What a great Saturday!

We're into a bit of white wine, some awesome microbrew ale from Hawaii that I had the privilege of trying when I was in Oahu in 2004, streaming some slack key guitar from Hawaii (yes, I still have some of my heart on the islands from my visit there), and some really great t-bone steaks that my Babylove has BBQ'ed tonight.

You know what? No matter how trying things get, there are always things to be grateful for. And for the moment, things are OK. And I have said this before, and I'll say it again. I am eternally grateful for the friendships I have forged here on this site with all of you. Thank you all for enriching my Life. Having you all here means more to me than you might ever know.

Same here, man. It was great to finally hear your voice the other day! Having this site as a positive outlet is a huge relief from a lot of things. Seeing people gather and contribute here gives me something extra to look forward to.

Things have a tendency of working out...I have to remind myself of that sometimes.

That sounds like an excellent evening, Eric. My cousin is up from San Francisco, so we wound up talking and drinking until about 3 in the morning. It's always a pleasure to have people like that around.

and from me also, although I am on the other boards every day also, this place has shown me a few MORE people that I would have never met without it. Imagine the situation if this internet was around 20 years ago, set up the way it is today....

I might have even seen one of your shows thanks to internet advertising.

in a more positive weekend note:

I found a box when cleaning that had a couple basement jams from 10 years ago, so I'm gonna save them to my computer. I thought I lost it all when the first camcorder and tape bag were stolen, but nope...more archives from the past. If there is ANY stage show stuff on them, I'll post it to youtube, and let you all see me in the hey-days of stagedom...

That's awesome, Mike! I look forward to seeing what you dig up!

Yup, this place is awesome, and I'm glad I found it,

I espcially owe Eric a lot of thanks, for putting this idea in my head....
Heh, without here, and Eric, I'd have never had this awesome tone in my arsenal.

Yeah I know! This place has opened my eyes to a lot of things I never thought I would come across.

(weeps gently to himself)

Thanks, Guys!

Mike, I would LOVE to see some vintage live video from you!

And Bill, you should thank John even more, since he is the one who originally gave me the idea for the X2N. But I was more than happy to share!

The X2N is such a unique pickup. I modded a friend's (6 string Dean ML) guitar with an X2N in the bridge and an Evo 2 in the neck. Big contrast, FAT Strat sound when you use them together. It has a really interesting voice when it's on by itself. I can't say I've heard anything quite like it.

I think in a guitar, I'd prefer something with a bit more dynamics and midrange like a Super Distortion or Evo 2, but the X2N definitely holds its own.

I'm curious about how Carvin humbuckers would work in a bass.

Ah-ha! Here's something I can tell you about! I had a Carvin B4, and the humbuckers were pretty decently good. If you want just a basic, no-frills pickup that's well-made and not too expensive, Carvin's are just fine. BUT...and here I go again...they lacked the one element that I must have: SMOKE. They are not terribly high-output pickups, but for a good standard tone, they work just fine.

Hmm...that does make sense from my experience with them. Good point! I think that in the end, I would probably be frustrated with them for just that reason.

I have a friend with two vintage Carvins. They sound fantastic and have series/parallel and phase switches abound. They really work well with a Tube Screamer that I'm lending him and his Dual Rectifier. But they don't quite have the same amount of smoke that you can get with something like a Super Distortion going through nothing but a volume knob through the same setup.

Yeah, I had a lot of high hopes for the Carvins, since they were so cheap. But in the end, they turned out to just be "OK", and not "WOW", so I'm still a DiMarzio man!

Huh. Which Carvin pickups did you try out?

They were the stock J's that came with the bass. They were indeed humbuckers, and they were potted in paraffin wax even. No exposed pole pieces, just encased in black plastic.

Huh. Maybe that has part to do with it? I mean the covered guitar humbuckers (like on Les Pauls) are a bit less open and raunchy sounding than uncovered humbuckers. Maybe it's the same kinda thing?

Perhaps, but the Carvins also don't spec out as hot as many other bass pickups. I think they just wanted to create a good all-purpose bass pickup, which they did. For many players, they work just fine. They are just too "soft" for my tastes.

Uh huh. Good to know. I wonder how their guitar humbuckers would work for bass, though.

They might work pretty decently, especially if one were to go with a seven-string version. Carvin does make some mighty nice guitar humbuckers, but I haven't ever heard how well they work for bass.

And honestly, since the results from the DiMarzio X2N-7 are so superior, personally, I'm not going to go with any other pickup. Again, it's that old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy.

I'm curious, to say the least. And, like DiMarzios, they aren't that expensive. Some time, I might be tempted to give them a try.

I have yet to try the X2N-7 coil tapped/in series. That and giving it a try with a new set of strings might change how much I want to take the time to put one in other basses.