[Lethe]

I currently own a Peavey Millennium 5 BXP, which is a 34" passive 5-string. I use Warwick Red labels with a .135 B string, and i tune to Drop-A.

I use it only for recording, and I blasphemously play with a pick because I consider myself a guitar player mainly.

Thing that bothers me is the low-A does not sound too well, lacks definition, you can't make out the actual "note" too well. There is a lot of oomph, but it's hard to tell what note it is. I play it through my podXT, and was able to tighten the sound up somewhat, but the issue still remains.

Intonation is okay, I put on a new set of strings and still...not too great.

Maybe I should change the strings to .150, but I'm concerned it will sound too dull.

Now the Peavey Grind 5 caught my eye, especially with its 35" neck it should give more note definition and string tension.

Should I do the upgrade or should I try changing strings/pups?

[Apophis]

Try to change string first

[JBroll]

I'd try changing other parts of the rig. It's hard to have much definition without highpassing the signal before it gets distorted, which is why people blend distorted mids and highs with clean (but compressed) lows or use a RAT (which doesn't distort lows nearly as much as mids and highs); I'd guess that if anything could help it would be adjusting the sound like that.

Jeff

[darren]

Yeah, i'd say start with some good strings, and if that doesn't help, then try a different pickup, maybe active. The Grind series was a lower-end line, and while they're good instruments, their electronics were also somewhat lacking from what i've heard. So you may be in a similar situation if you move over to the Grind.

[Lethe]

Thanks for the replies so far. True, the electronics don't promise to be too great on both Peavys (Peavies? Whatever, both of 'em )

I only use minimal distortion for my bass sound, at the moment the main thing comes from my guitar with the bass adding some thump down low. The main thing that I didn't like about the Grind was the fact that its woods are mostly warm, and I was doubtful of clarity and brilliance should I ever decide to add some more distortion.

Anyways, it's all sorted out now, I just found this on eBay and it was the kind of design and wood combination I had longed for in a guitar for ages. Has Active/Passive Pickups by Kent Armstrong, the wisemen of the internets tell me they're pretty good. Gave the guy a call, he tells me it's 35" scale.

Bought it immediately. Expect corny picstory within next week.

Man, I'm so excited. This was a spur of the moment thing. Saw it, realized how it had everything I longed for at the price of a 7321 (still can't believe that!), called the guy, sealed the deal. All this happened within 15 minutes. And I'm almost certain it was a good idea. We'll see.

[darren]

Wow... nice-looking bass! Is "Masserpappel" burl maple?

[Lethe]

No, it's figured Poplar. My favourite kind of wood as far as looks go. To me it looks like a whirling cloud with a bunch of screaming souls in it - what that tells about my personality, I can only speculate.

Anyhoo, tone-wise it's supposed to be similar to basswood, but I figured it's only half of the wing, the back of the wing is Mahogany and it's neck-through anyways, so it'll sound mostly maple-ish, I guess. I just wired them the money. Man, am I excited. I know, I said it already, but....man.

[Ramsay777]

Cool bass man!

I thought the Peavey Grind had a 34" scale but I just checked the site and it says 35" Did they used to be 34"?

I tried a Grind 6 the other week and it felt 34" to me...

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

It's a great playing, nice sounding, nice looking bass.

I've considered one for a while, but am torn between it & the newer Ocean Basses.

[Variant]

Originally Posted by Lethe

I currently own a Peavey Millennium 5 BXP, which is a 34" passive 5-string. I use Warwick Red labels with a .135 B string, and i tune to Drop-A.

I use it only for recording, and I blasphemously play with a pick because I consider myself a guitar player mainly.

Thing that bothers me is the low-A does not sound too well, lacks definition, you can't make out the actual "note" too well. There is a lot of oomph, but it's hard to tell what note it is. I play it through my podXT, and was able to tighten the sound up somewhat, but the issue still remains.

Intonation is okay, I put on a new set of strings and still...not too great.

Maybe I should change the strings to .150, but I'm concerned it will sound too dull.

Now the Peavey Grind 5 caught my eye, especially with its 35" neck it should give more note definition and string tension.

Should I do the upgrade or should I try changing strings/pups?

The POD XT will do a pretty damn good sound if you spend a lot of time tweaking it, a SansAmp Bass DI in conjunction with it will really get you there...

As for strings, I personally tune E0 A0 D1 G1 C2 E2 A2, and for the A0 I use a D'Addario Prosteel .145 with a taper core. Nice and bright and punchy, with a longer life than other strings I've used.

As passive vs. actives go I've only ever used the (really good) Bartolini setup on my Bill Dicken's GTBD7... though every passive bass I've tried out up to this point has seemed 'lacking' to me, including the John Myung model.