P condenser mic with the Dave Royer/Mojave Audio tube electronics mod, sitting between 1-3' away from the speaker.

In anyone else's studio, it depends on their mic locker. Favorites include the Electro-Voice RE20, Sennheiser MD421, Neumann TLM-170i, and RCA 44-BX.

HolmeBass said:

The venues and concert goers are just ready for rain? I get that. But SF Bay Area having heat at 110+ is something I did not know about! That is dangerous to be out in, unless you are wearing the right clothes and have plenty of water.

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well, just to be clear, I'm talking about the East Bay and Central Valley where temps of a 100 and over are not uncommon during the summer. One summer we hit 115 (!) and I had a big festival gig that cancelled all outside performances due to the heat. It was a big winery and they moved at least some of the music into their big cool barrel room.

Right in SF and right around the Bay generally stay pretty reasonable temp wise.

To make sure I wasn’t going crazy, I did this exactly last night. I changed the pick guard out, removed the neck humbucker. I did swap the wiring to the H setup (the preamp board has dedicated pads for the pickups and switch being in HH or H mode)

Sounded the same but I stopped mucking around with the slider as much. Weirdly, that removing off options makes me play better

Some independent builder should design a pedal called the "It's Not A Tumor" just for the OP.

And so... I found an Ibanez from I believe the early 90's; an RT 450, which includes a traditional non-floating tremolo (no locking nut), but the body and layout are shredder-esque like their RG's. Wonderful fit for me! The super-solid Japanese craftsmanship and great ergonomics sold me on this instrument without even plugging it into an amp before I took it home.

I recently dropped a set of DiMarzios into a Godin Session - a basic "fat strat" with a humbucker at the bridge - and I expected some subtle bumps in the sound quality from that guitar with the swap. But what I got was a profound improvement - I even like what I get with the middle pickup solo'ed... that's a first for me.

The new pickups in the Godin are Area 61's and an Air Classic at the bridge - not ultra high output, but rich and yummy in that particular guitar.

If anybody has successfully dabbled with higher output DiMazios or options from other labels in a H/S/H layout, I'm looking forward to any stories you can share. I also have an old Japanese Electra Phoenix that has what are probably a pair of DiMario Super Distrortions for pickups. They sound unbelievably good and I may go that way with this RT 450 (along with a suitable S in the middle). Many of us have our favorites, so I'm looking for input.

TIA

Don Hergert said:

As a musician, I do have to say that I have not found an ideal all-the-time setting combination that duplicates tone properly. The instruments I play all sound at least a little different than what I perceive without the hearing aids, and that is a little off-putting. There are times that I simply turn them off or take them out of my ears while playing music...

And, that raises some interesting questions about sound perception that is important for musicians. What is compleely accurate hearing where tone is concerned? Are these differences in musical tone that I hear with the hearing aids tones that people with "normal" hearing hear? And, does "normal" hearing really exist? Possibly these are questions for another lifetime .

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To the first point: If the instrument sounds the same whether you are using hearing aids or not, then you don't need hearing aids. It's not just a matter of amplification.
I don't think many people lose hearing equally across the whole audio spectrum, so properly-tuned hearing aids should restore the frequencies you have lost. Wearing hearing aids for the first time can be unpleasantly "crispy," but it's more accurate than the way you WERE hearing. However, some hearing aids are better for musicians than others! For that reason, I returned one set at Costco in order to get the Sennheisers, and I'm happy.

Second point: I doubt that there's such a thing as "completely accurate" when it comes to hearing. Even measurement/calibration microphones in laboratories have biases which probably don't match what an "excellent hearer" might experience. Yes, there may be a few gifted individuals who approach the ideal, whatever that is. For most of us, better is all we can reasonably ask for.

Don Hergert said:

For the most part, communication with my family and friends has noticeably improved. Among other things, my wife doesn't have to yell at me because I can't hear her anymore, although sometimes she does still yell at me : .

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This is IMPORTANT. Happy wife, happy life.

I have the same question, I wanna use Rolls the same way I use pedal, just a knob.
I'll try to connect it through headphones out, maybe that will work, love to have control over how loud is my bass in headphones, but don't want to open app, search for bass and to that on tablet or phone.

That is a raised saddle. It is used to take pressure from the top. Mostly helpful for strings that choke the vibration of the top with too much pressure (typically with older instruments that were built for lower tension gut strings and be used with higher tension steel core strings now).
If your bass sounds better strings tuned down one to several halftones after as bout a week this is for you (or use lower tension strings). Be warned that volume can be reduced, specially if you instrument is not choked by top pressure.

I have an adjustable saddle (Moser HVU) on my instrument with three positions, all higher than the normal saddle height.
The only thing is that you need to use the kevlar/carbon fiber tailgut it comes with.
I did knot it with a slip to be able to adjust the underlength. Slips were secured. It would be impossible to open the knot without the slip and even hard with it. But since the material stretched under tension you need to adjust your first try.

With a single height saddle you can use what you want as tailgut.
You can try a aircraft cable with the Moser HVU, but it might not be possible to find a place for the clamp. (My knot is under the tailpiece.)

So I was browsing eBay and came upon a most curious lot, composed of what appeared to be a half finished bass guitar (“burning fire” style to him), and two books, one of which was the school band oriented Essential Elements series. Then I saw these guys, listed as “finger protectors:



I looked these up and apparently these are finger protectors. I thought I had never heard of them until I realized that Gorilla Tips, which I see constantly on the Alfred publishing page.

I read the product description, and I’m still not sure about their use. Are they are good for anything? Are they commonly found in one genre or another? Are they a beginner only thing? Wouldn’t this greatly affect the tone? Would you be laughed out of an audition if you showed up wearing these?

Inquiring minds……

Hammertime3 said:

Thanks guys..big help....

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One thought:

I have two cabs that are 8 ohms as well as two different heads - both heads require a 4 ohm minimum load. This is great for me because I can use only one cab in a setting that doesn't need a lot of volume, but I can add the other cab and still give either amp a necessary 4 ohm load like that. The flexibility is terrific for me.

I don't worry about having a cab that matches the 4 ohm minimum of my amp so that I can theoretically "get the most performance" from it or anything like that. Either cab will make good sound in a small setting or practice. If I need a lot of volume potential, I just bring the second cab so that I can effectively shake more air.

As our pals laid out above, it seems like you're good to go now. If you eventually want to make bigger sound, you might be able to do that by adding a second cab that's also 8 ohms, but it's hard to say without knowing more specifics with your particular amp and cab.

Lucky Scott the loing time bassist for Curtis Mayfield seen here doing a timely medley then and now.

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Mjt body , all parts jazz neck , Novak bs/ds , seven-eight tort , fender mute

-Asdfgh- said:

The oils polymerise as they dry. And they do dry, so then there's no moisture.

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Thank you. I wasn't hip to drying oils.

(My chemistry background consists of mixing whatever is left in the back of the refrigerator when pay day is still a week away.)

All the momentous issues have been discussed and resolved. Thank God.
Now, all that's left is to have fun.

I’ve gotten a few covers from this fella, great work, fully endorse his product! The magnet cover is a life changer for these basses as I adjust my truss rod pretty frequently. Thank you Barticus

I've owned both and preferred the MBF800.

I’m seeing a lot of this as I’m in that era.

RIP John Willis

chiphaleonbass said:

Or a Mono Lite seeing as you already have the Tick? There should be plenty of room on there for the wireless

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Agreed! My bad—meant to say Mono Lite (already have one, as I ditched my actual “Nano” pb year’s ago. : ))

Gilmourisgod said:

Anybody found a really good hard drying clearcoat? I’ve tried a couple of the water borne variants, but they didn’t dry any harder than Nitro IME. I’ve thought about Spraymax 2k, but the toxicity warnings are pretty daunting. I have a project approaching paint ready, and want to paint it British Racing Green. Any suggestions for the color and clear coats known to be compatible much appreciated.

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As long as you have a protective respirator and gloves, you should be OK using Spraymax. I spray outside, so there's no chance of lingering fumes in an enclosed space. Dries hard and is ready for sanding/polish in about a week (or less, depending on who you ask). I've been using it over automotive paints as well Rust-Oleum with no issues.

Tim Barber said:

When I was doing violin bow repairs I used a lot of this stuff. You would have to piece it together but it does make a nice strong black line. In my bass builds I always have used wenge veneer, but it's not quite dead black.

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Allied Lutherie carries the same stuff in larger sheets as well:
Fiber Sheets

Though it's not quite as cost effective as the black dyed veneer sheets from Roarockit.

I just listed a set of Hybrid "Oak" in the classifieds

It would be interesting to know what the status of some of the archive stuff is, because rights issues come into play. It's possible some songs were erased after a certain point because the rights to use them ran out. Between 1983 and 1993 CBC in Canada had a weekday video show called Video Hits, which did pretty much what the title implies, played music videos. When the 40th anniversary of the show occurred CBC had a brief article about it, and noted that all episodes of the show had been erased because the airing rights to the videos had expired.