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G. Gould Club!

#461
@Chuck M

I've never tried a Gould, as nice as they are (and being a fan of composite necks), but even though the Babicz is a bit ostentatious, I doubt it'll fade (like Wilkinson). What the Babicz lacks in form, it makes up for in function, imo. I had a bass that had one (didn't like the bass), and it couldn't have been easier to adjust. Although, I don't like the set positions for intonation...that isn't the best, for something that needs to be precise, not approximated.
 
#462
Chuck M said:
I own basses with Bartolini preamps/pickups and I have two of Geoff's basses with EMG's with only bass and treble controls. My opinion is that the EMG's are perfect for my Gould basses and I have no plans to change them. They sound fantastic through a good amp IMO. The bridge on your bass is one I could not live with.

My Gould basses sound fantastic through these amps. No other basses I've owned have had the even response and sweet tone of the Gould basses. I would think twice before changing out the electronics. Just my opinion.

I'm pleased that pretty bass found a new home. It is a beauty!
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks man! That bridge is definitely on its way out, but I'll probably leave the EMG electronics in there for a while, just something I was considering.
 
#463
zappatalist said:
Just joined the club! Picked up a GGi4 from the Classifieds here, and I am loving it. Incredibly light, comfortable to play, great neck. Seems like a keeper.

That said- I'd like to change out the Babicz bridge, and possibly the stock EMG 35x set and preamp.

I'm thinking about changing over to a Hipshot B style bridge (brass), and set of Bartolini Classic Bass pickups w/a Bart 2-band pre. Thoughts/recommendations?
Click to expand...
pics? and you can have a number from pnutz....
 
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#464
I'm pretty agnostic about all this stuff. Bartolini, and many other pickup makers make pickups that will retrofit into the EMG-35 hole, so no surgery is needed to try something else. I would just recommend going to square one first, and setting everything on your amp flat. Then tweak things out. Sometimes people get used to a certain setting, which doesn't work for every bass/pickup.
 
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#465
Tdub77 said:
pics? and you can have a number from pnutz....
Click to expand...

Excellent, thanks! Haven't had a chance to take a personal pic, here's one from the gent I purchased it from:

ggi4_zps5mvtkwtf.gif
 
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#466
My Gould basses sound terrific just as Geoff built them....except for the strings. I have never cared for stainless strings and have D'Adarrio XL's on both my Gould basses. The string change was all that was required to get wonderful tone IMO. The EMG electronics sound great and are very easy to use.
 
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#470
my ggj's still have their stock emg's. my ggi's have bart dc's. all have 3-band eq's.

most of the abm stock bridges have been swapped out with hipshot b-style brass bridges (.708 / 18mm). spacing is perfect for me and love the 'set it and forget it' setup. abm saddles can drift side-to-side when unlocking and adjusting saddle height. not a major inconvenience but there's that. fyi.

how is the babicz bolted to the body? one must be careful on deciding a replacement bridge if the original/previous bridge has multiple screws and a large base plate. if you go to a smaller bridge (like the hipshot b-style), you may have to deal with exposed screw holes and base plate impressions in the body. again, fyi.

not sure what happened to wilkinson. my only experience with them is the wilkinson bridge on my b-quad. because the base plate was not grooved for the saddles to sit in, the saddles would move left-to-right freely if any aggressive playing was present near the bridge. drove me batty. ended up swapping out the wilkinson for an abm.
 
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#471
bubba-b said:
my ggj's still have their stock emg's. my ggi's have bart dc's. all have 3-band eq's.

most of the abm stock bridges have been swapped out with hipshot b-style brass bridges (.708 / 18mm). spacing is perfect for me and love the 'set it and forget it' setup. abm saddles can drift side-to-side when unlocking and adjusting saddle height. not a major inconvenience but there's that. fyi.

how is the babicz bolted to the body? one must be careful on deciding a replacement bridge if the original/previous bridge has multiple screws and a large base plate. if you go to a smaller bridge (like the hipshot b-style), you may have to deal with exposed screw holes and base plate impressions in the body. again, fyi.
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks. Just curious- how do you have your controls laid out w/the 3 band?

Good question about the bridge mounting- looks like the Babicz has 5 screws, the regular Hipshot B style has 4, and they're different sizes... that said they (Hipshot) do make a Fender 5 hole mount version that appears to be about the same size (laterally from the leftmost mount hole to the rightmost). I guess this will take a little more research.
 
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#472
layout? the placement of the knobs is dependent on how it was wired up. not a knob-tweaker (keep things pretty flat) so i don't subscribe to any particular knob setup (b/m/t, t/b/m, etc.). as long as i know where the volume is!

hipshot does make bridges with a fender-layout in mind. just make sure the babicz is also a fender-layout so you can pretty much just drop in the hipshot with minimal fuss.

if the babicz layout doesn't match up, you can still swap in a hipshot. just fill in the holes left by the babicz and mount up the hipshot.
 
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#479
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#480
I've been playing my ggi6 a lot and am really enjoying it. The even tone is fantastic. The C string on many 6's is thin and edgy sounding but this bass has the sweetest sounding C of any 6 I have ever owned. I presently own fretted and fretless Roscoe 6's and they are really good but............this
G. Gould is amazing. It is the lightest extended range bass I own (8 pounds, 11.5 ounces) and the tone is just wonderful everywhere on the fingerboard.

If you ever come to San Antonio, Geoff, I'm buying dinner!
 

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