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Fender Blacktop Club

#781
I should have taken a photo of the cavity under the pickguard when I had it off, but alas I did not. So, I can't tell you about if you need to do any routing for putting in a Precision pickup.
It would be a pretty easy job though, IMHO.
All you'd need is a new pickguard, new pickups & a dremel.
You can get Dremels in the pawn shops for around $50 & you can use them for all kinds of other jobs later on.
 
#782
Killed_by_Death said:
I just started a thread on almost the exact same subject. I find it odd that the "humbuckers" are making so much noise on my new amp when the treble is up.
BTW, if I roll back the tone knob on the bass, it goes away, or if I keep the treble knob on the amp at 50% or less.

NGD - GK MB200 - hum/buzz with a MIM Fender | TalkBass.com
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Yeah it does help to roll off the treble for sure. I noticed that the hum is always present, whether I am touching the strings or not. Playing a note just covers the hum, but its still there. I just read your thread above and you are experiencing the exact same thing!

I have a Dremel tool. If its that simple, maybe Ill give that a shot. I should buy a P pup and fit it first I suppose. Tx for the tip.

Other than this hum issue, its a great bass.
 
#785
Doesn't sound like Precision pickups would fit, but as you said, you've got a Dremel.
I would try to shave off just enough so the pickup is right where you want it, but I suppose most people would say to shave off more & put in a sponge or something in between the pickup & the bare wood.
The advantage of cutting the hole deeper is pretty obvious. If the pickup height isn't just right you can raise or lower it w/o taking off the pickguard.
One the other hand, you can put strings on it & get it all set for playing w/o putting the pickguard on, then if you needed to shave off some more, it would be easy.
 
#786
ET777 said:
3) Ideally, it would be very cool to keep the bridge as a double-jazz humbucker, and put a real P-Bass pup in the neck position. The best of both worlds. Is this possible or would the bass need to have the neck PUP slot enlarged (im assuming it would be)
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I have a suggestion to make sure your new pickup goes in the proper spot. Before you start irreversibly dremeling into your body, get a standard Precision guard and use it as a template for marking off where to cut.

I did the same thing by using a Blacktop Jazz guard on a Mighty Mite Jazz body. Mind you, the actual routing was done by my local guitar tech, but I made sure give him the guard when I brought in the body for modding. Now, I have a lovely Jazz bass that has all the appropriate (not to mention, cleanly cut) routing which allows me to switch from P/J to J/J whenever the mood should strike.

ProjektBlue03_zps7d4a1dfe.jpg
 
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#787
Malak that looks nice. Thanks for the tip on using the guard to get a fit.

Funny thing just happened. When I took the pickguard off, I checked over each wire attached to the pots and wiggled each a bit, making sure no bare wires were touching each other etc.

I buttoned it back up and now it is not humming! I am recording DI through the board on to tape and it sounds pretty good...no hum. Im shocked that this fixed it and hope it stays that way. I am still going to put a P Bass Pup in front though.
 
#788
ET777 said:
Malak that looks nice. Thanks for the tip on using the guard to get a fit.

Funny thing just happened. When I took the pickguard off, I checked over each wire attached to the pots and wiggled each a bit, making sure no bare wires were touching each other etc.

I buttoned it back up and now it is not humming! I am recording DI through the board on to tape and it sounds pretty good...no hum. Im shocked that this fixed it and hope it stays that way. I am still going to put a P Bass Pup in front though.
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Then I suppose…


:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:
 
#789
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#791
Killed_by_Death said:
I like the Mark Wahlberg version:

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That moment in "Boogie Nights" had me howling out of my mind! :roflmao:

Not only because I didn't expect that in a million years, but believe it or not, the soundtrack to "The Transformers: The Movie" was probably THE MOST influential album on my development as an appreciator of music. I know that sounds rather odd, but I'm gonna ask people to trust me on this, 'cuz telling the "how" and "why" would take a really, really long time.
 
#794
Killed_by_Death said:
They only made them in two colors, black or "chrome pearl". It's more of a silver/grey than white.

How are you liking those Flatwounds?
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Yeah its sparkly not white. I love them for straight playing through an amp, but for recording DI they were too muddy so I swapped them out for some rounds. The high freq squeel noise is gone since I took the cover off and wiggled the wires. Its still not completely noiseless but is way better than it was before. It is now ok to record with. I got some good results.


For a P Bass pickup... is this 62 Fender any good? Im more of a guitarist than a bassist so this is new for me:

Fender Original 1962 P Bass Pickup | Musician's Friend
 
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#795
So Ive been recording heavy with this bass the past couple of days. Holy s--t this is a nice bass! Very versatile sound. I typically roll the back pup off and get a very wooly J Bass tone using the neck pickup. Very fat and nice. I also love the flame on the neck. The wood has flame up and down the neck which is very kick assed looking. Love this thing its like a rock.
 
#796
ET777 said:
So Ive been recording heavy with this bass the past couple of days. Holy s--t this is a nice bass! Very versatile sound. I typically roll the back pup off and get a very wooly J Bass tone using the neck pickup. Very fat and nice. I also love the flame on the neck. The wood has flame up and down the neck which is very kick assed looking. Love this thing its like a rock.
Click to expand...

I and a few others have talked about how stellar theirs is. So much so, in fact, that I once posed the idea that Fender was picking out the best examples from their Mexican factories in an effort to really make the then-new Blacktop Series shine. :cool:
 
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#799
Here's a question for the club, specifically for those who bought their's brand-new;

What year was your Blacktop manufactured and when did you buy it?

For example, I bought mine brand-new in 2013, but it was dated 2011 (MZ11******), which if I remember correctly, was the year they debuted. So, even if the series was being sold from 2011 to 2015, what years they were actually being manufactured?
 
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#800
Malak the Mad said:
I and a few others have talked about how stellar theirs is. So much so, in fact, that I once posed the idea that Fender was picking out the best examples from their Mexican factories in an effort to really make the then-new Blacktop Series shine. :cool:
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Sure seems this way. The wood on the bass is a definite cut way above the typical Mexican P Bass or Jazz.
 

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