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G&L Club Part 7

#20,601
NOLA Bass said:
I played a 4 hour show with my cover band, packed up and raced out to the burbs for my original band's show. That equated to about 4.5 hours with a bass on my shoulder. A heavy bass is just not an option no matter how good it sounds.

I totally agree with you that there are good and bad sounding basses regardless of weight.
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I've done those types of gigs more times than I care to remember.

Schedule enough of those and one tries to get every possible advantage to make those evenings less gruelling.

For me, that includes lightweight basses, definitely. And lightweight amplification.

I've done a lot of things to diminish the savagery of those evenings. Lightweight gear is not the most extreme.

To each his own, though. Just sharing my reality.
 
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#20,602
jefff100 said:
Midweek last week while practicing at home the tone went bad. It all turned to mud, distorted & picked up a warbling, somewhat oscillating sound.

I pulled the control cavity cover off, noted that the preamp circuit board was loose in the compartment. Seems like it was just glued to a strip of foam that was in turn glued to the backside of two of the pots. I didn't have anything available at the time to re-attach, so I put it back where it was & padded it with a tissue to prevent movement & changed the battery while I was in there.
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My M-2500 has sounded "muddy" over the past two weeks. Yesterday I removed the batteries, checked them with a volt meter, and they were down to 8.5v each. This pair lasted only 3 months while the previous set went nearly one year prior to replacement (I wrap batteries with vinyl tape and write the in-service date on the tape at installation). New batteries cured the tone issue. The new batteries measured 9.6v.

FWIW, I changed strings prior to replacing the batteries thinking "this set of strings lasted only 3 months". The string change didn't correct the muddy tone issue. Next time I'll check battery voltage first, batteries are less $$ than strings :-)
 
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#20,604
What do you all set your neck relief at? I found the specs online .018 - .022 ... seems on the high side to me. .012 is pretty typical. Is the manual I found out dated? Anyway, appreciate any input from you G&L fans here. I haven't checked my new SB-2 yet but am going to. It's playing pretty darned good so I know it's not 'out of bounds'. I have been doing my own setups for decades so will likely do some tweaking. I like to push every new instrument I get to its limits ... that way I know. Cheers!
 
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#20,605
Greg Jones said:
What do you all set your neck relief at? I found the specs online .018 - .022 ... seems on the high side to me. .012 is pretty typical. Is the manual I found out dated? Anyway, appreciate any input from you G&L fans here. I haven't checked my new SB-2 yet but am going to. It's playing pretty darned good so I know it's not 'out of bounds'. I have been doing my own setups for decades so will likely do some tweaking. I like to push every new instrument I get to its limits ... that way I know. Cheers!
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I never measure it but I like my necks as flat as possible. Pressing the string at the first and last fret there's barely any space under the string at the 9th -ish fret. This isn't always possible on every bass, which is why I'm so picky. My G&L plays effortlessly which is lucky as I bought it unseen.
 
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#20,607
Greg Jones said:
What do you all set your neck relief at? I found the specs online .018 - .022 ... seems on the high side to me. .012 is pretty typical. Is the manual I found out dated? Anyway, appreciate any input from you G&L fans here. I haven't checked my new SB-2 yet but am going to. It's playing pretty darned good so I know it's not 'out of bounds'. I have been doing my own setups for decades so will likely do some tweaking. I like to push every new instrument I get to its limits ... that way I know. Cheers!
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assuming your truss rod will tighten, you should be able to get the neck to .010" at least. I set all mine to .010" but they could go to .008 if needed.

G&L tells me action should be 6/64 on the E and A string and 5/64 on the D and G...all this is nonsense to me since they also tell me the same machine makes their neck and this is as low as the action can go....lol
 
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#20,608
jbhaugh said:
So I just bought an El Toro for a real steal, but the neck is not original and is apparently not in wonderful shape. Weirdly, it looks like it a reverse or lefty Interceptor neck. Do you guys think I can put any 3 bolt G&L neck on it, or will I need to be on the hunt for an El Toro neck (which I will never find lol). Related question: who wants to sell me a 3-bolt neck?
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We've been round this arena too many times. I've swapped lots of G&L bass necks. Currently have a US SB2 neck on my fretted Bull. On a 3 bolt body you can use any G&L bass neck other than the jazz basses. 3 bolt, 6 bolt, US or Tribute. For the most part a used 6 bolt neck mounting holes line up with the first two on a 3 bolt so you're just drilling the third center hole. The 6 bolt neck will be slightly longer but will intonate although it DOES change the sweet spot about as far as the L-100/SB1 measurement difference. When G&L makes you a new neck for a 3 bolt body the neck is the longer 6 bolt version as it's CNC'd and they do not shorten it to original specs.

bully.JPG
 
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#20,611
svtbass said:
We've been round this arena too many times. I've swapped lots of G&L bass necks. Currently have a US SB2 neck on my fretted Bull. On a 3 bolt body you can use any G&L bass neck other than the jazz basses. 3 bolt, 6 bolt, US or Tribute. For the most part a used 6 bolt neck mounting holes line up with the first two on a 3 bolt so you're just drilling the third center hole. The 6 bolt neck will be slightly longer but will intonate although it DOES change the sweet spot about as far as the L-100/SB1 measurement difference. When G&L makes you a new neck for a 3 bolt body the neck is the longer 6 bolt version as it's CNC'd and they do not shorten it to original specs.

View attachment 4317823
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Awesome, thanks for the info. I'll have SB-1 and SB-2 necks to try once the Bull arrives, or maybe the weird neck that's on it now isn't as messed up as I was led to believe. We'll see, I suppose.
 
#20,614
ped said:
I never measure it but I like my necks as flat as possible. Pressing the string at the first and last fret there's barely any space under the string at the 9th -ish fret. This isn't always possible on every bass, which is why I'm so picky. My G&L plays effortlessly which is lucky as I bought it unseen.
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I find it depends on how hard you pick the strings and also what kind of strings you have on the bass. I don't like my strings inadvertently clicking against the neck. I play finger-style and find that .014 works good for me. A little under that is OK, like .012, but I don't like it up at .018 or more.
 
#20,615
jglunt said:
I find it depends on how hard you pick the strings and also what kind of strings you have on the bass. I don't like my strings inadvertently clicking against the neck. I play finger-style and find that .014 works good for me. A little under that is OK, like .012, but I don't like it up at .018 or more.
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Quite - which is why I don't measure anything. The number is meaningless when you take everything into account - I just go as low as I can with as little relief as possible and light strings (flats on the SB1). I like clank when I dig in.
 
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#20,616
ped said:
Quite - which is why I don't measure anything. The number is meaningless when you take everything into account - I just go as low as I can with as little relief as possible and light strings (flats on the SB1). I like clank when I dig in.
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is that how you approach how much air to put into your cars tires? When you have multiple basses the only accurate way to get them all setup the same is by measurements.
 
#20,617
Bassclef46 said:
is that how you approach how much air to put into your cars tires? When you have multiple basses the only accurate way to get them all setup the same is by measurements.
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Yes. Yes of course it is.

Being serious for a minute - why do you want every bass to be the same? Given the variables alluded to such as string type, neck type, pickup and playing position, it would be nonsense to set each relief and action using measurements alone, wouldn't it?

..a bit like using the same tyre pressure for every car you've ever owned?
 
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#20,618
ped said:
Yes. Yes of course it is.

Being serious for a minute - why do you want every bass to be the same? Given the variables alluded to such as string type, neck type, pickup and playing position, it would be nonsense to set each relief and action using measurements alone, wouldn't it?

..a bit like using the same tyre pressure for every car you've ever owned?
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I don't measure either. Each instrument is different. I think each one has an optimal position for me and that is going to be different depending on the instrument and application
 
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#20,620
After enough years of doing this (over 50 in my case) one can do set-ups by eye and feel. As noted, there are too many variables from instrument to instrument and application to application to rely on a single set of numbers, IMO.

I do think it's good that on-line instructions provide numbers. They offer a helpful starting point and a framework for the less experienced.
 
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