Great review, Lobster. I have a fretted MIA Kiloton, and it is so fine! I'd be interested to know if there is any shielding around the electronics. The G&L Tributes I have all have shielding paint, not the best shielding, but better than nothing. The MIA G&L basses I have have no shielding at all. Seems odd to me, but they're all great basses. Thanks for acquainting us with the Tribute Kiloton fretless, a high quality yet budget-friendly way to get into fretless bass.
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Great review, Lobster. I have a fretted MIA Kiloton, and it is so fine! I'd be interested to know if there is any shielding around the electronics. The G&L Tributes I have all have shielding paint, not the best shielding, but better than nothing. The MIA G&L basses I have have no shielding at all. Seems odd to me, but they're all great basses. Thanks for acquainting us with the Tribute Kiloton fretless, a high quality yet budget-friendly way to get into fretless bass.
I love that. Congrats!
Waiting on @bullitproof to get his Matador first before I decide whether to take the plunge
Agreed. @LowEndLobster's been putting out consistently great content for bass and cat lovers.
My main point in writing, though, is to ensure that nobody takes G&L's conducting paint shielding seriously. It's rarely more than a single coat and, if you take an ohm meter and measure the point-to-point resistance of that coating, you'll find that the conductivity isn't very good—and hence the Faraday cage effect doesn't work. It takes multiple coats of that stuff to get anything like good shielding. When I've used StewMac's version in a bass, it's 4 coats minimum and the stuff is not something you want to use anywhere other than outdoors in a gale wind. 
It make's me quite nauseated even in the garage with the door open. Adhesive copper foil you can use anywhere and it works very, very well.
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Can it be applied over G&L's conducting paint shielding? Or does the paint need to be removed first?
just clean the surface good with a mild solvent, rubbing alcohol works.
I used copper "tape" without adhesive, and contact cement.
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I agree that the shielding paint is not a real good way to go, but I had an incident with my Tribute LB-100 that proved to me it is conductive. I installed a Seymour Duncan concentric active EQ in it, and I inadvertently let the ring and sleeve tabs of my TRS jack touch the side of the cramped control cavity which was painted with the shielding paint from the factory. By the weekend, the battery was dead as a door nail since that contact turned the battery on 24/7. Normally, I use the copper sticky-tape, but I've never bothered using it on a Tribute and I haven't had any excessive hum problems. But the tape, besides forming a better shield, is easy to use and less of a mess than the paint. And sniffing it doesn't cause brain damage!
How long have you been sniffing it? I started out sniffing duck tape. It's considered a gateway tape. You get hooked and you need something stronger, something more conductive...
Seriously, you can absolutely put the adhestive copper foil over that paint. I cleaned mine with some isopropyl alcohol, just to get any greasy residue off and improve adhesion. The adhesive version of the copper foil is best since the overlaps also conduct well. If you stick it down with contact cement, especially at overlaps, the rubber is an insulator between the foil and the underlying conductive paint or the layer of foil below.
—Oh, and I always manage to cut myself on the edges of that darned foil when shielding a bass. Better than the nausea, though.
A quick addendum. Yes, shielding paint is best used outdoors in a gale wind. However, copper tape is suggested to NOT be used outdoors in a gale wind. That stuff will stick to itself in a split second. Not a problem in the stillness of your garage, shop, or dining room table. Just a friendly public service announcement.When I've used StewMac's version in a bass, it's 4 coats minimum and the stuff is not something you want to use anywhere other than outdoors in a gale wind.
On basses that I've had which had the black "conductive" paint, I just applied copper tape right over it. Worked like a charm.
I'm a fair skinned person living in the Chihuahuan Desert, so I do as little as possible outdoors, even on days when the winds are still. So while I can't supply an actual first hand story, I can certainly imagine.
I like your screw/terminal idea! I usually solder a wire from the pickup ground & shielding to the cavity shielding, and I'm always worried I'm going to pull up the cavity tape next time I remove the pickup.
Here is my G&L jazz bass just noodling around. I'm not a professional or anything. I just play on the nights and weekends as a hobby. I'm posting some videos because I'm thinking about changing the pick ups I order some Apollo jazz bass pick ups but I don't know what bass I'm going to put them in yet
A quick note about your pickups. Info I read says that if your JB-2 is a Tribute model, the two pickups are the same size, so ordering a jazz bass set wouldn't work. You'd probably have to order two neck pickups. If it's MIA, the bridge pickup will be a little larger, which is the way of most jazz basses, and a set should fit. Just to be certain, I'd get out a measuring tape before ordering any replacement pickups.
Some pickups are available in equal length size but still wound as bridge/neck pickups. I would suggest looking for some of those instead of two neck pickups to keep things in the right output balance.
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IvanBassist
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The Matador seems to be a lot tamer than my Fullerton Deluxe LB-100. The Matador has a more "muted" top end in comparison.
Does anyone know if they use the same pickups? All i know is that I requested their Alnico ones.
The tone control also seems to close differently than the LB. Maybe they're using pots of different values? Hmmmm
Does anyone know if they use the same pickups? All i know is that I requested their Alnico ones.
The tone control also seems to close differently than the LB. Maybe they're using pots of different values? Hmmmm
So measure, then search. It could save you a hassle later on.
