I'm far from being an expert at electronics (that stuff works 'cuz of "Keebler Elf Magic™", right?
) so I'm just spitballing here, but did you check to make sure the ground lead under the bridge is making contact?
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Fender Blacktop Club
- Thread starter Stranger Danger
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I'm far from being an expert at electronics (that stuff works 'cuz of "Keebler Elf Magic™", right?
) so I'm just spitballing here, but did you check to make sure the ground lead under the bridge is making contact?I'm far from being an expert at electronics (that stuff works 'cuz of "Keebler Elf Magic™", right?
There is a low resistance between the bridge and the jack, so, seems fine. The shielding of the bridge pick-up might not be connected though.
I raised the pickups to improve singnal-to-noise a little. I also walked with the bass around the apartment (as if hunting for ghosts) and found that noise is highest around the corner, where the power line connects from outside of the house. Yikes. Feeling rather sick of all that investigation ordered a new pickup from ebay (30$), will see if that is going to be any different.
Found this at GC last week. Replaced the poopy high mass bridge with a Hipshot I had laying around. From reading things on here, I replaced the useless tone pot with CTS 250k pot, and the same for the neck pickup. I’ve left the bridge pot alone for now. After setting her up, she sounds fantastic and plays smooth.
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Nice find! While I love my black Blacktop Jazz, I really dig that sparkly shade of off-white.
As for the bridge, if you have no use for it, I could be convinced to take it off your hands.
Per chance, Malak. It just sits too high up off the deck, to the point I was going to put in a neck shim. The Hipshot’s design is much lower, so no shim was needed.Nice find! While I love my black Blacktop Jazz, I really dig that sparkly shade of off-white.
As for the bridge, if you have no use for it, I could be convinced to take it off your hands.
No problem with that here. I tend to really dig-in, so I keep my action a bit higher than spec.
Follow up on the electric noise from pickups (proper grounding has already been done). Got a pickup, replaced it. The noise dropped from "Irritating" to "clearly audible", 5-10db or so. When the guitar is positioned in the-least-noise direction (it is electromagnetic and is direction-dependent, in my apartment the direction has smth to do with the house power feed) new pick up just produces some warm noise, while the second old pickup is straight-up annoying. Not too much of a difference but for 30$ investment, it is worth it. So, getting the second pick up once the seller comes back from vacation.
The new pick up came with green-white wires pre-soldered instead of red-white on the old one. So, the bridge-side coil now more dominant (produces more noise when touched). I aslo had to solder white and not black as for the old one to the ground. Also, the new pickup produces some capacitive noise when pickup is touched. Once strings are touched as well noise disappears. I will fix it by placing metal foil on the bottom of the pickup magnets and grounding them. But this is when the second pickup arrives.
I really don't like it how much work this thing requires while never becoming exactly perfect. But for 350 (or 450 with all the renovation materials) it still punches way above the shop guitars, or, for instance, SR500e. From the shop guitars that I tried the cheapest that was decent was 800$ Schecter Riot with EMGs. Still gonna be getting a Stingray5 as the next one, I guess.
Here is the pickup replacement timelapse:
The new pick up came with green-white wires pre-soldered instead of red-white on the old one. So, the bridge-side coil now more dominant (produces more noise when touched). I aslo had to solder white and not black as for the old one to the ground. Also, the new pickup produces some capacitive noise when pickup is touched. Once strings are touched as well noise disappears. I will fix it by placing metal foil on the bottom of the pickup magnets and grounding them. But this is when the second pickup arrives.
I really don't like it how much work this thing requires while never becoming exactly perfect. But for 350 (or 450 with all the renovation materials) it still punches way above the shop guitars, or, for instance, SR500e. From the shop guitars that I tried the cheapest that was decent was 800$ Schecter Riot with EMGs. Still gonna be getting a Stingray5 as the next one, I guess.
Here is the pickup replacement timelapse:
Agreed.
...but I was hoping for some audio. It would have been fun to watch that with something that sounds like fast forwarding through a CD as a sound track.
Follow up: so, I had very noisy pickups before. I got one replacement from ebay from NY for 25, installed it. It got a lot less obnoxious but left a lot to be desired. So, I ordered another pickup from Aliexpress. For 9.99 (15 with shipping and tax). Looked janky on the photos: it had just 2 connection cables coming in the cord instead of 5, a bunch of Chinese symbols on the ad photos. But, that one is freaking silent! It solved it for me for good. I am getting another one just like that to replace the 30$ abomination from ebay now. The pegs are a lot more even, it sounds way louder, I placed it deeper (further from the strings) and my volume nob on the audiointerface went from 1:00 to 10:30 o'clock
What is this pickguard color called?
If he got it from WD Music, the same company as Pickguards.com, it would be designated as "#35 - Black Abalone". A brand new guard without any extra frills (copper shielding, etc…) would run you about $40.
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I got my Blacktop P-Bass today from Reverb and when I opened it up and took the bass out of the bass bag, guess what......It was damaged. What would you guys do if you got it in the condition in the photo? I tried to fix it by gluing the paint chips back on, but I'm not sure if I'm happy, I still have yet to test the bass itself since I'm at work still.
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Ok, I swapped out the neck and tone pots for 250k, but have a Starr guitar systems Jazz harness on the way, which is a 250k pots across the board, .50 paper in oil cap with a master volume, blend and tone configuration.
Here is my question. I noticed that in comparing it to another regular MIM P bass, which has 250k pots, .47 orange drop and an “original” fender P Bass pickup , the Blacktop does not have as much high end. Is the 250k setup going to sound muddy, or is it because I didn’t replace the bridge volume pot at this point? And if I don’t like the tone of the 250k install because of mudiness, if I swap out that cap with a .22, some of the high end should return, yes?
Here is my question. I noticed that in comparing it to another regular MIM P bass, which has 250k pots, .47 orange drop and an “original” fender P Bass pickup , the Blacktop does not have as much high end. Is the 250k setup going to sound muddy, or is it because I didn’t replace the bridge volume pot at this point? And if I don’t like the tone of the 250k install because of mudiness, if I swap out that cap with a .22, some of the high end should return, yes?
I'd either return it or ask for a (substantial) discount. How well (or poorly) was it packaged?
Your blacktop has more controls on it than a P bass does. If a P has two 250K pots and your bass has three, then the total resistance for P between the circuit and ground is about 125K, whereas on your bass it will be around 82K. I think replacing the cap with a smaller one would probably help, but I'd be more inclined to go with 500K pots.
Yet again, Guitar Center has a used Blacktop Jazz for sale, but knows nothing of it's provenance. 
I shouldn't be surprised, though. The Blacktop basses were only sold for about two years, and that was ten years ago, at that.
I shouldn't be surprised, though. The Blacktop basses were only sold for about two years, and that was ten years ago, at that.- [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
