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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

#13,901
dukeorock said:
My bad...I love lots of Nordy pickups! I have a Bigman in one of my basses and it’s incredible. It’s just this one P bass pickup I bought from them that sucks to my ears. I love the Fralin P pickups because they’re a chunkier version of what I like about the vintage P thing.



My Bigman has that overwound sound for sure. Awesome pickup.



never heard the BV one. He’s such a cool dude it makes me want to try one. We’re both Mesa endorsers (or he was a few years ago) so I met him a couple times at Mesa artist get togethers. Awesome guy and does not suck on bass :)



I made a huge effort a few years back trying to embrace the J thing. Had a Fender CS 60’s style J bass, a Lakland with a J Retro pre and a 60’s style Bluesman Vintage, which was by far the best of the 3. I had a series switch installed which got me closer to where I wanted to be. In the end, whenever I played a J live I just spent the whole night tweaking eq to try to make it sound like a P :)
Also, regarding onboard pres. I’ve never had a single bass with one that I loved. My Dingwall Super J/P had an Aggie pre that sounded ‘good’ I guess, but always took away too much punch. Putting that bass passive with the P and J pickups wired in series was unbeatable on that bass to me. The only ‘active’ bass I currently have is a MusicMan Sabre and I’m seriously considering having Nordy make me passive replacements more in line with the Bigman pickup. Either that, or I’ll likely sell the Sabre to replace my Fano JM4 that got stolen last week.
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The Bobby Vega is the gzr.
;)

It's based off one of Bobby's vintage 60s precision bass pickups.

Geezer apparently choose it when testing for a passive EMG precision pickup.
 
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#13,902
HotelX said:
I like a jazz for reggae where I can be louder in the mix than usual, but I often have trouble cutting through in other types of music. The opposite is true for a P. A P is too middy for me in reggae but cuts through nicely in other genres.

I’m lucky that Fralin is local to me. I’m a big fan of his pickups. About as good as it gets IMO
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Fralin kills it, I should maybe try those j splits again.
Can you get a local deal??!
;)
 
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#13,904
monsterthompson said:
Shock G (Humpty Hump) died. 57 seems way too young.
I figured out resident hip hop specialist should hear it from a friend.
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Nooooo!!!!!
Damn. :(
Another one.

Sex packets....classic 1990 record.
P-funk hip hop at it's best.

I'm still not over MF DOOM's passing.
That one hit hard as efff

Ex Roots OG member Malik B also passed in 2020. That is one sad story right there. He was only 47.
:(
 
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#13,907
monsterthompson said:
Shock G (Humpty Hump) died. 57 seems way too young.
I figured out resident hip hop specialist should hear it from a friend.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I metioned in this thread that hearing the bass line [sic] in "The Humpty Dance" was a revelation for me.
Notes? We don't need no stinking notes! Just sweet deep low end grunting, "durr-errr-durr-errr" :::swoon:::

RIP
 
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#13,908
emjazz said:
I started on a J bass, and now love P basses. I figured out along the way that I prefer single pickup basses for the most part. I love the openness, and the lack of phasing issues.....although Steuart has pushed me toward his thinking a bit lately...with having (gulp) more options sonically. I usually just turn up the pickup and play, changing sounds with my hands...but now that I have two pickups that I like in my older six string, I can see what he means.
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Ever try the nordy nj4se set??
Splits
Might have a deal on some, worried I won't like em....like all split jazz sets ive tried.

I might just give up and get a SD hot stk in the neck and a hole in the bridge position
 
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#13,909
emjazz said:
I'm guessing the mixed reviews are surrounding the button controls. Those don't impress me, but the sound and playability of the bass itself is incredible. Really. Hard to believe it's so good for the cost. I know a few people who are now using it as their main bass.
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i played it at the namm show and was very impressed. sounded good with both flats and rounds, iirc. had lots of useable tones with those weird switches, though they might be a bit too baked in.

i keep telling carey they should do a fretless version.

of course, it’s four strings and a short scale, so i’m not going there…

i did wonder what a version of those pickups might sound like in one of my basses.
 
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#13,910
...Also....I'll be work
steubig said:
i played it at the namm show and was very impressed. sounded good with both flats and rounds, iirc. had lots of useable tones with those weird switches, though they might be a bit too baked in.

i keep telling carey they should do a fretless version.

of course, it’s four strings and a short scale, so i’m not going there…

i did wonder what a version of those pickups might sound like in one of my basses.
Click to expand...
Yeah...the baked in tone choices are too extreme for me. Not my bag. Also...it's a 4 string...not sure how often I'll use it tbh.

I asked the guys about the pickups. They asked Carey and he said the design is similar to the Big Blades...slightly different, but quite similar. I've thought about trying the Zen blades in a future headless build, but I usually prefer wider aperture pickups. Would be cool to try something that's different from the BigRig pickups that I have in everything now.
 
#13,911
ugly_bassplayer said:
Ever try the nordy nj4se set??
Splits
Might have a deal on some, worried I won't like em....like all split jazz sets ive tried.

I might just give up and get a SD hot stk in the neck and a hole in the bridge position
Click to expand...
I have a hum canceling J in the bridge position of my 5 string Yamaha. I'm not a J bass connoisseur, but I really like it for what it is. Not as grindy as a single coil, but that's also not my thing.
 
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#13,912
emjazz said:
I have a hum canceling J in the bridge position of my 5 string Yamaha. I'm not a J bass connoisseur, but I really like it for what it is. Not as grindy as a single coil, but that's also not my thing.
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I'm not looking for "grindy" .
I even have a dislike for high freq bite and sizzle. Makes em sound frail imo.
More "balanced" and well voiced.
Splits tend to have a high mid roll off, sort of like a muffled blanked over the sound.
Kinda of choked.....
(Again words fall short of description)
 
#13,917
ugly_bassplayer said:
I'm not looking for "grindy" .
I even have a dislike for high freq bite and sizzle. Makes em sound frail imo.
More "balanced" and well voiced.
Splits tend to have a high mid roll off, sort of like a muffled blanked over the sound.
Kinda of choked.....
(Again words fall short of description)
Click to expand...
My strings on that bass haven't been change in quite some time, but I'll get you an audio sample with that pickup.
 
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#13,918
emjazz said:
My strings on that bass haven't been change in quite some time, but I'll get you an audio sample with that pickup.
Click to expand...
Even better, dead rounds are my favourite.
Dead flats also.
:)
Thank you very much this.

Re jazz pickups:
I got into the jazz pickup trial and error by force of having only one bass for so many years.
So believe me, I've tried a crap load of sets.
Maybe too many.....
I haven't even looked at any sets for about.....7 or 8 years but my 76 pbass just died and my jazz is my only E standard tuned bass left atm. Was looking to make it as versatile as possible.....when it already probably is.
Fixing something that isn't broken.
Someone kick some sense into me!!!
 
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