LukeFRC

didn't someone one here have a mini Matamp amp for practice?

Looks great! It replacing a big rig or have you gone from a mesa wakabout to that?

I bought one of the Retrovibe bridges for a bitsa. Screws made of cheese. I would pay more for screws not made of cheese. This goes for all basses.

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1444859794' post='2886865'] Same is true for many of the luxury cars...BMW 6/7 series go for less than high specced 3 series after a few years.... [/quote] is that true? I might check out if it is. And is that like for like secondhand from private owners? Somewhat relevant to this thread I do know that the more add ons and factory customisations you do to a new car (think Fiat 500 or equivalent) the lower the value will be when you come to sell it. Go for bog standard and dealers know they can buy and turn it over. Learnt that this week [quote name='The Admiral' timestamp='1444944432' post='2887651'] I hadn't looked at ACG, so googled them, and sadly it confirmed my worst fears about custom basses : I couldn't find a design I liked at all, and they look like the kind of things I've only ever seen being wielded by jazzers and slap addicts, and usually with more strings than I like. No problem with that, and its all about beauty being in the eye of the beholder - but - the issue with holding value, is that they are by definition, one person's 'ideal', and as a consequence of human nature, and no two of us liking exactly the same things, they will only ever ''fit' the commissioning player (hopefully). It's rather like 'custom cars', (which appear to be a passe thing now) : one man's orgasmic dream ride - Ford Escort MkII with a V8, and 'Dirty Harry' airbrushed custom paint, is somebody else's Chavvy pile of cack. The fact that so many 'custom' basses come up for sale must surely bring into question the validity of the thought process of ordering one - if so many people buy one, and then sell it, surely (barring financially necessary clear outs) that's because it didn't live up to the dream? The problem is of course, unlike going to a retailer and trying a number of P basses (for example) until you find 'the one', you get what you are given when the Luthier's work is done. There's also the image issue : if you are auditioning for a new band and you pull out a 'coffee table' 6 string, its likely to scare the natives - people like what they know, and you'll go a long way to find anyone more conservative than guitar players. [/quote] The Greek has an ACG that I almost bought twice, and still kinda want. But it's a single cut and that made me hesitate... and the Greek got it! It's about the only ACG I've been interested in. Mind you I did get a quote from ACG and a couple of other UK based Luthiers a year or so ago for a more workman like, simple plain bass- not much of the fancy stuff. Prices were less than a new USA fender- and it looked a great deal. I think the problem is that lots of people write down what they want... and then get tempted by wood porn.

Furniture in your house maybe... but in a office or workplace a high quality reliable and tested mass produced option might be better. also if you look at the secondhand prices of custom built furnature i think its more to do with the nature of custom made items...

[quote name='rmcki' timestamp='1441376924' post='2858458'] Anyone out there put an East preamp in a thumb bass? 
 I have a UNI-PRE and was considering swapping the out MEC. I was hoping for some advice on the results, pointers and any gotchas before commencing the operation.
 
 your thoughts please? [/quote] how do you find the unipre?

Passive can only cut, active can boost. You can get not so good things happening if you boost- but having said that a well designed active EQ can sound nicer than a badly designed passive Eq. Moral of the story is don't worry about it - if it sounds good and you like it - use it.

Retrovibe stingray type bridges.... not bad but the screwsare made of cheese...

look here I could pay £80 for a deko! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Harley-Benton-Jazz-Bass-In-Natural-Ash-Left-Handed-/262064299493?hash=item3d043fdde5

From my understanding the physical cost of transformers and bits of a 200w valve amp is higher than a 5w guitar valve amp - plus where's the demand? The way the bass amp "sounds" isn't quite as crucial to tone as it is in guitars - plus I could buy a solid state amp that fits in my gig bag...

[quote name='chardbass' timestamp='1442878973' post='2870269'] I honestly think it's the way things work around here. There was a lot of noise about Vanderkley a while back- usually around 12 months later the For Sale pages start to feature things that have had people talking. I've seen it with Epifani and TC Electronic. The latest seems to be Barefaced cabs and maybe Maruszczyk basses. No question of the quality of any of the gear whatsoever- it's just word-of-mouth thing kicking in and people trying gear out. It's great because then a secondary wave of people come and try the s/h stuff out and so on. For instance, I use the aforementioned Epifani cab with a TC Head!! [/quote] The funny thing I find is that we get the basschat hype echo chamber where lots of cool stuff gets slightly over hyped - followed by echoes of talkbass-hype echo chamber - meaning we end up with a bunch of european stuff we hype (or slag off the handles) and then a wave of more expensive imported american stuff... which doesn't get slagged off so much cos it cost more to import it (so it's gotta be better right?) I find the mismatch mildly amusing.

conversely I've just listened on my macbook speakers (ill come back with some headphones ) and was surprised I could hear such differences! The Neve di box (unsurprisingly) reminded me of the warwick hellborg preamp I had.

No, they are probably really really really good - but not quite as good as the hype there was about them when they came out.

great post. Positivity about our home grown (i.e. european too) makers is good too.

Yep the legend that is uncle fluffy Hes a good man for making them available.

On the subject of the finish... 3 layers of pink went on, then sand back and went up through the grades and polished it to have a bit of a shine to it. The last bass I tried to finish in this paint I didn't sand the colour coat enough thinking it wouldn't matter cos of the top coat - what happened is that you could see the sanding marks on the colour coat though the top coat. not this time. I got a couple of tiny patches of rub through on the bottom cut and one on one of the horns. and just below the pickup. I'm going to leave it as... it's good enough.... I've finished the can of paint... and if I really didn't want I would have bought two cans of colour and gone on thicker! I was pretty pleased how the colour coat polished up, the top clear coat adds that extra level of shine. Just need to leave it a couple of weeks to harden fully now!

and the caps... now a note - I can throw together a circuit board but don't know all the ins and outs of electronics... If you look at Passinwind's version of the stingray preamp it's stuffed full of the nice wima metal film caps - the ones that look like little boxes - the current mm preamp and things like the stinger copy you can buy use electrolytic caps - the ones that look like gasometers. I've uses tantalum in the polarised ones as thats what the original early preamp used - on paper they're not as "good" - but I think when we're talking about circuits in music in a bass preamp "good" isn't always the thing to aim for. I had a hellborg preamp into a power amp into a ACME B2 - possibly one of the most clean and accurate rigs ever! So little compression of anything, big signal and such a crazily well engineered cab. (comparing it with barefaced big baby for example and one comes out as a great bass cab and one as a great hifi speaker! there are downsides to acme stuff though and for bass duties if I were buying again at full price the barefaced BB2 is where the money might go... but ACME stuff is stunningly good) anyway I digress - clean is good - but I've now got a Mesa Walkabout - and all that warmth and fatness is great and sounds right for bass. So I'm trying to recreate the sound and feel of the 1977 ray I played... and I love the way this circuit is designed too - pickup straight into the preamp and the volume on the output amp stage of the chip. very good. here it is fully stuffed. It needs the wires and things added to the pot but I'm going to wait till the body is dry to do that so I can position everything properly inside the control cavity with minimal wiring runs. One thing that I did realise is though my Bart pup is awesome... it's not going to sound vintage stingray... anyone wanna swap for something more vintage sounding? I can add money. (or anyone wanna buy mine so I can buy old horse murphy's stingray pup?) * * advert is placed in sales forum and dues were paid

So lets start with a pile of stuff.... Resistance is futile! Note the supplier labled the 2.2m resistors wrong - still it's pretty impressive that you order individual resistors at 3p each or something and someone labels them for you! I like this supplier! chip and resistors....

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1442472218' post='2867134'] Watching with interest and waiting impatiently for next great shots By the way - just re read the whole thread and....stripping it over the gas stove! There's an innovative man after my own heart Great Victorian floor too.... [/quote] cheers man! Next update coming.... Everyone thinks I was a bit mad to use the gas hob - in my mind it's not the most stupid idea!

[quote name='Andytre' timestamp='1442580505' post='2867965'] iv already got spare pickups of all types, just need to do some routing practice! [/quote] build thread buildthread!