re: Christmas music gear

Sweet gear everyone.

In-laws got me a Strymon Volante. Really digging. I had only had basic delays and wanted to get something that makes some retro sounds and has presets.

I hear good things about the Fralin Noiseless P90s.

You will hear a great pickup - Lindy makes superb stuff - but I have yet to hear any hum-cancelling P-90 that has that "it" a good P-90 possesses. Apparently part of a soapbar or dogear's magic - that balance of wooly grunt, throat and sweet high end - is embedded within the 60-cycle hum ... and removing the hum removes the pickup's soul.

Your best bet IMHO is to get a standard P-90 that is reverse wound, reverse magnetic polarity compared to your bridge P-90, so it will be hum-cancelling in both.

I joke with my clients if you don't want P-90 hum, learn to work the volume knob or a volume pedal between licks and runs. Or simply don't stop playing haha

I had sort of a dumb moment where I traveled out of town to play and left my Ric 4003 at home. I have a Fender Zone (P/J hybrid with active circuit) that I still enjoy sitting at home, too. Went to my favorite little shop in that town, and there were a handful of basses to choose from. Wife, fortunately, gave me permission to buy my own Christmas gift instead of ruining the gig.



End result, I’m an idiot, and I have a new, secondhand PRS SE Kestrel. They make a “Kingfisher” model as well which is pretty similar but 24 fret and dual humbuckers. It won’t replace either of my others, but it’s a great little “something different” bass.

quote:

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Never seen that one before. How is it?

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Low action, light gauge strings, super fast fingerboard. Feels a whole lot like the neck on my Ric in terms of playability (I have a satin-finished maple neck on my Ric which is a little unusual, talking about action, fret-level, dead spots, fret spacing and string spacing rather than the actual fingerboard feel). They almost play like guitars, in a good way for fast lines.


I still haven’t played around a ton on it to really figure out just how to dial it in, sort of like this guy, I think it sounds best dimed, but it seems capable of a handful of decent tones.

LINK


Link here has both the Kestrel and Kingfisher, and it’s the best video I’ve seen introducing/demoing both basses.



I guess all in all, I won’t buy a jazz bass because I have this. But I wouldn’t necessarily buy this over a Jazz. That isn’t to say I’m unhappy with it.