LukeFRC

what the hell increase in performance are you looking for? Short answer -You need to buy a new amp Longer answer - there are things in your amp that would change the sound if you changed them- whether it's a good idea to do or not depends on your knowledge of electronics. My guess is that the 4700uF caps you're talking about will be to smooth the power supply. Unless that's a massive problem I seriously doubt you would notice any difference in putting more caps in that position - for example your 500w Ashdown ABM head also uses two 4700uf caps in the same place. Your signal goes from your thin wire to an even thinner trace on the circuit board and into a probably cheap IC.... I doubt thicker wire will make any difference - by the time you've replaced the wires, the circuit board, the cheap resistors used, the low end ICs..... you may as well just buy another amp that meets your specs.

[quote name='throwoff' timestamp='1397680018' post='2426492'] I forgot to post this earlier but let me tell you a story. A true story I was told by a good friend of mine in the business a few years ago at Messe (the store workers here might already know it) A few years back a well respected guitar company I will not name (not a Fender or Gibson but a well known brand) publicly announced they had received so many requests for a lefty version of one of their instruments they where happy to do a limited run. The deal was simple, they needed to make 200 of them, charge a 10% upcharge for the lefty bridge etc to be made, all of which cost them more. If 150 lefties went into dealers world wide and paid a small deposit allowing the store to order one they would do the run. They direct emailed all the people who had ever emailed complaining about the lack of a lefty model, put out a press release and got all their reps letting stores know they could offer it. 6 months later the whole thing was cancelled as under 20 people had actually put their hand in their pocket and said yes I want one. This was not an expensive bass (sub 1k by a chunk) but it goes to show that those who shout loudest don't always equate to those who are willing to do something. [/quote] I think if I played lefties (as opposed to just being left handed) getting instruments I wanted wouldn't be a problem - there's always going to be a way in most cases to get near enough what you're after.... what I would miss out on would be being able to try lots of things and pick up bargains (apart from that carvin that I think is the one molan has just reduced) ... but that wouldn't actually make any more money for anyone or make it more likely that more lefties would be made.

[quote name='mcarp555' timestamp='1397638027' post='2425824'] And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the issue in miniature: "Why didn't you just learn to play right-handed in the first place?" I wish there was a way to count all the people who picked up a guitar or bass and tried earnestly to learn to play it in the wrong direction, then gave up and decided they weren't 'musical'. This kind of narrowminded thinking ranks up there with "Why don't gay people just stop being gay?", "Why doesn't everyone like [blank] like [i][b]I [/b][/i]do?" You think it easy, you pick up a left-handed instrument and teach yourself to play. Discrimination, pure and simple. [/quote] I have three problems with this - The first and possibly more important one is your use of the word "discrimination". Words mean something - if we ramp up our rhetoric to the point where words mean nothing we leave us all mute. So "discrimination", discrimination is not being able to sit in the front of your bus 'cos of the colour of your skin, discrimination is not being served in a B&B as your partner is the same sex as you, discrimination is a company wilfully neglecting to provide you access for your wheelchair to a service, discrimination is a company interviewing Jones, Smith and Roberts for a job, but not Lewandowski, Adiyiah or Al-Shahrani and so on. That's what discrimination is. A company not selling a wide range of left handed guitars, or a cafe not having a massive coelics' menu, or my local cafe not having some ethiopian mocha beans in that I like, or your bathroom not automatically being provided with a bidet ....is not discrimination. The second problem I have is... you use two hands to play the bass. Two, both of them. Why is the dominant hand naturally better at picking/plucking/strumming? For your whole arguement to make any sense beyond you moaning about your preference not being provided for as well you need to be able to explain/prove this. When I first started playing I would pick up a bass. The whole walking my fingers and making the strings vibrate was easy to pick up - it's a very similar action to the one I'm using to type half these letters. The fretting hand took me way way longer to learn. I'm left handed playing a right handed bass. As I see it my dominant hand is doing the harder job. But I also think if someone had given me a left handed bass I would have learned to play it and grown to have the dexterity in both hands needed. You learn. Now if we only played bass with one hand you may have a point - but we use both and need to learn motor and dexterity skills in both hands to play our instrument. Third point... bass players buy less basses than guitarists guitars. That's why your average music shop has lots more guitars than basses. I'm guessing you're intelligent enough to understand the economic argument put forward when the same idea applied to left handed and right handed models. Now given that you understand it costs the shop money to have stock sat up on the wall, esp if it doesn't shift quickly I guess you understand why they can't hold a large stock of lefty instruments, but what I don't get- is that given you're talking about wanting to buy a bass... most music shops I've been in will do an order with a manufacturer to get something you want. Is it really so hard to walk into the stockest of the brand you want and pay for and order the bass you want? or are you telling me that a Earnie Ball supplier can't order in a lefty stingray in whatever colour you want?

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1397599038' post='2425624'] As and when/if... but I bet if it doesn't sit well with their needs, there'll be loop holes! [/quote] if/when maybe - but it should do sometime soon. At the moment there's so many different rules, for instance in the UK you can specify who has to pay the return postage, in Germany you have to send out the terms and conditions in full when a sale is made, in Spain you have to pay the return postage whatever. The new distance selling regs are designed to unify everything in the EU, you won't be able to refuse to post to italy for instance, and the return postage will have to be paid by the seller. It's going to be rubbish for a lot of sellers!

[quote name='mcarp555' timestamp='1397555138' post='2425010'] I can't take crying about the cost of jigs or reprogramming CNC machines when I see abominations like this: Was this [i]really[/i] cheaper to make than a left-hand bass? [/quote] that looks like an answer to the question the managing director of Fender asked when he wanted to know what on earth the factory manager intended to do with the big pile of unsold lefty necks that no one was buying. It's economics, I don't really get the discrimination and entitlement that they "should" thing you're going with. Are you typing this with a YTREWQ keyboard? Nope, you learnt to use a device set up for the majority of right handed folk.... in my opinion whoever got you your first bass should have got you a right handed one and you would have been none the wiser.

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1397591459' post='2425526'] Not the way that ebay works unfortunately! [/quote] from business sellers it will be once the new EU distance selling legislation kicks in...

come on man! We want more info than that! Especially comparisons to your J12's and Schroeder.

oh and check this Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/321515614550229/ it seems to hoover in most of mid to north England, and theres a fair few yamaha SG's that pop up at good prices

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1397514311' post='2424792'] No, she never told me! I'm very touched by that. I did go through a pretty awful time back then & sometimes wonder if I'd be around now if it hadn't been for her. She is lovely. J. [/quote]

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1397478626' post='2424249'] Yes, yes I do. It would be a proper challenge to learn, wouldn't it? Luke - really wish I'd hung around long enough to buy that SG of yours! Still my dream g*it*r, one day I'll give in & blow a stupid amount of money on a mid-80s SG2000 or 3000. J. [/quote] I dunno if she said but your other half was going to get it off me (contact via ebay) as a present for you when you we on sabbatical, but it didn't work out for whatever reason, I think neither of us were sure on a value. TBH there's better SG's out there - I'm on a few local forums on Facebook and theres some very nice mid 80's ones around for not stupid money at all.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1393607534' post='2382564'] Not entirely sure yet, but off the top of my head: .... In fairness I don't actually [i]want[/i] to sell very much of this stuff, but a house move within the next 6 months leaves me with no alternative. FAO mods - this isn't a "for sale" list, I have no prices for any of this and am not soliciting offers. In due course I'll put stuff up on BC in the appropriate fashion. J. [/quote] ah I recognise some of that stuff from when we were talking tentatively about a trade with the SG400 of mine before you went off grid for a bit. I spent ages googling to find out what they all were I ended up keeping the SG for a few years, I down sized and sold a nice acoustic over it- which was great until I realised that it wasn't getting played at all. I sold it to a nice irish fella in leeds, kept £100 from it and spent the rest on a rather cheap 1977 BB1200 in a case- which was quite a good deal for me whatever way you look at it!

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1397408054' post='2423630'] In the EU, Mr Hall has no legal basis to take action against a private seller of a copy, never mind the genuine article. The law doesn't matter: all he has to do is demonstrate that he is defending his copyright. Its a game of poker: Ped and Kiwi can't afford the stakes and the ISP isn't interested in the game. All this is explained in the original thread. [/quote] well put

[quote name='Sean' timestamp='1397405906' post='2423590'] It's fine, we have a special bond Find anything I wish I hadn't sold? [/quote] not so many photos found - though I think I remember the BBingray from a build thread a while back.

[quote name='Sean' timestamp='1397226918' post='2422011'] [url="http://s1221.photobucket.com/user/Stoker1/media/photo_zps4f59081d.jpg.html"][/url] [/quote]wooo pretty bass, I'm going looking through your old posts to see if you've a photo of more of your stuff!

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1397346177' post='2423132'] Yes we do. We have members who can identify a Rickenbacker copy, blindfolded and with one arm tied behind their back. J. [/quote] we missed you when you weren't around. When you we'rent around we probably had the one arm tied behind the back but would possibly have had to leave out the blindfold.

if you're going to live in poverty and have your wife leave you over the destitution your bass buying habits have got you into can I respectfully suggest you do it with a bass a fair bit more exciting than a mexican mm Fender?

my favourite bass I would like to own but prob never will as can't justify it in the slightest but think looks amazing... NS Radius

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1397338773' post='2423059'] I don't train in the area of law thats involved (although the basics are available and understandable to most). It's much more complex due to this being the internet, the liability of the owners of the website for the actions of its members, and the fact it invokes an international flavour. I can understand why the owners didn't want to carry on with the threats. As much as we are a fairly litigious bunch in the UK, I don't think we tend to dive in and sue at the first sign of a legal dispute like some other countries. Ric will sell Ric's no matter what. I still want one. I'm quite interested to find out what happened with the many high end Fender copies and the cases that stemmed from that. Obviously, they didn't win, but it does seem crazy if you think about it; Leo Fender invented the Fender P and J, yet other companies can do what they want with it (to an extent) and Fender just have to try and compete. Saying all that, if I was a regular Ric seller, I would be annoyed I'd paid the subscription on BC. [/quote] From what I understand.... So Rickenbacker have from the start protected their copyright and US trademarks on their designs and shapes. Their upholding of this trademark in the US is dependent on them able to prove that they have taken action to stop copies. Hense they have a legal necessity to pester Basschat - even though under EU law basschat is doing nothing wrong, under US trademark law Rickenbacker have to be seen to crack down on copies. Right. So Fender didn't and hadn't. So when they went to try and trademark their instruments, and because they hadn't taken action to actively stop the copies he big japanese guitar makers were successfully able to argue that the design were, and had become generic. Except the headstock which was successfully argued as a trademark which is why you stop seeing fender copies with the fender headstock shape post the early 80's.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1397335699' post='2423028'] What I'm telling you is when you ask "what would you have done then ? " is that it's a moot point, because I am not Ped or Kiwi, and I have very different motivations and ambitions. How I behave is not a prescription for others any more than how others behave is a prescription for me . If you are trying to get me to say they have done the only thing they could under the circumstances then that depends on your assessment of what those collective circumstances actually are and what their real priorities are. You and I can only guess at that, but if they are like most people, it's fair to assume they want the maximum possible personal benefit for the least possible effort and financial investment . That's certainly what I want from my own businesses , and I wouldn't expect whoever owns Basschat to be any different. [/quote] or lowest risk. Allow Rickenbacker adverts and there's a chance a few fakes will be advertised, and theres a chance that Joe Hall brings a lawsuit that is unaffordable to defend against... but it's not even just the risk of a lawsuit against Basschat per say, but the threat of legal action against whoever hosts basschat - and I bet given some kind of well worded solicitors paper a web host would rather turn off a site like this than take the risk... and then where would we all be? Finnbass possibly? I don't understand the problem to be honest - Basschat have done what they seem fit to protect themselves, and Rickenbacker owners still have ebay/preloved/gumtree/facebook/TB etc to sell stuff if they want too. Even folk with Rickenfakers can find places to sell fairly easily

Buy it using what?

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1397321769' post='2422826'] I'd still like one but not having them on here means I can't try a decent used one. I don't really want to go to ebay. [/quote] surely theres someone up in the north east with one you could invite yourself around to play with?

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1397320513' post='2422811'] To me this clouds the issue. I think the only thing we need to be concerned about is.... Is there a problem with the act of advertising for sale a genuine Rickenbacker product? I don't think there is. I was a reasonably quiet observer when the ban was originally discussed and I am aware of the issues with fakers, but that's not relevant to the question. If, for example, someone wanted to sell a nice low number Chris Squire with original case, candy and certificate ;-) I think they should be allowed to do it. I miss checking into the porn section to see geo's latest "best Rick ever" only to see it in the for sale section the week after. I don't even think geo's been around here that much since Rick's were banned. [/quote] But equally is there a problem at all with the act of advertising for sale a secondhand japanese/italian/british rickenfaker from the 70's or 80's? Under both European and British law there is no problem with that at all.