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Frustrated

J

jcoopcoyote

Apr 16, 2006
69
0
Woodbine, Maryland
#1
Looking for some ideas or help here. After 25+years of playing fender j basses, I realised I was much more comfortable with short scale light weight basses. I've been through a bunch of them, from cheap kids toys, to $2,000 custom models, but still can't find the right one. I keep buying and selling them and have tried 2 hand made custom models that didn't work out either.
I'm looking for suggestions to either help my current basses or for some others to try. I've tried: Rob Allen, Landing, Gibson, Epiphone, Fender, Dano, Turser, Hondo, even Daisy Rock.
I currently have 2 short scale Aria basses I like pretty well, but they don't have much bottom end and have kind of a compressed sound sometimes.
I also have an Austin p-bass copy made of Chinese Ash? It has a nice warm tone for low volume practice or through head phones, but when cranked up at gig's it seems to have dead spots(A#on the E string and maybe more) where the notes kind of hollow out and have no punch or clarity. Is there something that can be done to remedy this? Is it the neck, frets, body or the whole thing? I've tried various strings and tried S.D. Bass line P.U.'s on a different bass with a similar problem which only made it louder?
Oh yeah, I also have a really cheap SX p copy that just sounds and plays rough and is too heavy for me, and a Jay Turser Hollow body thats kind of limited for a vintage sound.
Any suggestions for my current basses or any 30" models under 7 lbs I should try? Thanks.
 
#4
Sorry if I put this in the wrong forum. I was hoping some luthiers could tell me what causes these dead spots? I had a great conversation with Birdsong, but he wasn't building 30" basses under 7 lbs. He had suggested I take one of my comfortable cheap basses to a luthier for them to replicate with better materials. (P.S. my Rob Allen Mouse and Landing L-1 were great basses but not what I was looking for. The Mouse was too light and airy and the L-1 was too heavy). I can't do much myself. I tried to modify the headstock on my SX and hacked it up pretty good. I envy you guys! Thanks.
 
#5
Oh, dead spots?
They are always on all string instruments. By fixing the ratio weight/stiffness, you move the dead spots around. The trick is to make the dead spots fall out of the normal playing range. For a bass, we try to raise the resonance frequeces, a dsitinct treble instrument could benefit from the opposite.
Another trick is to make the dead spots fall between the notes. In the classic Fender G example, a minor change of the headstock weight can make the resonance interference move to in between G and G#. It's there, it's obvious, but you never hit that note!
But that is pretty hard to achieve...
 
#7
Since you're wanting light weight anyway, I'd try some Hipshot ultralight tuners on that bass. It'll change the dead spots, reduce weight, and improve balance. Trick is, it might move the dead spots to an even worse note, or it might make it better. Can't know until you try.
 

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