60 posts
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Post by annoyingtwit on Apr 1, 2015 17:30:07 GMT
New bass for me today. It's a 'deko' second, but I can't find what's wrong with it. (Apart from the two 'D' stamps). Admittedly I haven't yet fettled the action down super-low, so perhaps it won't do that. Actually, my happiest Harley Benton purchase today isn't the bass, but one of these that I bought more or less by accident in the same order. Cheap, but really seems to do what it says on the tin.
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Post by kodiakblair on Apr 1, 2015 17:43:26 GMT
Congratulations on that AT Another fine purchase,the bass ain't too shabby either When you've had a chance to put it through it's paces be great to hear your thoughts.
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7 posts
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Post by vixivi on Apr 2, 2015 16:47:59 GMT
Nice one! I've been looking at these for a while. But i've always had some doubts about the pups and the low B. So if you could report back how they are it would be great. Probably not great for my gas tho..
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60 posts
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Post by annoyingtwit on Apr 2, 2015 17:08:22 GMT
The low B sounds fine to me. Note that none of the several basses that I have with a low B are expensive. I keep on reading about the low Bs on cheap instruments being useless, but I'm not sure why as they seem to work fine to me. However, when the treble is up, the low B does sound a bit different in character to the other strings. Not necessarily in a bad way. But, it's not as even in sound as my other 5 string, which is a Rockbass Streamer Standard. That has older strings.
I just had a go on mine. I think that fret 12 is a bit high. If I fret the A string on the 11th fret, I can see the string hitting the 12th fret, and of course it buzzes. I can raise the action a little bit to compensate. The neck has settled a bit since I adjusted the truss rod yesterday, and the action is low for me. (Maybe not low for others).
IMHO, this bass is similar to Squier Affinity basses that I've played.
The pups are a bit weak, but can be boosted afterwards by gizmos such as the BEQ-1 pedal I bought at the same time. With some boost, they sound OK to me.
BTW: I don't know what strings the PJ5 comes with, but they seem fine to me. They are ... strings. Nothing obviously bad or particularly good with them. I bought some nylon coated Fender strings at the same time intending to use them to see what I think. But, only a four string set, so I'll probably use them on an Ibanez bass that I have.
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60 posts
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Post by annoyingtwit on Apr 3, 2015 15:30:07 GMT
PS: I polished the frets. It doesn't seem to play any different, but it looks a lot nicer. I've set the intonation, which is now good enough for me. (I'm sure I could have gotten it perfect had I been prepared to put in more time ). The action is good, though not as low as on the USA Fender basses that a local shop sells which are setup in the shop, though probably as good as their Squier Affinitys. There is a touch of fret buzz if I fret on the 11th fret. Otherwise, it's good. The action is quite low down the lower frets, but higher higher up the fretboard. Perhaps I should have a bit less relief, but it does seem to be in the ballpark. I don't think there is enough difference in action to justify a full business card shim, which in the past I've found to make a big difference. No fret ends are sharp enough to make me think it's worth doing something about them. I suspect that I'm less fussy than other people about fret ends as I've only found really noticeable sharp fret ends on a horribly cheap guitar I encountered once. (Which actually did visibly scratch my hand and fingers!). I've had the neck off. I'm not sure that this is an alder body, it looks like basswood to me. Light, and with little grain. The neck pocket is nice and snug. When I removed the pick guard to have a look underneath, there is some ugly finishing hidden underneath there. Also, I couldn't see anything that looked like shielding. Not even black paint. That's another job. The bass is noisy. I didn't look too carefully at the soldering, but the electronics in general looked fairly neat and tidy. Just a minor point, but I think the maple neck wood probably has the least interesting grain pattern I've seen on a maple neck.
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Post by JAC on Apr 6, 2015 13:17:41 GMT
Congratulations on a very nice bass for very little money!
As for the shielding, I am yet to buy a bass that is shielded from the factory, admittedly I have never spent much more than 500€ on a bass.
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60 posts
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Post by annoyingtwit on Apr 7, 2015 12:40:05 GMT
I've just realised that shielding the J pickup is going to be tricky. I can remove the pickup and put tape in the cavity, but how am I going to electrically connect it to the rest of the shielding?
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1,481 posts
Disclosures: Everything I don't like I can modify.
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Post by blablas on Apr 7, 2015 17:21:49 GMT
Real simple, solder a wire to the shielding tape in the pickup cavity, feed this wire through the same hole the wire for the pickup goes through and solder the other end of this wire somewhere to ground. I did this trick in one of my basses, the yellow wire in the upper right corner goes to ground in the control cavity.
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60 posts
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Post by annoyingtwit on Apr 7, 2015 18:40:54 GMT
Thanks.
I didn't know that it would work to solder a wire to tape. I was wondering if I should use strong tape to tape a wire between the two lots of tape. BTW: I've got the standard copper insulation tape that everyone seems to use.
BTW: This bass was bought for me to hack at. I've got the action down quite a bit lower now. I actually used a diamond file that I had around on fret 13 which seemed a bit high. I definitely took something off that fret as there was some very find metal dust removed. Now that I've got the action down lower (mostly due to straightening the neck a bit via the truss rod), I'm getting a bit of buzz when fretting at the 9th fret. I think I'd prefer a better file, but having given it a go, I'm not sure that finding out where the buzz is, then filing a little away from the fret that seems to be offending is too bad a strategy. I certainly don't feel that I risked taking too much off the fret. Each pass with the file seemed to make very little difference, and even after many such passes, the fret doesn't look too roughed up. (I can steel wool it smooth again, I think). I remember playing a good selection from the full Fender range, and finding that the USA made instruments had what felt to me to be a very low action, while still having a very precise feel. (if that makes sense). My PJ5's action is now getting close to that, but it does feel less precise, a bit more clanky and slightly buzzy if care is not taken when playing. If I remember correctly, it was a bit easier to play the USA Fenders cleanly without having a higher action. The nut is close to being bang on. I think the B string alone is a touch high, but I'm not sure it's enough to be worth doing anything about. Even if this is a 'hack' bass. IMHO the neck feels quite well made. The rosewood seems quite smooth and even looking. Post-polishing, the frets seem fine. The only things that really feel cheap are the pickup covers. They feel really cheap, like no other pickup I've ever handled.
The cheap feeling plastic cover of one half of the p-bass pickup doesn't seem to be attached to the actual pickup, which makes it harder to set the height. Also, there doesn't appear to be springs holding the pickups up, which again makes it harder to set the height.
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302 posts
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Post by TitaniumRX on Apr 12, 2015 22:57:47 GMT
Nice mate!!! Can you please measure the string spacing in the nut for me? Thanks in advance!!!
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60 posts
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Post by annoyingtwit on Apr 14, 2015 6:47:53 GMT
I'll get onto this as soon as I can, but it will be this evening at the earliest.
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