NBD Mexi 50s Precision w mods

roberty

Well sort of NBD, it's never really yours until you've voided the warranty

Been tracking bass for a recording project so I figured I might as well do it properly, so I've got my own instrument and started practicing

Basically I A/Bd the 50s with a Mexican standard p bass and this 50s was a much better sounding instrument. More snap and less fluff. I think the neck is stiffer. So the standard went back despite being cheaper and easier to play

The stock pickups are really low wind and not ideal for rock so I loaded up a black scratchplate with a solderless harness and dimarzio model Ps

Straight away it sounds great, that's right into the ampeg plugin with flat EQ and no compression. Really excited about the sound I'm getting from this

Here it is post op, excuse the mess I'm in DAW land for the next few days

Funkfingers

The maple neck of your Fifties-style Precision is wider at the nut than the Standard. More mass.

roberty said:

The stock pickups are really low wind and not ideal for rock

Last time I looked, the MIM Standard had a nasty stud poles and underslung ceramic magnets pickup. Almost anything would be an improvement. Having said that, the DiMarzio Billy Sheehan pickup has ceramic magnets but manages to sound "nasty" in a good way.

roberty said:

Really excited about the sound I'm getting from this

I spy roundwound strings. When your current recording project is complete, give flatwound strings a try. 

roberty

Funkfingers said:

The maple neck of your Fifties-style Precision is wider at the nut than the Standard. More mass.

roberty said:

The stock pickups are really low wind and not ideal for rock

Last time I looked, the MIM Standard had a nasty stud poles and underslung ceramic magnets pickup. Almost anything would be an improvement. Having said that, the DiMarzio Billy Sheehan pickup has ceramic magnets but manages to sound "nasty" in a good way.

roberty said:

Really excited about the sound I'm getting from this

I spy roundwound strings. When your current recording project is complete, give flatwound strings a try. 

Ha maybe. I thought flats were for jazzers? These are diaddario EXP coated and not nearly as bright as the strings that came with it. They're 105 gauge. Big improvement. The EXP guitar strings are less bright than d'addario XLs so I factored this in

The dimarzio model P are ceramic too but hot rodded vintage voice sort of thing. I'll see about getting some sound clips up

ICBM

roberty said:

Basically I A/Bd the 50s with a Mexican standard p bass and this 50s was a much better sounding instrument. More snap and less fluff. I think the neck is stiffer.

Funkfingers said:

The maple neck of your Fifties-style Precision is wider at the nut than the Standard. More mass.

It's not necessarily just that - the variance between examples is enormous, more than I even would have believed myself until I heard it.

A friend bought a Mexican Standard P-Bass... it was awful. No resonance or tone at all, just crap. Luckily he'd bought an amp with it which proved to be faulty, so he got a refund on the whole package. A few days later he was in a shop which had an identical - even the same colour - model, which he bought. It's the best-sounding modern P-Bass I've ever played, it just has amazing piano-like resonance and sounds superb. The pickup isn't anything outstanding but even that doesn't seem to matter that much.

I'm fairly sure I've never played such extremely different examples of what appears on the face of it to be the same instrument before.

roberty

ICBM said:

roberty said:

Basically I A/Bd the 50s with a Mexican standard p bass and this 50s was a much better sounding instrument. More snap and less fluff. I think the neck is stiffer.

Funkfingers said:

The maple neck of your Fifties-style Precision is wider at the nut than the Standard. More mass.

It's not necessarily just that - the variance between examples is enormous, more than I even would have believed myself until I heard it.

A friend bought a Mexican Standard P-Bass... it was awful. No resonance or tone at all, just crap. Luckily he'd bought an amp with it which proved to be faulty, so he got a refund on the whole package. A few days later he was in a shop which had an identical - even the same colour - model, which he bought. It's the best-sounding modern P-Bass I've ever played, it just has amazing piano-like resonance and sounds superb. The pickup isn't anything outstanding but even that doesn't seem to matter that much.

I'm fairly sure I've never played such extremely different examples of what appears on the face of it to be the same instrument before.

Yep my 50s has the piano thing going on and the mexi standard I had was just mush. I would absolutely believe that it varies from instrument to instrument rather than from model to model. It pays to try a couple and be fussy. Took me a few days to twig what was going on

roberty

Here's a short clip of the bass and some monitor mix drums:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zvbfmjljy0lzfv4/handcard bass excerpt.mp3?dl=0

This is into the UAD SVT Classic plugin, no extra EQ or compression.  Really happy with this, by far the best bass sound I've managed to record

Bridgehouse

Flats only for jazzers? I’m offended. Have you listened to nothing we have harped on endlessly about?

Nice bass btw. Wide necked precision’s are always better