crescenze wrote:
pjmuck wrote:
A very good price for a rare bass. If anyone picked it up here, let me know. They are definitely an acquired taste though. If anyone bought it here, let me know. I have a couple of tips for improving the tone for better clarity and definition.
I didn't buy it, but I have one. I'm pretty happy with the sound, but would be interested in your tips. More knowledge is always a good thing. Also I agree on the price and rarity. Other than mine it's the only other one I've seen available in the past 3 or 4 years and I paid just a bit more.
The biggest complaint about the Seth Lover "mud bucker" T bass versions are the mud. Too much going on in the 160-250 Hz range, and it didn't help mounting it at the heel of the neck. I like these basses for that reason (THE fattest bass tone you'll ever hear) but I like clarity once in a while too.
Here's a few suggestions I've done to mine, as well as others that I haven't done that guys have reported having success:
1. Don't run the PUP fully up 100%. It's a very hot PUP and it can overdrive most amps. I run mine at about 50% volume and it cleans it up somewhat.
2. There are 4 slot headed screws on the underside of the PUP (NOT the slot headed PUP screws you see that reside under each string). Each PUP pole piece is comprised of two screws (8 total), 1 on top of Pup and the other set under. Remove the underside screws.
3. I personally feel that flats work better with these basses than rounds. But if you prefer rounds, go with a lighter gauge. (45-95). Helped tighten the low end on mine.
4. And of course, re-EQ your amp for the bass. This took me the furthest away from "mud".
Other suggestions:
1. Rewire in parallel (Several players have claimed this improved the PUP greatly)
2. Change out pots for 1meg (Note: these basses may already have 1meg in them, I can't remember. I thought they might have 250k or 500k pots in them, in which case a higher pot reading might introduce a brighter tone).
3. Add a .0047uF cap. Rick did this with their bridge PUP in the 70's to thin out/brighten the bridge PUP. You could add the cap + a push/pull pot like the Rick and have the best of both worlds.
4. Re-rout for a bridge PUP. I definitely WOULDN'T recommend doing this if it's a rare and valuable instrument, but so many of these basses were modded in the 70's already and frankly, it's almost an essential improvement. Fender should have introduced this bass with a second PUP a long time ago. My '75 Tele bass was routed by a former owner with a P PUP in the bridge, so I'm not responsible for the butchering. But with the 2 PUPs in combo the result is a bass that will eat guitarists for breakfast. Squire's VM Precision bass TB, was, in essence, a Tele bass reissue (why they called it a P bass is beyond me), but they also put out a 2 PUP model with a J PUP in the bridge and that was a smart move, IMO.
