Leaderboard

I have a nice collection of Ashdown cabs (a 610, a 410, a mini 4x8 and a mini 15) that I'm very happy with apart from one slight niggle. They all have Ashdown's trademark blue speakers - apart from the 610 so it doesn't match the others when using them together. After a chat a couple of weeks ago with the very helpful Dave Green at Ashdown, he kindly sent me some proper speaker cone paint in the correct shade of blue and yesterday I finally got around to doing it. It didn't take too long to do and I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. 🙂

I’d put my bitsa’s against bought basses any day of the week. Are they perfect? No Is every bought bass perfect? No What you can do if frugal and be prepared to wait and pounce at the right time is pick up what you want/need second hand, or even new but unused. First one I did was the white one with the status neck - I was very specific about what I wanted for this, so some bits were new - Totalled all up, would still be competitive with a Fender Standard/player series and defo cheaper than the Mex Nate Mendel. Second was the Gold - done from blank, paint job relic according to where I wear the bass and play it - this was defo under a new Mex P. Third is orange - body shaped by me personally with fonts where I wanted them to rest my hands - all in all cheaper than a second hand Mex. I could parts them out and recoup most of what I paid. It can be done

Seems there’s not a lot of info on these online, nor are there any decent demos showing what it can do. Well, I plan with this thread to change the first of these points. There’s a demo as well but it’s debatable if it’s “decent”. So... what is it? A preamp/DI with 5-band EQ, a switchable valve drive circuit plus aux in and headphone out sockets. There’s a parallel output which offers a completely unaffected signal too, which I use to send a signal to a tuner and hence keep the tuner out of my main signal path. Two foot switches control (left to right) the valve drive circuit and essentially an on/off for the main and DI outputs. This makes the parallel socket for my tuner make sense - hit “Showtime“ to mute the main outputs and just check tuning and then hit it again when you’re ready to make noises for everyone. The clean 5-band preamp is superb and the valve drive circuit offers a huge range of tonal possibilities too, especially in conjunction with the input gain level. Use the “Drive Level” control to balance the clean and driven sounds in volume level, or use the valve as a boost, and you’re good to go. There aren’t (m)any demos of this online so I set about using today‘s glorious sunshine and heat to hole myself up inside a roasting room and make a video, partly for the benefit of @Painy who doesn’t really want to watch this to get more GAS. Some sloppy playing in places but hopefully it gives a good indication of the capabilities.

And it really is starting to look like a guitar bouzouki now A few more jobs to do with the back off - installing the Pure Mini transducers and cutting the top of the end graft to size being the main ones - and then I can glue the back on and sort the back binding. Then I can start the final sanding and finish coats of the body while working separately on the neck carve

Such a fleeting jocular moment....because....the back's on! And the peg holes are taper reamed and the all important label is fitted: So tomorrow, I should be able to do the binding and then that's all set for final sanding and the start of the finishing process while I finish the neck carve

I put togerther a bitsa - easily my favorite bass - it came out really well. I think that it depends on your approach - I was trying to make a better than factory build, so the quality of the parts was important to me - a great neck and pickup ended up being expensive but made the bass a true pleasure to play. I also got the final bits done by a luthier - cutting the nut and drilling the tuner screw holes and final set up - cheating? Maybe but it made me happy.

Reiver Kompakt T7 made by Alan of ACG. An exceptional thing.

I suspect there’s many of you who will relate to this but, following my first Zoot build about 4 years ago I’ve became something of an addict (multi-ACG/Maruszczyk owners – you know I’m talking about!). My first Zoot was a passive 4 string, so obviously that needed a fretless 4 to keep it company. Equally obviously I then needed an active 4 to ‘complete’ the set (well, active/passive actually as it had an East Uni-pre fitted; also went for Mike’s funkmeister body shape on this one so it was, you know, a bit different). As others will have found though 3 is an odd number, so that won’t do. So, there I was, wanting to pull the trigger on a new order, without having a sufficiently differentiated specification to justify another commission. Those of you of a similar age (I’m 57) may feel the same but, for me, there were two basses that stood out during my Thursday evenings glued to ‘Top of the Pops’: a Wal and an Aria SB-1000. Never had the funds for a Wal (have tried quite a few over the years though) but I did own a fretless SB-900 for many years and loved it. As a youngster the fact that it weighed the same as a small cow and had a slab body that made no concessions to forearm comfort – the same as the 1000 – didn’t really bother me, but as a now 57 year-old player, these things matter. So an idea started gestating for my new Zoot – a bass with the SB-1000 sound signature and tonal shaping, but in a lighter weight, more user-friendly body. Some initial googling and thread searching on here led me to discover the Rautia MB-1E pickup that is a direct replacement for the original, as well as Prostheta’s BB Noisekiller preamp. We hit a bit of a hurdle when it became apparent that he was no longer able to produce replacement 6-way varitone circuits at a commercially viable price but, once I located a circuit diagram of the original which showed the capacitor values, Mike has volunteered to make a duplicate for this build. And lo and behold the Zoot ZB-1000 is born! The bass is going to be a medium scale (32”) bolt-on build (yes, I know, I know, SB’s were neck-through and long-scale but the build incorporates my ergonomic preferences). Other specs are: Body: 7/8th sized Zoot bass shape with carved top. English spalted beech on American light weight Swamp ash divided by Ebony veneer pin stripe. Headstock veneer to match. Neck: Roasted Canadian flame maple with Purple heart stringers and ebony veneers. Rosewood f/board, darkened with small amount of clear satin lacquer. Black Hipshot hardware with gold bridge saddles and tuner bushings. Tone Controls: As above but with additional series/parallel switching and passive tone. Some photos of the early stages for your delight and delectation. More to follow as the build progresses. The body: The neck: The fingerboard: The contouring that original didn't have: I'm hoping it be ready in time for Christmas - what a present that will be!

Ohhhh I just had a clampgasm.

Painy the Painty

This is so under rated. I never used the shape on my ABM as I found it too boomy, but after experimenting on the OriginAL its now on on the ABM too. Just cutting back on the bass a bit and adding a few high mids brings out a lovely sound. Swapping out the valve is going to be tough though. It's in its own little metal prison! Oh and they exist in gold too.

Hi. I have this....Fender Sixty Six made in Mehico. Love it to bits. Neck pup is brilliant and bridge hum bucker too. Middle position doesn’t get much use on its own but tames the humbucker nicely if the amp has lots of treble.

Don't forget my custom pedal artwork! 😁 Thank you very much though. I like to think of myself as something of a talented bodger for what it's worth. 😅

Maple Road had a busy weekend. We played Friday Night at a local Home Grown Music Festival in West Bend. Saturday we played A Holiday Camp gig at. The Tiki Beach Bar Resort in Campbellsport ( 4 hours). Sunday we played Hefner's 25 anniversary ( bar restaurant) in Grafton. All 3 gigs were outside. Nothing this weekend. Private gig the following weekend. Blue

Cheers! That's my go-to setting as well. I'll be honest, when I first got the pedal I was a bit disappointed as I wanted it to do that but felt it was much to OTT - to the extend I started considering valve swapping. I believe it was @javi_bassist who suggested playing with the input gain and it really is the key to getting almost anything from super clean through to horrendous filth. Now it's become such an important part of my board that both my Darkglass Vintage Ultra and SansAmp BDDI are both destined for the FS forum.

Yeah he's a top bloke. I was mainly speaking to him at the time about a problem with my CTM30 head which he suggested was probably one of the preamp valves. Along with the paint he sent me a replacement valve on the understanding I could just send it back if it didn't fix the problem or phone him back later to make payment later if it worked (it did work and they only charged me for the valve at cost - no charge for postage or for the paint). No better customer service in the business in my opinion!

I can confirm this 100%!

My favourite bass is a bitsa I put together with MIJ Fender Jazz Bass parts, I collected on the internet and Basschat. When I put it together it just sounded excellent from the start.

The fitting of the bridge is perhaps the most critical part of an acoustic build. It simply has to be right. And there are big, big, problems if is isn't. First step was cutting the angled saddle slot. In the end, I had to make another jig - to be able to accurately use a router: Next was recognising that the top is spheroidal - and therefore the bottom of the bridge has to be shaped accordingly. Just to pander to @SpondonBassed 's engineering background, I will use again the old 'engineers blue' trick: First I put some masking tape on the top and put some school chalk evenly all over it: Rubbing the bridge a small amount on the chalk reveals the high spots: Sand the chalk marks off and repeat...and keep sanding the areas where there is chalk and repeat and repeat. This is starting to get there: As long as you only sand where the chalk is, you are always lowering the high spots. Eventually, there is chalk on every bit - and then you know it's a perfect fit. Next is position the bridge - scale-length-wise and double checking with the string lining up: Then cut round the bridge through the masking tape: Wood components have a tendency to float on the layer of glue while they are being clamped, and so need position positioning. So I now drill through a couple of the string holes and will use some bolts to position and help clamp during gluing: But, the main ooomph is a long reach clamp with yet another home-made jig - this one is to act as a clamping caul for the bridge body, and then the two captive screws clamp down on the bridge wings: And there it will sit until morning

My Serek Midwestern is easily the best shortscale I’ve ever played, B90 pickup (with dummy coil), absolutely love it. Can be heard on this track: https://open.spotify.com/track/3PUTP5fy1snxO9giraiosl?si=E5yBVr_MQ3WM3m7_cOuQaQ Si

Burn the heretic! 🔥😂

Well here it is, photo's of my Westfield EB3 Bass guitar, and my Warwick BC80 amp. Now just to start to learn to play the bass! The adventure begins 😀

Short scale Tele Mahogany body , Spalted Maple top Set neck Cream binding Smoke p/guard ..sort of transparent dark red Supro pickups Lollipop tuners String through Series / Parallel pull / push middle knob Tbx tone control Picked up from Jon's workshop on Monday...😁

Here it is, now with strings

I suspect that the reason that no one makes a proper Steinberger XL bass anymore is, yes, they were difficult and expensive to manufacture allied to the fact that that style of bass is very unfashionable nowadays. Nowadays it's all about blokes with beards playing P Basses strung with flats through an all-valve Preamp that is so old- school that it has no controls on it whatsoever and is powered by organic olive oil rather than electricity. Hard as it may be for some younger Basschatters to believe , there was a time long ago when unless you had a Steinberger or similar with an amp that had an 11 band graphic then you might as well have been living in the stone age. It was magnificent. A full-tilt Steinberger would be very expensive with only a very small niche market. Status have a much wider range of graphite models to sustain their business model, not just the Streamline . They also have a long-standing brand- identity associated with graphite basses. A new Steinberger would have to establish itself in an already-crowded marketplace. Not enough folks would actually buy them, most likely.

Yours is spot on hiram, it shows your band and your feedback, that makes sense 👍

hahaha, well, I use their OV1 Meters

Schoolboy error 🤦🏼‍♂️

Not cheating - I have always used the pre cut TUSQ XL nuts - just make sure you get the correct one for neck width

Go to your forum name, top right and click to get drop down box. You'll see options, one being " ignored users " Click that, and you get a blank bar at the top to stick a members name in. Type the name, and they should appear by magic. As soon as you do, other options appear. You can then choose from ignore posts, messages, siganture, mentions. Just click signatures and you're done.

Weird. I have a BH800 which doesn’t kick in for a while but when it does it sounds like a regular fan, no high pitched whistle. I recently got a GK MB200 too and the fan on that is almost silent when it’s running. I think there’s something wrong with this one like maybe the fan is slightly out of alignment or a dodgy bearing

Yes, I thought the same about the valve drive. Until I found out that the input gain really affected the valve drive. It is a really awesome unit for sure.

This is what I'm going to do now thanks. I'm going to sell the Jazz Bass Special PJ-555 and keep the '62 P. It really is a tough call though. I'll stick it up on here next weekend when I'm back from camping. Meanwhile I'll potter with the Bitsa and see how that turns out and decide which P to keep then. Sounds like good fun. Good, heartbreaking fun. 🤪 Thanks for the advice mate, I was really stumped last night to be fair. 👍

Have sent you a pm #Len-derby

10 years today. Times flies but memories remain. Still much missed, you big daft softy. 💙

I LOVE the soft valve sound of the Eq and Valve in, Shape in settings. Nothing wrong with all the other sounds but that one in particular is fantastic. Thanks for taking the time to do this and for sharing.

Ashdown have surely got the best CS in the business. Great company and great amps.

Love the outcome, love the story behind it. Ashdown rock

Zimbabwean in Lancashire, England

I would only agree with that to a point. Buying parts online can mean an imperfect fit, or at least a fit that may require fettling. However, that isn't automatically the case. With a big dose of luck the neck on my latest bitsa fitted my new ash body with absolute surgical precision. I nearly cried tears of joy, it was that neat and close a fit in the neck pocket. The neck itself is also superb, with even and well finished frets - I've not had to do any tinkering with fret dressing etc. I've played relatively expensive instruments with necks that weren't prepared as tidily. It cost me about a hundred quid to build and I'm confident in tone, feel and playability it would not embarrass itself in the company of any P bass from any manufacturer costing 10 times that. And whatever happens, it'll never, ever be worth less than it cost me to build, so straight away it has an edge over most cooking Fender models. Do it properly and you're in reality far less likely to lose money than you would buying something from a production line. So you can get lucky and components can fit to a high degree of precision. If not, care, patience and moderate hand tool skills can make them fit - after all, that's all they do in the factory. You can make a rough old dog, but to be fair you have to either be completely inept or lazy to end up with one that bad.

The other thing to bear in mind is also that even from the factory from a good manufacturer there will be alterations - some basses leave with a shim on the neck - tolerance on CNC machines means that it won’t be perfect every time so a bit of pocket work is necessary. It’s no different in bitsa’s, you can switch a nut on a neck to have a reverse headstock whatever handed the bass is, pockets can be built up, necks can be shaved - as long as you keep your scale lengths correct, these minor tolerances are fixable, then the parts do fit

No, this is the light. Being a guitard is darkness

Slow progress! But it's getting there bit by bit

Built this from a kit during the early stages of lockdown, it's surprisingly good for the money.

I’ve made a few now ( and sold a few too) and really enjoy it. The one on the left is a one I made to ‘62 P type spec, not a cheap build. Handmade Walnut body with nitro CAR relic finish and flamed maple neck rosewood board. CTS pots, Fender CS ‘62 pups, relic black Fender pickguard, GOTOH reverse lollipop tuners and old Fender bridge. Next to my ‘66 and Nate Mendel doesn’t look too shabby and plays killer.

Well, that's not strictly the case! Right - sit down, make yourself a cup of coffee/tea/gin and let's see what we can work out from the evidence as presented. This is likely to be largely stream-of consciousness rambling, confusing & very, very boring. Don't say you weren't warned. The problem with trying to identify old instruments from online sales listings is - how can I put this? Sellers often don't know what it is they're selling, or if they do, they will assume the majority of potential purchasers don't. So they might say things that either aren't necessarily true, or aren't meticulously researched & fact-checked, to sell whatever it is. Many buyers & sellers often seem more concerned about what they want something to be, rather than what it actually is. That's the case with both of the basses you've linked. They're not Japanese, probably not '70s and they're absolutely not made by Matsumoku. They're Korean, and possibly made by Cort, if the style of the control plate/scratchplate on the natural finish example is any indication. That one's actually very interesting & I'll get to why a bit later. I should probably explain that I sort-of know what I'm on about with these things - I've had an unhealthy preoccupation with old-ish MIJ & MIK instruments for most of the time I've been playing (which is a looooong time!) and for about 15 or so years made a living by restoring & selling predominantly 1970s copy-era Japanese guitars & basses. I don't claim to know everything (& no-one does) but when you've worked on literally hundreds of instruments from a particular era, you do get an eye for traits & details. Typically Korean & Japanese are easy to tell apart, and the products of specific Japanese factories (such as Matsumoku) are very straightforward to ID too. These two basses, like yours, are Korean. The neck style, very similar to yours (extra fret, unusually wide black blocks, no binding, Fender-type headstock, Gibson-style nut) indicates they're from the same factory, which as I've said is probably Cort. It's worth understanding a bit about brand names too. Best advice is usually to ignore them, in the majority of cases they'll tell you nothing at all about who actually made an instrument. In many ways your bass is a good illustration of why - it's unbranded, it came from the factory unbranded & like thousands of others, would've been sold brand-new like that. For a few pennies per unit more, whichever company ordered & imported your bass could have thought up any name they wanted, and the factory would have put that on the headstock for them. However - some well-known brands can be tied to specific factories and that's why the two you found are helpful in understanding more about yours. Japanese-made Hohners all came from a factory called Moridaira, and when that arrangement came to an end in the early 80s, Hohner production moved to the Cort factory in Korea. I mention Hohner because Leyanda appears typically as a brand for Hohner acoustic guitars, although a little research indicates they used Leyanda as a sub-brand for budget electric guitars too. This might be a regional thing, as Hohner also used Rockwood & Arbor as budget sub-brands in some territories. And about 30 seconds' Google image search gives us a Hohner Arbor Jazz copy with an identical body, control plate & scratchplate to the natural finish Leyanda: I'd say, based on inlay style & hardware it's a few years later than the Leyanda - but it's an associated brand, has the same highly distinctive components, & fits the established timeframe for Hohner's use of Korean manufacturers - so it's safe to say it's from the same factory. So through this process of somewhat anal detective work, I think we can be perhaps 99.65% sure that your unbranded Jazz bass came from the same factory as the two Leyandas you found - it has a distinctive & near-identical neck. That neck's overall style (black blocks, Fender headstock) probably dates it to late 70s - at a guess '78 or later. We know the manufacturer's Korean, as all the basses have identifiable MIK traits, and we can narrow down the factory to probably Cort because one of the Leyandas has the same distinctive body & hardware as a Korean Hohner Arbor - which was probably made by Cort. There are a few reasons I can't be 100% that it's a Cort. Firstly, knowledge of older Korean manufacturers isn't great - like in Japan there would have been dozens of different factories but we only know a few - off the top of my head Cort (Cor-Tek), Samick, Young-Chang, Saehan & (possibly) Arirang, and apart from the first two it's not clear how early they were operating & what they made. We know that Hohner's high-quality post-MIJs are Corts because they're often identical to Cort's own-branded guitars from the same era, but we can't be certain Hohner's budget ranges were also from Cort. At this point though, there's no particular reason to think they weren't. So it's Korean, late 70s, factory-unbranded and made by Cort. Evidence to 100% establish the manufacturer & a specific year might emerge in future, or with more detailed research than I've done, but at the moment that'll have to do!

2 things 1. I think I have hit the brief “it needs to be red” 2. I clearly had a hole in my glove..... 😂