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Except for the knobs and the headstock, it kinda looks like mine. On mine the body is stripped, but the stain is lighter than the one in the photos. Mine also still has a black headstock.
Hello all, I've been a Vista Series Musicmaster owner for several years but have just in the past year been regularly playing it and I have a question you guys might be able to help me with.
I play Post-Punk, Gothic Rock type music with lots of reverb, some delay and chorus with a little bit of dirt sometimes. My band is a three-piece with just bass and drums.
I've been noticing lately that my low E string is sounding pretty weak compared to the others and doesn't have the volume or definition that I would like.
I'm currently using D'Addario 45-100 (long scale) strings that are about a year and a half old and I use an Ampeg Micro VR head through an Ampeg SVT-210HEN. It was recently professionally set-up and it looks like he lowered the E pole as low as it would go.
Should I look into different strings or is my rig possibly part of the problem?
I play Post-Punk, Gothic Rock type music with lots of reverb, some delay and chorus with a little bit of dirt sometimes. My band is a three-piece with just bass and drums.
I've been noticing lately that my low E string is sounding pretty weak compared to the others and doesn't have the volume or definition that I would like.
I'm currently using D'Addario 45-100 (long scale) strings that are about a year and a half old and I use an Ampeg Micro VR head through an Ampeg SVT-210HEN. It was recently professionally set-up and it looks like he lowered the E pole as low as it would go.
Should I look into different strings or is my rig possibly part of the problem?
Raise the bass side of the pickup a bit and see what you think. I would do that before anything else.
I can't advise on what strings to try. I've only used TI Jazz Flats on mine.
I can't advise on what strings to try. I've only used TI Jazz Flats on mine.
@a-1wave I second raising the bass-end of the pickup. Just to clarify, when you say the person who did the setup lowered the E pole do you mean the bridge saddle or the magnetic pole in the pickup? For a louder string you would want the pickup pole closer to the string. You might also take a look under the pickup and make sure the magnet is sitting properly on it. I read a couple threads recently where the magnet either fell off or got re-positioned somehow and that would also make for a weaker sound.
I'll third raising it. Also, on this pickup the poles are the magnets. There isn't a separate magnet on the bottom like many others.
If that doesn't fix things I'd look at getting new strings. Depending on how much you play, 18 months could be pretty old. Or perhaps the E was installed with a bit of a twist which can cause it to sound a bit off.
I'll try raising the magnetic pole and report back. Thanks guys!
Keep in mind the answers and advice you are getting here are under the assumption that you have the stock pickup installed on your MusicMaster.
Just a matter of terminology. You will raise the bass side of the pickup itself. On the stock pickup you cannot raise each pole individually.
Bass side = E string
Treble side = G string
It would seem to me as well that if you've had the bass for a while and only noticed this problem recently that raising the E side of the pickup back to where it was prior to the setup should rectify your issue. On both of my Vistas, I've always had the E side of the pickup set darn near as high as it will go.
Let us know how it works out!
Let us know how it works out!
Looks like somehow I must have pushed the actual pole down flush with the surface of the pickup. I was able to push it back up from underneath and then I adjusted the bass side of the pickup a bit. It sounds much better, but I think new strings might still be in order.
Sweet. I have briefly considered trying to push up the two center poles to balance the volume a bit more. I tried giving one a little push in the past but it didn't move and I didn't want to break it. Maybe I'll try again. Probably not.
I'm still trying to find the right length saddle/intonation screws for mine. I know they're metric, I'm 99% sure they're size M3, but I've measured the length and ordered the same and they were wrong. And not wrong by the width of the screw head, but about 25% longer than I thought they would be. The original heads were all stripped out when I got it and they really need to be replaced.
You can just cut the bottoms of the screws off if you have a Dremel tool with a small cutoff wheel. I've done that with a lot of random hardware. You could also use the same tool to cut slots into the top of the existing screws and just use a small slotted screw driver to adjust them.
I saw that one a bit ago when it was listed. GC is finally catching on to current prices for the non-black versions.
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