First off, I am no photographer nor do i have a decent camera. Actually, I have to borrow cameras, so not only do my photos suffer from poor operator control, their quality is also inconsistent. Deal with it.
These are my girls. While, not the only instruments in my collection, these are my go to axes. I have been playing electric bass for many years now, but don't have much talent to show for it (like most aspects of my life).
Anyway, on the left we have a Peavey BXP Millenium (my bitch) made in Vietnam, I think. The BXP stands for Bass eXPort, which means poor little Asian toddlers in a sweat shop probably put this together. I don't wish that kind of treatment on any child, but I got to hand it to the lil' guys, they make a mean axe! If you can't tell, it's a quilt top veneer on a basswood body with a black dyed finish. I paid $240 for it new from Sweetwater, which is a fair price. If you have ever played one you'd think it was easily twice that Well, except for the basswood construction which weighs almost nothing and kinda sets off your "light is cheap and weak" alarm. But the whole reason I bought it was to be abused so I don't care. It holds tune fantastically, even bitch slappin the hell out of it for a good hour and it usually keeps right up. It's a J Bass style instrument so its neck is super thin and the action can be set really low.
The electronics have received an upgrade since this picture was last taken, but it pretty much looks the same now. The original single coils it came with were fine and all, but probably the weakest feature overall. They have since been replaced with a set of DiMarzio UltraJazz pickups which were a present. Fuckin' Awesome present! An electric string instrument gets the majority of it's sound characteristics from the strings, amplification, and the player. tonewood be damned! I hear a little difference between solid maple necks and rosewood/ebony fret boards, but beyond that any quality the body wood species lends to the final sound is so subjective (or minimal) I don't really take it any further into an evaluation past sex appeal. Hell, body shape plays a bigger factor to my tastes. Whatever, back to the subject.
So, the current modifications are the new pickups and a push/pull pot to switch between series and parallel pickup wiring. The schematic and detailed step by step instructions are available all over the nets, try searching "series/parallel jazz bass mod". At first, I didn't think the sound was changed very much, but I found myself having trouble dialing in a decent sound. In hindsight, I believe I was trying to find the old tone I had been used to instead of finding a new tone because now its a beast. The parallel configuration, which is a J Bass characteristic, is nice and snarly, like a good J tone should be. But switch to series and the syrup flows. Thick. She makes me so proud...
However (terrible word, isn't it?), there are some drawbacks to her. A company like Peavey can design an excellent instrument and have it built overseas in mass quantity for much less money than in the States, but sacrificing quality control. And this came up, but it was nothing big. A faulty soldering job caused the bridge pickup to go out eventually and the bridge ground wasn't up to my standards, though it did the job. I fixed these easily, but others without soldering or rudimentary electrical knowledge may get pretty pissed off at this.
I like testing new strings on this girl, like new positions, ya know? Right now I have some Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinks and they aren't bad. DRs Fat Beams are still the current favorite, though.
Ernie Balls (huh huh...yup, that's what I call comedy) always sound like big guitar strings to me. I know, that's what they are, but lots of other companies get some pretty unique tones that I could never compare with guitar strings. Then again, I don't play guitar; I keep one isolated in its cell for times when I need to remind myself I suck. Thankfully, that's not often. I would Like to mod it though. Another day....
So that's mah bitch. Of them all, she gets the most lovin' and 'tention, mainly because she was bought for abuse. Peavey makes an active version for a little more, but I haven't heard one to know much about it. If you ever find yourself in possession of one of these gems I highly recommend you have its guts checked and install the series/parallel toggle, its awesome. The DiMarzios are fuckin' incredible, too.
Next posts will cover the rest of the harem.
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