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Ba…Na…Na…Na…Bassman!
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Unbass-related, but super-service relevant.
Wow, three cheers for Thomann!
I recently bought a Hammer 88 MIDI controller, a big, pretty hefty puppy. I also got a free stand as a promo perk with my keyboard, but it’s a cheap “ironing board” style that has zero legroom underneath it: Strike One. Since I only play seated, that’s Strike Two. And the stand wobbles when I play: Strike Three, you’re out.
After a lot of research, I found a K&M that is perfect. Sweetwater wanted an arm and a leg for it. Amazon was the best US price option, but the ship date was sometime in the distant future.
So I checked Thomann a couple of days ago, and I found the same stand for about 40 bucks cheaper than Amazon, plus it arrives tomorrow. Win-win.
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Ya I just ordered a backrest for a K&M stool that was cheaper from Thomman. Go Germany!
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Oh nice! A good stand is very important. No one wants a wobbly keybed.
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Here’s a small question that needs your advices : Let’s say I want to upgrade my bridge on an Ibanez RB808PL. The issue is this : the bridge is an Ibanez bridge omni adjust (also called Gotoh 206, 4 screws on 4 corners - see schema) which are basically almost inaccessible anywhere anymore. What would be my best option ? Buy the bridge I want, carefully look for intonation placement (etc etc) and just drill the appropriate holes ? (I’m a bit concerned about messing up something)
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You’ll note that this bridge has 5 mounting screws, with one towards the center.
There are cheap knockoff himass bridges on Amazon (musiclilly et tutti quanti). I would experiment with one of them. 50 - 100 Canuckistan kopecks is a bit much to be experimenting with for a real gotoh.
I would be very concerned about drilling through the string passthrough holes. That’s where the metal will be the thinnest and your countersinks need to be exact.
This is definitely a jobby for a drill press (minimum) or a milling machine (better) and very careful fixturing.
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Thank you for your answer @MC-Canadastan.
Can’t find (for now) anything close to this omni adjust bridge in Amazon (France), from musiclily or otherwise 
This one below was pretty close … but still off by 5mm :
Why would I want to do that ? I see no reason to drill through the string passthrough holes.
I’m quite confident in my wood work abilities (and utilities ^^), but when it comes to an instrument … not so much 
Well, I need to put up a list of things I need to be especially careful if I go on with this. That was not a great move from ibanez to make this thing so unique and difficult to find, grr !
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I think there’s a little confusion. @mediaklan is talking about drilling new holes into the wood body of the bass. Where @MC-Canadastan was taking about drilling into the metal of the bridge to match the existing screw holes in the bass.
Or I could as usual be completely wrong
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Pretty close counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and nuclear bombs. Most everywhere else you need dead nuts on.
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Dead nuts on, as usual.
EDIT: Amazing how one defaults to typw, @Barney . Whereas most people think of drilling wood, people who have been concentrating on metalworking will think in terms of drilling metal.
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Thanks @Barney for clarifying things up ^^. Indeed, i don’t intend to drill through the bridge. For now, IF i was to go on with this (which is not entirely sure either way), I would be planning to :
- carefully note and measure the old bridge position
- remove this old omni adjust thingy
- look after the ground, fix the other holes with wood filler
- buy the bridge that bassbuzz users would recommand the most for this bass ^^
- drill the holes according to the new bridge
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Albridge may have an option that allows you to reuse the existing holes and it’s a quality bridge
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Albridge is a serious bridge.
Brass saddles? Made from a vintage church bell?
Check and check.
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Can’t find any option close to the omni adjust, but albridge bridges seems excellent ! Thank you for sharing.
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Well.
My guitar is taking a siesta in Seattle. so I installed my Nordstrand 51J4S pickups in my FGN today. They really do increase the presence, though they aren’t as hot. I have a weird thing going on. My neck pickup is fine. My bridge pickup isn’t as loud, which I could fix easily, but it works fine until the volume goes over about 90%. then I lose volume and tone on both pickups. Will look at it tomorrow, not sure what I messed up.
How it sounds meanwhile, it really pops. They are clear, and have more mids than I was expecting. This would really sit well in a mix.
It’s a different sound than a PJ or Jazz or Double P. Need to get it recorded.
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I had a heck of a time getting the Nordstrand 51J4S working. They have three wires, white, black, and gray. White goes to hot, black goes to ground, and the instructions say gray is for buffered pickups like Audere. Otherwise gray goes to ground like black. Simple enough, but I got weird things. I could play both pickups, but if I backed off the volume it was like I was adjusting tone. Sporadically.
Couldn’t get hold of Nordstrand.
So I got an Audere preamp. White goes to the preamp, black goes to common, gray goes to the jack. Works perfectly. Sounds good, clean, clear, punchy.
Now I get a buzzing out of the amp. Not the bass, it’s from the amp itself like the signal is too low to handle. Oh well, it’s always something as Rosanne Rosannadana would say.
It’s a 4 band amp. Bass, treble, mid high, mid low And it has a little light that comes on when you plug it in - if the battery has juice. So it warns you when its low
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I’m on Day 8 of “where the hell is my pickguard”.
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Is there not tracking? Or is it just taking long. Should we put pictures of it on milk cartons?
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