krysh
Guildarist in the mod squad
SInce my Pianist said that he really wants me to play fretless more often after I had taken my old Guild Pilot fretless to a rehearsal of my still new Jazz Trio, I took the plunge. I never liked the original EMG pickups much because of the bad tone blend and the somehow compressed tone that they produced which never showed the liveliness of the bass when played dry. I love the Nordstrand NJ4SE in my Frankenjazz but didn't want the typical "jaco" sound at all and after an intense research and great consulting of Adrian Smith from Nordstrand, I bit the bulled and ordered a BigSplit-4 for the bridge and a NP-4 for the neck position. I had my trusted luthier install them with passive Vol-Vol-Tone controls.
Now, what can I say, I made everything right. Not only does this new bass now show even more of my unabilites in fretless playing, but it also rewards me with all the great nuances in tone and articulation that I was missing with the EMG's. Finally this fantastic playing bass also delivers all the great tones I ever wanted, I' am very happy. but decide yourself...
some pics - before:
...and after:
...and yes, the P-Pickup is not in the correct position under the strings, but I didn't want more woodwork to be done on the bass.
After listening and testing very precisely for a while I don't hear any disadvantage in sound, so this will stay.
HERE you can decide for yourself if you like the sound (with almost 2 years old Thomastik Flats, which even seem to become better with age). I love it!
Now, what can I say, I made everything right. Not only does this new bass now show even more of my unabilites in fretless playing, but it also rewards me with all the great nuances in tone and articulation that I was missing with the EMG's. Finally this fantastic playing bass also delivers all the great tones I ever wanted, I' am very happy. but decide yourself...
some pics - before:
...and after:
...and yes, the P-Pickup is not in the correct position under the strings, but I didn't want more woodwork to be done on the bass.
After listening and testing very precisely for a while I don't hear any disadvantage in sound, so this will stay.
HERE you can decide for yourself if you like the sound (with almost 2 years old Thomastik Flats, which even seem to become better with age). I love it!
