Rayman

And finally…. a set of Guild knobs, courtesy of our friends at Ali Express. They’re surprisingly great, fit perfectly, and only £7.50 for 4. Finished 👍🏻

I’m sure you’re absolutely right. Mrs Rayman rolled her eyes and said… “what are you doing now!?!” I don’t really know what I’m doing tbh, but it’s fun anyway. Of course there may be nothing wrong with the speakers, it could be something electrical, but I’ll have to see what happens once the replacement speakers are in.

I bought this on the bay for not a lot, and, although it works technically, it also farts/clips at only half volume and a quarter gain. I’m not expecting anything amazing, as it’s just for home practice, but would like it to sound good? You know? So I took the amp out, cleaned and vacced it out, lubed the pots too. All looks nice in there now. However it still sounded flappy and not so great. So Out came the Celestion BL10-70 and a new (used-eBay) one ordered. There’s probably nothing wrong with it, but I can’t help myself, I do love tinkering. The tweeter, is an embarrassing little piece of plastic. I understand these Le Son things are also in Markbass amps, which can’t be good, it looks very poor quality. So a Stageline HT-30 has also been ordered. Fun times. I have to confess, I love messing about with fixing stuff, basses and amps and whatever else comes my way. I’ll let you know what happens next.

Good one in Salford on Saturday, a couple of really excellent bands on the bill before us too, it was a fun night. There was one hilarious incident, I fell off the stage during soundcheck and totally wrecked my knee 🤦🏻‍♂️. So it was just a case of standing there during the gig, without any of the usual waving of basses in the air. Probably a good thing.

Soz

Ditto

Update….. The final touches are almost done. The Zero fret it came to me with, was pointless. It was some random, brass coloured fret, that had been stuck on there, very badly. It was also too small, and didn’t actually do anything. So I’ve fitted a jumbo fret and cut the nut down so that the strings sit nicely on it. I can actually tune the bass now. Speaking of tuners…. I hated the ones that came on it. So having found some 60s Teisco elephant ear tuners in the states, I bought those and chucked them on today and as I really hate the closed backs, I’ve converted them to open gears so that’s almost it…… I’m just waiting for a Teisco headstock badge to arrive from the US, and that will finally be that.

Sunn Mustang

I worked on one for a mate once. It was in pretty poor shape, but we got it up and running, and continued to use it for a while before moving it on. I wasn’t a massive fan of it tbh, but they’re pretty collectible now.

Ashdown ABM500 head and cabs or the ABM combo for gigs, or a TCBQ500 and 4x10, all dependant on the venue. So not massive no, but way more than I want for home noodling, although Mrs Rayman does enjoy the low end vibrations of a Gibson Thunderbird through the full Ashdown rig. I could, get a 1x10 something or other cab for the TC to go into, but it’s not what I’m after. I just want a little combo.

Ok so…. I’ve made two bids on the bay that will end in the next couple of days. A Roland micro cube and a Laney R1, so we’ll see. If I miss out there, I’ll think again.

Thanks all for the great responses…… trouble is, now I don’t know exactly what actually want anymore! I’m not after anything giggable, I have all that covered. This is purely home only, noodling along to music on the TV or Spotify. So, no massive bottom end required, but equally I don’t want something that sounds like I’m playing through a transistor radio (one for the kids). Primary function is small but sounds decent, but also doesn’t break the bank.

Yeah you see the odd one or two pop up occasionally, but more often than not it’ll be the Indonesian version as you say. Great bass, and great guitars too. I had an M75T guitar many years ago which was really fantastic too.

I’ve dabbled a bit with small amps for home, but I’ve fallen short every time. I Have the headphone thing covered, by way of my Phil Jones Bighead, but I’d like a tiny combo to play along to stuff out loud, at home. I’m hoping that it’s not going to have to be a Markbass micromark, as that’s a bit over budget, but I fear that I might be going down that road. The last acquisition was a 10W Vox Pathfinder, which is abysmal. I also tried a Line 6 studio 110, which is also rubbish. I was pretty happy with the Peavey Microbass, but my daughter now has that, and it’s physically bigger than I want. I really want something very small. I even considered the Positive Grid Spark stuff. It only needs to keep up with the volume of a TV really, so I thought the Pathfinder would be ideal. Wrong. Any recommendations?

31”. I bought short scale strings for it, but actually I think medium scales would be a better fit.

Yeah, unfortunately it doesn’t. That would indeed be very cool.

So….. I’m putting this here rather than the build diaries because it’s complete. I found the bass on the bay for peanuts, largely because it had a warped (forward bowed) neck, and the truss rod was maxed out. The previous owner had given up on it, describing it as “f@&£&d and bent like a banana” and “ beyond help”. “The fretboard will need to come off and the truss rod replaced….. it’s f£&!@d mate”. Is it really I thought. First job, will the truss rod loosen and the nut come off….. Yep, it did. So, knowing that the truss rod worked, I knew there was hope. I Ordered some tiny washer/shims to drop onto the end of the loose truss rod, just to give the nut some help when it goes back on. I also found, unbelievably, a period correct truss rod cover to replace the one that was missing, thanks to the awesome Henning at Twang vintage guitars in Sweden…. Next, was to clamp it, over heat (a hot water bottle) to coax the neck straight again. Actually it was clamped slightly more the other way, so that it could be loosened off a bit if needs be. I cooked it for an hour, and tightened the truss rod back up while it was still clamped and hot. The hot water bottle doesn’t get hot enough to worry about melting the glue, but the neck got pretty hot under there. After it came out, the result was absolutely perfect, with a slightly bent backward neck, still under tension from the truss rod. The heat had worked perfectly. The plan was to fit the strings in the morning and loosen the truss rod off a bit if needs be to get the action right. So, all that was yesterday, and today the strings went on, after cleaning and conditioning the beautiful fretboard With sheer blind luck, when fully tuned up, the action was perfect! Lovely low and buzz free, it’s spot on at the first attempt. Needless to say I’m over the moon….. These Korean ones had the US made white top pickups, and are really well made and respected, although the shape isn’t for everyone. They CAN fetch quite a bit on the used market. The plan was to fix it, practice my tech skills then flip it….. but I dunno…. 😆, I really love how this bass turned out… What a cracker of a bass. Another one saved from the parts bin. Delighted indeed. Thanks for reading this far 🤘🏻

I have them on all the Thunderbirds for live work. The basses just don’t sound the same with anything else. Absolutely my first choice.

Two week turnaround, but worth the wait

Newtone. Newtone. Newtone.

Absolutely great basses. I love the RBX range, super ergonomic and they sound great too.

Yes solid wood. The two black ones I have weigh a ton. I’m no expert, and can only refer to the ones I have as examples, but they’re solid. The design and construction of them did vary over the years. Some of them had bullet truss rods at the headstock, some were accessed at the body end. Also the position of the logo and the string tree did vary somewhat.

So Sunn and Encore were made in the same factory, same parts, same colours, just P bass copies. This was mid 80s. They were just badged differently. There’s nothing inherently amazing or collectible about either brand, they’re just good solid wooden parts with great sounding pickups, and if they’re well set up, they’re brilliant P basses, easily up there with some of the Mexican made stuff from the 00s in my opinion. Just don’t be paying more than 150/200 quid for one in good condition.

Also worth knowing. The Encore basses of the same period are the exactly the same basses. Same factory, same parts. Good solid basses, and underrated too. Again, swap out the pots for decent quality ones, give the frets a bit of a once over, and again, great P bass.