Do you like stacked knobs?

rze99

Hi all here's my lovely new Jazz bass . I do hope you like your knobs stacked. I do.

I always wanted an early '60s Jazz bass in Oly white. Oly white + dark rosewood is for me a killer combo and I love my Tele and Strat in in this combo. The Fender early '60s stack knob replicas are really cool but only available on expensive Custom Shop guitars, e.g. the current CS Journeyman 1960 is a great bass, but very pricey. There were some AVRI Fender 62 reissues in 1982 I think. The original stack knobs were only made for about 18 months before they changed the design.

I tried the Fender Flea bass (MIM). The Flea is essentially a '61 replica relic and I thought it was absolutely perfect for me... apart from the mechanical relic work and rather grey faded pink which some love, it's fantastic. It has a really wonderful aged neck, great Fender '64 Pure Vintage pickups and proper USA CTS Stack pots.

So I waited to find one, and I bought one used last year from a West End theatre musician locally for a very good price with hard shell case - to then customise it to my needs. To be frank, once I'd got the Flea used it for some recording and it is was so good I was in two minds about breaking it up. But I didn't like the finish much and I really wanted it to be aged Oly white!

Our very own Rexter Guitars https://rexterguitars.co.uk/ here in dear old stricken Blighty and I have worked with a few times and Jon there does lovely thin nitro finishes the way I like them to my specs. Plus he's a lovely guy to work with. (no affil). So I did a bunch of research on the early '60s stack knobs and sent him some sample Oly White pics I liked and described the way I wanted it aged. So I commissioned a replacement body from him (the original Flea I will sell)

I really think he did a great job (as usual), a hit of yellowing, fine checking, light distressing... so this build is a Fender-Rexter bass. The body, and hand made made tort guard are Rexter Guitars, Fender Pure vintage cover parts, aged wood pull bar, natural bone nut cut cut are by my me. It plays and sounds great.

Link to a set of pics https://imgur.com/gallery/GFXN9FU



 

ICBM

No. They look cool and there are sounds you can’t quite get with the three-knob version, but they’re a fiddly pain in the backside to use, especially without accidentally adjusting the other part.

That’s a very nice bass though.

rze99

ICBM said:

No. They look cool and there are sounds you can’t quite get with the three-knob version, but they’re a fiddly pain in the backside to use, especially without accidentally adjusting the other part.

That’s a very nice bass though.

Thanks the stack knobs are not for everyone. Truthfully, I'm not a bassist but I enjoy playing and recording and with a Jazz I tend to play mostly with both pickups fully open tone up full or a touch rolled off. I don't try to get those Jaco tones, I can't play those styles. I just think the stackers look really cool and less common! 

ICBM

rze99 said:

Thanks the stack knobs are not for everyone. Truthfully, I'm not a bassist but I enjoy playing and recording and with a Jazz I tend to play mostly with both pickups fully open tone up full or a touch rolled off. I don't try to get those Jaco tones, I can't play those styles. I just think the stackers look really cool and less common! 

Definitely, and I really wanted them until I tried to use a bass with them . Annoying since my perfect Jazz Bass would have been a '60-style in LPB or Ocean Turquoise .

Funkfingers

I only like stacked control knobs on bass guitar when they are volume/balance à la Warwick or semi-parametric sweepable active EQ like the EMG-VMC. 

JezWynd

I’m a fan of the stacked control plate and have fitted it to two jazz basses; the blending possibilities are good, I esp liked neck on max bass, bridge on max treble. Tweaking the volumes of each pu gives some cool sounds.

That Jazz Bass is a beauty, I’ve always fancied a white jazz and that’s a very cool example.

rze99

ICBM said:

rze99 said:

Thanks the stack knobs are not for everyone. Truthfully, I'm not a bassist but I enjoy playing and recording and with a Jazz I tend to play mostly with both pickups fully open tone up full or a touch rolled off. I don't try to get those Jaco tones, I can't play those styles. I just think the stackers look really cool and less common! 

Definitely, and I really wanted them until I tried to use a bass with them . Annoying since my perfect Jazz Bass would have been a '60-style in LPB or Ocean Turquoise .

Great taste with those colours. One or two on this forum know I have a thing for varieties of blue with Fenders

GuyR

That's a fine looking bass. How does it play in comparison with the original body fitted?
Re the tone controls, I currently have 8 jazz basses. I think there is much more variation in the basic tone of a group of identical design basses than in the very minor difference imparted by the stack knob set up against vvt.
The stack knob set up does look cool, though.

rze99

GuyR said:

That's a fine looking bass. How does it play in comparison with the original body fitted?
Re the tone controls, I currently have 8 jazz basses. I think there is much more variation in the basic tone of a group of identical design basses than in the very minor difference imparted by the stack knob set up against vvt.
The stack knob set up does look cool, though.

It plays a bit better due to the new nut and strings and time and attention in the setup. It it was always a lively bass to play. Perhaps it’s the new strings but it seems both brighter and louder.  

ICBM

rze99 said:

 Perhaps it’s the new strings but it seems both brighter and louder.

It must be the strings - the stack knob wiring is actually very slightly quieter than the three-knob, because of the mix resistors... it’s like a three-knob with both volumes set to 9.

It has to be like that or the tone controls would both act as a master tone when the volumes are up full, instead of only affecting their own pickup.

fretmeister

My EBMM PJ-RAY




In hindsight I would have preferred a 3 knob system for the reasons ICBM said, but the holes were drilled for a different set up and there wasn't really room to do it neatly.



and my active Sandberg TT4 Super Light



I removed the stock Black Label pickups and preamp and put in the EMGs and the BQC system.
Sounds much better than the stock pickups.

rze99

ICBM said:

rze99 said:

 Perhaps it’s the new strings but it seems both brighter and louder.

It must be the strings - the stack knob wiring is actually very slightly quieter than the three-knob, because of the mix resistors... it’s like a three-knob with both volumes set to 9.

It has to be like that or the tone controls would both act as a master tone when the volumes are up full, instead of only affecting their own pickup.

I should have been clear, brighter and louder than the Flea incarnation rather than with/without stacked knobs. I'm sure its the strings, new bone nut and set-up

GuyR

rze99 said:

ICBM said:

rze99 said:

 Perhaps it’s the new strings but it seems both brighter and louder.

It must be the strings - the stack knob wiring is actually very slightly quieter than the three-knob, because of the mix resistors... it’s like a three-knob with both volumes set to 9.

It has to be like that or the tone controls would both act as a master tone when the volumes are up full, instead of only affecting their own pickup.

I should have been clear, brighter and louder than the Flea incarnation rather than with/without stacked knobs. I'm sure its the strings, new bone nut and set-up

It could be the completely different body?

rze99

GuyR said:

rze99 said:

ICBM said:

rze99 said:

 Perhaps it’s the new strings but it seems both brighter and louder.

It must be the strings - the stack knob wiring is actually very slightly quieter than the three-knob, because of the mix resistors... it’s like a three-knob with both volumes set to 9.

It has to be like that or the tone controls would both act as a master tone when the volumes are up full, instead of only affecting their own pickup.

I should have been clear, brighter and louder than the Flea incarnation rather than with/without stacked knobs. I'm sure its the strings, new bone nut and set-up

It could be the completely different body?

Agree it could. I didn’t want to go there in case it invoked the tone wood trolls

axisus

The bass looks awesome. I'm not a fan of stacked knobs personally, they always seem too fiddly. Having said that, I don't touch the knobs much on a bass, guitar I'm faffing with them all the time.

ICBM

rze99 said:

GuyR said:

It could be the completely different body?

Agree it could. I didn’t want to go there in case it invoked the tone wood trolls

Nah... the body affects the tone - fact. Not as much as the pickups or the neck, but it does. You don’t have to be a wood-species obsessive to make a simple observation and know it’s true.

rze99

ICBM said:

rze99 said:

GuyR said:

It could be the completely different body?

Agree it could. I didn’t want to go there in case it invoked the tone wood trolls

Nah... the body affects the tone - fact. Not as much as the pickups or the neck, but it does. You don’t have to be a wood-species obsessive to make a simple observation and know it’s true.

Totally agree. And swapping bodies proves it. Doesn’t stop the wood doesn’t matter brigade.