isaac42

I'll take your word for that.

I don't know why this never occurred to me before. I was looking at bass strings. The bass I took to band practice yesterday had pretty old strings on it, so new ones seem in order. The Rickenbacker strings that come stock on new basses are 45, 55, 75, 105. That's not far off from the D'Addario EXL170BT balanced tension set, at 45, 60, 80, 107. D'Addario also makes a lighter gauge set, the EXL220BT, at 40, 55, 70, 95. At some point, I wondered what the "proper" relationship between, say, the E and A strings should be. I figured that, all else being equal, the diameter of the strings should be the inverse of the frequencies. That is, if the A frequency is 1.33 times the E string frequency, then the E string should be 1.33 times the A string diameter. So, if the A string were 75, then the E string should be 100. Now, I'm sure that things are not all equal. The ratio of the core to the windings is likely not constant, for instance, so getting balanced tension is not likely to result from such precise mathematical ratios. And, truth be told, balanced tension isn't necessarily going to result in balanced output from the pickups. But then it hit me. The frequency of E1 is 41.2 Hz. A2 is 55 Hz. 40? 55? That sounds like the diameters of the G and D strings on some sets. What are the frequencies of the D and G strings? 73.4 Hz and 98.0 Hz. Round those off, and you get 40, 55, 75, 100, which would be a perfectly fine set of bass strings! Fairly similar to the balanced tension sets on the market, and not too far off from the Rickenbacker set.

Why? Because you can! I have a GK 300B I bought new back in the 70s. Doesn't work. Sometimes I wonder if it's repairable, and whether or not it'd be worth the time, effort and expense.

Took my Carvin LB75 to band practice yesterday. "New bass?" "Nah, had it a long time." "No, his newest bass is the one he brought last time." "And we all agree that that one is our favorite, right?" Well, 'that one' is the 4005XC. Besides being flat-out beautiful, it has a tone that is... different. Hard to describe.

I haven't a clue, but good luck!

I'd go this route: If I identified one or more individual frets that were high, I might try whacking it down, maybe with a rubber mallet or by putting a piece of wood on it and whacking that. Support the neck from below, of course. If that didn't work, I think I'd go with a straightedge and do all of the frets. My thinking there is that getting a single fret too low would be bad, and would likely require lowering all of the frets to match. YMMV

A friend said that she thought the neck looked extra long. I said no, it's a short scale bass. Then I had another think, and wondered if a short scale 24-fret neck might be longer than a long scale 20-fret neck, so I did some measuring. Turns out, it's exactly the same. The neck joins the body at just over 23 inches from the nut, same as on a 4001. And then it struck me: this is clever engineering. No need to reprogram the CNC machines for anything other than fret slots. The neck, the fingerboard, the headstock, all exactly the same except for the frets. Maybe they used the settings for the set-neck 4000 (if they had CNC back then), or maybe they just used the 4003 settings and cut off the part that goes through the body. I dunno. I will say, though, that the neck struck me as more C shaped than my other Rics, which tend more toward a D. If I understand those terms, that is.

It did! I expected to like it. I also rather expected that the bridge pickup would be too close to the bridge to be useful on its own. So I thought it'd be neck pickup, with more or less bridge added in. First thing was that the guitarists loved the way it looked. Bandleader raved about it. "Best looking bass you own." Guess he's a fireglo fan. And the sound! I freely admit that I was wrong. The bridge pickup is strong and clear. I might still like it better a bit farther from the bridge, but it sounds just fine where it is. In fact, I was surprised that it dominated the sound of the bass. By itself, the neck pickup seemed a bit weak. Then conversation turned to the legendary fifth knob. What does it do? I couldn't tell them. I've read the section of the Rickenbacker manual a few times, and I still don't understand. What I did discover was that turning the fifth knob down gave me back the neck pickup volume I'd been missing. Now, I need to sit down and read it again with the bass in my hands, follow the instructions, and see if it will be useful to me. I didn't even notice that it was short scale. Intonation was very close, maybe a cent or two off way up the (24 fret!) neck. Might could use to have the nut slots lowered slightly. Overall, the setup by Wildwood was very good. Better than most of my basses. The neck felt a bit thicker than most of my other basses, but I stopped noticing after I started playing. It's definitely a hit. And so much fun to play! Really loves a pick.

Finally! Band practice today. I can take the 4005XC out for a spin with a real bass rig.

My Christmas present arrived. A brand new Rickenbacker 4005XC. It came in a box. Inside the box was a case. The case had a couple of flaws, but I'll spare you those. Inside the case was a bass.

Took it to band practice yesterday and passed it on to its rightful owner. Definitely made some interesting sounds, and wasn't as much of a problem with the regular bass as I had feared it might be.

No, it strikes me as a pick instrument, too. Nice thing is, I'll have access to it.

I am in temporary possession of a Squier VI, a modern version of the venerable Fender Bass VI. So far, it's fun to play with.

Didn't kmow you were a Ric man, Mikeo.

I have a Midnight Blue 4003 and a Midnight Blue 330/12, both with black hardware and trim.

Yes, that's possible. Mains voltage is higher than it used to be, and the power supply mod raises it a bit more. OTOH, it worked fine for ten years or so.

Went well. I received the bag o' diodes on Wednesday (I don't expect I'll ever need to buy any more!). Thursday, while my lovely wife was out, I pulled the old diodes and tested them: one good, one shorted. Replaced both diodes, because why not? Fired up the amp in standby: no blown fuse! Replaced the tubes, and turned it on again: so far, so good. A quick note here: it's often a bad idea to power up a tube amp without the tubes in place. The reason is that the tubes bring down the voltage by drawing current. Without them in place, the voltage can be too high for the filter capacitors. I admit that I've done it before, and got away with it, but I don't recomment it. In the case of the 200S, and all Sunn amps of that vintage, voltage is not applied to the caps when the amp is in standby. Hit the standby switch, and was treated to a dazzling light show from one of the power tubes! Killed the power, but blew another fuse. Replaced the fuse and switched the tubes around, figuring that, if it's a problem with the amp, I'd get the same result with a different tube. If the problem was the tube, then the problem should move with it. Instead, everything appeared to be fine. At this point, I'm thinking that the tube was bad, and burned out when I powered it up. Gig tomorrow. After, I'll replace the power tubes and test the amp on a bass speaker.

I think I may have found the problem with my Sunn 200S. Some weeks ago, after band practice, I flipped the Standby switch, and the fuse blew. Replaced the fuse, and it blew again. Finally got around to doing some troubleshooting, but everything seemed good, until I turned it on, and it blew another fuse. But I think I have it now: bad recitfier diode. "Bad diode?" you ask. Yes. I did a mod some years ago, replacing the rectifier tube and power supply caps with a SDS Mk3 capacitor board. Gives the amp a bit more power, eliminates sag (good for bass, not so good for guitar, IMO), and results in a quieter, cleaner amp. But not so good if a diode goes out. I think what's happening is that a diode has shorted, and shorts out the main transformer secondary winding, drawing too much current and blowing the fuse. We'll see. New diodes arrive tomorrow.

And the "musicians" are DJs.

That sounds about right, Grumpy. I remember working as an intern in a hospital when things really went south with the new software. That would have been in 2010.

Years ago, a band I was in tried the egg carton thing. Didn't help much, if at all.

Why, yes. Yes, it is a post.

Also, this might be better addressed in the keyboard forum.

They always are.

That might depend on how you define 'going'.