D-tox
okay, so I'm fortunate to own 2 US P Basses, I decided to take the rosewood fretboard bass in to do a fretless conversion, seeing as I also play the electric Upright..It might be fun!
Question now is, I want to add a J bass pickup at the bridge, but I'm not sure if I should go full active on this one, as I'm worried the passive sound will not come through on the fretless board and the EB flatwounds..
I love the passive sound, but just worried that I might not be too satisfied..
any sugestions on this would be great
Psean
No suggestions unfortunately, but I'll be following this one for sure. Keen to see some pics of the conversion.
D-tox
cool, will do.
the neck should be done by tomorrow, and then I would have to decide on the electronics...I want passive, but fear there wont be enough headroom when in the mix..then again, I never played a J bass, and I know they can stand their own.. Flatwounds is also an issue..
AlanRatcliffe
Active/passive is your preference. The bass'll work just fine either way. Jaco, Percy Jones, Palladino, et. al. have all used passive to great effect.
You also don't have to use flats - you can also use roundwounds or halfwounds if you need extra brightness - the rounds will just wear your fingerboard faster.
D-tox
yep, that was my thinking on going Passive...At worst I can always go Active and use these picups in one of my other basses..
I decided on flats due to the wear on the fingerboard, and to have a warmer sound..
cool, so tomorrow we shal start!
peterleroux
Look forward to seeing this. I must be honest and say that the soloed bridge tone of a passive J bass brudge pickupdoes nothing for me, but I like it mixed in with the neck. I like the idea of a fretless Pbass, and agree with Alan that its your choice whether you want active or passive. A Pbass has a way of cutting through the mix, passive or not. I played an active bass for ten years ( five years with a really good Bartolini preamp) and eve tussle went back to a passive J BAS because I prefer the tone
D-tox
mm Shot, yea, thats why I'm keeping the P-bass picups and adding a J to the bridge, so I can have them mixed.
They can just give me the volume knob ? ..
But as far as I have read, its better to buy a "made" fretless than converting, but I do hope the radius etc goes well on mine..
Psean
D-tox wrote:
mm Shot, yea, thats why I'm keeping the P-bass picups and adding a J to the bridge, so I can have them mixed.
They can just give me the volume knob ? ..
But as far as I have read, its better to buy a "made" fretless than converting, but I do hope the radius etc goes well on mine..
What are the disadvantages to the DIY conversions? DIY Served Jaco fine ?
AlanRatcliffe
Psean wrote:
What are the disadvantages to the DIY conversions? DIY Served Jaco fine ?
The neck loses a lot of compression without the fret tangs. It's easy to pick up problems with the neck if the filling's not done right.
Psean
Cool.
I was checking some stuff out on the interweb earlier and it seems Jaco used marine epoxy on his fretboard. It also said he didn't practice with it much because the strings ate into it so quickly - he saved it for gigs.
Chocklit_Thunda
Why not go the Passive/Active route like on my Cort?
(well how it's SUPPOSED to be...)
It's got two Mighty Mite passive pickups and an active preamp on board with bass and treble boost/cut. The preamp can be bypassed with a push pull master vol.
Mine doesn't have the passive feature....... It was pulled out by a previous owner or his tech... But I still have the active functions and preamp.... all thats missing is the push pull.
D-tox
I was looking at passice with active preamp..
Oh well, I'm sure it will turn out well, anything can be fixed and modded..(unfortunatly at a price of course ? )
D-tox
okay, I will get the diffrent options incl pricing soon, they had problems with the drill and did not remove the fretboard dot inlays yet...maybe I will leave them there, just worried that they might distract me when looking down... as I will have to play "on" the notes now...
Oh well, I like a challange ?
bENDER
Haai, I converted my Squire P-Bass a while ago. It was a lekker DIY project. The stock passive pickups sound fine to me, they give a nice "MWAAAA" sound. I use roundwounds, not to hard on the Rosewood, unless you do a lot of bending. The strings are a bit high on the bridge side, wanted to shim the neck, but it looks like the previous owner glued the neck into the body. Did not want to break it so I am leaving it like that for now. I made the fret dots black, blends nicely with the dark Rosewood and the fret slots are a lighter brown. I would love to put a Bad Ass bridge in and then a better pickup, but at the moment my budget is limited....also to find a Bad Ass for sale in SA is an issue. I'll try to post a pic. ?
D-tox
So, just a short update...
My J picups finaly arived.. they are noiseless fender vintage J picups, came 2 as a set.. so I decided seeing as I butcherd and frankesteind the poor bass allready, I might as well add both J pups , one in the brige and at the neck..
Will give feedback after the weekend, we have been booked from the next week, so I will drag it allong and maybe use it on the last set if I feel comfortable with it..
DDR4LYF
This sounds so cool! Please post some pics for us!!!
D-tox
Update on this also, sorry for the delay but I have been very bussy lately..
Cool, so the poor P bass has been frankensteined hot modded...for the purists will hate it, but I love it..
I have now 2 noiseless passive USA J pickups, one in the neck, and one at the bridge. I actually only wanted the bridge pup, but they came in pairs so I figured, what the hell.. So I have 2 volume knobs, one for the J pups and one for the P pups.. So I can either have a p or a J sound or a blend.. the selector switch can still select either bridge or neck pup...
The original jack input is where the j bass volume knob now is, and the jack input is on the Butt side.
the sound is HUGE and the fretles vibe is awesome, will upload some pics later!
D
AlanRatcliffe
D-tox wrote:
the purists will hate it, but I love it..
"Progress is not possible without deviation from the norm" - Zappa
I have now 2 noiseless passive USA J pickups, one in the neck, and one at the bridge.
So it's now J-P-J? Cool! Not too different from Sheehan's J-P-H configuration.
The original jack input is where the j bass volume knob now is, and the jack input is on the Butt side.
You mean you have a separate output for the J pair and the P? Also great - I've been splitting my two pickups for years. I'd probably have the neck pickup on it's own output and then toggle the P-J combo for the other output...
D-tox
Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
D-tox wrote:
the purists will hate it, but I love it..
"Progress is not possible without deviation from the norm" - Zappa
I have now 2 noiseless passive USA J pickups, one in the neck, and one at the bridge.
So it's now J-P-J? Cool! Not too different from Sheehan's J-P-H configuration.
The original jack input is where the j bass volume knob now is, and the jack input is on the Butt side.
You mean you have a separate output for the J pair and the P? Also great - I've been splitting my two pickups for years. I'd probably have the neck pickup on it's own output and then toggle the P-J combo for the other output...
hehe that was my thinking... Yes Sir J-P-J is the config, and yes again, if I turn the P volume down then its just the J pups, and then also the other way round!, and with the toggle I can have : J or J-P (with P volume up) or J-P-J or P-J (if all this make ssense ?? ?
Psean
Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
The original jack input is where the j bass volume knob now is, and the jack input is on the Butt side.
You mean you have a separate output for the J pair and the P? Also great - I've been splitting my two pickups for years. I'd probably have the neck pickup on it's own output and then toggle the P-J combo for the other output...
The way I read it, where there once was an input jack, there's now a volume knob for the one J-pickup. The output jack has been moved to the butt. Separate volume pots but one jack. Right?
