Dale Bennett
From:
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
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Posted 3 Aug 2010 4:26 pm |
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I was just wondering if any of you guys out there play bass. Is there any new bass strings that you guys have heard of or used. I have always used fender medium, just wordering what may out there that i might try. I only pick 1 or 2 nights a week any more so just thought i would maybe try someting else.
Aslo, i have and ole fender jazz bass that has an excepenually small neck,i had an old 56 precision that was stolen of Ray price's bus in 70 when i worked with him, i bought the jazz used, i know it has to be a late 50's or 60' model, my qeustion is, where can i go and give the serial # and find out old it really is. Thanks guys. db
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Dale Bennett |
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Michael Barone
From:
Downingtown, Pennsylvania
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Posted 3 Aug 2010 7:20 pm
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Dale, I just bought a SpectorCore 5 string bass a month ago. I changed the strings to D'Addario Round Wound. These strings are between "wound" and "flat wound". There is no noise from fingers sliding on the strings and no fret noise. It was an experiment, and I am very happy with the results. You can still get a range of tones, although they have a warmer sound. I use this bass for all of my recording now, country, jazz, new age, rock.
Mike |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 3 Aug 2010 8:50 pm
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I don't play bass a lot, but I have a nice older US reissue '62 P-Bass for those times when I do.
These strings aren't 'new', but I like D'Addario XL Chromes Medium Gauge - ECB82. These are flatwound strings, have a very warm sound, and are very smooth with little to no string noise. The gauges, low-to-high, are .050, .070, .085, .105 - I think they're good for old-school country, R&B, blues and the like.
Here's the link to the official Fender serial-number/date correlation tables: http://www.fender.com/support/usa_instruments.php - if it's really a late 50s or early 60s bass, this little excerpt should be enough:
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10,000s to 20,000s 1957
20,000s to 30,000s 1958
30,000s to 40,000s 1959
40,000s to 50,000s 1960
50,000s to 70,000s 1961
60,000s to 90,000s 1962
80,000s to 90,000s 1963
90,000s up to L10,000s 1963
L10,000s up to L20,000s 1963
L20,000s up to L50,000s 1964 |
To carefully authenticate and date your bass, you would need to pop the neck and look at the neck date which should be written or stamped at the end of the neck. There may be a body date, perhaps dates on the pickups, and then finally look at the electronics for date codes on the pots and verify that the wiring is original - original wiring will have no broken solder joints, the cloth-covered wire should be completely intact.
However, beware - if it's really an original pre-CBS Jazz Bass, you should be very careful taking it apart - old pickguards are prone to crack, wires can break, or worse - all of which can decrease its value significantly if it was really all straight. It may well pay to take it to a serious vintage guitar expert/dealer and pay to have it authenticated and appraised.
Of course, old Fender Jazz Basses are highly prized and are a small fortune these days, which has led to a lot of forgery issues and mongrel 'parts' guitars. You won't necessarily find all the dates I mentioned above on an original pre-CBS bass, but there should be some of them and they should all be reasonably consistent with each other if it's really original. |
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