The Case for Keeping It Simple: Bass Gear Overload

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Elwood Blues discusses:

Plain Dry Toast...AND Butter? 🧈

You have all the fundamental toast flavors you need in plain dry toast. Every spread of fat, salt, and milk solids adds layers of complexity for your tastebuds to navigate. In the end, there’s no way your toast tastes better under all that complexity.

Pedalboard Design: Who has a "live-in" case, where the board stays in it during your performance?

I'm trying to conjure up something like this but with the additional factor that the board will have dual bass/guitar use and that some pedals will be used for both and 3 will be one or the other only, so I'll need to be able to unplug stuff and reroute signal depending on which gig I'm doing. Seems like this will unavoidably make it bigger. I'm sure for my stuff I'll need the 32" by 16" ish size were I to buy a readymade case.

Eastwood Classic 4 bass

34" Classic 4?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure. It was a long time ago, though; about 20 years ago, IIRC... I don't think Eastwood had been around very long at the time. I bought my first Eastwood - a Sidejack Baritone guitar - about that long ago; when the Baritone was the only Sidejack model, in fact. Weird story about that thing, but... story for another time. That long scale Classic-4 was on my short list of basses to buy. But, I was buying a lot of basses at the time, and I was trying to pay off a '95 Alembic Epic and a '94 Gretsch G6119BO Broadkaster, before I bought another bass. When I could? The only Classic-4's on their web page were the 30" ones. Over the years, Eastwood has had a lot of basses and guitars come - and go - pretty quickly. I don't think my "Flying Vee" Bass, for example, was in production for more than 6 months - if that. I don't imagine that a long scale semi-hollow body bass was a big seller back then; and probably wouldn't be a big seller today, either... :cool:

Thunderbird Club

I know we've discussed this before, but we all know how annoying searching this forum can be (especially with a group with this many posts). So, for anyone who's up for it, how would you rank the Thunderbird pickups you've used, and how would you describe each pickup's sound? Do that how you like, whether simple (lots of bass, no real high end) or wine-snob (Piney woods winter background noise low end, coppery-tasting low mids, fruity-smelling upper mids with a hint of Dagobah shimmer above the 17th fret). OK, maybe reign it in a bit from that. Keep it useful.
BUT... to help find things in the future, please include #tbird_pickups in your reply (not just quoted text - your reply!)
#tbird_pickups

1a) Original 64? Gibson p/u: I went in a bit skeptical, but they delivered. Full range, if you push them they get grindy. Something magical.
1b) 88-90 Greco p/u: Similar characteristics to #1 but can get even more grindy.
2) Thunderbuckers (TB66N and TB66S) in a VP: Similar characteristics to #1 but a bit more upper mids and highs. The 66S is the hottest on this list.
3-5) Basses I played at GTGs but can't recall which. Exact number unsure as well. Slacker.
--- The above were all fairly close.
6) Probucker 760s in a VP: Very full range, but lacking a bit of low end. More mids and highs than most pickups. #AngryPiano pickups.
7) EY Epi IV replacements: Very full range, a bit more lows than the 760s but not quite as nice in the upper registers.
8) TB+ p/u in a CP: Fairly dark. Lots of low and lo mids with decent upper mids and highs.
9) TB+ p/u in an Epi IV: Same name, different form factor from CP pickups. Slightly darker, so may not be the same despite the name. Or that could be pot/cap values and/or pickup positions, etc.

None of these are bad pickups. Some are just great. All of this is my opinion, with 1a, 3-5 (hah!), 6, and 9 being from memory. 1b, 2, 7, and 8 were compared to prepare this list.

Team Trace Elliot pt4.

Not saying this will apply to your amp, but as an example to impart to you. Before I moved and was still doing repairs a local Bassist I knew well finally bit the bullet on a 1972 Ampeg SVT. Sounded pretty good but it had this annoying hum. A local ripoff shop quoted almost a grand to do a full re-cap and misc new tubes. I had him bring it over, long story short , Hum Balance pot adjust, properly bias and the amp was healthy. Had a few cosmetic issues, but it was a player.
Sometimes it can be simple before someone actually makes it hard.

"Official" Carvin and Kiesel Club - Part 3

I actually came in here to say I just realized I been using GHS roundcore boomers on my Icon 5 for.....like 2 years now.

I used to be really active in the strings forum section. And used to be respected for my opinions on lots of different strings. And I am here to tell you......if you feel like trying something new, try roundcore boomers.

I'm even a person who historically loves the really bold and rich sounding stainless strings out there. And that was my primary area of string exploration. And roundcore boomers have enough of that (after initial break-in period), despite being nickel plated. They could have more. But its enough.

What has really kept them on, with no desire to switch to something else: They feel fantastic to actually play. And nowadays, I will trade a little tone for better feel for play.
Balanced tension (as are nearly all GHS sets nowadays).
Roundcore for some added flex and expressiveness. But, they aren't floppy or noodly.
They feel very positive. Actually playing them, the feel reminds me of Fodera strings (which is to say, they feel very positive), when they were still made by Fodera. Except these roundcore boomers aren't "grabby" on your finger tips. Foderas, especially the stainless, were very grabby when fresh.

Balanced tension not only improves consistency of feel and playability, it improves your instrument setup-----which further improves feel and playability.
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Weird cap placement and wiring suggestions

Um, more pics please? Possibly a drawing of where the wires are currently going? I can't make out from the one picture.

In the second drawing, where are the black wires shown on the back of the switch connected? Ground?

Okay finally got the time to do this, so for the 1st picture, im trying to figure out the function of this cap. When I flip the switch, I think it does..... something? I haven't analyzed the frequencies. I feel like maybe someone was trying to make a switch to change the voicing of the circuit? Or maybe they didnt know how to wire a passive/active? Maybe its an older wiring that im unaware of? It's a rats nest in this bass lol.
1000007712.jpg

The green arrow indicates the cap, the green dots indicate the points where the cap is connected. The white dots indicate the two legs connected to eachother by a wire, and to no other points. The pink lines indicate where there is a wire attaching switch and jack. The last leg of the switch is not attached to anything.

Now the 2nd pic is an Artec SE3 that I had someone rip out of a bass for me a few years ago. The connections aren't clip based like the newer versions of this pre, meaning im doing some guess work as to what went where since somebody butchered the connections. Mostly I'm trying to figure out what point on pcb the volume ground would've been connected to? It had 3 wires, so I assume one was ground for some reason? Or maybe the volume needs all 3 wires for some reason? From pics i find online i cant quite tell tbh, but i think blue goes on bottom? Idk though because it seems that the orientation of the pots in accordance to the diagram would indicate the opposite? Lol
1000007714.jpg

Here I'll show the diagram from Artec and the Diagram I made for a possible active/passive install, and possibly an added cap to shunt treble to ground.
1000007711.jpg
1000007710.jpg

Here, the yellow is the orange wire leading from the middle leg of the volume knob to top left switch post, while the middle left switch post leads back to normal volume path. Top right post of switch leads to out (red). Middle right switch post goes to ring on jack (gray), bottom left switch post to ground. There is a wire connecting top left and bottom right switch posts (black). The cap is the green bar, I would connect it to the middle treble lead and then to the back of the volume pot.

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