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Fender Mustang Club

#861
Nods. Whatever you use on a 34" move up 1 to get the same tension. Played 40? Go 45. Played 45? Go 50.

Also don't be afraid to use long scale strings if the choices at short scale aren't to our liking. Personally I run a 45-107 balanced long scale set.
 
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#862
I personally get my lowest action and fret buzz when the relief is nearly flat, ~0.01". Any less and I get problems, any higher and action rises inside the curve if you can picture it mentally. Set that way I can get my preferred (E)2.5mm-(G)2.0mm action without issue.
 
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#863
I've always played 45s flats, same set on the jazz for most of a decade. The short scale thomastics I put on the mustang are also 45s but I found out after I put them on that particular brand are known for having a very loose feel anyways, on long scale basses too. Not a total waste they sound good for playing with acoustic guitars sort of double bass sound to them, they're handy if you need them. But I'd prefer something with a bit more growl. I've already been told don't buy into the shortscale strings only way of thinking. I'll discuss moving to a 50 gauge with the guitar tech guy, does a heavy gauge like that effect the neck on a mustang ? Thanks again for the advice.
 
#865
Tony-Tones said:
Greetings from Ireland Mustangers. New to talkbass so bear with me. Have already gained a lot of advice from this thread but looking for a bit more. After 20 years of playing the same 4 ton jazz bass (I still love he, the big bitch) a bad shoulder made me invest in a pj mustang. I want to make it into a great bass and have a few mods planned - pups, tuners, bridge, moving the strap button and getting rid of THAT switch for a vvt set up. Also smoothing the underside of frets on the neck before I lose a finger. What I need help with is strings. I prefer flats and put an expensive set of thomastic short scale flats on it but they are wayyyy to floppy for my liking, big disappointment. Any advice on strings that would give me really good tension? I hear short scale basses have a floppier feel to them anyways. Willing to put whatever type on for the tightest feel whether that be flats or rounds, any advice guys?
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Welcome young man from the Emerald Isle. My late wife was an O'Brien from Cork. I know your land well. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and I have been using D'Addario XL Super Lights 40-95 Nickel Wounds since I picked this PJ up and don't think I will go to anything else. They are comfortable and easily played with this condition. By the way these are rounds. Also the Hipshot High Mass Bridge replacement helped a great deal as well. Hope this helps. Erin Go Braugh or as my late wife would say "Shut up, have another Guinness and play on". She was a huge Peter Greene fan!

Bob
 
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#866
pcake said:
truss rod adjustment doesn't affect the action, which is done at nut and saddle/bridge - truss rod adjusts the neck relief. the reason i feel this is important, especially for those of us with hand issues, is that while changing your neck relief can make the top and bottom of the neck close to the strings, because it's curving the neck further, it will make the middle of the neck further away from the strings. of course, you can remove relief from the neck - ibanez ships some of their basses with virtually straight necks, but they buzz like mad.
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I think we’re talking semantics here. If we can agree that the definition of "action" is the height of the strings over the frets, then, simply, truss rod adjustment affects action.

Now I can agree that the basic purpose of adjusting the truss rod is to set the neck relief. However, as neck relief affects the action (string height over the frets), an effect of changing neck relief is to change the action.

More importantly, a fellow Mustanger is having trouble playing his bass due to hand issues. As someone with hand issues myself, I can well assure him that he needs to, as mentioned in my original post, get light, low tension strings, have the the minimum suficient nut height (really nut slot height), have the truss rod adjusted for minimal but sufficient bow, and adjust the bridge saddle height for minimum height (action, as you point out) without undue buzzing for his right hand technique.

Strings, nut slot height, truss rod adjustment, bridge saddle height
 
#867
Further to the whole action thing:

If one takes one specific neck relief as being the "correct" neck relief for an instrument (say, from a manufacturer recommended setup spec sheet), then yes: set the truss rod for that specific neck relief and (assuming nut height is proper), then adjust the action at the bridge saddles. That’s pretty straightforward.

However, one inevitably keeps reading or hearing some people say to set action with the truss rod. Why is that? Are those people insane? No, it’s because as a practical matter, setting action often comes down simply to a truss rod adjustment.

This very common situation: a player went to his or her tech once and had the bass properly set up for the player’s playing style, and string gauge hasn’t changed since then. Now however, a few months or a year or so later, the bass is so hard to play! Hand fatigue has become a real issue because the strings are too far from the fretboard. Misery ensues.

Since nut height can only get lower over time, it’s not that the nut got higher. Did the bridge saddles get higher? Unless someone messed with them with a screwdriver or perhaps the bass took a hard blow to the bridge or something, the bridge saddles should be the same height as ever. Helping the player to be able to play more easily again thus simply comes down to adjusting the truss rod to get the string height lower over the middle (and majority) of the fretboard.

For those who do not want to call this string height being too high over the playing surface "action", so be it. I can understand the point. Nevertheless, the main point still is that we, in the mentioned case, have to adjust the poor player’s truss rod to get the strings closer to the playing surface so that the instrument can be played easily once again
 
#868
Bobhmcs said:
Welcome young man from the Emerald Isle. My late wife was an O'Brien from Cork. I know your land well. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and I have been using D'Addario XL Super Lights 40-95 Nickel Wounds since I picked this PJ up and don't think I will go to anything else. They are comfortable and easily played with this condition. By the way these are rounds. Also the Hipshot High Mass Bridge replacement helped a great deal as well. Hope this helps. Erin Go Braugh or as my late wife would say "Shut up, have another Guinness and play on". She was a huge Peter Greene fan!

Bob
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I wouldn't say young Bob! I'm a Cork city man meself, small world. Many thanks for your advice. I have to admit I'm not totally sold on the pj mustang and might pick up a jmj before I go changing anything. Hard to get the jmjs here, online you can get them but I'd rather try something before buying. I'm heading stateside in a few weeks and hope to visit some guitar shops and try out a few guitars. I find it tough to leave the jazz neck so might even try an aerodyne. Either way I'll keep the mustang as I'm hoping my kid might get bitten by the bass bug and it wouldn't be too overwhelming sizewise for him to start out on.
 
#869
I saw a great old Mustang bass yesterday. At the moment there is an exhibition on in the national museum of Scotland called 'Rip It Up', which documents the history of Scotland's pop music. It is a fantastic exhibition; I got to see the jacket Midge Ure wore in the Vienna promo video, as well as a nice Alembic Series 1 that belonged to Wet Wet Wet (who? says everybody not from Scotland and/or under 30).

Anyway! One of the exhibits was a great late '60s competition Mustang. I guess it was competition red? It looked a bit like candy apple red, but with a clear orange tint to it. I'm not sure if this was just a yellowed clear coat, or whether the colour was actually more orange in general? It wasn't capri orange. The pickup was swapped out with a cream Dimarzio Model P, and the silks of the strings were sitting up and over the nut. The bass belonged to the band Orange Juice (them of the track Rip It Up), and looked like this:

147381163b89f23fe939ea8808e9ff1a.jpg


...only with an additional 38 years of wear and tear.


Today I finished off a tortoiseshell pickguard for my white PJ:

Mgqf34L.jpg


I hate having to carve out the 45 degree bevel by hand:

Zyzf2pT.jpg


I don't own a router, so I made this by hand. I used a drill for the screw holes and for hogging out the pickup hole, but the rest was done by hand with rasps, files, razor blades etc.

The white bass also has a ground down Hosco-brand amber switch tip. I'm enjoying having much shorter switch tips on these basses and they keep out the way until you need them! It also blends better into the look of the bass, rather than a big sticky-outy.

I've also made a parchment white one for my blue bass, though I'm not entirely sold on it:

2qz6u5t.jpg
 
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#874
i have a small issue with mine

after installing the babicz bridge and dimarzio p/j set, it sounds amazing. BUT the pole pieces on the P pickup for the E string aren't lined up properly so if i play a bit too hard on the E, I get unwanted loud popping sounds from the string touching the pole piece. It's not that big of an issue because I play with an always on compressor, but sometimes i wanna dig in and i kinda have to stay conservative because of the noise.

Is there any way around this issue? I assume if i switched to a p pickup with covered pole pieces it would fix it, but I'd rather not. Love the sound and look of these pickups.
 
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#875
symbolic_acts said:
i have a small issue with mine

after installing the babicz bridge and dimarzio p/j set, it sounds amazing. BUT the pole pieces on the P pickup for the E string aren't lined up properly so if i play a bit too hard on the E, I get unwanted loud popping sounds from the string touching the pole piece. It's not that big of an issue because I play with an always on compressor, but sometimes i wanna dig in and i kinda have to stay conservative because of the noise.

Is there any way around this issue? I assume if i switched to a p pickup with covered pole pieces it would fix it, but I'd rather not. Love the sound and look of these pickups.
Click to expand...
Have you tried playing around with the height adjustment? I thought about replacing the pickups on mine, but I’ve decided they are actually pretty good. At least to my ears. The only upgrade I’m contemplating is changing the tuners. They are not precise enough IMO. The tuners on my MIM p and MIM Seafoam PJ are much better.
 
#876
symbolic_acts said:
i have a small issue with mine

after installing the babicz bridge and dimarzio p/j set, it sounds amazing. BUT the pole pieces on the P pickup for the E string aren't lined up properly so if i play a bit too hard on the E, I get unwanted loud popping sounds from the string touching the pole piece. It's not that big of an issue because I play with an always on compressor, but sometimes i wanna dig in and i kinda have to stay conservative because of the noise.

Is there any way around this issue? I assume if i switched to a p pickup with covered pole pieces it would fix it, but I'd rather not. Love the sound and look of these pickups.
Click to expand...

Lower the pickup under the string. If the string is hitting the pole then the pickup is too high. Simple as that.
 
#877
New Pickguards! (WD Music) Nothing custom; I just picked from what they had available. The white one will be getting a new Fender high mass bridge, hipshot ultralight tuners, and a new 3-way switch. The red one only needs a new switch- it has far less neck dive. White one has TI jazz flats (which I love) and the red one has rounds. And that uke bass hanging on the wall behind them indeed has only 3 strings... lol, I bought pahoehoes for it and need to modify the bass a little before they will fit.
2BFD1347-5216-43AF-8275-4F80636BFBCC.jpeg
 
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