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Fender Aerodyne Club!

#542
Immediately after I replaced the stock bridge with a BadAss II, I heard longer sustain. There was a vivid difference to my ears. The strings stayed in tune longer. Sustain and staying in tune improved even more when I replaced the stock tuners with Hipshot Ultralights. Wasn't snake oil at all for me. It was simply replacing lower grade components with higher grade components. That's why "better" basses cost more. They use higher quality parts.

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#543
If I want sustain forever I'll grab my Spector.
I rarely do though, I get tired of constantly having to mute the strings.

I can tell no difference between my Aero and my Jazz with a Hipshot A and my MIA P5 with a high mass bridge. I have never had a problem with my Aero staying in tune. I do like the the higher precision of the USA tuners more but the CIJ ones work fine. I love the Hipshot A for the adjustability and the MIA High Mass is nice.
 
#545
enkidu25 said:
Maybe I will put some chrome flatwounds on it like my other basses and try to get the action adjusted. I love the tone and sustain
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Flatwounds have more tension than rounds, which tends to reduce their sustain a bit. I use ground wounds ("half wounds"), which are smooth on the outside and like a regular round wound on the inside. Best of both worlds without losing sustain if that's an important element to your sound.
 
#546
I appreciate the replies Ukiah. The funny thing is I had halfwounds on my P bass because of a suggestion from a friend. I actually found them to have a duller sound than flatwounds. I used D'addarios for the flats and the halfs but I liked the flats. I actually spent quite a bit of money and bought about ten different sets of strings to find the sound I like. LOL.
 
#547
Ukiah Bass said:
Immediately after I replaced the stock bridge with a BadAss II, I heard longer sustain.
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Looks nice, did your stock pickup fit into a routed recess in the body? My Aerodyne body has a routed pocket that the bridge fits inside. My first replacement bridge was the Babciz, and its footprint was larger, so I sent it back. I could have had a machine shop fab up a spacer, but I returned it. The Babciz was billed as being a direct replacment with no modifications needed.

For me, the saddles are not staying in place on the stock bridge, that's why I'm looking to replace. I noticed my intonation was way off and saw the saddle had walked up the adjusting screw and was almost coming off. I guess I could use loctite. I"m happy with the level of sustain I get on the Aerodyne.

I'm also happy with my radius. It feels great and it never occured to me to measure or reseach what radius it is.
 
#548
Ukiah Bass said:
Flatwounds have more tension than rounds, which tends to reduce their sustain a bit. I use ground wounds ("half wounds"), which are smooth on the outside and like a regular round wound on the inside. Best of both worlds without losing sustain if that's an important element to your sound.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you mean the D'Addario Half-Wounds? If so, what size?

I tried a set of 50-105's on my Aerodyne and wasn't too impressed. They just seemed a bit dull to my ear, lacking the "zing" of a roundwound. It almost felt like I was playing a too-thick B-string. It wouldn't surprise me if it was just that, a heavy B-string ground down to size. The end result being a standard E-string with an overly-thick core.

That being said, I have to wonder if a lighter gauge, like the 45-100's would feel and sound livelier.
 
#549
I have tried half wounds from four or five manufacturers. My favorite - and the ones I've used for several years - are Hot Wires from Status Graphite (UK). 45-65-85-105

My BadAss II fit flat on the bass body. There was no routing on the body or any need to do routing to fit the new bridge. The screws went right into the stock holes with no problem. However, when I replaced the tuners, I did need top drill one small screw hole for each tuner and putty in the old holes. For details and photos of replacing the tuners, see this thread: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f18/p...-tuners-fender-aerodyne-jazz-bass-cij-447992/
 
#550
hdracer said:
I have a non export model. The non export ones are different from the export ones.

I have never felt the need to change the bridge. It works fine.
Snake oil does not work on me.

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after a trip to the tropics my standard bridge(that also worked fine)developed a kinda mushroom growth,not rust but sh*tty looking ,as did the neck plate. thankfully the machines were untouched but i put the badass on and as its black it looked and sounded good. i have tried lots of things to clean up the stuff on the original bridge but nothing seems to shift it.one indian monsoon ate the pots on my fernandez also.there are strange things in the air in india.
 
#551
grey area said:
after a trip to the tropics my standard bridge(that also worked fine)developed a kinda mushroom growth,not rust but sh*tty looking ,as did the neck plate. thankfully the machines were untouched but i put the badass on and as its black it looked and sounded good. i have tried lots of things to clean up the stuff on the original bridge but nothing seems to shift it.one indian monsoon ate the pots on my fernandez also.there are strange things in the air in india.
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Whaaaa? That's odd.
 
#553
Not an Aerodyne owner (yet), but I'm looking into getting one.

I'm a saxophone player, but I started on the bass way back in middle school. I never took it seriously and sold it a few years ago, but now I'm getting back into music in a serious way, and I'm looking into the bass again.

I was planning on getting a Mexican made P, but everyone keeps telling me that I really should look into a J or a PJ at least. I really like the sound of the P, though. Does the Aerodyne (and other PJ basses) really sound like a regular P with the bridge turned down/off? I probably won't be able to try an Aerodyne before I order one, so is there anything I should know before I do? A couple of the reviews here on TB say that the bridge pickup is kind of weak; are they decent enough to start or should I look at getting something like a DiMarzio DP126 set installed when I get a setup done?

For reference, I listen to everything from jazz and blues to funk and soul to hip-hop to classic rock and modern metal. Black Sabbath (the early "heavy blues" stuff), Tool, and Tower of Power are three of my favorite bands.
 
#554
Sgroh87 said:
I was planning on getting a Mexican made P, but everyone keeps telling me that I really should look into a J or a PJ at least. I really like the sound of the P, though. Does the Aerodyne (and other PJ basses) really sound like a regular P with the bridge turned down/off? I probably won't be able to try an Aerodyne before I order one, so is there anything I should know before I do? A couple of the reviews here on TB say that the bridge pickup is kind of weak; are they decent enough to start or should I look at getting something like a DiMarzio DP126 set installed when I get a setup done?
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It sounds exactly like a Precision with the Jazz pickup rolled all the way down. I haven't had the problem of the bridge pickup being weak. As far as feel goes the body is lighter and thinner than a MIM or an MIA Jazz/Precision so it's easier on your back and shoulders. The neck (to me) feels like a Jazz bass neck but faster so you can move up and down the fretboard pretty quick. I'm probably wrong on some things but I'm describing it from what I have with mine :D
 
#556
Sgroh87 said:
Not an Aerodyne owner (yet), but I'm looking into getting one.

I'm a saxophone player, but I started on the bass way back in middle school. I never took it seriously and sold it a few years ago, but now I'm getting back into music in a serious way, and I'm looking into the bass again.

I was planning on getting a Mexican made P, but everyone keeps telling me that I really should look into a J or a PJ at least. I really like the sound of the P, though. Does the Aerodyne (and other PJ basses) really sound like a regular P with the bridge turned down/off? I probably won't be able to try an Aerodyne before I order one, so is there anything I should know before I do? A couple of the reviews here on TB say that the bridge pickup is kind of weak; are they decent enough to start or should I look at getting something like a DiMarzio DP126 set installed when I get a setup done?

For reference, I listen to everything from jazz and blues to funk and soul to hip-hop to classic rock and modern metal. Black Sabbath (the early "heavy blues" stuff), Tool, and Tower of Power are three of my favorite bands.
Click to expand...

It just sounds like a P bass with no Jazz pickup. Just buy a Duncan STK-J2 and put it in the bridge pickup spot
 
#560
I finally caved and switched out the DR black beauties on my Aerodyne for a set of Fender flats (my flats of choice). I've been using the fenders on my two modded squier Ps, my short scale bronco and Rivoli, and my fretless J. My T-40, MIA jazz and aerodyne were the last ones wearing roundwounds... Until now.
I haven't had a chance to plug it in yet, probably tomorrow, but it feels reeeaal nice!
 

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