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Fender Jazz Bass Special - Circa 1984-87

#1,841
Found this on eBay, not quite the same thing but at least it's something:
s-l500.jpg

Search for "Fender 80's Style Knob", there's a couple different styles.
 
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#1,846
Hello guys,

I need your help :'(

Almost one year ago, I bought a 85/86 JBS which needed some care.

Without giving you the full story yet, I can give you its conclusion : She lost its sound. THE sound. That distinctive mid-honk we all know and love, it's gone and I'm drowning in my own dispair because I guess i'm the only one to blame :'(

Now to the details. I decided this bass would not be a mod project, but a restore project. Everything I did was trying to get her as close as new I could, while keeping her as close as stock as possible.

- I disassembled everything, cleaned everything, greasing when needed.
- I had the body refinished by a luthier in pearl white
- I changed all the old wiring with teflon cables
- I re-shielded the cavity
- I protected the pickup coils with cloth tape
- I did an extensive fretboard and frets job
- I replaced the bridge with a Gotoh201B but reverted to a "bend plate" one because the Gotoh gave me too high action.

Upon reassembly when the body came back from the luthier, I immediately noticed something has changed tone wise.

I tried differents setups, and, thinking I maybe burned something during the re-wiring, I bought some pots, a switch and a brand new TBX along with some new resitors and caps.
I re-did the wiring from scratch with the new components (twice for the TBX, to be sure I didnt burn any resistor), this time with Gavitt cloth wire, but the result is the the same.

I don't know what to to, I feel guilty as hell because as ugly and filthy she were when I got her, she sounded fantastic, and now she's a looker, but lost what I love about her in the first place :(

Do you have any suggestions ? Anything I could try ?

Only thing I haven't tried yet is changing the strings, she's strung with Rotosound RS66LD and I think she was given to me with D'addarios but don't know which ones. Steel ? Nickel ? Chrome ?
I didn't changed the strings because they're expensive as f***k and to my knowledge, the best strings to highlight this famous sound are Rotosound stainless, but maybe I'm wrong.

Any advice is welcome, I really feel like s**t

Thanks !

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#1,848
r_bnks said:
These are the values of the 'original' '84-'87 TBX if that helps:

Resistor: 82K
Resistor: 4.7M
Capacitor: .022
1M/250K dual pot
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply !!
These are the values I used, I cross-checked several times between what I observed from mine, and the intel I could find online.

I still wonder if I could have burned the cap or a resistor, because I'm not very good at soldering, and I don't know what kind of heat these component can withstand...
Maybe I should try again, because AFAIK, the TBX is a big part of the sound.
 
#1,849
croustiFajita said:
Thanks for the quick reply !!
These are the values I used, I cross-checked several times between what I observed from mine, and the intel I could find online.

I still wonder if I could have burned the cap or a resistor, because I'm not very good at soldering, and I don't know what kind of heat these component can withstand...
Maybe I should try again, because AFAIK, the TBX is a big part of the sound.
Click to expand...

Have you tried to play with the pickup height?
 
#1,850
r_bnks said:
Have you tried to play with the pickup height?
Click to expand...

Yes, but dumb and impatient as I was, I didn't take time to take any measurement before disassembly so i'm improvising.

As we speak, with open strings, distance from the pole pickup is more or less 3mm. Am I in the right ballpark?

Also, I changed the foam under the pickup because with time it became hard as stone, but I don't think it should have any impact on the tone, right ?
 
#1,851
croustiFajita said:
Yes, but dumb and impatient as I was, I didn't take time to take any measurement before disassembly so i'm improvising.

As we speak, with open strings, distance from the pole pickup is more or less 3mm. Am I in the right ballpark?

Also, I changed the foam under the pickup because with time it became hard as stone, but I don't think it should have any impact on the tone, right ?
Click to expand...
Yea you right, the foam shouldn't have any impact on the tone. According to the manual 3/32" or 2.38 mm is the recommended pickup height between the bottom of strings and the pole pieces with the last fret pressed.
I usually set them a hair lower tough because of the high output of these large pole pickups. If they're too high I usually get to many pops during recording because of the string vibration.

You can also try to raise the bridge pickup higher than the neck pu because of it's lower output for a better balance. It also adds a little 'honk' to the overall sound.

This is how mine sounds with a touch of chorus if you want reference, or you can check our other vids.

Btw, that pearl white refin looks awfully good!!
 
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#1,853
Yea you right, the foam shouldn't have any impact on the tone. According to the manual 3/32" or 2.38 mm is the recommended pickup height between the bottom of strings and the pole pieces with the last fret pressed.
I usually set them a hair lower tough because of the high output of these large pole pickups. If they're too high I usually get to many pops during recording because of the string vibration.

You can also try to raise the bridge pickup higher than the neck pu because of it's lower output for a better balance. It also adds a little 'honk' to the overall sound.

This is how mine sounds with a touch of chorus if you want reference, or you can check our other vids.
Click to expand...

I played a lot today with pickup height, and action, and tone improved a little.
To my surprise, action seems to have the more impact so far. I'm so angry at myself for not taking mesurements before disassembly. It would have made things so much easier !
Nice cover BTW ! Which strings do you use on this vid ?

Btw, that pearl white refin looks awfully good!!
Click to expand...

Thanks, it took us some time with my luthier to decide exactly what shade of white we should use, but in the end I think we nailed it. To be precise, HE nailed it, I just helped with photos, and with the final choice based on the samples he made.
 
#1,854
croustiFajita said:
I played a lot today with pickup height, and action, and tone improved a little.
To my surprise, action seems to have the more impact so far. I'm so angry at myself for not taking mesurements before disassembly. It would have made things so much easier !
Nice cover BTW ! Which strings do you use on this vid ?



Thanks, it took us some time with my luthier to decide exactly what shade of white we should use, but in the end I think we nailed it. To be precise, HE nailed it, I just helped with photos, and with the final choice based on the samples he made.
Click to expand...
I do my own setup following the factory recommended settings, and lower it just a hair lower to get minimal buzz. That buzz is IMO a part of the overall sound.

Depending on your playing style, I'd recommend lowering the action as low as possible with a little buzz. I have a sort of heavy picking hand and play with a pick and found out that the factory settings a hair lower works for me just fine. Ymmv. If you have a lighter touch, probably you can lower it more without serious buzz.
 
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#1,855
r_bnks said:
I do my own setup following the factory recommended settings, and lower it just a hair lower to get minimal buzz. That buzz is IMO a part of the overall sound.

Depending on your playing style, I'd recommend lowering the action as low as possible with a little buzz. I have a sort of heavy picking hand and play with a pick and found out that the factory settings a hair lower works for me just fine. Ymmv. If you have a lighter touch, probably you can lower it more without serious buzz.
Click to expand...

After today's experimentations I also came to the conclusion that a very subtle buzz is part of the sound. Unusual, but hey, works for me!

I'll continue fiddling with action and pickups height and let you know how it goes. Thanks for the help man!
 
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#1,858
TexasEdition said:
Probably the paint job was the most drastic change to the instrument. If it't not resonating like it did with the origional paint job, well there ya go. The Pot and TBX changes probably added to that.
Click to expand...

Ahahah I knew the subject was gonna pop-up at some point, but you see, I'm a member of the sect of the "Non-believers-in-tone-wood-and-stuff-for-solid-bodied-intruments" so to me, the paint job having an effect on the way electromagnetic pickups interact with the strings is the same as saying a red Ferrari is quicker than a yellow one because color.

But at least I don't belong to the "Church-of-the-guys-who-wants-to-convert-every-other-dudes-to-their-beliefs" so I won't argue and instead give you a sincere "Maybe ?". The facts are here, I did have the body repaint, and the sound changed. But I honestly thinks the truth is more likely in the change of setup and strings. And I also think I did panic and instead of taking my time to investigate one lead at a time, I changed everything at the same moment, and panicked even more, rending my whole investigation pointless :dead:

PS : If I offended a ToneWood Believer here it was unintentionnal and I'm sorry.
 
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#1,860
TexasEdition said:
No need to be a SA. You asked a question and I tired to help. Good luck wtih your instrument; i'm out of this conversation. I'm actually here for another reason.
Click to expand...

Sorry mate, I was trying to be funny, but english is not my native language so maybe it was not the best idea to try irony.
I do appreciate the fact you tried to help, and even if I don't believe the paint has this much impact on sound, I have to admit it's a possibility given the facts. I didn't mean to be rude or mean. Thx for the input !
 
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