A silly idea?

[Highlander]

 

[Alanko]

Here is the Silly Idea bass. As you can see the edges of the route are a little rough, but these will be hidden by a chrome ring in time.



What I can say is that this thing sounds absolutely killer. A warm, consistently present Jazz Bass tone. Enough treble if you require it, fast response and brilliant dynamics. A reassuring presence in the mids that can be somewhat lacking with Jazz pickups. Even string-to-string response, excellent harmonics... the works! I'm using 250 k pots wired up like a conventional Jazz bass.

[Dave W]

Good work there. Looks okay without the ring but I can see covering the edges with a chrome or black chrome ring.

[BTL]

That looks great!

[bassilisk]

That looks smokin'! I really like it.

It's builds like this that keep prodding me into GAS that I do not need.....

[clankenstein]

That looks really good and i'm pleased to hear that the sound is so full.

[slinkp]

Sound clips! Sound clips!

[gearHed289]

Very cool!

[slinkp]

btw, where did you find the pickups?

[Alanko]

btw, where did you find the pickups?

The pickups came from Ebay. I'm on several Facebook marketplace pages for bass gear, and I was looking up used Thunderbirds. The pickups came up, so I messaged the seller asking for dimensions etc. I then spotted the same pickups on Ebay (for less!) so I bought them from there.

Oddly enough I was reading about John Entwistle's Fenderbirds last night, and apparently Peter Cook recessed the pickup mounting screws. I did the exact same mod to these pickups before fitting them, and before reading the article.

I just bought some sort of Line 6 space station from a guy at work, so I will record clips using that in the near future.

[Pekka]

Looks really great and I'm sure it sounds great too. Have you checked how the pickup locations measure with a 60's T-Bird locations?

[Alanko]

Looks really great and I'm sure it sounds great too. Have you checked how the pickup locations measure with a 60's T-Bird locations?

I'm not sure where to start with a thing like that! If you have the numbers I can do some checking.

I got a chrome ring for the bridge pickup, and had to grind 1mm or so from the inside of the ring to fit the pickup. A bit annoying, but it does look cleaner for it.

The bass is getting its first public outing on Sunday, so I might have some pics or something to show for it then. I will try and get some audio of it out. As I have it strung with flats you only get half of what I'm sure the bass can do; with rounds I imagine it would really snarl. Imagine a thicker, fatter Jazz bass without the dental-drill highs and you might be imagining the right thing.

[godofthunder]

  I have always found Jazz basses to be anemic.  While I am not a big fan of TB plus pickups they are sure to give your Jazz a kick in the ass, I say go for it.

[slinkp]

While I am not a big fan of TB plus pickups...

It's funny, I wasn't either at first. They didn't sound that special to me solo. They don't have the distinctive character that I hear in '60s bird samples, or recordings that I know were made with them. But I find it really easy to dial in a sound that works great for me in a band context. Direct or amped. I often need no EQ at all, though I like a little overdrive.  The three other basses I still own (Greco bird, Ibanez blazer with Alembic P/J set, Dano DC bass) require a lot of fussing and fighting, each in their own way.