basses for newbies (SX batch build thread)

[mid_life_crisis]

Thank you sir, you are a gentleman of the old school.

Wow. Only on TB could you kill an 840 post thread by calling someone a gentleman.

 

[selowitch]

Wow. Only on TB could you kill an 840 post thread by calling someone a gentleman.

On the contrary, I thought it was a nice compliment!

 

[joeyl]

J

I learned a few things though tonight. The P/J cannot sound like a P-bass even with the bridge pickup turned off. Whether it's the magnetic drag of the other pickup, or the extra pot in the signal chain, the 2 pickups seem to be acting in tandem even when one is soloed.

The extra pot and the fact that the pickups are basically in the same circuit, you get tone change and cancellation. You should try a switch that would take each pickup in and out of the circuit.

 

[chunger]

More information is in from the field on #11 and the new P/J pickup configuration.

Strange as it seems to me, there is not enough treble response from the pickups in combination. It is being played with tone all the way up, and there is still some want of top end. . . so, there are several things that can be done:

1. Change from 250K to 500K pots
2. Try the brighter voiced NJ4SV pickup in the bridge position (I have one on hand to test)
3. Mod the NJ4SE pickup for push/pull series/parallel to utilize a brighter voicing

We'll see which one ends up happening. I knew I should have bought some straight shaft 500K pots in my last order, but I thought I'd settled on the 250K for good. Right when I thought I had things figured out. . . go figure.

As the bass stands, it is very smooth and the tone is quite pleasant and usable. It is probably voiced ideally for flatwounds actually. But, if I can do something to make it a better all-around instrument, I will. This is pretty nit picky.

I may try any number of the above fixes, or I may implement one in the other P/J that I have that's already PLEK'd, but hasn't had guts replaced. That way, I can do side-by-side comparison which has been helpful.

It's hard for me to imagine the custom p-pickup not having enough cut or top end, but that seems to be what's happening with it in P/J combination.

 

[xoloder]

i personally like to use the "no load" (1 meg i think) pots for tone. it allows me to really open up the highs if i want. a lot of the time it's almost a bit too much, but i like to know it's there if i want it.

 

[Dr McBalders]

all of it, one day, 6 hours, with minor interruptions. Great thread! Subscribed, obviously. Lefties? Maybe mod (assuming I can get one) SX P?
I heart reading, especially when I can do it at "work"!
I loves me my job.
B.

 

[KingRazor]

all of it, one day, 6 hours, with minor interruptions. Great thread! Subscribed, obviously. Lefties? Maybe mod (assuming I can get one) SX P?
I heart reading, especially when I can do it at "work"!
I loves me my job.
B.

I read this thread a lot at work too.

 

[Stompin Tom]

all of it, one day, 6 hours, with minor interruptions. Great thread! Subscribed, obviously. Lefties? Maybe mod (assuming I can get one) SX P?
I heart reading, especially when I can do it at "work"!
I loves me my job.
B.

Yeah, I got paid to read this entire thread, too. Good stuff.

 

[blubolt]

I used to get paid to read it. Now I gotta drive all over the great state of California to make my money (and it ain't driving to gigs either.

 

[chunger]

I had no idea this thread would end up being so profitable to so many people

Further developments on the speaker cab front have occurred as a result of many feelers being sent out to a few companies. When I found out AMCE is trying to form their dealer network for their Series III speakers as they are moving away from the direct sales model, I gave them a call, and hey, they called back. I had a very good conversation with their now director of marketing, and it seems they want to work with me as a Bay Area dealer. I guess they are making significant progress on their concentric tweeter setup for the Series III, and have the "flatwound" single driver setup in stock and ready to ship. They are holding off on submitting samples to places like Bass Player Magazine until they have their full range Series III cab up and running, but when that does hit, they do expect a surge of orders and want to have some dealers on the ground.

Concurrently, a long-time friend who I work with in live sound installations was asked to be the regional rep for a high end driver manufacturer, and they have asked him to develop product to showcase their drivers. In conversation, I mentioned that I'd be perfectly happy to help develop a compact cab. . . 1x12 or 2x10 if he feels his line of drivers can deliver something better than currently available.

At any rate, I've got some things to test either way I go. I don't know if the ACME cabs (even though I personally like them) are too much of a niche product for what I'm trying to offer. Broader testing would be required. . . and if a proprietary cab would be the solution . . . man, that'd be a whole nother can of worms.

A by-product of speaker cab development I would have booth space at NAMM. . . which would mean I would need to call my manufacturer in China to see if there is any way at all I could push my project to the front of the line and have the 1st samples ready to roll. . . oh, the drama.

Oh well, all this just sounds like biting off way more than you can chew sort of stuff. Best get back to Chinese Labor Camp and get some basses done.

 

[Moronicus]

Man, it's amazing to see how this thread has progressed from initially providing newbies with a decent, well set-up instrument to covering so many other aspects such as electronic mods, PLEK and hand filed frets, screw inserts for the neck, re-alignment of bridge, pup upgrades to combo amps, cabs, and speakers.

If I'm in the States, I'd apply for a position as a tech assistant at a low starting salary seeing that I'm Chinese myself I guess I qualify for your Chinese Labour (I knw there's an extra 'U' in Labour but we use the Queen's English in Malaysia) Camp.

Much respect as always.

 

[chunger]

I see no one has apparently answered your question. (I see the guys in Pickups forum told you to learn how to solder! ...temp controlled iron is good, however)

Bottom connectors are known as "phone tip plugs" They are used on test instrument leads and in the old days (1930) on headphones. They are NOT a "phone plug" which is on the end of your guitar cord. Will do an excellent job electrically but problem is the female side is usually large and designed to bolt into a panel.

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The upper group are the innards from Molex power connectors (Now called Waldom, I believe) covered with shrink tube. These are the cheapest piece of crap connectors on the planet...wait for it... THAT REALLY WORK! To eliminate the junk plastic housing they are meant to go in, they were simply stuck in some shrink tube. Hey. The pickups in the Les Paul I built from a kit came outfitted with these (and a piece of shrink tube to finish the job.) They work EXCELLENT. In spite of the fact they are cheap as dirt. They come in different sizes like .062", .084" and .093". Any will work fine. Work like a champ in my guitar. Just what you want for pickup quick change. Search Digi-key or places like that for them. You only need the pins not the plastic housings.

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Unlike many connectors these fit tight enough that they deal VERY well with vibration!

OK?

Thanks for this info. . . my order has been placed through Digikey. I found a happy volume/price point at 600 pieces. That should last me a while and give me a few extra if folks start asking me for them (like they have with the threaded inserts). I guess Tin should be ok. . . I may have to replace it every 20 years or so, but I can live with that

 

[Michael Vee]

I don't know if the ACME cabs (even though I personally like them) are too much of a nitch product for what I'm trying to offer.

What is a "nitch" product? Got me on that one.

 

[Moronicus]

What is a "nitch" product? Got me on that one.

I think he meant 'niche' but I'll leave it to the Grammar Police to correct me if I'm wrong....lol

 

[mid_life_crisis]

I learned a few things though tonight. The P/J cannot sound like a P-bass even with the bridge pickup turned off. Whether it's the magnetic drag of the other pickup, or the extra pot in the signal chain, the 2 pickups seem to be acting in tandem even when one is soloed.

The extra pot and the fact that the pickups are basically in the same circuit, you get tone change and cancellation. You should try a switch that would take each pickup in and out of the circuit.

To prevent interaction between pups, I read an article by a luthier who puts a fixed 47k resistor on each pup as the first piece in each chain. You probably lose a bit of output, but it would dramatically cut down the problem.

 

[mid_life_crisis]

I think he meant 'niche' but I'll leave it to the Grammar Police to correct me if I'm wrong....lol

You're correct. "Nitch" is the americanization of "niche".
In this case it means a narrow specialization.

 

[Diogenes]

You're correct. "Nitch" is the americanization of "niche".
In this case it means a narrow specialization.

I've always known it as "niche". I think "nitch" is a bubbazation of "niche"... kinda like "voila" being written "wahla", "beaucoup bucks" as "bookoo bucks" or "you've piqued my interest" written as "you've peaked my interest". But hey... who am I? Certainly not the grammar police.

 

[selowitch]

I've always known it as "niche". I think "nitch" is a bubbazation of "niche"... kinda like "voila" being written "wahla", "beaucoup bucks" as "bookoo bucks" or "you've piqued my interest" written as "you've peaked my interest". But hey... who am I? Certainly not the grammar police.

"Nitch" is not a word, period, end of story. From context, however, it's clear that niche was intended. Let's move on.

 

[bassbenj]

To prevent interaction between pups, I read an article by a luthier who puts a fixed 47k resistor on each pup as the first piece in each chain. You probably lose a bit of output, but it would dramatically cut down the problem.

Yeah there are lots of tricks like this to try to minimize the problems with vol/vol setups. You find tons of them to try to fix the problems with tonal changes with volume on guitars. But they only minimize it for the worst cases but don't really fix it.

This isn't the right forum so I won't give any details but basically with a straight P there is one volume and turning it does NOT load the pickup. Now the voicing of any given pickup depends upon three factors in the circuit: L, C, and R. That's why a 500k pot sounds different than a 250k one. [different R] It's how a varitone works. etc. [different C] or different number of turns on the pickp coil [Different L]

But a P/J (And I might add my OLP 'ray) uses the passive vol/vol circuit where each volume essential shorts the pickup to quiet it down! This leads to all manner of tonal disaster... a disaster that I might add depends upon you volume setting. I don't own a P/J I can tell you it makes my OLP a bear to dial-in. You CAN get the tone you want but it takes some serious knob twiddling to get it.

Bottom line is that someday someone needs to come up with a P/J passive pickup mixing passive circuit that doesn't alter the impedance the pickups see as you adjust pickup balance etc.

 

[mid_life_crisis]

"Nitch" is not a word, period, end of story. From context, however, it's clear that niche was intended. Let's move on.

Didn't mean to imply that it was a real word. Give it time though, enough people use it and sooner or later...