So we spent the weekend together. Had some issues. I noticed that the tone of this bass isn't as snappy as I expected it to be, even with a fresh set of rotosounds on it. Did some fiddling with the pickup selector (got a selector switch but no pan control so it's pretty much all or nothing) and noticed the bridge pickup output was a lot weaker than the neck. Not a problem, because I know the outputs are adjustable inside the control cavity. I should've known something was up because after I adjusted the pickup level, all of a sudden the LED started working. Plugged it into the amp, turned the tone knob a little and it started oscillating at about 8 khz. That's normally in the ultrasonic region for me but it was so loud I could feel pressure in my ears. All the dogs in the next county probably heard it too. It's intermittent and microphonic but the epicenter seems to be the jack. Not too surprising since it's a 40 year old bass and probably been operated thousands of times. So it looks like a little electronic surgery is indicated, probably a worn/dirty jack or cold joint or some such, no big deal. I’ll replace it if it doesn’t clean up. Not surprisingly, this bass is completely sonically different than her stablemates and the best way I can describe the difference is that other two sound “modern” and this one sounds straight outta the Reagan era. I gotta say that ive never been around a koa instrument before. The woodwork on this one is outstanding and it’s hypnotic to look at. Apart from some minor fret wear, pickup scuffing and a beat-up backplate she looks just like she did fresh outta the mothership in 1983.
So in the meantime she can hang out with the rest of the crew while we work through our issues and I wrap my head around this whole medium-scale-4-string-80's-sound thing.
