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NBPCD! Flight uke Jazz bass content.

pingvuiini

pingvuiini

Feb 2, 2009
1,887
7,111
Antarcticus Maximus
www.randychow.net
#1
New bass, pedal and cables day!!! Two separate orders arrived today. One from the UK and the other from Sweetwater.

BoboNGD01.jpg



First, from Southern Ukulele Store in Bournemouth, a Flight Mini J Bass in British Racing Green. This is my first bass with a roasted neck which looks and feels great. Also the first uke bass I've had with an inline headstock which seems almost like a full size headstock and tuners. This makes the bass look somewhat disproportionate compared to the 2x2 headstocks of my other uke basses, and sometimes it feels on the verge of neck diving. If there was one design change I'd like to see is a smaller inline headstock and tuners or even 2x2 or EB 3x1. Only 19 frets, which might prove to be a challenge on some songs. The upper horn goes up to the 9th fret, moving everything to the left a bit compared to the other uke basses (although the Tiny Boy does this as well). None of these issues are a deal breaker for me, just have to get used to it all. Unlike the Kalas, this bass has stickers indicating manufacture in China in the teeniest tiniest letters possible. But like the Kalas and my Ibanez Mikro, the build and finish quality is very good for the price point. So far I have installed Dunlop Straploks, but I don't think I will be doing as many mods as I have done for both the Kalas. As usual, I will do my traditional/ceremonial break in of the bass by playing it to Exit...Stage Left in it's entirety. It certainly feels good to be playing something 'Jazzy' once again after so many years.

FlightJBass01.jpg



Second, a MXR M87 Compressor pedal. I was warned before I went down the dubious rabbit hole of effects pedals that there would probably an even deeper sub-rabbit hole for compressors. I have succumbed to these rabbit holes. Blast!! :sour:

MXRM87.jpg



Third, MXR instrument and pedal cables. I have had a few MXR instrument cables for the last several months and so far they are quite good for the price. Very flexible and they are not short jacked.

BoboFlightMXR01.jpg



So another addition to my lefty uke bass collection. NOTE: my KB Baruke bass is currently being modded by the maker and thus MIA in the photo.

Collection-07.09.25.jpg
 
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#3
pingvuiini said:
from Southern Ukulele Store in Bournemouth,
Click to expand...

Crazy... that's about 2 miles from me!

It's (now) part of Absolute Music who are based here. They also have rehearsal studios I've used many times.

Weird to think that someone in California buys a bass from Bournemouth! Then again its weird that we have a premiership soccer team that people all over the world thin are a real team, when a few years ago they a local amateur side - the "stadium" is in the local park. It holds 11,000 people (yes smaller than your local college football team!).
 
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#8
I've got one (in standard burst with tort). The tone and volume controls function better than my Fender and Squier full scale Jazz basses. What I don't like is that it's hard to keep in tune. The gear ratio seems to be the same as my full scale basses so the tuners aren't cheap - don't know how to make this better without someone's guarantee that a tuner upgrade is the answer. I've used it with roundwounds and flats but tuning stability isn't great.
 
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#9
Andy Marshman said:
I've got one (in standard burst with tort). The tone and volume controls function better than my Fender and Squier full scale Jazz basses. What I don't like is that it's hard to keep in tune. The gear ratio seems to be the same as my full scale basses so the tuners aren't cheap - don't know how to make this better without someone's guarantee that a tuner upgrade is the answer. I've used it with roundwounds and flats but tuning stability isn't great.
Click to expand...
What rounds and flats, exactly? If they had your garden variety gauges, string tension was less than half of what one gets on a long-scale bass with the same strings.
 
#10
Andy Marshman said:
What I don't like is that it's hard to keep in tune. The gear ratio seems to be the same as my full scale basses so the tuners aren't cheap - don't know how to make this better without someone's guarantee that a tuner upgrade is the answer. I've used it with roundwounds and flats but tuning stability isn't great.
Click to expand...
Yes, I too have discovered the stock Flight tuners are definitely kinda grindy and jumpy. So were the tiny stock tuners on the Kalas, which I directly replaced with Hipshot Ultralights and were MUCH better. But the mounting plate of the Flight tuners doesn't look like any standard configuration (I could be wrong about that), so finding a direct replacement may be difficult. I am not averse to plugging up the holes and using different tuners altogether if it means better tunability, smaller tuning keys and lighter weight.
 
#14
Andy Marshman said:
HaphAsSard said:
The stock roundwound set, got it. It is 45-105, by the way.

Nah, there are other sources for flats: Dogal; nyloncores by Pyramid, Galli; custom-length steel-core by Octave4Plus and again Pyramid.
Click to expand...
I'll check those out. Is there a tension issue at play here that one of those brands would help my problem?
Click to expand...
Codenames are, respectively:

Dogal JC106TB

Pyramid 639 100 (aka "Pyramid 23.5 inch Acoustic Bass GS MiniSet")
Galli UXB910C (23 inch scale version), aka Kala KA-BASS-4FW-23inch
(both were originally designed for piezo-equipped, hollowbody designs, but both have been proven to work through magnetic pickups, albeit with reduced output)

Octave4Plus are custom-order, as said, so no product number; ditto for
Pyramid Gold (steel-core) flats in ultra-short length.

- - -

- Pretty much all of them -either because of a thinner steel core or a nylon one- should prove less sensitive to pitch variations due to an occasionally heavier fretting-hand touch.

In terms of inherent stability,
- The nyloncores would be even more unstable in the earliest days, due to the core's initial stretching, but they'd stabilise eventually. Past that point,
Pyramid 235 would be lighter-tension than the La Bella made Kala KA-BASS-4FW-SC, so probably not worth investigating in your case;
the Galli set would require a significant enlarging of nut slots, in exchange for what I believe would be more tension than the La Bella set.

- Back to steel-core sets, the Dogal one would progably be a lateral step, being lower-gauge (45-105);
the custom ones (Octave4Plus, Pyramid Gold) could be specced to be heavier-gauge, hence higher-tension, than the La Bellas.
 
#15
I've changed a few tuners out, so not my first experience with them. I was measuring up the tuning machines on my Flight to compare dimensions with after market ones. BTW Gotoh looked to be the best fit. I accidentally discovered that the screw holding down the main gear wasn't snug. I tightened all 4 of them and the tuning stability is much better. Good enough to make me happy. The gear ratio is about 20:1. I'm sure 27:1 would have been better but I can live with what I've got. I've never come across this before. You don't expect that gear to be somewhat loose.
 
#18
I replaced the stock pickups with DiMarzio Relentless pickups with the chrome cover to match with the rest of the hardware. The signal output seems significantly higher than the stock pickups, especially the bridge pickup which is a tiny bit closer to the strings. But the bridge pickup by itself really has that midrangey Jaco sound. The DiMarzios are odd in that there are no typical mounting holes that regular Jazz pickups have. Instead there are 'tabs' that are very close to the body that are screwed in with short screws, and even the guy that installed it said he had to cut them shorter so as not to penetrate the back of the body. As a result, there are some empty spaces where the mounting holes would usually be. The individual heights of the pole pieces can be adjusted with an included hex wrench.

Enough! Time to play.

FlightBassDMR01.jpg


FlightBassDMR02.jpg
 
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