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Fender pre-CBS Club: pics mandatory!
- Thread starter Mastermold
- Start date
Cool dude. Anyone see him on "Live at Daryl's"?
Yeah! I am a fan of the man. Mr Cool! Really like the bass lines he produce. Simple but strong. Smart lines in my opinion.
Yes, a good episode. I saw him with his Cowboy Outfit in a local club in the 80s. He had one of my favorite vocalists, Paul Carrack, with him on keys as well. Paul is know from Ace (How Long), Squeeze (Tempted by the Love of Another), Mike + The Mechanics (The Living Years).
I don't know how many of you with all original basses share my experience, but I had been having trouble enjoying by '64 in any kind of band setting because of the low output. My playing style relies on a certain amount of headroom, and I've always used higher output passive pickups in my working basses. I found myself unable to get across whenever I'd bring my stock '64 to the practice room.
I'm obviously not going to modify the bass, so I tried one of these boost pedals at band practice last night and had a fantastic night.
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I had the output and headroom I need to be comfortable playing in a band setting while enjoying the vibe, feel, tone and light weight of my old precision bass.
I thought I'd post this here in case any of y'all found yourself in a similar predicament. I'm certainly curious to hear if others have had the same experience.
I'm obviously not going to modify the bass, so I tried one of these boost pedals at band practice last night and had a fantastic night.
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I had the output and headroom I need to be comfortable playing in a band setting while enjoying the vibe, feel, tone and light weight of my old precision bass.
I thought I'd post this here in case any of y'all found yourself in a similar predicament. I'm certainly curious to hear if others have had the same experience.
Not with my Fenders--both my '64 P-basses have very strong output. I suspect your pickup may need to be rewound. Fralin can rewind it to original spec if that's the case.
Have your pickups been rewound or are you still getting good output from the pickups as they came from the factory in 64?
Mine have not been rewound. Fender pickups tend to last but pickups don't necessarily last the same so don't feel bad if you need a rewind.
Interesting. In any case, for the price of a pedal I'm getting the performance I need out of my bass and haven't had to futz with an expensive, all original p-bass.
My main player is a '68 that wasn't original when I got it, so I swapped the pickup out for a new Fralin. I'm really enjoying the new ability to bust out my '64 whenever the urge hits me.
I have a '59 Kay Speed Demon bass that is pretty low output. I considered having Fralin work on that pickup. I also considered getting that same boost pedal you posted. Ultimately I just turned up the volume on my amp. Problem solved.
id definitely check the dcr of the pickup and try tapping the pole pieces with something small and metal to see how much magnetic pull they have. the pickup in my 64 is LOUD and is wound to right around 12k. i also had a pickup in a fodera suffer from low output on the g string only. i tapped the pole pieces and it was obvious the g string poles had lost their magnetic pull compared to the rest of the pickup. i sent it back to the duncan custom shop and they recharged the poles. that brought the volume back on the g string. i also have sent the custom shop many vintage pickups over the years to get rewound by mj in the custom shop and they always comeback perfect and era correct. fralin wouldnt be my first choice to work on a vintage bass pickup.
What’s the height of your pickup? Rather how far is it from the strings?
I haven't measured it, but it does look like it could be set higher. Certainly an easy thing to look at trying. Thanks!
To give some more background, I have a '75 precision and after struggling with the output for a while back in the 90s I swapped out the pickup for a 1/4lb'er and have been really happy with it ever since.
Much more recently I picked up my '68 precision which had a bad refin and some changed parts, though it still had the original pickup. I played it in a few practices before taking it in to get it painted and decided to put the Fralin in there and am very glad that I did.
It is not unusual for me to be dissatisfied with the output of a vintage Fender bass. I obviously don't want to swap the pickup on my '64, so I'm pretty happy with the pedal solution.
Much more recently I picked up my '68 precision which had a bad refin and some changed parts, though it still had the original pickup. I played it in a few practices before taking it in to get it painted and decided to put the Fralin in there and am very glad that I did.
It is not unusual for me to be dissatisfied with the output of a vintage Fender bass. I obviously don't want to swap the pickup on my '64, so I'm pretty happy with the pedal solution.
no. original windings. its so loud that i lower it to match my other basses. i did have the neck pickup of my 62 jazz rewound and duncan did a great job.
Maybe I'm missing something, but why don't you just use the gain knob on your amp to adjust to the lower output? That's what I do when switching between my '64 P and my '56 P.
When I've got enough output going into the front of the amp, it allows me to play dynamically so that my soft playing is quieter I can get louder by digging in. Turning up the gain on the amp doesn't seem to give me that same ability. It is a subtle thing, but I've come to rely on it over the years. Perhaps it has something to do with cutting my teeth on a Stingray. I could never use compression in my live setup for this same reason.
A good, high output passive precision bass pickup is generally plenty good for me, but I don't have that option on my original '64.
Its interesting that so many of you have great output from your older p-basses. I've never had that experience with a vintage precision.
My early '62 doesn't have a problem either, and I'm use to humbuckers that are less than an 1/8" away from the strings.
