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1973 PBass, tone knob doesn't adjust tone, it adjusts volume.
I've seen this before, usually it's a shorted cap, right? I replaced the cap ... same thing; I replaced the pot ... same thing; checked all the wiring ... same thing; gave up and put in a whole new wiring harness (a nice one from staytunedcustomshop) ... same thing.
Can't for the life of me figure this out. This is the harness. Ground wire from bridge and the black ground wire from the pickup go to the pads on the back of the volume pot, white hot wire from pickup goes to lug 1 on the left on the volume pot.

The pickup is on a brass shield plate, black ground wires from the pickup are soldered to the plate.

Tone control is still a volume control. What else could cause that? What am I doing wrong?






Found a pic of a 71 with a completely different wiring scheme

Just an observation, I just got a bass with only a position marker at the 12th fret. Actually it's large and goes in between the 10th and 13th frets. It does have side markers.
I've never had an instrument without fretboard markers and was a little concerned about them not being there.
Turns out no problem can't tell they're not there for the most part. I guess I probably shoulda realised that beforehand that especially standing I can't really see them anyway but now I know for sure.

I've been on a long rig search, documented in another thread, that recently led me to purchase two Mesa Subway 1x15 cabs paired with a Mesa Boogie BD-800. After testing across multiple environments, with two different amps and two different basses, I concluded the cabs are not the right match for my playing style and EQ approach. I run highs and mids down with lows boosted, playing reggae and roots on a 5-string and 2-Tone ska on a 4-string. The issue presented as a flapping/wobbling sound on the low B and E strings at real-world volume. The Genz Benz Uber 410 I own ran cleanly under identical conditions, so the issue is cab-specific rather than amp-specific.

The most likely culprit is port overloading. I reached out to Barefaced and Alex pointed directly to their oversized port design as the engineering solution to exactly this problem, adding that if my Uber 410 and my previous Ampeg SVT/810 rig could handle what I throw at them, the Big Twin 3 (BT3) should as well.

So the BT3 is currently my frontrunner. Before I pull the trigger on a transatlantic purchase, I'd love to hear from anyone with direct experience with the BT3, or from anyone who has found a US-available cab that delivers the same thing...deep, clean, accurate lows that stay composed at high volume with heavy low-end EQ.

I must admit this is something that I hadn't done a lot on, except for the odd unison line. Having started to work my way through the heads of many Real Book tunes, I am beginning to see the light and think more like a horn player, as well as develop my skills further away from the money positions (half and first on DB and up to 5th fret on electric).

I regret not having done more on this, but there is always time!

How many of you practice the same, as part of your routine?

Regards to all

i want my bass tone to be similar to tatsu mikami and jason newstead, and so far the closest ive gotten is a zoom b3 with exciter, squeak and fuzz smile with a behringer hb01 wah pedal before it, if you have tips to get closer to that sound, i would love to hear it

Hi all. It's been a LONG time since I posted here. I live on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. I have a bass I am planning to sell and I'd like to get an appraisal somewhere within a 90 minute drive or so from here. That could be in the Boston or Providence area. Any suggestions?

What's rare about this bass is that it was owned by Marcus Miller. It's a 1974 Jazz bass. He sold some basses in 2013 to raise money for the UNESCO charity. Here's a link about that (the one I bought is on the far left)...

I have the case that came with it and a letter signed by Marcus.

This is a video of him playing it (that he references in the letter I have)...
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I have only changed the strings since I got it. I'd like to get a good estimate to see what I might be able to sell it for.

Any help appreciated. Thanks!

Guitarist plays with fingers
Bassist plays with pick
And 2(!) drummers

The most un-talk bass thing I’ve seen

Anyone know where to get a tiny amount of clear lacquer for a touch-up… at a reasonable price?

A stew-mac marker works great, but they are pricey.

Anyone know of a better way?

Always been a huge Priest fan and I've been aware of these for quite some time but they were pricey. Well recently MF had a what I'd call a clearance sale on what they had left. I actually think I got the last 1 they had. They were marked doen to 1,799. I pulled the trigger.
The bass needed a setup bad. To be expected as it has been sitting in a GC in Boulder CO for 6 years. Unbelievably other than the setup it is in like new , mint condition. Musta been hung up high lol.
I adjusted the truss rod and it plays awesome. It was buzzing badly on the first 5 or so frets and thare was no relief and maybe a small amount of back bow. Anyways almost a half turn on the truss rod and all is good after sitting overnight.
This bass, to me, is absolutely beautiful despite just being black with gold hardware, simple but gorgeous.
I expected this to have a thinner neck as all the reviews and even an interview with Ian Hill touted its thin neck. Apparently it's thin compared to other Spectors and not thin in general terms. Not a problem at all ,
I get along with most neck types. I guess Spectors must generally have pretty thick necks if folks call this thin though, lol.
The small curved body is something I loved immediately! Almost to the point of instantly liking my other basses a little less. What a great design.
The bridge is massive! Seemed almost comically large at first but it feels fine. The design of this bass seems very well thought and executed perfectly.
The controls on the preamp seem odd. From what I understand it's a boost and cut but there's no indentation to give a home base so it took a little longer to find what I was looking for, but I have it dialed in where I like it.
Very glad I found a deal on this bass but gotta say after having it it woulda been worth full price to me. So thrilled with the deal I got.
Only issue I have with it is the strings are really giving me alot more finger noise than I typically have. Can't tell what they are. Gonna leave em on for a little while as they look new and maybe that's the issue. They certainly don't look 6 years old.
These are awesome! Really wish I'da got one sooner.
Here's some pics.

$500, volume knob spins freely, just curious what it is, is it any good, etc.

Hey all. Looking for the simplest delay pedal to accomplish a simple task. Really just want a slight delay between striking the sting and the note sounding. Don't want any further repeats of the note. Less knobs the better. Not too experienced with delay pedals. What'd be the easiest way to accomplish this?

Anecdotal observation 1: I tend to feel like once I find a cab that I really like the sound of, that cab would make 90 percent of the amps on the market today sound good to great. If I found an amp I really like, the number of cabs I'd think did it justice would be much smaller.

Anecdotal observation 2: When ultralight gear took off around 2008, many of that first run of class D amps still hold up extremely well today. Think the Genz Benz Shuttles and Streamliners, the Gallien Krueger MB series, and the list goes on. But the best sounding Neo cabs today would soundly beat out the original run of neo cabs from that era, at least to my ears.

In other words, is finding the ideal cab more important than the ideal amp? Is there more subjective quality variation in cabs than amps, to the average player? Can you even realize you found the ideal amp until you've first found the ideal cab?

Just some musings on a slow work day on the clock. Don't mind me.

This is what it looks like after your (MY!!!) tailpiece rope snaps in the middle of the night.
It made quite a "sound".
Lisa and Gabe at LA Bassworks have been contacted and will be re-assembling beginning Monday noon.
(Did I mention I had a Root Canal on Thursday?)
Oy Vey, etc.
Buh Bye.
Thanks for listening...

I recently had an idea to sell my Kala solid body bass to someone who I thought would make better use of it than I had been. We agreed on a price but neither had any idea about shipping costs so I went to UPS, FedEx, and the Post Office (USA).

The prices were absolutely eye-watering.

A Kala Ubass is small and light, and the whole thing double-boxed was less than 13 pounds. For ground shipping, slow crawl, with no other features, this is what they quoted me:

UPS: $88
FedEx: $114
USPS: $129

I guess this stunned me because I was paying $85 to ship bicycle trainers that weigh about 70 pounds from NY to anywhere in the US in 2021. Has shipping really become that unaffordable over the past few years? It makes me wonder how luthiers or even sellers here or on Reverb are adjusting to the costs.

I'm asking because I was thinking about selling my Fender Jazz and Precision basses, but given that they're in OHSC, longer, wider, and significantly heavier than the Kala Ubass, I don't see how I can price them. I mean, if someone was selling me a bass and told me it'd be $200 for shipping, I'd pass... but now I'm thinking maybe that's reasonable.

Anyone else have similar recent experiences with shipping costs?

I’m not typically an effects guy; DB or BG. My normal setup is tuner/compressor/tube preamp DI. I don’t even usually use the compressor upright.

I’m working on an interesting project with some talented (and classically educated) neo-hippies that calls for effects, primarily delay. They play a 1/2 step down at 432, so I’m using my Eminence with Permanents, and that is working well. Trying to dial this digital stuff in is really daunting to me, as much as I enjoy tweaking analog gear. Any recommendations for Stomp effects chains/packs I can grab that sound good for Tonedexter and DB? Any other advice?

Hi everyone,


I recently experienced an electric shock on stage while holding my bass, and I‘m looking for some technical insight from the community to figure out what went wrong and how to prevent it in the future.


Here is the setup:

• Bass: 1994 Japanese-made Yamaha TRB (metal hardware/strings).
• Cable: Premium Fender instrument cable.
• DI Box: Passive DI box.
• Signal Chain: Bass -> Cable -> Passive DI Box -> Analog Mixer / Stage Audio system.

What happened: A bandmate strummed the bass first, and it felt completely fine - no shock at all. But a moment later, when I grabbed the bass, it grabbed hold of me. I experienced a strong shock, and my hand locked up (tetanus effect) due to the AC current - I literally couldn’t let go of the strings. A bandmate quickly realized what was happening and pulled the cable out, which finally broke the circuit so I could release the bass. Even after the cable was unplugged, I could still feel a very mild tingling/buzzing lingering for about a minute.


Stage conditions I noticed: It was a small stage with a lot of tangled cables, and I noticed they were using regular household power strips instead of the heavy-duty, robust rubber distribution boxes ("distribution spiders") typically seen at larger festivals.


My questions for the electronics/tech experts here:

1. Why didn't it shock my bandmate when he tested it, but it locked my hand up when I touched it? (Assume body contact/ground path differences?)
2. Since the bass itself was not plugged into a wall outlet (only connected via instrument cable to the passive DI box and mixer), how did mains voltage get onto the strings? Was it likely a faulty mixer power supply, a ground loop, or a compromised DI box / poor stage power?
3. What is the best gear to invest in to completely protect myself from this happening again on small stages (e.g., portable PRCD/GFCI units, line isolators like a Lehle P-ISO, etc.)?

Thanks in advance for any technical advice or gear recommendations! Stay safe out there.

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This high end dealer is really impressed with this Sire.

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They all sound very similar to me. I don’t think I could tell the difference blindfolded.

I've always avoided Jazz basses, they just didn't have enough guts for me. but now I think I'm ready to try once more.

so I got a PRS Kestrel: an atypical, but passive jazz bass. it's neck through and has 2x2 tuners. it's laquered and highly reflective, but I tried to do my best.



so, what can I say yet? It's heavy. not yet weighted, but assuming around 4.5kg. I think, I'll want a thicker strap.

it has some charm in sound, but I'm still getting used to it.

factory shielding sucks. the stock conductive paint is loosely applied and I'm not able to verify, it actually conducts anything with a multimeter.

so, yeah, a bass has some hum. frankly I expected it to be worse, provided poor shielding and non-humcanceling pickups.

the Hipshot's bridge is finicky, but I think, I got used to it. I'd appreciate a tad more space for adjustments, tho. maybe, my next move is stiffer strings (currently it has SuperBrights nickel 45-105).

that's it for now. thanks for reading.

got a zoom b3 a couple months ago and i pretty much got the gist of everything else but im confused how i add new patches also if you can, maybe recommend some effects for a good tatsu mikami sound to work with my behringer hellbabe if you can

I've long wondered why bass strings are not just made to an equal tension, with gauges like say 40-55-75-95 or 45-60-80-105. Some people commented that a balanced tension does not always mean a balanced feel.
I've got a closer understanding of it when reading about cello strings for my girlfriend. Basically there were three schools of thought in the gut string era:

• Equal tension: each string has roughly the same pulling force. On a cello it would lead to an approximately 2:3 gauge ratio between adjacent strings, and on bass it would be 3:4.
• Equal feel: the stiffer strings get reduced gauge for less tension, so that all strings "feel" similar when fretted or plucked.
• Graduated tension: lower strings have less tension than higher strings, presumably for an even tone across all strings.

I believe all 3 schools of thought can be found in modern strings for electric guitar and bass:

• The tension balanced sets from D'Addario and Stringjoy are probably designed with the "equal tension" mindset, as well as the Rickenbacker 45-55-75-105 set. Many flatwounds such as La Bella 760FL and Pyramid 640 also seem optimised that way.
• Most guitar strings OTOH seem designed for "equal feel". Wound strings can get more flexible for its tension (and also less tension for its gauge) cf. plain strings, and they get bumped up a bit in gauge. Classical guitars have relatively low tension G and B strings, presumably because the larger plain strings are stiffer than the smaller E string.
• Some old-school flatwounds seem "graduated tension", such as La Bella 52-110, 50-100, and GHS 45-95 and 55-105. This may help with tonal balance with a fatter G and less tubby E string.

Just been staring at the flame maple neck on my Fender MIJ Ishibashi FSR Traditional II 70s. Seriously, all maple necks should have flame figure from now on!

Other than lightening up our attack?


Obviously adjusting attack has no financial cost, but it doesn’t take much force at all to knock that biggest string out of the roller saddle with a downstroke, and I would rather not lose the sound that comes with a reasonably heavy attack.

At first I thought it might just be me, as I’ve modified mine to take heavy strings for B0–B2 tuning, and maybe a .130 or even .120 B0 was just too much to ask of the hardware; but my friend here runs into the same issue, using the instrument as intended i.e. with La Bella bass vi flatwounds in E1–E3.

Other than drastically lightening up our attack, is there some way we can reliably keep our big strings on these roller saddles?

Hey team. Got a new CS 51 P that came with Fender 55-105 flats. Those are 2 new things to me, both that type of bass/pickup and those strings. On my 69 I’ve got LaBellas. First, I’m surprised how bright it is. I do like it though although I wouldn’t want to go any further. Part of that is probably the pickup? I’d love weigh in on that. The other observation/question I have is I’d like more growl or presence from the E string. I’ve played with pu placement already. I’m a symphony player by trade and on uprights many of us use a different E to get more presence and response. I’m wondering about doing the same here. Thoughts and suggestions? Thank you!! Matt