Modified Jack Casady Signature recording

[Basvarken]

Thanx Chris,
but we still don't know if you can use it without a DI...

[chromium]

Wow, Rob - man that is a beautiful, powerful, and dynamic song!  Great production, and vocals too!

I was curious what is you guitarist playing?  Great tone.  I was also curious what is providing that rotary/phaser effect at ~4:00.   

[Barklessdog]

I was curious what is you guitarist playing?

My guess is a Strat?

[Basvarken]

I was curious what is you guitarist playing?  Great tone. 

No, it.s not a Strat. It's a handbuilt Aspe. Aspe is a Dutch luthier who until recently had his shop in Arnhem where we live.
The Aspe Superfrankrocker is a strange hybrid mixture between a Strat (pickup configuration), A Les Paul (scale length and bridge/tailstop) and a Gretsch (large and extra thick body).
Frank experimented with a few different kinds of pickups, but he now uses Kinman pickups. The bridge pickup is a minihumbucker.
He use a special gauge 013 strings to get that fat SRV tone.
His amp is a Marshall Super Tremelo (basicly a super lead with a tremelo unit). He bought it from Brian "Robbo" Robertson a few years ago.

I was also curious what is providing that rotary/phaser effect at ~4:00.   

I'm not sure what Frank used on this song exactly. I think it's a combination of a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face with a Fender Vibratone. Or maybe a Univibe.
I'll ask our producer. I'm sure he remembers, since it was his idea

[Basvarken]

Almost nailed it:
The effect is a Precision Electronics Vibe Unit plus Fender Vibratone Leslie in the slow mode. Plus a Menatone Red Snapper as a distortion.

[Basvarken]

Could've made a new topic.
But since there's already an older topic about my Modified JCS I figured it is suitable here.

I've been playing the Gibsonized JCS for several years now. And it gets quite a lot of playing time.
But somehow it never got caught on any video.

But now there's some footage. Here's a few videos from the gig we did last sunday.
When I heard the vids, it struck me it is even closer related to a Fender P bass than I already knew.
I know it was Les Paul's goal to develop a bass that would emulate the P-bass sound (among others) when he developed the Lo-Z pickups for the Les Paul Bass. But the transplantation into the long scale JCS brings it closer than I had ever noticed before. I needed the video to realise this.
It is a little more low mids focussed than a split P but it certainly has that open and woody character.

Two guys in the audience filmed almost every song we did.
Here's two songs that emphasize the point discussed above:

[Rob]

I was blown away!  Nice sound from your bass and I loved the singing too.  Let us know when it's ready!

[uwe]

Finally someone agrees!!! It's what I have been preaching for years: The Les Paul Sig sounds like a very good Fender P and is intended to sound like it (the Epi JC in its original shape and form not so much as the pups sound more Gibsonish). When Burkhard, my Fender collecting partner at the lawfirm, played mine for the first time his comment was "now that finally sounds like a good Fender and not like your others".

[PhilT]

Great videos, love the songs and that bass sound is incredible.

Just to be controversial, I don't think my unmodified JCS was a million miles from that on Friday night, not as wide a gap as "Fenderish" and "Gibsonish" would imply. But I don't have a recording to check back on, just my impression. Maybe the disabled tone pot helps.

[Mungi]

Basvarken - you mentioned somewhere that you might put in one more triumph pickup in the neck position of your modified JC bass. Did you ever get around to do that? I am thinking of doing that myself - either putting in two Triumph pickups or putting in one more JC pickup at the neck.

Also, I suppose you use the stock transformer 3-way switch with the Triumph. Seeing as that transformer goes goes all the way to 500 ohm while the transformer in I guess is on 300 ohm, how does your bass sound with the switch on 50, 250 and 500 ohm respectively? Does it get too weak on 50 ohm, and is it too much with 500 ohm?

[Basvarken]

No I decided to keep it the way it is. Just one pickup.

I don't use a transformer in this bass.
The rotary switch does exactly the same as the three way switch on a Triumph.
I use the three way rotary switch to choose coiltaps (the different leads coming out of the pickup)


The signal that comes out of the bass is a lo-z signal.
I use a Shure A95U impedance transformer on the end of my cable.



A while ago I bought a complete set of guitar pickups plus wiring and controls coming from a Les Paul Professional guitar. I did think about it to put them in another JCS (that I have yet to buy).
But I might go build me another short scale Les Paul Bass to put them in. Still undecided...


 

[Mungi]

No I decided to keep it the way it is. Just one pickup.

I don't use a transformer in this bass.
The rotary switch does exactly the same as the three way switch on a Triumph.
I use the three way rotary switch to choose coiltaps (the different leads coming out of the pickup)

The signal that comes out of the bass is a lo-z signal.
I use a Shure A95U impedance transformer on the end of my cable.

Aha, I thought you kept the transformer from the JC bass. It does work. I have one spare JC pickup with transformer and one Triumph pickup without transformer. I connected the Triumph pickup to the JC 3-way transformer with crocodile clips and just held it over the strings on one of my basses. Obviously I couldn't play, but I could hear that it worked and that it would potentially make a very versatile bass. I am interested in doing that on a future project. You would have the choice between three different positions on the transformer in combination with the 3-way tone/coil tap selector of the Triumph pickup.

The next step would be to have two 3-way tone selectors, one for each pickup. That would make for so many choices I can't even count them. Maybe that's even going a bit too far. But I do think it would be interesting to hear how the Triumph pickup would sound with, for instance, the transformer set at 500 ohm and the tone selector at 1 or 2. Or the transformer set at 50 ohm and the tone selector at 3. And how would the transformer set at 500 ohm and the tone selector at 3 sound like? Perhaps something like a EB-3/EB-2 with a Dimarzio Model One. I don't know but I would sure like to find out.

On my Triumph bass I never use the tone selector at the first position. And on my JC bass I never use the transformer at 50 ohm. Like you, I am still undecided (and I am waiting for a second Triumph pup from David )

A while ago I bought a complete set of guitar pickups plus wiring and controls coming from a Les Paul Professional guitar. I did think about it to put them in another JCS (that I have yet to buy).
But I might go build me another short scale Les Paul Bass to put them in. Still undecided...

Do keep posting your thoughts on this. I have similar decisions to make. I might buy me another JC bass to use with my Triumph pickups. And then maybe use the spare JC pickups in a short scale LP or EB-3 bass. Secondhand JC basses are really cheap nowadays. You can get one with hardcase for around 350 euro.

I know you are not fond of the JC pickup. So if by any chance your projects leaves you with a spare one (with or without transformer but preferably with) I could perhaps relieve you of it.  

[Basvarken]

The next step would be to have two 3-way tone selectors, one for each pickup. That would make for so many choices I can't even count them. Maybe that's even going a bit too far. But I do think it would be interesting to hear how the Triumph pickup would sound with, for instance, the transformer set at 500 ohm and the tone selector at 1 or 2. Or the transformer set at 50 ohm and the tone selector at 3. And how would the transformer set at 500 ohm and the tone selector at 3 sound like? Perhaps something like a EB-3/EB-2 with a Dimarzio Model One. I don't know but I would sure like to find out.

Chances are they might work against each other.
For example if you use an lo > hi impedance transformer on a hi-z pickup you get less output.
I can imagine if you use the transformer from the JCS on a Triumph pickup it'll do the same if the impedance from the Triumph pickup is higher than the value chosen on the transformer.

[Mungi]

Chances are they might work against each other.
For example if you use an lo > hi impedance transformer on a hi-z pickup you get less output.
I can imagine if you use the transformer from the JCS on a Triumph pickup it'll do the same if the impedance from the Triumph pickup is higher than the value chosen on the transformer.

Maybe with the transformer on 50 ohm, but hardly if it is on 250 ohm and certainly not if it is on 500 ohm. But when I tested it, it seemed to work fine on 50 ohm as well.

[Mungi]

Basvarken - have you ever made an A/B comparison between your modified JC bass and LP Signature? If so, how did they compare?