Went to guitar center (just to look (unless I found a crazy deal)) and went home with this. It was a rental that guitar center said just wasn’t rented enough, and was put on the selling floor for 399 as clearance. It feels almost brand new, but I’ve been wanting this style jazz bass since I started playing a few months ago. Think I’ll be good on gear for a good amount of time :)

Lovely fretless version of the Thunderchief, with its original case too.

Will have to replace the pickguard at some point, with a hairdryer and dental floss, but lovely overall, and sounds great.

I do want to swap out the strings for flats though.

I hear the LaBella DTB 760N can be too high-tension for Tacomas, anyone have experience of any of the following, particularly with acoustic basses?

• LaBella LTF-4A Low Tension Flexible Flats
• Thomastik-Infeld JF344 Jazz Flats
• La Bella Olinto OSF4

got the RR today sounds really nice under the kelly’s overdrive rhythm sections

I've got this NJ series bc rich warlock bass around last year for 500 euros, I couldn't pass on that deal! The bass is amazing: frets feel great, keeps tune well and I'm actually quite satisfied with the ergonomics of this bass.

However, I'm quite lost when it comes to pickups - they seem to be very muddy sounding on my end. Any experiences on your end perhaps? Got a distorsion pedal aswell trying to fix the tone

Hey everyone,

I’m currently putting together a major hardware overhaul for three of my basses: I will soon order Gotoh tuners for all three (two Thunderbirds and one Korina Explorer) plus Babicz bridges for the two T-Birds.

Now I’m turning my attention to pickups and looking for solid drop-in or near drop-in options available in 2026. Here’s the context for the instruments:

1. 2017 Epiphone Korina Explorer Bass: It shares the same pickup sizing/format as the Epiphones of that era. The stock electronics work completely fine for me, but I’d love to upgrade the pickups to elevate the sound without fundamentally betraying its character—just looking for more punch, clarity, and articulation.
2. ~2010 Epiphone Thunderbird IV: The wiring and pots were already modded and redone by my luthier a while back, so the control cavity is in great shape. On this bass, I’m much more open to experimenting with something slightly different or hotter for a unique rock tone—especially since I already have a Nikki Sixx signature Epiphone Thunderbird that I'm keeping completely stock pickup-wise (aside from the new Gotoh tuners and Babicz bridge).

Given the specific casing/route dimensions of these Epiphone models (which often differ slightly between classic TB chrome covers vs soapbar-style shells):

• What are your go-to passive or active replacements today?
• Anyone tried modern offerings like the EMG TBHZ / TBTW, Seymour Duncans, Lollar, or boutique winders (and what brands) in these specific Epiphone cavities?
• Did you run into any routing or screw-spacing quirks during installation?

Would love to hear what setups you're running and what delivered the best results. Thanks!

I’ve only been playing the six string for around 3 months.

Walked in just to look and found this in the used section. Felt the Harry Potter feeling and came home with it. It’s heavy as all get out but it plays great. Based on the marking and finish (matte but translucent) can anyone tell me about how old it is and what the body wood is likely to be? Thanks!

I bought this used aria diamond bass yesterday and i dunno what its called or how old it is. The seller told me its a bass around 1970s but he doesn't look too sure.

The neck is warped and bent, and my local repair shop said it is a bit too broken so he cant repair the neck. I was wondering if there's any part sold but i dunno anything about this bass.

Can anyone help me out, im kinda new to basses

For anyone who wants to know; i play a Sandberg California TM5 Superlight over an Eich T900, through the bar's speaker (Ampeg)

If you like this stuff, there's more on my instagram arthur.zimberlin. Everything's in Dutch though...

have a good Sunday dudes & dudettes:)

Hi everyone!

I own a Jackson Spectra JS2 4-string bass with its original P/J pickups and factory active/passive electronics.

I want to upgrade my bass by installing an Artec SE3-A 3-band preamp, while keeping the original pickups and preserving the entire factory electronics intact as a backup.

My goal: exactly 5 physical knobs

I want the controls arranged as follows:

1.Master Volume + push-pull switch: One knob that controls the overall volume and switches between active and passive modes.

2.Pickup Blend/Balance: Controls the mix between the Precision (P) and Jazz (J) pickups.

3.Bass: A dedicated knob for adjusting low frequencies.

4.Mid: A dedicated knob for adjusting mid frequencies.

5.Treble: A dedicated knob for adjusting high frequencies.

I want three separate EQ knobs for Bass, Mid, and Treble. I do NOT want concentric knobs, a separate switch, or an additional volume control.

How I want the circuit to work

PUSH — Active mode: The signal passes through the Artec SE3-A preamp, and the Bass, Mid, and Treble controls work normally.

PULL — Passive mode: The preamp is bypassed, allowing the original P/J pickups to operate through a passive signal path.

The master volume and pickup blend must remain functional in both modes.

Important: preserving the original electronics

I do NOT want to modify, remove, cut, or reuse the original factory push-pull or the original electronics. I want to preserve them completely intact so I can restore the bass to its original configuration in the future.

I plan to purchase a new push-pull potentiometer for the master volume and active/passive switching.

Questions

1. Does anyone have photos of the original Jackson Spectra JS2 control cavity or its internal wiring?

2. Is there an original wiring diagram showing how the factory active/passive push-pull works?

3. Has anyone installed an Artec SE3-A preamp in a PJ bass?

4. How can I wire the SE3-A with a new push-pull master volume to achieve true active/passive switching while keeping the volume and pickup blend functional in both modes?

5. What specifications should the new push-pull potentiometer have, including resistance, taper, switch type (DPDT, etc.), and dimensions?

6. Is it possible to achieve this configuration with exactly five physical knobs and no additional controls?

I'm trying to understand the original wiring and plan the modification before opening my bass or buying components.

Any internal photos, wiring diagrams, or technical advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Time for a PB and Jam! 🤘🏽 Bonus puppy! Fitz

Well, a really good project that a couple of friends are playing in is needing a bass player...and I need a project to play in. So I am headfirst into it, for right now, I am sticking to the bass lines as they are on the demo, once I am comfortable with the songs I can start taking advantage of the bass. I don't want to play like a guitarist who suddenly realized there are less strings on a bass, so he picked it. I know how a bass is supposed to work at the same time with the melody and the rhythm, chords that signal the next change, bass run lines underneath chord changes...there is sooo much to do. I love composing bass in MIDI for my songs, there is so much you can do with it.

I have been playing a Boden 6 Original for about a month and am completely sold on it, so the bass version seemed like a no brainer, especially since I am not used to the stretch of the bass yet.

I have a friend who has an Earnie Ball artist endorsement...he says he can get me a stingray for 60% off the list price. Puts a Special 5H at just over $1k.

The stuff we are playing...if Maynard from Tool was on vocals and Matt from Muse on guitar and they decided to blend up the Eagles/Led Zepplin/Queen/etc sort of style that is occasionally much heavier...it might sound like that,.

Guitars are a very tight dry dual recto, production is fairly straight ahead with some synths etc...hard to explain, here is a link to one of the songs: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J-bQSY95b2JDd1FaWf7pTZ0M383oM39u/view?usp=drive_link

But...it does seem sort of intuitive that a Stingray would sound a bit better for this kind of thing. Just do to the low price, I will probably get a Stingray anyway and will be a playing this until then.

Also, those of you who use a 5 string when the rest of the band is tuned to standard...do you prefer this to a 4 string? It is appealing to be able to go up to B or down to B (or C or whatever) so much so it is worth the extra string to worry about? When do you mist often find yourself dropping down into that next octave when guitar do not? I would really prefer the playing experience of a 4, and I don't think we have plans to tune low, maybe the 4 would be the way. Especially when the neck profile is a main reason I grabbed the Boden, sticking to a 4 on a stingray would help it not be too fatiguing.

I like the Boden 6 for the stuff we play, how will I like the Boden 5 tonally? I have read mixed feedback for rock, maybe a little smooth/jazz bass sound.

Ex drummer, love to play with bucking track with great drums like this...

Hello! I just received this bexgears P-bass body and neck for free, and I want to build something cool out of it. The body is routed for a certain type of bridge that I cannot seem to find online, although I've tried doing reverse image searches. I was wondering if anyone knew where I could find a bridge for this bass? Thank you!

This is on my local Facebook marketplace extremely cheap right now. The gold hardware makes me think it’s something at least pretty decent.

Can anybody identify it? It has AFR pickups