Project Basses

Oh man! I’m definitely not cool enough to pull that off, lol.

3 Likes

That is sweet looking John! I’ve this bass!

1 Like

I love this bass! Is what I meant to say!

3 Likes

This is fabulous. It has Rigs of Dad written all over it.

3 Likes

Man the pickup choices for a music man upgrade are so damn varied. Really run the gamut. Hard to decide what to do.

4 Likes

That’s as cool as @John_E
When I upgraded my Ray4 the recommended pickup was the Aguilar Ag 4m .
@T_dub was a massive fan of it

3 Likes

Yeah that is on top of the list, from what I have read and watched it is the go to.

There are also a lot of oddballs out there with very varying tone from super bright to mildly meh.
Since I have a EBMM HH, and it is a bit hard to slap with with the neck pickup in the way, maybe the Aguilar AG4M is the way to go. However, it is only wired in straight parallel, so cannot switch series/parallel. Not a big deal, but the push/pull would be rendered useless.

4 Likes

Nananananananananananana… BatBass!

Btw dunno what ur after but AG4M isnt very bright, but has great lows. SD is much brighter.

If you want more classic MM sound Id go SD.
AG for modern sound.
Both are great.

4 Likes

I have no opinion on the control, series/parallel does seem to make sense. But Smoking in the Boys Room by Brownsville Station popped in my head

3 Likes

Don’t want to get off topic too much, and I know I’m reviving an old discussion from a few months ago on this thread, but I just ran across this article on why the imperial measurement system (and a lot of old measurement systems) have been able to survive and even thrive when the metric system is objectively superior (for a bunch of reasons.) I thought you might like to take a look - really interesting read.

In a nutshell it comes down to practicality for common use - the metric system often produces measurements for everyday items/situations that are hard to remember, non-intuitive, and difficult to calculate in your head vs. many imperial measurements that are based on everyday intuitive knowledge, easy to remember and usually easily calculated because they are divisible like @Barney mentioned.

(I’d never thought about it much before - scientist by profession means I’ve been in the metric camp forever.)

The article is a bit tongue-in-cheek and makes fun of some metric outcomes, it’s meant to be humorous - but it gives some common sense examples of why imperial can be very practical - and that’s why it’s still hanging on and in use.

2 Likes

Thank you for pointing this out. Yes, I love this article!

I think it highlights the key point, every system is optimized for some perspective and will be awkward from some different perspective. It’s always an arbitrary choice based on priorities.

It’s neat for someone that water boils at 100 degrees, but if you are a videographer maybe you want the color temperature of daylight to be 100 degrees.

4 Likes

I want to design and carve a body for a short-scale bass one day… with some help for the technical part, it could be feasible. But I can’t find measures of pick-up positions in standard P or PJ basses, let alone short-scale ones.
How could one approach the problem? I wouldn’t even start considering what neck to buy without knowing I can copy the set-up of an existing bass with reasonably placed pick-up(s). I don’t want to reinvent the wheel.
I’ve seen @athosmr2003 original construction, how did you decide on the pick-up placement in the body? Sorry if I missed an explanation, but was scrolling quickly trough thousand of posts :sweat_smile:
Could anybody help me, and measure where the pick-ups sit, for example, on a Sire U5 or a Mustang?

3 Likes

Well you need to decide on scale length and frets first by using this calculator Fret position calculator - StewMac

Thanks to someone who posted on another thread. So helpful.

That would help you determine where to place your bridge and your neck and body length.

As for the pickup placement, SG style would have extreme neck pick up placement. Jazz is kinda up to you, you can go with traditional length and get the pickup template from Stewmac. Single set of P is in the middle somewhere between neck heel and bridge. MM or Humbucker usually more toward the bridge how close to the bridge is up to your secret sauce recipe. I don’t think it’s critical as where you put the pickup would generate their unique sound.

3 Likes

For me, the Moolah Bass was a little different because it has a Jazz MIM neck but the body itself isn’t very long. I had Terry make the measurements for me using tape to mark the locations of the pickups and the bridge.

4 Likes

This little guy is done.
Swapped the stock pickup (crap) with a Seymour Duncan SMB-4A (fantastic), wired the push/pull series/parallel Vs series/south single coil (yep, that’s how it came, and looked purposefully done, sigh).

Two saddle screw heads snapped instantly when adjusting so swapped them all out with hex heads.

Had some skull knobs and this strap on bins which seemed appropriate. $7 truss rod cover and GHS Boomers (red silks matchy matchy) and this is a very decent single H bass! Since no onboard tones preamps will come in handy that I have.

Tuners are actually decent so leaving alone.

Bass - $225
Pickup - $119
Not a bad deal

14 Likes

Looks amazing john! I can’t wait to hear how she sounds. Maybe another RHCP cover is due?

3 Likes

Is that a 2 octave bass? That’s just too cool. I want to see you do a cover of Kiss and stick out your tongue, lol. So Rad!

4 Likes

Sure is!

5 Likes

How do you like SD?

Big improvement. Just what I was looking for!

2 Likes