A good friend had his '62 P-bass refretted and some shielding put in and the beautiful sound of the instrument has been changed. He says he cannot cut through the mix as before. I heard the the bass pre and post work and it has changed quite a bit... the highs are rolled off and the mids have a weirdness to them. EQing helps a little but does not solve the problem. Has anyone else encountered this problem?
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Refretting changing P-bass sound
- Thread starter Big Band Hand
- Start date
Well, right away I start thinking of setup, strings and fitment. Did he put the original strings back on? Is the neck firmly in the pocket, might it need a little torquing? Was the bass rewired, or use a different cap? Could there be a short between the wiring and the shielding? It probably really needs to be gone over carefully again to get it back to its earlier tuned condition...
I would attribute this to the shielding as it does have a tendency to darken the tone a bit. The fret work if anything should have made the tone a bit more defined. If it was done properly... Also keep in mind that the placebo effect can be quite powerful.
If the bass was shielded, then I recon the pickups where taken out? Have they been properly adjusted?
My bet is one of the pots is now touching the shielding and it's draining away some of the current from the pickups and tone controls. Try to see the pot and jack lugs are separate from the pickups. A well-done shielding job doesn't change the tone of the bass one iota.
