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M5V Pickup Swap (w/ Shielding Lesson!)

#21
Greg,

Just curious, are those standard NJ5s or are they for 18mm (or does it matter)? I have had NJ5s with Aguilar preamp in Valenti and loved it. Also had NJ5s and a Nordstrand preamp in a Lull. As you know, I have a nordstrand 2b and PJ setup in my current lull. I have yet to try the JJ setup, but I will. Do not overlook the Nordstrand preamp. Flat, it sounds almost identical to passive and seems way more useable to me then the aguilar. The aguilar is more aggressive to my ear but you can only boost a small amount before it is obnoxious. Different flavors of good!
 
#22
Great work Greg!

BTW, an alternate way to ground the poles that I've found works very well is to get a strand or two of bare wire and just lay them across the poles and tape them to the poles using the shield tape. Then you just have a bare strand of wire to solder to the ground terminal on the pickup. Very clean, and I find that bare wire makes a better connection to the poles than the somewhat resistive adhesive on that copper tape.

I also do the Seymour Duncan thing of wrapping the pickup like a Christmas present, BUT, you have to make sure not to touch the tops of the poles (or the positive lead terminal) with the tape, and of course it only works pickups you can take the covers off.

This makes the pickups as impervious to interference as possible. I've done all this to my NJ5L's in my VJ5C and it works great.

BTW, there's a major thread on all this that Lyle Caldwell started (and forgot about) long ago here:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f38/jazz-shielding-pictorial-big-images-warning-159191/

I also captured it in PDF form because of a snafu with the thread and the original location of the pictures...

Here it is in PDF form. He doesn't do the pickup pole ground thing, but it's great info.

http://www.vsbass.com/pics/Jazz_Shielding_Pictorial.pdf
 
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#23
Saluki said:
Greg,

Just curious, are those standard NJ5s or are they for 18mm (or does it matter)? I have had NJ5s with Aguilar preamp in Valenti and loved it. Also had NJ5s and a Nordstrand preamp in a Lull. As you know, I have a nordstrand 2b and PJ setup in my current lull. I have yet to try the JJ setup, but I will. Do not overlook the Nordstrand preamp. Flat, it sounds almost identical to passive and seems way more useable to me then the aguilar. The aguilar is more aggressive to my ear but you can only boost a small amount before it is obnoxious. Different flavors of good!
Click to expand...

You know, I didn't even give the string spacing a thought. The pickups fit in the pickup cavities, so I just assumed all was well. I'll have to look more closely at that next time I'm in the same room with the bass. I doubt it's an issue, but ya never know!
 
#25


I always loved this Bart/Nordstrand combo. Don't know what his setting are, but nice tone. I am hearing the same as you on the comparison. I like the more open sound of the singles, but I think I would add a touch of bass as they do sound thinner. Maybe if the pole pieces were lined up correctly..
 
#28
Saluki said:
Ya but what did you check it with...You didn't just eyeball it did you:D. Says engineer with OCD who has suffered with panic attacks.
Click to expand...

I used my eyes and my ears, all is well. Obsessive as I can be, I'm not going to obsess about a few millimeters here or there. It looks and sounds great!
 
#31
Over the weekend, I ripped out the Bart NTMB preamp and dropped in an Aguilar OBP-1. So the controls are now vol, vol, treble boost & bass boost. After reading a bit about Marcus Miller's electronics, I decided not to wire in a passive tone control. And to be honest, I don't miss it. We'll see on a gig, but I find myself boosting the treble a little bit anyway (man, the OBP-1 treble is just RIGHT). So I can roll that back off if I find myself too bright.

The other change I made today was to put a set of DR Sunbeams on the bass. Man alive, why haven't I tried these strings years ago?!? I find that they have a much more pronounced fundamental than the SIT Rock Bright Nickels string that I'd been using (quite happily) for years. My M5V sounds VERY close to the tone I hear in my head now...

Here's a quick clip of me playing an exercise from the Suzuki Method Book #1 for cello. My son recently got assigned to learn this, and I thought it sounded pretty cool. It never lets up, at least until I throw in some classic rock at the end so you can hear my B string. :)

"Perpetual Motion Exercise"
 
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#35
Yeah, I'll stick with the flats on fretless and go with rounds on the other two for now. Once I get both fretted basses speaking the way I want them to speak, then I might go back to flats on one of them (since they're both Ash/Maple J's, they might as well sound different)...

I've got another set of Nordstrand single coils on order (an NJ5F set), and I'm trying to get my hands on a Suhr 2-band preamp (similar to OBP-1, but the treble control is boost/cut). Those will both go in King Koa at some point.
 
#37
That's kinda what I'm thinking. I found a video out there somewhere where Marcus Miller was describing his electronics. He says his bass still has the stock '77 Fender single coils, but it was modded to include a 2-band boost only preamp that was made by John Suhr while he was at Fender... that's when I decided to push Suhr to sell me a preamp, even though they don't usually do that. I'm still working that angle, we'll see where it goes...
 
#38
RocketMusic said:
That's kinda what I'm thinking. I found a video out there somewhere where Marcus Miller was describing his electronics. He says his bass still has the stock '77 Fender single coils, but it was modded to include a 2-band boost only preamp that was made by John Suhr while he was at Fender... that's when I decided to push Suhr to sell me a preamp, even though they don't usually do that. I'm still working that angle, we'll see where it goes...
Click to expand...

The secret has been revealed. My new Suhr definitely has that Marcus Miller vibe going on.

Thanks again Greg. You are the man!
 
#40
My goodness! My Lull M5V is currently the king of the castle in my personal stable of basses. I've got some parts on order that will soon bring King Koa back to the top of the heap... but King Koa's a bit of a mess at the moment (a mess of my own making, I should add). :crying:

In the meantime, I've been using my M5V to record some jazz improvisation as I work my way through an online improv course. I highly recommend the class if you're someone like me: quasi-literate musically, but not a serious stud. The class will force you to do things that you need to be forced to do. That said, if you don't know some basic things (a loose familiarity with the major scale modes would be good, and being able to read somewhat is also helpful)... it might be a little overwhelming. But heck, the course is free and I would never steer anyone away from trying to improve/educate themselves.

Anyway - I'm in Week 3 of the 5 week course, and the improvement in my playing and abilities has already been fairly dramatic. I'll spend months (years, maybe?) refining what I've learned, but it's had an immediate impact for me. Which is just thrilling to no end.

So every week, you're given an assignment that you have to turn in online. The first week was just verbally analyzing one of Gary Burton's solos (tempo, feel, what changes from one chorus to the next, etc.). The second week we had to record ourselves playing 6 specific scales, but not in any particular musical context. Now in Week 3, they've thrown us into the deep end. "Improv over '500 Miles High'", they said. Yikes!!! Not for the faint of heart. They gave us the chart, and they gave us the backing track. Other than that, it's just a matter of each student finding something to say over these changes.

Turns out, that was easier than I expected. The previous 2 weeks had actually taught me a thing or two, and Week 3 was just another step down the improv path...

So here's the clip that I'll be turning in as my homework tomorrow. It's me on my Mike Lull M5V. I used a slight bridge bias for the first pass (the tune's writen melody), and then it was all bridge pickup for the three solo passes. I also added some dirt on one of the passes just to make it interesting...

"500 Miles High" (Chick Corea/Neville Potter)

I couldn't have done this 3 weeks ago, so that's as ringing an endorsement as I can make for Gary's class! :bassist::D
 

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