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The Reverend Club (part 6)

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#41
Chef said:
Chromes are the flats for the 5L, trust me on this.
I tried: LaBella, Sadowsky and TI as well. None "maximised the 5L-ness'' as well as the Chromes, IMO

For me, the DA XL170 bright nickels are the best rounds for it; but, I just generally like those as well.
Click to expand...

Uggh! I still love to hate the D'Addario rounds. :D They are the "house" string for Godin. I always found them to be somewhat lacking in fundamentals with a moaning and indistinct over-prevalence of harmonics. Pretty "full" sounding because of the harmonic complexity though. Just not my cup of tea. I'm a coffee drinker.

I'm still willing to give the Chromes a try though since they seem to be liked a lot by the Rev' owners.

I want to take my 5L more in a country / roots / acoustic type of direction. I have my active basses for the other stuff that requires more versatility. I'd like the 5L to sound as much like an upright as possible.

From my limited experience with flats. The Fender flats I had on a MIA Precision were very high tension and had some excellent thump to them. Not very acoustic sounding, but what they did, they did well. Excellent ultra-smooth feel by the way on the Fenders, they just felt stiff as rods though.

I had some unknown brand of flats on my MIJ Fender Jazz fretless that I had for a few years and when I changed them over to TI Jazz flats I immediately noticed a more complex, "woody" and slightly more acoustic sound to them, which I quite liked.

So, although I'm leaning towards the TI's, I'm concerned that they may have too low a tension to them. The D'Addarios rounds on my 5L now are just a teeny-weeny bit soft for my taste, as I tend to dig in a bit more than I should and I know the TI's are renowned for being a low-tension string.

By the way, the TI's come in 2 flavors, "Long Scale" or "Super Long Scale". Which ones for a 5L?

Sorry for the long post, but this might help me to understand the "world of Reverend" a bit better. What is the "5L-ness" that you refer to compared to the other Rev's?

Muchos Gracias
 
#42
In my opinion, you'll never get a 5L to sound "uprighty."
It has a unique and un-maskable voice.

The Chromes are higher tension than 170's. The TI's are probably "closer to what you want," but, they're floppy, and the 35" scale exacerbates that, IMO.

The LaBellas might be the best choice for you, given what you posted above. Series mode with tone rolled back, and mids scooped at the amp will probably get you closest to what you want, sonically. But if you really want DB sound out of an electric bass, you need a Rob Allen Mouse...

again, IMO only; YMMV, etc.
 
#43
Well, the new-to-me 5L is a killer.. big surprise, huh? :D
It had been 11 years since I played a 5L, but the neck just melted right into my fretting hand. It really does feel like a bigger version of the awesome 4-string Rumblefish neck, with amazing playability.
Electronics-wise, I like the series setting best.. no noise and big sound. I wish the single-coil setting was bridge pickup only instead of neck pickup (wouldn't that make more sense for a J-J bass?) I may eventually get this bass converted to V/V/T, 'cause I like the bridge pickup sound and wouldn't mind having that option.
What really strikes me is how different the 5L is from my Fender P5 -- solidbody P-bass with a rosewood board vs. semi-hollow J-J bass with a maple board. And the necks feel completely different while both playing so nicely.
 
#44
While I haven't done it, I believe it's easy enough to swap wires and make the bridge pickup the single coil option...I know some guys here have done it. I don't remember who though...

I'd much prefer that to a VVT setup that loses the XL switching, personally.


And yeah, the 5L neck is a great thing!
 
#46
Yessir; concur.

I know it's been done, I just can't remeber who. Hopefully they'll chime in here.
I'd presume with the hood open, it would be fairly a self explanatory procedure.

Lemmee know how it goes, take pix, and I'll follow your lead;)
 
#49
Here are the photos of the Bluefish after surgical procedure,
I went with the Tin Roof Top & Black Metal Back.
Behold The Bionic Fish!
She will be shipping out Monday, stay tuned for final photo shoot.
 

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#51
I'll be reassembling the Bionic Fish today, Body just arrived!
As I read thru the recent posts It struck me to swap the pick-up placement to accomplish the single coil option to operate the pick-up
closest to the bridge. Should do the trick with-out additional solder or
re- wiring. Any words of wisdom will be greatly appreciated.
Off to the music store for new strap buttons. Be back soon. ;)
 
#52
It might well be that the pickups are wound such that one is specifically neck, and one is specifically bridge.
This is usually the case with JJ's; but I can't swear its true in this instance.
I would advise against what you suggest unless you know specifically that the pickups are the same.

Bridge pickups are typically wound hotter, so that they have similar output to the neck pickup whilst living in an area of less string movement...I hope that makes sense, I'm not very caffinated yet.

You could measure resistance on an ohm-meter to slueth this out, if you cared to.
If you do, I'd be curious to see what readings you get, I bet they're "wound hot," in the 9-10kohms area...
 
#53
Chef said:
In my opinion, you'll never get a 5L to sound "uprighty."
It has a unique and un-maskable voice.

The Chromes are higher tension than 170's. The TI's are probably "closer to what you want," but, they're floppy, and the 35" scale exacerbates that, IMO.

The LaBellas might be the best choice for you, given what you posted above. Series mode with tone rolled back, and mids scooped at the amp will probably get you closest to what you want, sonically. But if you really want DB sound out of an electric bass, you need a Rob Allen Mouse...

again, IMO only; YMMV, etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your experience on these Chef. Much appreciated. I ended up buying a set of Chromes and I'll install them this weekend. I've used and liked the TI's previously but that was on a fretless bass. As you surmised, they might indeed be a bit floppy on the Rev. I tend to dig in a bit from time-to-time so that wouldn't be the best match for my fingerstyle.

I'll have to try a Rob Allen one day, a fretless fiver. That would make a good Country Mouse. The Godin A4/A5 fretless semi-hollow basses also have a definite flavor of acoustic upright in them and at less than half the price of a Rob Allen.
 
#54
A few pics of the Bionic Fish.
I'm very pleased with the outcome. :D

Chef,
While I don't own a voltage meter thingy yet, I'll report back on the
ohm's soon.

During the re-assembly I inadvertently reversed the pick-ups & I'd be willing to bet that they are most certainly wound to different ohm's.
I just thought about it & figured I'd try it. I'm going to leave it & play her this weekend.
Even though the fish is backasswards the sound IMO, is noticeably different & I find the swap pleasing in the single coil position.
The J- setting is a little off sounding (not bad really)
and the Humbucker position is still thunderous in a slightly different way.
I am interested to do the mod properly.. stay tuned.... :help:
 

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#59
Chef said:
You could measure resistance on an ohm-meter to slueth this out, if you cared to.
If you do, I'd be curious to see what readings you get, I bet they're "wound hot," in the 9-10kohms area...
Click to expand...

Neck/ 6.86 Bridge/ 7.36

I realized while correcting my previous Bonehead move, that the Rev Pick-ups are sized for proper string alignment just like old school jazz basses. She just didn't sound right so I swapped em' back. :bassist:
 

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#60
Huh...I would have expected higher numbers based oon how much output the 5L has...

thanks for posting those!

soooooo....did you switching wiring for "bridge single coil?"
 
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