Grangur

Can I please have a loan of this? Many thanks

"Bought" Marshall combo amp from John. Met with him and Mrs Note and we had a nice cuppa and a chat. Many thanks John. Really happy with the combo. After a few chats online it's good to have met too.

Sold! To me!

Intrigued? Me too Ray. I've never seen this bass in one piece. I've no idea what I've got sound-wise. There is a hole drilled from the neck pup routing to the neck pocket. So there is a path if one wanted to fit a neck with LEDs or fibre-optics. Somehow I don't think this will be treated to that type of technology. Besides, there's no battery compartment in the body, so it totally impossible. Thanks for the ideas on the paint finish.

The neck. I've decided not to stick with the goth look of the black neck and got a Stanley knife blade and scraped away all of the black paint. The neck is now oiled and looking dark, but serviceable and will look good with the black metal-work.

In looking at the question of the over all look in the finish I thought about the fingerboard and the dots. As a Warwick Fan, I'm not worried about fingerboard dots. So the red isn't a real big deal. The dots on the side are also red. This isn't good news. I'll re-paint them in white, so I can see them when playing. I can re-dress the frets. I've never done that before. Re-fretting is more in my comfort zone, but lets give a re-dress a try. The body; Black isn't my thing. These basses did also come in red or white. .... mmmmm .... nahhhhh. I'm not into writing on the body, so not too keen on the logo there. But should I try to keep with the history of the bass? On with the work. I started stripping the body further. I started by stripping the body and sanding. This took ages, or so it seemed, and I decided to change to going for the full strip with the blow-torch. Lesson learned here: Sharp pointy edges get hotter than flat surfaces. On one corner the paint got hot and burned under the blow-torch and burned some of the wood. This is not a good start as it's now dulled the sharpness of a corner or 2. It's not drastic, but not great. This brought about a slight change in strategy - back to the first thought - back to sanding and I got this done to a sensible level. All the gloss lacquer is gone and there don't appear to be any rough and flaking parts any more.

I've recently become the new owner of a project that has, so far passed though the hands of at least 2 other folk before coming to my hands. This is, as the title suggests, a Westone Quantum (Westone Quantum bass (X850) There's more info on these on the Westone community site: http://www.westone.info/quantum.html How the bass came to me from Paul S of this parish, was essentially in 3 parts: Body, Neck and a box containing the harness. http://basschat.co.uk/topic/268330-sold-westone-quantum-project-l100/page__fromsearch__1 Day 1: The body looks somewhat like a power boat. It's part stripped and the Logo "Quantum" that normally appears on the body in red, on the black models is missing. It needs a re-spray. The Metalwork of the tuning heads is in pretty good nick, but the bridge needs attention. Stripping down the body, the pups have "MMK" on the back of them. This tells me they are the originals for this type of bass. Apparently it's rare to find a bass of this type with the originals still working... so fingers crossed! The neck has had some wear. It's rosewood with red dots. (Great to see in the dark huh?) The fingerboard of this one is painted black, but the black is well worn. The frets are worn, but could be resurrected if dressed. So, there she is. Where do we go from here? The question is, do we stick with trying to keep it black? As Paul said to me "If Batman played bass he'd play a Quantum". Do we go down the line of a whole new look? Here's on a Darkheart did earlier: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/226192-westone-quantum-restorationmakeover/page__p__2345392__hl__quantum__fromsearch__1#entry2345392

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1440859533' post='2854390'] He has just copied the current spec, I try to comment on these mistakes when I see them but I must have missed this one. All standard BO thumbs built at that time had Ovangkol body and necks, little bit of research before buying always a good idea! Did he provide photos? Edit: Checking again, he has acknowledged the Ovankgol neck, so perhaps it was just a mistake? How has he responded to this? [/quote] He's not responded at all. The pictures he posted are still there at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/h3a7ku03nmcbzgj/AAAPfynKzQOchG66O1eJu7Fxa?dl=0 There's no shot of the serial number. Yet I agree, there's nothing to have stopped me asking before driving 200 miles to buy it. I agree, my fault. I should have taken a laptop or tablet and checked out the serial number BEFORE buying if for me it was such a big deal, which it was.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1440880694' post='2854574'] How often do you break a string ? I've never broken one in 20 years. [/quote] I broke a G string once when fitting it. It was a brand new Rotosound from a set of 5, funnily enough. I took it back to the shop and they sent it back to Rotosound for analysis. Only a month later they gave me a single replacement G string as a replacement. How's that for service? From then on I always use Elixirs.

[quote name='Iain' timestamp='1440800563' post='2854061'] Why? [/quote] I was looking for a video clip to explain the reason. What I found was a good video that explains a lot of what may be the OP problem and why I'm wrong. Enjoy https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SX0ta-dg0Tg

Pmed

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1440796518' post='2854020'] Last question is how out of tune? Noticeable to hearing or a few dots out on the tuning meter - finger pressure can make notes go sharp on tuning meter. [/quote] That's what I was thinking. Thinking of fanned frets - the intonation at the frets will be more of an issue on the E than any other string. Interesting to hear about the experience with duff strings though.

With a Warwick you can go to their website and enter the serial number and get the full specification. I trusted his description. Maybe I'm a bit hot headed.

You're saying it is in tune when you play the open E string? And in tune when you fret it at the 12th fret?

I'm just a bit fed up with this guy. The bass isn't as described in the thread http://basschat.co.uk/topic/263631-warwick-thumb-bo-5-string-2002sold/page__fromsearch__1

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1440763644' post='2853625'] It would be different if the eBay listing said that this was a Deko. I was thinking that if I sold, I would mention that it is a 'factory second' and give a detailed description of what, if anything, is wrong with it. And I would mention 'decoration only' in the listing, but describe it's actual level of playability. And I'd show a close up of the D stamp. @Bassassin - I checked and he has sold some stuff at prices that would make it worthwhile. [/quote] It is interesting how all his pics are crystal clear except the ones where he "tries" to show the mark; and there it's all out of focus on most of them.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1440755888' post='2853506'] An eBay buying guide might be a good idea, but I must admit that I also agree with what miles'tone says, let sleeping dogs lie? [/quote] Agreed. If he was selling loads of them, then you could say he's cornered the market on winning them, but he hasn't. Besides, if any one of us were to get a Deko and decide it's not for you, what would you do? If you send it back, fine. If you go to sell in an auction, what makes you different to him?

No Korean music? Discrete will be disappointed. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QMWUYMWlEyo

[quote name='Maude' timestamp='1440603594' post='2852335'] My acoustic 4 string has a raised 17th fret, easy to sort but I've no business being up that end so left it. The pickup is strange on that one as well, the E and G are a lot quieter than the A and D when plugged in, whether that's the problem or just how they all are I don't know. Strange as it's the higher quality one with the Fishman electrics, it's fine acoustically though. Can't complain for £40 I cannot find anything wrong with my fretless acoustic apart from a tiny mark top of the headstock. [/quote] When I got my bass the E & G were louder than the A & D. The reason was in the set up, they had set the position of the A&D much higher in the bridge. So the spacing of the string to the pup was too high.