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Show us your 3 pickup basses!

#1,101
ThePresident777 said:
The particular instrument I was sent had four very dead notes on the G string when in E standard, first 4. At the time I was not aware of the clamp on headstock trick, or the fender fat finger, which might have solved that. It also had some fret filings underneath a few frets, and a tiny ding or two. I also wasn't too crazy about the asymetric carve on the back of the neck. I prefer a sysmetric rounded fat neck carve. 16" radius isn't so hot in my opinion either. I don't remember the nut width, but it was not a narrow neck in my opinion. I'm a bit murky on that now, but I have a feeling it was a little wider than I wanted.

My favorite pickup setting was the neck pickup but it's single coil so it hummed. There was an intermitent cold solder joint on the pickup selector too. Easy to fix, but, expensive bass.

It did have a beautiful flammed maple back and sides. Light weight. Nice sound, bridge, neck joint, tuners, headstock, hardware, style.

I had the bass for about a day, at least a year ago, before I returned it.

I'm used to spending $200 to $300 on an instrument that's as good or better for me. I can't bring myself to compromise at $1000. So, I had to return it. I bought it from Amazon. I doubt that particular instrument would have made it into Sweetwater's gallery.
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As someone who buys in the 300€ category like you, I agree that 4 figure basses shouldn't have such apparent flaws. Thanks for your write up - buying one from the factory is off the table now. Maybe I'll come across a good used deal some day...
 
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#1,102
Here's mine:

Bongo 4 HS with piezo, neptune blue with roasted maple neck

image2.jpg


Big Al 4 SSS, inca silver with full rosewood neck

BigAlSSS1.png
 
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#1,104
Doctor J said:
The thing which leaps to mind immediately is that the output of MFD pickups is utterly phenomenal and putting any kind of preamp with a boost is a waste of time.

Other than that, sounds like it would work, although with regards to the third pickup I've never once found myself wishing my L2000 had another pickup with even more low end closer to the neck.
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The main point of a preamp is to give you onboard boost/cut tone controls like the newish G&L M series. Some preamps add gain, but for what purpose I know not. I prefer preamps like the Audere that don't add any gain at all and sound the same as passive when the tone controls are at noon. Had a G&L M2500 for awhile and liked it a lot (sold because I wanted to stick with 4 strings).
 
#1,105
muggsy said:
Here's mine:

Bongo 4 HS with piezo, neptune blue with roasted maple neck

image2.jpg


Big Al 4 SSS, inca silver with full rosewood neck

BigAlSSS1.png
Click to expand...

I have a Warmoth with a rosewood neck and it really warms up the tone. I imagine it's a nice fit with your Musicman if the Big Al tone is anything like that of a Stingray.
 
#1,112
bassbenj said:
Here's my three pickup bass. It's my Modulus 6er. Three Bart pups from the factory, but has been modded by me.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

The switches used to be just on and off for each pickup. Now they are 3 position with center = off and one way puts them in series and the other in parallel in any combination. Typical favorite settings are neck-bridge in series or Sweet spot alone.

This is by FAR the best sounding bass I own. (The wood grain doesn't show up very well in this photo.)
Click to expand...


what do the knobs do?
 
#1,114
HaphAsSard said:
^ And, if I may piggyback, width at the nut and string spacing at the bridge? Thanks!
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Knobs are standard acitve: volume, bass, treble.

Switches originally were just on-off for each pickup. I've modded them so that now each switch has 3 positions. Center position is off. One way places pickup in series and other way places it in parallel. Hence you can go from no pickups to all three in series or parallel and all kinds of combos in between. I posted the circuit in TB some time back.

String spacing is EXTREMELY narrow! 42.3 mm at nut and 57.3 mm at bridge (roughly 11.5 mm string spacing) Narrow string spacing doesn't bother me, but you ain't gonna be slapping this bass. I don't slap my 6 string basses anyway. Guitar players (like my cousin) absolutely LOVE the narrow spacing on this bass!
 
#1,116
bassbenj said:
Knobs are standard acitve: volume, bass, treble.

Switches originally were just on-off for each pickup. I've modded them so that now each switch has 3 positions. Center position is off. One way places pickup in series and other way places it in parallel. Hence you can go from no pickups to all three in series or parallel and all kinds of combos in between. I posted the circuit in TB some time back.
Click to expand...
(@kkaarrll in case he's missed it.)
String spacing is EXTREMELY narrow! 42.3 mm at nut and 57.3 mm at bridge (roughly 11.5 mm string spacing) Narrow string spacing doesn't bother me, but you ain't gonna be slapping this bass. I don't slap my 6 string basses anyway. Guitar players (like my cousin) absolutely LOVE the narrow spacing on this bass!
Click to expand...
Menorahman said:
Ew, narrow spacing.
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Pearls bef...(cough)/ to each his own! ;)
To me it's gorgeous and perfect... drool
I asked because I knew at first sight its neck is almost like I want mine (well, my future custom one) to be.
(Dayum, 42.3 mm at the nut is real narrow though...)
Do you tune it standard BEADGC?
More importantly, was it a production model o did you, or a previous owner, spec it this way?
 
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#1,117
HaphAsSard said:
(@kkaarrll in case he's missed it.)


Pearls bef...(cough)/ to each his own! ;)
To me it's gorgeous and perfect... drool
I asked because I knew at first sight its neck is almost like I want mine (well, my future custom one) to be.
(Dayum, 42.3 mm at the nut is real narrow though...)
Do you tune it standard BEADGC?
More importantly, was it a production model o did you, or a previous owner, spec it this way?
Click to expand...

Are you kidding? With a B string that is absolutely to DIE for, natch it is BEADGC!

The narrow spacing does at times have it's own appeal, though it probably would be better were it a bit wider. My Modulus Q6 has 16.5mm string spacing which is the "standard" "narrow" spacing. Almost all my other 6 string basses are 16 or 16.5 mm spacing.

The original TBX (which this is one) were made this way. They made 4 string versions, and 5 string versions with a slightly wider neck and they made 6 string versions which as near as I can tell they used the same 5 string neck and just changed the headstock tuners. These were made under Jeff Gould's supervision when he was still with Modulus. According to people selling a 4 string version there were 90 6ers made, 85 5 string and only 11 4 string of these basses. They were supposedly handmade by a special team and never put into full production because of costs. Anyway that was the story by the other seller. Unlike the Q6, the TBX is neck-thru.

Note that I do have a junk Chinese "Harmonia" acoustic 6 string fretless bass that has 12.5 mm spacing. I wish it were a higher quality instrument because I really love the concept of that one!
 
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