Who's the bass tech in Melbourne?

[original_min]

Hey All.

I was wanting to find someone to service a Musicman bass I have.
Not even sure it's possible to fix but the bass is about 15 cents sharp on the low G area which is proving a bit difficult for ummm, bass tracks.

Does anyone in the know know where to go?

Cheers
Minnie

[Barney Loveland]

I use Ian Holding at Real Guitars, glen iris. www.realguitars.com.au

[Chinagraf]

Is it just the intonation of the E string that needs tweeking? It's pretty easy to do with a small screwdriver by adjusting the bridge saddle. Unless you need a complete setup. How does you high E at the 12th fret sound pitchwise compared to the low E with the string open? Also, how old are your strings?
It could be that the nut is too high, so if you do need a full setup , the bass centre in Park Street South Melbourne do great work. Talk to Guy.
I'm two blocks from there, so if you wanted to check the intonation first and can't figure it out you can drop our studio, also in Park street, but I'm out of town for a while from Friday week.
Where abouts are you located?

[original_min]

Thanks for the leads...

Yeah, nar, the twelfth fret and harmonic is spot on for all the strings, it's just got this very bad area.
As you say it sounds like a nut job.
I'll give these folks a ring in the morning, cheers for that.

[original_min]

I will add that it's lead to some fairly comical recording sessions of late.
Tuning down for all the low fretted notes, then back up again for open strings or anything near c.

[Barney Loveland]

Bass Centre also get a thumbs up

[harry]

Hey Minnie,

Assuming that you have adjusted the bridge saddle for correct intonation (12 fret fretted and 12 fret harmonic both in tune - or better yet, 12 fret harmonic plucked from both sides - right and left produce the same note) '

i'd ask how old the strings are?

I've had some funny experiences with a great 70's P Bass where it simply never felt in tune.

It turned out that when you played a note it would waver in pitch after the initial attack - the attack was half a semitone sharp.

So if I tuned it as being in tune by the transient of the note, long notes sounded flat, if I tuned to the long notes, the attack was sharp.

Turns out the strings were either dodgy or old. A new set fixed the problem.

If you have a spare (new string) lying about, perhaps you might re string it, adjust the intonation and listen.
Better yet - record into Cubase if you have it and then look at the wave file with it's built in pitch correction - it actually draw lines representing the actual pitch of each note and show you how they waiver..)

Assuming the nut is not correctly aligned (relative to the frets) you can check by doing the following:

If you're really curious, find out the scale length of the bass - divide the length by 17.817 - this will give you the correct distance between the nut and 1st fret. Now take the scale length 'minus' that number and divide by 17.817 again, you will get a slightly smaller measurement that is the distance between 1st and 2nd fret.
keep doing that until you get the measurements for say 5 frets, and check them with a good ruler (start from 1cm to rule out any inconsistencies with the edge of the ruler - this happens with tape measures and their end hook stretching and therefore messing up the measurents)

good luck,

[harry]

This calculator is cool..

But seriously, change the string first - my gut says that a musicman bass wouldn't have a nut out of place....
but then again, I once owned a Godin that had its bridge glued down 4mm away from where it was supposed to be took a while to figure out why I hated that guitar..

http://liutaiomottola.com/formulae/fret.htm

[Chinagraf]

Hi Harry, the nut problem I was talking about was the notch in the nut not being deep enough , so the break point the string rests on is sitting too high. You can kinda check it by putting a capo on the first fret and seeing if the problem goes away or is reduced. I agree with you about a musicman probably being put together right. But then there is that strange alignment of the pole magnet on the G string they all seem to have. My brother has a 4 string one and we had to do a fair bit of adjustment to get the G sitting right with the rest of the strings balance and tone wise.

[dave01.cooper]

Friend Cameron Grimrod is an excellent gtr/bass tech and also a killer bass player. He used to do the inhouse repairs/setups at Blackburn BH before the merge but now runs his own shop.

If you're interested I can PM you his details.

cheers