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Welp, I did it. NBD for Kaa.
- Thread starter Kaa
- Start date
I do the same! I am closest to the North Olmsted one and my son has practice in Medina near the Fairlawn one that I go to. I like the Mayfield store the best, but probably because it's furthest away and don't get over there as much.
I tried this Godin at the N.O. store and thought it had good bones - you are right about the gunk - I didn't have the imagination to see past that - glad you got a great bass and at a great price!
Right on! I like all three of the GCs, I go to the N. Olmsted one a ton. You know about the new Music-Go_Round in the plaza on Great Northern Blvd, yes? I go to Makin' Music down in Parma occasionally, along with Timeless Guitars. Once in a great while I'll go to the rarified air of Guitar Riot downtown.
I've been minutely tweaking the action on the Godin and it's setting up nicely for the tone I like.
Congrats! I had a Godin SD-4, sounded great but was basically a Tele-style single-cut with neck dive and long reach to the nut. Nice passive PJ pickups (Duncans I think) but cheap tiny pots and zero shielding so noise on the single-coil J. Soft maple body with a lot of space routed under the pick guard that gave it a semi-hollow vibe. I generally don’t like through-body stringing, but IMO there was something with the Godin, where TI Flats through the bridge sounded excellent, but stringing through the body gave it a little extra % that made for one of the best P-bass tones I’ve ever experienced.
So far, everything is feeling really solid, pots, switch, hardware. It's got a smidge of neck dive, but, nothing that really affects the playability. I have a tiny bit of fret buzz I'm hunting down, but, as a P-bass, it's very solid for my humble needs.
A quick update. I had some weird kind of fret buzzy sort of noise that I couldn't tweak out, then, I discovered the cause. The A string (since I might have cut it a bit short, only has one wind around the tuner peg, and when I pushed down on it, the weird sound went away, so I installed a three string retainer to give the A a better break over the nut, and the sound disappeared. Yay, me. Also installed some Jim Dunlop locking pegs since I have all my straps loaded with the lmale part, so needed just the fmale buttons.
Now, I also had a chance to play it through my actual amp, and, man, is it a bright bass, so, I might have to turn the tone control way down, or, maybe lower the pickups a bit. The pickups in this have no lack of output to these tin ears.
Now, I also had a chance to play it through my actual amp, and, man, is it a bright bass, so, I might have to turn the tone control way down, or, maybe lower the pickups a bit. The pickups in this have no lack of output to these tin ears.
Revisiting this post, and, man alive, that J pickup is 60-Cycle Hum Central, lol. The P is fine, but, when I switched to the P + J, or the J alone, it was an angry buzz. So, the next upgrade will be an afternoon of shielding paint installation. I've seen people do 3 coats, so, I might go that route. I don't think it's possible to over-shield it, but, might be incorrect.
I picked up a Freeway 4 yesterday and shielded it with copper tape. There was some sparkly paint on the inside of the cavity that was applied at the factory, but my multimeter showed it wasn't conductive.
Also had to pry the grounding wire up from the paint it had sunk into under the through-body bridge. There was little to no connection with the bridge. A little copper tape underneath it, and some extra between the bridge and the wire, made for a nice grounded connection.
Things are a lot quieter now when I'm not touchimg the strings!
