The Reverend Club (Part 2)

[Chef]

I'll give whoever can hear the difference in neck wood playing blindfolded, two similarly equipped basses, back to back, a 6 pack of New Castle Brown.

No, you don't get to feel the fingerboard.

Just shut up and play.

Free 6 pack.

The string is connected to a nickel/steel fret in each case, not the fingerboard.






Firesuit on....

 

[matrok]

 

[Big String]

I like the way Maple looks over Rosewood, but I prefer the Rosewood sound over maple, or even Ebony for that matter! I like a Warmer sounds though...

I generally prefer the look and feel of Rosewood over Maple boards.

Chef I did notice a difference with the Laklands I mentioned, not huge though. The maple just seemed a bit more 'clear'. Anyway I'll have a ale or two with you anytime mang. glug glug

 

[bass_fish]

feel?? how in the world do you touch your fretboard while playing? I've never noticed a difference in feel...
and sound: to me it's all subjective, I'm with Chef on this one!

 

[ubado]

Called Reverend today... all out of Black J covers... only P's.
... looks like Chef got the last ones.

Good news... I was told that any "Fender" exposed poles cover will work... not sure about the 5'vers, but don't see why not.

BTW... as far as tone, what's the difference between the XL and non-XL's?

 

[Chef]

XL has "series mode" making the two pups one big humbucker.
Non XL is a regular vvt setup.

 

[4Mal]

I generally prefer the look and feel of Rosewood over Maple boards.

Chef I did notice a difference with the Laklands I mentioned, not huge though. The maple just seemed a bit more 'clear'. Anyway I'll have a ale or two with you anytime mang. glug glug

I've felt that difference as well and I generally prefer the feel of RW on the finger board edges but - the Reverend maple neck has a wonderful broken in feel to it. Tonally there may be some difference but it's not that big snap 'n spank that you find when comparing say a Telecaster guitar maple to a Tele with an RW neck. It's a much more subtle difference. I suspect it's due to the semi hollow nature of the body. I think that difference overwhelms the rest of the more nuanced differences.

If you can find you way to one - I wouldn't sweat the neck diff's too much. It's the finding one that is the issue ...

 

[Chef]

Concur, and well spoken.
The rolled edges help with that feel being so similar on these...

a much more subtle difference. I suspect it's due to the semi hollow nature of the body. I think that difference overwhelms the rest of the more nuanced differences.

If you can find you way to one - I wouldn't sweat the neck diff's too much. It's the finding one that is the issue ...

 

[BartmanPDX]

Correct, but he's talking about quick connects...which I presume means leaving the pots, output jack, and basic wiring with the body...Just swapping the neck pup and p/g.

Now, if you swapped everything, and left only the J pup in place, and took all the guts out while still attached to the p/g...I'd agree that I prefer an XL JJ.


Having said that, I won't be converting my Bugeye JJ to XL; I have to XL 5L's, and the v/v/t is different, and nice on it's own merits. The high end is a little shinier.

Actually, I would be making a whole new wiring harness. The quick connects would only be for the run to the output jack. Other than that, each pickguard (JJ and PJ) would have its own knobs, pots, caps, wiring, input jack, and connected pickups. Then I could just lift out the whole pickguard and pickups as a single package, and drop the new pickguard and pickups in, connecting the whole package to the output jack via quick connects.

Since I would be building a whole new wiring harness, I could build it either style -- VVT or XL.

 

[BartmanPDX]

Is it possible to have the XL series switch, but wire it Vol/Vol, instead of Vol/Tone? If so, I may try to go Vol/Vol on my XL. I see no need to roll highs out of this bass, and I really do love the ability to dial in the mids with a Vol/Vol setup.

Tom.

That's an interesting idea right there. Normally I wouldn't dream of having a bass with a tone knob, but I hardly ever use it on my Reverends.

As for maple vs. rosewood, I think it's mostly about looks, though I am finding that I think I hear a difference between ash and alder bodies on J-basses, so I'm not convinced that wood plays no role in tone, though I think it's a very limited one.

 

[matrok]

Then I could just lift out the whole pickguard and pickups as a single package, and drop the new pickguard and pickups in, connecting the whole package to the output jack via quick connects.

That's what I thought you were getting at. Cool idea.

 

[ubado]

Is it possible to have the XL series switch, but wire it Vol/Vol, instead of Vol/Tone? If so, I may try to go Vol/Vol on my XL. I see no need to roll highs out of this bass, and I really do love the ability to dial in the mids with a Vol/Vol setup.

Tom.

Nice Idea!

If you do it... keep us updated.
I too find myself liking it the same way... using mainly the V/V to dial in the mids... but keeping the tone at about 4 (if it were numbered).
To me there seems to be little difference between 6 and up (again if the tone was numbered)... the only difference that I can tell is... dialed way down OR rolled way up....between just seems to have little tonal change.

 

[4Mal]

so - anybody want to diagram that XL switch ?

 

[Chef]

Another thing to consider:
The G&L L1000 "single coil plus bass boost"
This is done by adding two caps to that ini switch, which ahs three positions:
single coil, dual coil, single coil with bass boost.
In practice, it's very much like the XL switch, but without the loss of high end induced by series in the XL..

 

[BartmanPDX]

Another thing to consider:
The G&L L1000 "single coil plus bass boost"
This is done by adding two caps to that ini switch, which ahs three positions:
single coil, dual coil, single coil with bass boost.
In practice, it's very much like the XL switch, but without the loss of high end induced by series in the XL..

I think I get it, but I'd need to see more detail on the circuit. Very intriguing idea though.

 

[BartmanPDX]

BTW, I got my BH5 back after having Mal take it over to his local luthier, who does fantastic work on necks. It used to sound fantastic and play pretty well. Now it sounds fantastic and plays amazingly well. It's currently strung E-C, which is a little different for me. The tone is very good, but I think I'm just more of a low B guy, so I'll probably switch it back to B-G.

Big thanks to Mal for taking it in to the shop for me. BTW Mal, it weighs 9.4 lbs. according to my digital scale. It's like having a brand new bass again.

 

[tombowlus]

I'll give whoever can hear the difference in neck wood playing blindfolded, two similarly equipped basses, back to back, a 6 pack of New Castle Brown.

No, you don't get to feel the fingerboard.

Just shut up and play.

Free 6 pack.

The string is connected to a nickel/steel fret in each case, not the fingerboard.






Firesuit on....

Mmmmm... free beer....

 

[tombowlus]

Nice Idea!

If you do it... keep us updated.
I too find myself liking it the same way... using mainly the V/V to dial in the mids... but keeping the tone at about 4 (if it were numbered).
To me there seems to be little difference between 6 and up (again if the tone was numbered)... the only difference that I can tell is... dialed way down OR rolled way up....between just seems to have little tonal change.

I talked to my tech, and he says that vol/vol won't work in series mode, as the two pickups are basically acting as one pickup. I kinda get this, but I thought that I had seen basses with either vol/vol or vol/blend and a series/parallel switch. This may be to switch the internal coils on a dual or stacked coil pickup, though.

The vol/vol should work fine in parallel mode, though, and that may be worth the effort, alone.

Tom.

 

[Dan1099]

I talked to my tech, and he says that vol/vol won't work in series mode, as the two pickups are basically acting as one pickup. I kinda get this, but I thought that I had seen basses with either vol/vol or vol/blend and a series/parallel switch. This may be to switch the internal coils on a dual or stacked coil pickup, though.

The vol/vol should work fine in parallel mode, though, and that may be worth the effort, alone.

Tom.

Generally, on a jazz bass, the series/parallel switch only allows one volume knob to operate, which becomes a "master volume" of sort.

 

[tombowlus]

Generally, on a jazz bass, the series/parallel switch only allows one volume knob to operate, which becomes a "master volume" of sort.

That makes sense.