NBD + NPD

[Dmoney]

New Bass & New Pickup Day!

I got myself hooked up with a bass.
Guitar is to one side for now. After the end of my band (dirty money) I have joined our bassists band (http://www.myspace.com/coldsnaphc) in which he sings, as the bassist! Rather than mess up his bass borrowing it for every show, I decided to hunt out my own. Asking around led me to this...

MIM Fender P-Bass


I picked it up for a good price. The black pick guard has been added.
I had some spare parts lying around so I had a bash at it as soon as i got it home (with bits lying around mostly!)

1) The stock pots feel weak. Too weak to hold the heavy metal P Bass pots, so I put some beefier CTS 250K's in.
2) The stock knobs feel like rubbing a cheese grater, so I swapped them for some MXR/Jbass style ones I had.
3) While I was at it, I swapped the slightly burnt wires inside for Teflon insulated silver tinned wire ones (overkill!)
4) I swapped the tone cap for a 0.047uf Xicon poly cap. kind of like an orange drop.
5) set the pup height, string height, intonation and such so that if felt good for what i need to do with it

ALSO...

This evening I got home to this! P-Bass pup! couldn't resist, and i'm glad i didn't!
I decided to record my bass as it was into my macbook with zero effects or anyting. totally dry. Then do the pickup change and record it again.

the original pickup was wooly and fat while the BKP has better definition across the frequencies and also more detail in the upper end.

First thing this is getting used on is a tour, few dates on the mainland, few dates in the UK.
I also need to learn all the guitar parts to fill in on guitar for two shows... complex...

[FernandoDuarte]

Looks very cool! Mr Phil King said a lot of good things about this pickup, great that you like it!

[AndyR]

Nice one. I've been wondering on-and-off whether to resurrect my old Aria bass with BKPs. I use a Variax bass for home recording, but my old Aria had a kinda cuteness to it - just sounded sh1t when recorded!! :lol:

Bass-playing really helps your guitar playing, especially doing it "for real" with other musicians. :D

[Dmoney]

bass playing is killing my fingers.
i also trapped the stretchy bit between my thumb and index finger on my fretting hand in a mic stand half way through practice. so i bled a bit and came home with a nice blood blister. urgh.
I'm gonna borrow a sansamp bass driver for tour. i hear those are the biz!

[FELINEGUITARS]

I've fitted loads of BKP bass pickups and they are great (no surprise really)

[Dr. Stein]

I quite like the black pickguard actually, didn't think it would work when you first suggested it but it does.


Also as it happens, mine just sold on ebay for £340, so no hard feelings.  :lol:

[Oli]

bass playing is killing my fingers.
i also trapped the stretchy bit between my thumb and index finger on my fretting hand in a mic stand half way through practice. so i bled a bit and came home with a nice blood blister. urgh.
I'm gonna borrow a sansamp bass driver for tour. i hear those are the biz!

The Sansamp bass drivers are great! Just be careful of the amount of drive you give it-- too much can make it sound a bit fuzzy and not very powerful, but they do sound nice :)

[Dmoney]

yeah! our original bassist in my old band had one. and he has an Aerodyne Jazz. Those bass drivers are neat!
I'm selling an amp next week so I might pick one up.

any reason why the P/J bass BKP's aren't listed with the products?

thanks for the pointer on the sansamp!

Dr Stein, good work on selling your bass! I feel like we both did well in the end?

Andy R, I understand what you mean, at the moment I'm mostly doing route notes which is what is on the recordings for that band, but it would be good to break away from that. That would definitely help me with my own song writing and with other projects i have in mind. I need to get into it.

[BigB]

bass playing is killing my fingers.

Recently joined a second band as bass player - didn't played bass for almost 20 years - and yes indeed - IT HURTS :(

It hurts both hands FWIW, I really need to practice more and correct my fretting hand's position on the bass.

[gwEm]

i like the look of that bass! :)

good luck with the BKPs in it!

[Dmoney]

just needs a skull crossbones on the guard