Wazkelly Build diary for DIY closing down sale Ash J Bass

[Fretworn]

I bought the Lakland from Neil Murray (Whitesnake, Gary Moore etc.).

So was this a random eBay/classifieds type thing, or do you know Neil? Did you talk to him or were you star-struck/too cool. I'm a huge pre-blues phase Gary Moore fan.

[wazkelly]

Thanks guys for dropping by and adding those photos and words of advice an encouragement.

Gotoh bridge has been ordered from Real Parts and should arrive tomorrow. It looks identical to the one on Doc's Squire P Bass.

At the moment the setup has the correct staggered saddle positioning where low E is screwed way back. Just taken a bit by surprise how far forward the G string saddle had to be shifted as the height adjustment grub screws are now sitting awkwardly on top of the base plate mounting screw on that side.

Hey Ponch, have you checked that setup with an electronic tuner yourself as it looks ideal for a lefty with the G wound back the furtherest and the fatter lower ones more forwards? It could be spot on, just looks weird in the shots.

I was going to have to do some work on this axe over the weekend as the Entwistles are taller than stock units and sitting a bit too high which will require me to dig out a bit in the PUP cavities. Playing notes around 14th fret has the string touching front edge of Neck PUP so definitely sitting too high. Should also mention the pole piece adjustment screws are crap as some of them dropped down inside the PUP whilst turning the screw downwards??? Screwing them in opposite direction to raise them did nothing as they are now free wheeling down inside the bobbins? When things are apart I will have a closer look to see if they are now that way for ever? Doesn't seem to be affecting the tone or sound so not sure what they were doing other than acting as decoration perhaps?

[DrNomis_44]

Thanks guys for dropping by and adding those photos and words of advice an encouragement.

Gotoh bridge has been ordered from Real Parts and should arrive tomorrow. It looks identical to the one on Doc's Squire P Bass.

At the moment the setup has the correct staggered saddle positioning where low E is screwed way back. Just taken a bit by surprise how far forward the G string saddle had to be shifted as the height adjustment grub screws are now sitting awkwardly on top of the base plate mounting screw on that side.

Hey Ponch, have you checked that setup with an electronic tuner yourself as it looks ideal for a lefty with the G wound back the furtherest and the fatter lower ones more forwards? It could be spot on, just looks weird in the shots.

I was going to have to do some work on this axe over the weekend as the Entwistles are taller than stock units and sitting a bit too high which will require me to dig out a bit in the PUP cavities. Playing notes around 14th fret has the string touching front edge of Neck PUP so definitely sitting too high. Should also mention the pole piece adjustment screws are crap as some of them dropped down inside the PUP whilst turning the screw downwards??? Screwing them in opposite direction to raise them did nothing as they are now free wheeling down inside the bobbins? When things are apart I will have a closer look to see if they are now that way for ever? Doesn't seem to be affecting the tone or sound so not sure what they were doing other than acting as decoration perhaps?

My experience with the Gotoh bridge has been a really good one so far, it's a good, solid bridge and has given me virtually no issues since I first bought it, so i reckon you'll like it a lot mate, I have the saddles for the low E-String and the G-String sitting on the base of the bridge, and the action is still about 3.4mm at the 17th fret, I think Fender specify 3mm at the 17th fret for a factory set-up P-Bass, although you might prefer a higher action.

[Simon Barden]

I was going to have to do some work on this axe over the weekend as the Entwistles are taller than stock units and sitting a bit too high which will require me to dig out a bit in the PUP cavities. Playing notes around 14th fret has the string touching front edge of Neck PUP so definitely sitting too high.

It may be that the pickup is too high and the magnetic pull is affecting the tuning (fretting on the 12th fret will bring the string nearer the pickup, so any magnetic pull will have more effect on the string than when open). This is quite common on Strats. You may find that by lowering the pickup height, you solve the intonation issue.

[DrNomis_44]

It may be that the pickup is too high and the magnetic pull is affecting the tuning (fretting on the 12th fret will bring the string nearer the pickup, so any magnetic pull will have more effect on the string than when open). This is quite common on Strats. You may find that by lowering the pickup height, you solve the intonation issue.

That's something I have had first-hand experience with on my Gold Strat, I couldn't work out why I couldn't accurately set the intonation of the low E-String, then it turned out that the magnetic pole-pieces of the pickups ( three Entwistle ASN57 noiseless pickups) were the cause due to the pickup routing not being deep enough to accommodate them, the result was that the pole-piece for the low-E-String was too close to the E-String, if the tone of the string sounds a bit warbly, that's a dead give-away that the pole-piece is too close to the string, the magnetic pull tends to make the string vibrate at a lower frequency than it should.

[DrNomis_44]

They look cool, I'm not sure what model bridge I have on my Squire P-Bass, but it's manufactured by Gotoh, it seems to be a pretty good bridge, and I have never had any issues with it ever since I bought it, which is probably a good few years ago, I think I like the Squire P-Bass a lot more than my red Yamaha ERB-300 Bass, which has some dings in the body, there's also a crack in the body wood near one of the pickup volume controls on it, I might do some work on it at a later stage to fix it up a bit, and put some 105-45 gauge strings on it, the original ones were a bit too heavy for my tastes, and they required the truss-rod to be cranked pretty tight, the ERB-300 needs some work done on the nut cause the 1st fret action is a bit too low so the strings buzz against it a bit, might even change out the tuners for some new ones cause the originals are a bit rusty and grotty, could even give the frets a polish with my Dremel tool too while I'm at it, which reminds me, I need to buy some grinding bits for my Dremel tool, might check to see if my local big green shed has some in stock.

[wazkelly]

Good point. Bridge already on it's way which is all good as I should have done that originally rather then persist with the cheapie stock unit.

Will attack Pup heights first to see if that is the culprit and then move on to installing the better bridge which has greater mass and should also mean better sustain.

[Simon Barden]

The Entwistle JBX dimension drawings http://www.entwistlepickups.com/asse...%20drawing.pdf seem to indicate that the pole pieces run right through the pickup and out through the bottom. I can't find any pictures of the underside of the pickups on the web, so you'll have to tell us what the solution to the mystery is once you have them off to deepen the pockets.

[wazkelly]

Cheers Simon, will do.

[Simon Barden]

A random eBay check. I have a general search set up for all things musical with one hour left to go, which I often run at the less popular times of the day. And I think I picked it up on one of those. Very little interest in the bass and I picked it up, including a case and big leather strap, for £440 (A$730) , when the list price was around £1000 (A$1660) for the bass alone. I've had some amazing bargains that way, especially on some items with badly spelled descriptions, or even incorrect descriptions. It had had a Hipshot X-tender fitted and the original pickups replaced with Bartolinis. It's a really nice bass (so it's being wasted on me). It also has had a second round string tree fitted to hold down the A string.

I picked it up from his house, so got to meet him. I did take along my friend Max, who does know him slightly and played alongside him on stage at a guitar show. He was a very nice chap, we stayed and chatted for about 10 minutes. But it wasn't until afterwards that I found out that another mate's band's drummer also played in Neil Murray's fun gigging band (they were both in the "We Will Rock You" house band). Had I known that, that would have been something else to talk about. But you got the feeling that he was about ready to retire from regular professional bass playing, so was selling off all unnecessary equipment.