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Telecaster Bass: curing "Mudbucker Syndrome"

#121
phatbass said:
IMHO, buying a '70's humbucker-equipped Tele and then not liking the mud (which I prefer to call "fat, warm lows") is bit like buying a Harley Electraglide and complaining it's a bit wobbly on a motocross track... :)
Click to expand...

I have to agree there. My 73 screams BASS big bold and in your face...like right now :smug: Fat and warm is a good way to discribe it. If you are a player who is used to having allot of high end tone you will hate it. I have changed my whole bass style and gone for low fat tone with P basses and flats so this bass is great. I will work with the original as is no matter what to get my tone.
I think Chefs mod is awsome thou.It was done well and i am sure sounds great.
 
#126
The DarkStar doesn't lack any low end compared to anything except perhaps the stock pickup-which was just too dang big and indistinct for me.
YMMV, and if you like the stock pickup, good for you;) The rest of the bass is excellent.

I reversed the Darkstar to "poles closer to bridge" to tighten up the tone some. Having the pickup sitting right on the end of the fingerboard "is a deep placement."

I don't know that there is a "front and back" to the DarkStar anyhoo...
 
#127
Chef said:
The DarkStar doesn't lack any low end compared to anything except perhaps the stock pickup-which was just too dang big and indistinct for me.
YMMV, and if you like the stock pickup, good for you;) The rest of the bass is excellent.

I reversed the Darkstar to "poles closer to bridge" to tighten up the tone some. Having the pickup sitting right on the end of the fingerboard "is a deep placement."

I don't know that there is a "front and back" to the DarkStar anyhoo...
Click to expand...

Chef, again i feel your mod was smart and well done. After seeing the various types of music you do i could see the mudbucker not working out. I will perfer stock and as i said will try to make it work. I love low warm bass anyhow. This bass would be great for blues, sludge rock and mo-town anything thick and heavy.

I agree on the feel and playability. The weight of mine is like yours..light... so a winner there. God job on the bass, i know i wont see allot of them when i take it out...that's for sure.
 
#129
Chef said:
No can do.
It stays with the bass so if I were ever nuts enough to sell it, it could go back to stock.
Click to expand...

Just jokin chef :D

Chef said:
The DarkStar doesn't lack any low end compared to anything except perhaps the stock pickup-which was just too dang big and indistinct for me.
YMMV, and if you like the stock pickup, good for you;) The rest of the bass is excellent.

I reversed the Darkstar to "poles closer to bridge" to tighten up the tone some. Having the pickup sitting right on the end of the fingerboard "is a deep placement."

I don't know that there is a "front and back" to the DarkStar anyhoo...
Click to expand...

Mudbuckers do good for me. I like that low deep sound and then they take fuzz, distortion, and many other effects perfectly. I want to make this
CSMDrevised.png

with my dirnt and make the route with a mudbucker until I can afford a darkstar. I'd be spending (just on the darkstar) more than I spent on the bass. And it would raise the value by $10 :D I could never sell it. (As I doubt I'd want to because it would be so epic)


Inspired off a telebass mockup I had thndrstk6 do which was baised off of yours. So indirectly your bass was the base of my mods. Too many Base/bass in one paragraph! :D
 
#130
Hey to Chef and everyone else. I just stumbled upon this thread and was blown away. I have a 77-78 Tele with that same Muddbucker. The bass was my mother's from new, and she gave it to me about 15 years ago. Completely original sunburst finish with white pickguard, with ohsc. Problem is it just SAT in the case because of that mudd tone. This modification looks sweet as I, like Chef, could keep all the stock pieces in case it ever came time to sell the bass. My question is for Chef: Which DarkStar pickup did you use? Looking at the Hammond pages I see a couple of different possibilities, and I'm sure only one of those is correct. Is it the DS-3N, the DS-3ND, or something different?

I currently play an Ibanez 485 5-string, and would like to throw something different into the mix once in a while. :-)
 
#131
I forget...measure the distance from string center to string center over the pickup, and call Fred. He'll tell you what to use.

That's what I did; but that was some time ago now.
 

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