Me And My Bass Guitar

Here's a quick chronicle of my recent bass overhaul. First, you see the bass (a Warwick Thumb NT 5 String) in it's basically stock condition. I had previously added a brass nut, and I use SIT Rock Brights nickel strings... but that was the extent of the changes prior to this recent electronics overhaul.

It is a lovely bass to be sure, and it sounded great as it was. I just wanted a little more meat to the tone, Thumbs can be a bit on the thin side.

So I installed a pair of Joe Barden JB4 passive humbucking jazz bass pickups and a custom Mike Pope 3-Band preamp.

The tone after the fact is pretty amazing. I wasn't expecting a huge difference, but I got one. Great clarity, great power, and I retained that great Warwick growl... I'm thrilled with the results.

I recorded the bass before the changes, and I'll do the same with the new electronics sometime soon. So you can look for before/after sound clips here sometime in the next 1-2 weeks.

Here are the stock PUPs


Here's the stock MEC Premp (Single 9V)


Hey - who stole my frickin' pickups?!?!?


Here's the new Mike Pope 3-Band Preamp (2 9V batteries = 18V)


And here's a shot with the new Joe Barden JB4 pickups (and no knobs... yet!).


I've got to get some new knobs because Mike uses pots with thicker shafts than MEC does. No biggie, I've got a new set of knobs on the way from AllParts.

As I posted previously here, I used the new electronics on my first gig last week. I was more present in the mix than I've ever been. It was like I was louder, but I wasn't. I could just be heard better. The bass REALLY cuts through the mix now... while also pounding the sh*t out of everyone in the club. I LOVE IT!!

Thanks! Next time you're in Blacksburg, please stop by. You have to hear this thing to believe it!

I'm also active on the Warwick forum, and there's a thread over there right now about this same subject...

Invalid Link Removed

Hah! I wouldn't sell your Bubinga short, Mark. That's every bit as lovely in my book. Your's really looks like it's on fire, and it appears to be a little more orange (mine is more brown). I love that.

+1 on the MEC treble boost hiss, I don't miss that at all.

So is your mid knob push/pull? And what does it change (mid frequency? Q?)?

My mid knob is now the lower stack under the volume, and the single knob in the middle is now the pickup pan. Mike didn't have a stacked knob that would let him stack the volume and pan like MEC does, so that's taking a little getting used to. I'm sure it will be second nature after a gig or two.

Ooooh - I like that velcro idea, I'm sick of those batteries flopping out when I'm working in the control cavity. I still need to get another one of those battery holder compartments from DBG, too, so I can call this project 100% done. That, and hopefully my new knobs will arrive today!

I would have liked to have used my stock MEC vol/pan pot, but I switched to passive pickups so the pot values had to change. Mike had to apply some brainpower and electronic surgery to figure out how to re-lay things out and make it all work with the pots he had available. My only constraint was that I was NOT going to drill any new holes in this bass

I posted this over Warwick's forum a few minutes ago, but here it is again for TB'ers.
*****************************

OK, so sound clips turned out to be a major pain in the butt. I'm just not setup to do it properly. So, instead, how about some entire songs from recent gigs that feature my old and new electronics? These clips are straight off the board, warts and all, so they're worth what you paid for 'em

The first tune is "Easy To Slip" (Little Feat) performed by The Kind on 5/8/08 @ Champs in Blacksburg, VA. This is the stock Thumb NT 5 with MEC PUPs & pre.

The second tune is "Jack Straw" (Grateful Dead) performed by The Kind on 6/12/08 @ Champs in Blacksburg, VA. This features my new Barden PUPs and Mike Pope pre. If you're short on time, this one heats up about 5:00 in

So to my ears, my Thumb is now thicker and meatier. It's still got the honk and growl that drew me to it in the first place, but there's more clean bottom to be dialed in.

What do you guys think?

Thanks, ya'll!

Yeah, Rob, am I ever glad I was too poor back then to have been able to afford recording time. I cringe when I think of what I sounded like back then. Here in the store, I see too many guys who play exactly like I did 15-20 years ago. They come in and blast out their 2 or 3 slap licks, then they're done. Nothing else to offer. That used to be me, too, but I'm gettin' better now.

As my (sadly, now former) bass teacher, Cameron McLaughlin, says - it's all about playing with intention, that's where articulation comes from. Try to have an idea of what you want to acheive before your fingers start moving. It sounds simple enough, but it's REALLY hard to do at first.

Cameron used to host an open jam on Monday nights here in Bburg before he moved to Charlottesville. One night I went out to that, and I was REALLY focused on playing with intention (we'd just started talking about it in our lessons) . So that was the first time I'd done that live, and it just about killed me. My brain was literally tired, I couldn't think straight after an hour of it. Not to mention, I couldn't get half the stuff out fast enough, so I probably sounded like complete crap all night long. The last song I did that night, I didn't even touch my fretboard - my brain was toast, and I couldn't "see" any notes on the fretboard at all.

Of course, that's all tied up with one's knowledge of the fretboard, music theory, experience, etc. Now many months down the road, I've started to develop quicker mental access to my bag o' tricks, and I'm getting better at knowing what fits over what (BEFORE it starts coming out my fingers). I'm still working on it, long way to go...

Another good thing to do is try to sing what you play. I find that if you let yourself go with that, your singing will take your fingers places they wouldn't normally go. And I'm the world's worst singer, but still it makes me play more lyrically/musically.

Fun, fun, fun!

Here's a nicer pic of my Thumb with the new electronics and knobs. Hubba-hubba