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Reccomend an "old school" five string to me

#41
chadhargis said:
Can any of you think of anyone who makes a passive (or even an active with a GREAT passive mode, but I'd prefer passive) 5 string PJ that isn't uber expensive? Ideally, I'd be selling my J and P to fund the purchase. I figure I could get $800 out of the two, so I'd like to stay in the $1000 neighborhood.

It seems to be a monster that doesn't exist. Plenty of 4 string variants, but not many 5ers.
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I've got what you want. Only two downsides:
1. you have to build it yourself.
2. it says "Squier" on the headstock!

Cost me $200 for a used Squire Special P 5er. Had to add a Demarzio bridge pickup and real Fender 5 string split P pickup with new custom pickguard (All explained in thread). Bass is passive. Totally hum free (did copper shield job) Just put a set of GHS flats on it and it positively KILLS! I know it's just what you want because it is just what I wanted too!

Put a piece of duct tape over the "Squier". :)

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/squier-precision-5-string-club-770662/index8.html

And you are right, Fender needs to come to their senses about 5 string basses.
 
#43
bassbenj said:
I've got what you want. Only two downsides:
1. you have to build it yourself.
2. it says "Squier" on the headstock!

Cost me $200 for a used Squire Special P 5er. Had to add a Demarzio bridge pickup and real Fender 5 string split P pickup with new custom pickguard (All explained in thread). Bass is passive. Totally hum free (did copper shield job) Just put a set of GHS flats on it and it positively KILLS! I know it's just what you want because it is just what I wanted too!

Put a piece of duct tape over the "Squier". :)

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/squier-precision-5-string-club-770662/index8.html

And you are right, Fender needs to come to their senses about 5 string basses.
Click to expand...


Very, very nice!!

My only fear is that I'd botch the route on the J pickup.
 
#44
Nick Dilley said:
khutch made a great suggestion.
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Actually nukes_da_bass beat me to it, I was just seconding the notion. Ibanez SRs seemed to play a bit better for me than the Schecters so I went that way. This is a personal thing though, the Schecter string spacing will be perfect for some and now that I have an SR505 and have played it for a while I'm not entirely sure I made the right decision. :hmm: Who knows, if I made the wrong choice it wasn't for lack of trying a lot of fivers and spending a good long time mulling it over. Some decisions defy your best efforts to get them right and I may just be going through the process of really adjusting to a five string as opposed to just reacting to them during brief trials in stores. In any event I did not pass on the Schecters because of any perceived problems with them, anyone who wants a P/"J" fiver should give the Diamond P a try.

For whoever said that the Diamond Ps are 19mm, it was an email from Schecter that told me they are 17mm. I suspect they are 17mm but it would not be the first time a salesman was wrong if they are really 19mm.

Ken
 
#46
I spent yesterday trying on several basses. Played a Music Man, P5, J5, Lull Jazz 5er (which was just FANTASTIC...but also $3100), Pensa Jazz, G&L L-2500, Schecter Diamond series, Ibanez, etc. Never could locate a Yamaha BB series to play.

The most unlikely thing occurred. I bought a five string Jazz bass. Now...I'm not a big J fan, the tone typically lacks that fat booty I like in an "old school" bass, but I may have laid my hands on the one Fender Jazz that I really dug the passive tone of. I can typically get a good Jazz bass sound from my Lakland, so I had that covered. But I plugged in a Fender American Deluxe V and flipped the pre off and started playing. Yep...jazz bass...but beefier. I rolled the passive tone control from WFO to a bit less than half way and the warm, round tone that came from the bass was beautiful. I was really impressed.

But how could this be? It's not a passive P. How can a J sound like this. Well, I can't explain it. It just sounded good. I played it through a Markbass rig similar to the one I use which typically causes dogs to drop over and roll around because their ears are hurting from the shrill hollow Jazz tone...but not this one. Markbass rigs are very "transparent" and tend not to color the tone unless you crank one of the filters.

The Jazz is still not as "even" in tone as my Lakland, but it has that nice thumpy round bottom that a good passive bass has (not as huge as my old G&L but not bad). I'm going to drag out my old set of TI Flats and make it officially "old school" and have two animals in my stable that can cover a lot of ground.

Then there is that Peavey Cirrus hanging on the wall that is the BEST playing bass I've ever laid hands on....just very modern sounding. Might end up playing that one in church for some of the contemporary tunes.
 
#47
chadhargis said:
Very, very nice!!

My only fear is that I'd botch the route on the J pickup.
Click to expand...

I know what you are saying and that was my feeling too. In fact I saw one of these for sale at Music-go-Round where someone had replaced the (totally inadequate) pickups with longer ones and the bridge route really looked ratty! But as it turns out the Demarzio is only a tiny bit longer than the rout already there, so I just took the Dremel tool with a small sanding drum on it and that was all ti took and it looks great.

The Neck rout on the other hand was a disaster. My router came apart in the middle of it and gouged in and was hard to control etc. even though I had made a plastic pattern to widen the route to a bathtub size. But the good news as you can see is that the pickguard covers all that disaster! And the pickup rout on the pickguard was of course done by pickguardian from an actual Fender template.

It turned out great, but a little experienced help with the routing is clearly a good idea!
 

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