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Learning To Fry - Tom Petty

Worst I've owned was probably my old Ampeg B500DR. Seemed like a great idea at the time - 4 programmable presets and 500 watts but it was absolutely gutless. Could never get it to maintain stage volume or keep up with the band, not overly loud even . It was a disappointment across the board. Other amps I've played through at gigs and felt pretty meh about - a couple of Markbass combos, one was a 1 x15 thing and the other was a little 2x10 - guessing they were LittleMarks but both were very thin and a bit farty. I"m on the fence about keeping my Darglass AO900 or moving it on. Overall, nonplussed I suppose. Love the tones but not sure it's getting anywhere near the use it deserves after being relegated to the home Jamnasium in favour of my GK 1001RB rig for live stuff. Bought it to do clean and distortion stuff live but I find I prefer the sound of the dUg pedal pre in front of the GK a bit more. Especially comparing the clean tone options. Also having a Darkray I can call on to do the AO thing probably doesn't help. Seems like a lot of kit to just have laying around.

Oh, Bill that's awesome info. I can see clearly now... too much to think about... my head... You have an ability to put things into plain English that can be easily understood... very rare. I have only ever owned SS amps.

Valve amps are the opposite of SS. They have a maximum load impedance, not a minimum. They can even withstand a dead short, while an open circuit can damage them. For this reason one of the output jacks on Fenders was a closed circuit switching jack that shorted the output when there was nothing plugged into the main speaker jack. It also meant no signal passed if you plugged into the extension jack instead of the main jack, which pretty much every Fender owner discovered at some point, to their great consternation.

I played an American Standard Jazz for about 5 years. Switched to American Pro when I went 5 strings. I'm loaded with 2 American pro V jazz and like 3 or 4 Pro IIs. I did recently find an American Standard Precision V in CAR. With sparkles. A 2013 model. Pairs nice with my 2021 American Pro II V. Yeah, I'm a Fender freak.

Updated. After a good fretboard oiling, new strings, slight action adjustment, new black sparkle pickguard and a set of straplocks - the latest addition is looking pretty darn tidy

Tring me the horizon

Does anyone know if Stubz Thumbs is transmissible by touch?

One gig in May, then a hiatus until August and five more gigs till the end of the year - but that's partly because one or other of us is away through June and July. Another two or three are coming in, we should get to our target of 20 or so for the year.

Apparently the neck has been shimmed to improve the action. With that thicknessof shim, I think a judicious bit of filing would have been a better approach and might have increased the value to somewhere above the £50 mark.

Where do you think all the Made in China instruments in music shops come from? I've had quite a few instruments from China and Vietnam over the years, no problems.

The body looks very Strat too, but without the pickup cutouts. That was what was puzzling me.

I've got an EBMM Reflex bass with active/passive switching. It's an HH with a humbucker in exactly the Stingray position. When I switch it to passive I don't really hear much discernable difference to the tone in active mode with the E.Q set flat. It's still got that distinctive Stingray tone. On the basis of that, I think a passive Stingray would sound just like an active 'Ray with the EQ flat.

So, they guy is going to get me the code off the Trans and investigate how the output jacks are wired. Cheers.

So, the seller has sent me some pics but I don't think they are what you want to see or helpful. Hmmm. There have been many parts replaced over the years.

Thanks. I guess it's not a Levy's then. On closer inspection, there is a very faint 'Liberty' at the top of the adjuster end. So faint that I've never even noticed it until now. So I guess that is the brand. Cheers for the recommendations. I've been looking mainly at straps based on their width, but only just realised that the length is important too. I've never thought about it before, because mine is adjustable enough for what I need. I've never even measured it until now. It adjust from 51" to 59". But looking at what's out there, it seems that many standard straps only go to a maximum of 52", so length will be a deciding factor for sure. My usual length is 57", but I lowered it one rung on the ladder adjuster last weekend and liked that at 58". Otherwise I've barely ever adjusted it on the ladder, but on the rare occasion I'd want to try it a tad higher, I'd just put the middle hole (of 3) over the lower strap button (usually hang it from the bottom hole) instead of adjusting the ladder. So, I'll need to avoid any strap that maxes out at a length too short for my liking. This will rule out the Leathergraft (max 52") and Lekato (max 55"). I think I'll end up with one of the Levy's XL straps, which adjust up to 64". More length than I'll ever need, but they certainly won't be too short. These look to be around £60, which I don't mind as I'm sure they will last a very long time.

Mazak and Zamak are more popularly kniwn as 'monkey metal' in engineering circles. That should tell you everything you need to know.

That's a really good finish, especially as basswood can be a little plain - it almost looks like maple. The burst is nice and subtle too like my 375. That's pretty and would look great on the stand next to my SR655E and those J6 pickups are very good from what I've heard. Is the string spacing the typical 16.5mm of modern SR 6 strings?

Looking back over this thread, the Cobra 90 is definitely the clear winner. The guy who introduced me to bass had one back in the 80s. He hated it.

If the seller will allow you to open the amp, there's a couple of things that can be done: a) Presuming that the transformer is the original Fender one, there should be a code on it that you could Google and it will tell you whether it's meant to be used with a 4 or 8 Ohms total load. I've seen (otherwise untouched) blackface Fenders that have left the factory with a "wrong" transformer. b) If you have a tech who knows tube amps they can measure the specs of the transformer on the spot, and also tell you how the output jacks are wired, removing all and any confusion in the process. Good luck.