The Guilds of Grot
Enlightened Member
Veer away!
I bought a bass......
- Thread starter beecee
- Start date
Nuuska
Enlightened Member
OK
I loosened the strings to get to battery - wich measured almost full 9V - then while strings were still loose I connected the thing into my Silverface Vibro Champ and put my hand inside bass to wiggle them cables. Lo and behold - there was noise to be heard when I wiggled them cables under bridge. Then I tapped the saddles - more noise. Thought it might after all just have been bad contact somewhere and started to tighten strings - and then again - SILENCE. Loosen strings again - SOUND.
Loosen strings more again - detach the preamp to get access to pup-cables - undo them - cut them off each other, while they were soldered together - pull the saddles off and then the piezos out.
Down in basement I connected one piezo to my LCR-meter - had it show some real high impedance - squeeze the little piezo between fingers - and there was 0 ohms - total short. OK - faulty piezo - can I open it? Should I get new one? Did not have any piezos here - and to order from China @ 3€ including shipping would be economically fine - but 4-10 weeks delivery.
While there was nothing to loose with old piezos i decided to try dissect them - if possible - and it was. They are not exactly enormous - so I needed to put on my ZEISS 3xenlargening binoculars. Yes - they're dirty for having them on while studying car engine parts . . .
With those I can see something - they're old and heavy - got them from my late dentist - I called her The Singing Butcher - the two cable ties are needed to keep the lens from wiggling.
The Singing Butcher - well - she was very nice and very professional - great sense of humor, too - I showed her the Bloom County dentist episode cartoons - she laughed - and once she got you in helpless position with your jaw full of instruments of destruction, she started humming. Great lady - unfortunately she got ALS . . .
Back to fixing piezo - next picture shows the two of them - blue one in "before" shape - the other in "after" - caliper is set to one inch to give reference to size - they are 1mm thick/thin - 3mm wide and 32mm long each.
So I took a sharp knife and peeled the blue wrapping to see what's in there - thin copper-plated piece - thin piece with two piezo crystals - plus a thin copper slice. I came to conclusion, that there's a chance of those two copper slices to touch each other under pressure - so I added a slice of Gaffers tape between those two crystals - then wrapped the whole schabang with clear tape and tested. SUCCESS
Now the bass works and has very nice sound electrically - even thou Fender Vibro Champ ain't exactly what you'd call an earthquaker . . .
The preamp is the same Fishman found in my two Songbirds - I might add a metal plate under the bridge plate to get strings grounded - while there's slight hum, which goes away if I touch the plug.
I loosened the strings to get to battery - wich measured almost full 9V - then while strings were still loose I connected the thing into my Silverface Vibro Champ and put my hand inside bass to wiggle them cables. Lo and behold - there was noise to be heard when I wiggled them cables under bridge. Then I tapped the saddles - more noise. Thought it might after all just have been bad contact somewhere and started to tighten strings - and then again - SILENCE. Loosen strings again - SOUND.
Loosen strings more again - detach the preamp to get access to pup-cables - undo them - cut them off each other, while they were soldered together - pull the saddles off and then the piezos out.
Down in basement I connected one piezo to my LCR-meter - had it show some real high impedance - squeeze the little piezo between fingers - and there was 0 ohms - total short. OK - faulty piezo - can I open it? Should I get new one? Did not have any piezos here - and to order from China @ 3€ including shipping would be economically fine - but 4-10 weeks delivery.
While there was nothing to loose with old piezos i decided to try dissect them - if possible - and it was. They are not exactly enormous - so I needed to put on my ZEISS 3xenlargening binoculars. Yes - they're dirty for having them on while studying car engine parts . . .
With those I can see something - they're old and heavy - got them from my late dentist - I called her The Singing Butcher - the two cable ties are needed to keep the lens from wiggling.
The Singing Butcher - well - she was very nice and very professional - great sense of humor, too - I showed her the Bloom County dentist episode cartoons - she laughed - and once she got you in helpless position with your jaw full of instruments of destruction, she started humming. Great lady - unfortunately she got ALS . . .
Back to fixing piezo - next picture shows the two of them - blue one in "before" shape - the other in "after" - caliper is set to one inch to give reference to size - they are 1mm thick/thin - 3mm wide and 32mm long each.
So I took a sharp knife and peeled the blue wrapping to see what's in there - thin copper-plated piece - thin piece with two piezo crystals - plus a thin copper slice. I came to conclusion, that there's a chance of those two copper slices to touch each other under pressure - so I added a slice of Gaffers tape between those two crystals - then wrapped the whole schabang with clear tape and tested. SUCCESS
Now the bass works and has very nice sound electrically - even thou Fender Vibro Champ ain't exactly what you'd call an earthquaker . . .
The preamp is the same Fishman found in my two Songbirds - I might add a metal plate under the bridge plate to get strings grounded - while there's slight hum, which goes away if I touch the plug.
Last edited:
ruedi
Senior Member
Well done Nuuska, interesting read! And: in your post there is a nice name hidden for the bandname thread 
Nuuska
Enlightened Member
Only one ? 
Loose Strings
Wiggling Cables
Lo And Behold
Enlargening Binoculars
Singing Butchers
Instruments Of Destruction - w special guest Barry McGuire
Two Crystals
The Earthquakers
Loose Strings
Wiggling Cables
Lo And Behold
Enlargening Binoculars
Singing Butchers
Instruments Of Destruction - w special guest Barry McGuire
Two Crystals
The Earthquakers
Westerly Wood
Venerated Member
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2007
- Messages
- 13,408
- Reaction score
- 6,606
- Guild Total
- 2
Congrats on the new purchase, beecee.
Your comment re: enjoying low-down sounds made me think of one of my Boston-area favorites from long ago. Mark Sandman played a two-string bass guitar, accompanied by a baritone sax in this clip of one of his bands (he also fronted Treat Her Right). Rather good-quality video for so long ago:
these guys were super popular, even outside of Boston.
i know he died a long time ago, think heroin overdose.
great voice too, not just awesome bass chops.
i wonder what he would have done with 4 strings???
another band was sort of like this, the Presidents of the US i think was there name. ,electric guitar player only strung up 3 or 4 strings...
Enjoyed that bass vid. When I was learning bass in the early '70s, I had no chops, none. So, I'd tell people that I was using the celebrated 2-string Andre Kostelanetz open bass tuning method.
A friend and I also used to play the 'Mahavishnu scale.' We'd tell people that we were copping Vishnu licks and playing them out of the aforementioned scale. My friend would put his hands on G note on the low E string and I would grab the G# next to it, also on the low string. Then at the exact same time, we'd play two octave major scales, but 1/2 step apart. It made a godawful noise and people would always laugh. The Mahavishnu Scale, sirs.
One time I was hanging out in a guitar/bass repair shop near the Brill Building and a really good studio player named Russell George came in (he did a Pepsi commercial with Aretha and she kissed him on the cheek, plus he played Jazz with Miss Sarah Vaughn, too).
George listened to me play my Guild fretless JS II bass with the Mudbuckers for a while. He came up to me, introduced himself, shook my hand and said, 'Hey, I'm Russell George. I like what you're doin' on the bass. Who are you playing with?'
Nonchalantly, I said, 'Oh, it's a trio. Maybe you've heard of it. It's called 'Me, Myself and I.'
He laughed and said, 'You know, Harry, it's 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration.' Very nice guy.
A friend and I also used to play the 'Mahavishnu scale.' We'd tell people that we were copping Vishnu licks and playing them out of the aforementioned scale. My friend would put his hands on G note on the low E string and I would grab the G# next to it, also on the low string. Then at the exact same time, we'd play two octave major scales, but 1/2 step apart. It made a godawful noise and people would always laugh. The Mahavishnu Scale, sirs.
One time I was hanging out in a guitar/bass repair shop near the Brill Building and a really good studio player named Russell George came in (he did a Pepsi commercial with Aretha and she kissed him on the cheek, plus he played Jazz with Miss Sarah Vaughn, too).
George listened to me play my Guild fretless JS II bass with the Mudbuckers for a while. He came up to me, introduced himself, shook my hand and said, 'Hey, I'm Russell George. I like what you're doin' on the bass. Who are you playing with?'
Nonchalantly, I said, 'Oh, it's a trio. Maybe you've heard of it. It's called 'Me, Myself and I.'
He laughed and said, 'You know, Harry, it's 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration.' Very nice guy.
Last edited:
geoguy
Senior Member
A gentle correction, Wood . . . Mark Sandman died from a heart attack while performing in Italy, during a summertime music festival. Presumably due to a combination of heat stress & some bad lifestyle habits (especially smoking).
Westerly Wood
Venerated Member
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2007
- Messages
- 13,408
- Reaction score
- 6,606
- Guild Total
- 2
