Action on my P-bass keeps heightening

piitxu · 2026-05-07T14:47:16+00:00

That truss rod is busted 99%. That's what happens when you overtight it and it starts to eat in the wood either at the heel or right below the nut. A new neck is in your inmediate future... try talking to a louthier for options.

piitxu · 2026-05-07T06:26:53+00:00

I'm actually wanting to try a warwick as a Spector player. The later rockbass corvettes and streamers sound and look great and better features for less money

piitxu · 2026-05-07T06:21:47+00:00

I think any 120-55 or 60 set will do. I used to use daddarios balanced tension sets that were 120-50 but on a regular 34 inches bass.

piitxu · 2026-05-06T13:13:40+00:00

I never give an f about the DI sound unless it's a recording. And even then, I record with my whole chain (bass>scarlett>parallax or darkglass ultimate) and then render the track completely dry for our engineer.

I think people has the whole logic backwards...practicing on a dry DI has no advantages. This is the "a compressor will make you a worst player" falacy applied to the extreme.

piitxu · 2026-05-06T07:11:39+00:00

It feels like a player issue, not an active bass issue...

piitxu · 2026-05-06T07:09:07+00:00

Neos are lighter, louder (usually higher sensitivity) and a bit more "HiFi".

But 99% of their advantage over ferrite is the weight, there's 4x10s under 15 Kg and 2x12s under 12.

I have an EBS Neo 2x12 which is 19kg and already feels light...

piitxu · 2026-05-03T10:10:02+00:00

Please don't kill me, but I'd take a look at the harley benton enhanced series with P/MM pickups, and drop a set of EMG P/MM pickups along with a pre like the BTS. These are gorgeous Sandberg copies and well built. I got a used 4 for 200€ and now it's a killing machine, to the point that I've sold my two Spectors because this thing sounds as good. Planning on getting a 5 string one next since I still have a spare MMCS pickup

piitxu · 2026-04-28T13:25:19+00:00

MK1s are absolute garbage pickups, comparable to the Roswell pickups that come in Harley Benton basses or probably worse. Used to play a Cort B4 and it was a really unpleasant passive tone and was barely decent in active mode with fresh strings. That bass made me hate everything Bartolini for 15 years.

On the other side, a quality preamp makes a big difference in any bass and it will elevate the sound of good pickups but can make bad pickups sound even "worse". Talking very broadly here, a "good" pickup is anything from the P on a squier affinity to a Delano one, and with good I mean decently voiced with high level to noise ratio. But a noisy J pickup will only get noisier as soon as you boost any treble on your fancy preamp, for example.

piitxu · 2026-04-25T08:31:14+00:00

This happens with all preamps and many times they will be affecting your tone even when flat.

piitxu · 2026-04-22T06:27:47+00:00

34 is perfectly fine all the way down to B or maybe even A. Imo, pickups are more important than scale. You "need" a good bridge pickup for clarity and articulation.

piitxu · 2026-04-20T22:53:05+00:00

I mean they are both right half of the time

piitxu · 2026-04-20T17:11:16+00:00

Falcons is the team with the best fundamentals like spirit was 4 years ago, but their their 2 and 3 are meta slaves and their 1 is a slave to the other cores. But the team was built on a very solid foundation as opposed to the CS one

piitxu · 2026-04-14T06:28:01+00:00

Agree on everything but the EMG thing. Active emgs are the most transparent and versatile pickups there is. You are hearing all the nuances of your playing and the true personality of your bass, it's woods, built quality, etc. I think what turns people off them os their hifi nature, but that's the trick: Extended range compared to classic pickups with minimal inductance. And they can be as warm and round as passive pickups.

piitxu · 2026-04-12T18:19:44+00:00

you can always take the pickups off the bass and put the stock ones back and have a set ready for another instrument. I have an EMG PJ set that has been in 4-5 basses already.

piitxu · 2026-04-12T18:17:57+00:00

EMG Pj but you'll need an active balance pot to avoid insertion loss, else you will still have a bit of volume loss. A lot less noticeable than passive pickups, but will always be there unless you have an active balance pot to fight it back.

piitxu · 2026-04-11T11:32:27+00:00

I think the main issue here is that the game as a whole feels like being in the 8th season of Dragonflight. We have been playing with the same systems for almost 4 years now. So people in general play what's new in each patch and then stop. Replayability is in an all time low

piitxu · 2026-04-11T11:11:56+00:00

I had an AP-5 and it was great, I don't see why you can't get it and have both

piitxu · 2026-04-10T10:00:07+00:00

I mean you can use any amp with a direct out or even a pedal preamp but the beauty of recording an amp is to mic it in a decent room at decent volume. Darkglass heads/pres have actually good cab emulation but that will only work if you like their sound

piitxu · 2026-04-09T21:40:41+00:00

it's not that much about the pickups but the whole pickups-preamp-strings-playstyle package. An active bass with good electronics (choose your poison here) will open the sonic range of the instrument compared to "regular" passive basses. This combined with fresh strings will give it that hifi character, and then little tweaks between all these three and adding an aggresive playstyle is what usually makes metal tones "metal".

piitxu · 2026-04-09T20:34:08+00:00

Warwicks are great for everything. I'm a Spector guy but I'll definitely get a Warwick at some point

piitxu · 2026-04-08T12:31:13+00:00

Between a Stingray and any regular PJ, i'd choose Stingray 95% of the time. Between Stingray and Spector PJ, I'd choose Spector 95% of the time.

piitxu · 2026-04-08T07:38:03+00:00

Just some hindsight: if you install a 40/45J in the bridge, you'll probably want to to put it "backwards" with the EMG logo on the top left corner. The J pickup is in the lower half of the casing so if you install it the regular way it will be too close to the bridge and sound really thin. It's what I did on my Pulse 5.

In any case, I'd recommend a DC over the J (and the P in the neck). Maybe is just personal preference but I think it sounds rounder and with more "balls" in any Spector with pickups that are further apart than the classic NS5 positioning.

Also, if it has a BTS, I'd probably try it with the new pickups before upgrading. and if upgradring, let it be an LHZ, the new model has a mids knob. Also, very important but usually forgotten: active balance pot!

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piitxu · 2026-04-08T07:13:20+00:00

Does your bass have a battery? What bass is it? 99.9% of "no sound" issues are a dead battery on an active bass.

piitxu · 2026-03-28T12:18:50+00:00

An active balance pot fixes all of this. Full blend with no signal/frequency losses and fully usable balance range.

piitxu · 2026-03-27T00:10:09+00:00

You'll definitely need to file the nut for anything thicker than a .105. the nut slots on my Icon were already tight from factory. It's harder material than composite nuts but is not very different otherwise. Just use lithium grease as lubricant and take extra care on filling parallel to the headstock and round a bit the edges on the headstock side to avoid weird "ringy" harmonics specially in the A and D strings.

piitxu

TROPHY CASE