neepheid

[quote name='Prime_BASS' post='1296398' date='Jul 7 2011, 08:28 PM']About the vintage fender mustang: I've seen some go for below £200 but this was before people started putting premiums on them cause they are old. Old doesn't equal good but does equal high price tag to some. The best short-scale bass I've owned is the jack Cassidy signature by epiphone. Fantastic sounding bass, very precision esque, warm and woody and the varitone is interesting.[/quote] The Jack Casady Signature bass isn't short scale though... [url="http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?ProductID=116&CollectionID=12"]http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?Produc...CollectionID=12[/url]

I have to say that in my work in computers my motto is "silence is my praise". Keeps me sane. Good bass related stories - Schaller sent me four free (despite my offer to pay) replacement capstans, pinions and screws for the M4S tuners in my Victory Artist restoration - I only needed one! They also sent me a sticker and some plectrums. What a jolly good bunch! Whoever was dealing with Hartke in the UK at the time sent me a replacement knob FOC for my 3500 head, even though it was second hand to me. Gibson Restoration and Repair in the States were able to find me a NOS set of Posi-Lok strap buttons for my Victory, when Gibson themselves had washed their hands of my query very quickly. Axesrus are always awesome. Quick and FREE postage. One thing in particular comes to mind - I ordered something small and it never arrived. They sent a replacement straight away. A couple of months later (!) the original parcel arrived. I contacted them to see if they wanted it back but they said to keep it. Nice one

Apart from some mild noise about how the Fender Precision bass is the only bass worth having (which I just ignored and took even weirder basses to practice next time), I have not been coerced into buying anything. I would leave any band where that happened. Completely out of order, except in serious tribute bands which aim to replicate the original band's sound, looks and instruments. Then that's kind of understandable, but you still shouldn't be coerced/pressured.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='1290140' date='Jul 2 2011, 02:53 PM']I wouldnt mind one at all...but I know the reissue Rippers are VERY expensive [/quote] You'd be much better off scoring an original one. Like most of Gibson's reissues of late, they've completely missed the point. The reissue Ripper is not strung through the body, the pickup switching's all been changed and yes, they've priced it all expensive to hell. That's nothing compared to the reissue Grabber - set neck? 3 point bridge? Messed up the headstock shape? Chrome pickup cover? Expensive? Unfortunately, all these answers are yes, and for the original Grabber, the answer was no. I'll say no more, I could do myself a mischief if I keep going.

[quote name='solo4652' post='1289984' date='Jul 2 2011, 12:09 PM']Just in case the seller does get back to me, can the G&L experts out there offer their opinions on: How does the tone of the L-1000 compare to the L-2000? I generally play the L-2000 on "combined pup" setting, occasionally front pup only setting. What checks would you carry out to satisfy yourself the bass is genuine? What would you be prepared to pay for it? Steve[/quote] The L-1000 has three modes on the switch - humbucking, single coil and OMG mode. The stock L-2000 lacks single and OMG modes in favour of series/parallel, but does have two pickups. OMG mode is a weird thing where the humbucker is connected in series and a cap is applied to one of the coils. What should end up as less sounds like so much more, probably a trick of the ear because it makes no sense electronically to me. I'm considering changing my Tribute L-2000 to be an all passive affair with a single/humbucking/OMG switch for each pickup and a selector switch. I never use the active options (active is just a line boost as far as I'm concerned and the treble boost just sounds nasty to me) and the EQ is passive cut only so I'd rather explore the deepest, darkest depths of the MFD pickup. I also think it would be interesting to hear the bridge pickup with OMG mode. A bridge pickup with some meat to the sound? I hope so.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='1290051' date='Jul 2 2011, 01:16 PM']I really want a Ripper but they seem hard to come by.[/quote] Go west and seek thy fortune. In other words, source from the USA. Having said that I've found two of my Gibsons in the North East of Scotland, so keep your ear to the ground - they are out there.

[quote name='lozbass' post='1289883' date='Jul 2 2011, 09:39 AM']try a few and I hope you'll be flying the flag![/quote] Oops, I think I got that the wrong way round

It is possible that there is also an EMG EQ circuit, judging by the standard issue EMG knobs. Given the number of knobs I'd say that it's separate volume for each pickup then a BQS control which is bass, treble and a sweepable mid on the concentric (top bit is the mid level and the bottom bit is the mid frequency). If I'm right then two of the knobs (governing pickup volumes - probably the ones nearest the pickups) will not have centre detents (where there's a bump where the knob would like to centre) and then the other two (bass and treble) will have the detent. The concentric will have a detent on the top bit but not the bottom bit. That's my guess A photo of inside the control cavity will confirm.

+1 for diet coke before: after:

[quote name='chilievans' post='1286598' date='Jun 29 2011, 04:25 PM']On my shuker I cuttently have a gotoh bridge fitted. I've been concidering buying a badass upgrade. Would it be worth it?[/quote] I don't really think that it would be that much of an upgrade to be honest, unless you consider having the word BADASS stamped on the bridge an upgrade. The Gotoh (especially the 201) is a perfectly competent bridge of reasonable mass and some protection from lateral saddle movement. What isn't it doing for you?

Yep, that's what I'm doing with my tutor at the moment. Watch those tricky ones where it moves from (playing on the capital lettered words) one AND two AND three AND four AND ONE and TWO...

The neck is the one thing I look to be correct on a bass, I doubt a twisted neck is going to be worth much. If the twist isn't too bad then someone might want to have a go at repairing it, but I doubt they'll pay much for the privilege. Sell the tuners separately

Welcome aboard, fellow resident of the grey fortress of melancholy

I've cobbled together some soundclips for you. No, they're not brilliant, but they attempt to show the tonal variety of the bass. [url="http://www.ifb.co.uk/~matthew/mp3/b402-a%20soundclips/"]http://www.ifb.co.uk/~matthew/mp3/b402-a%20soundclips/[/url]

[quote name='gsgbass' post='1284871' date='Jun 28 2011, 03:06 AM']Gibson has had a neck pup right up against the neck since the EB0 came out.[/quote] Except 1972-1979 when they looked like this:

[quote name='Bottle' post='1284189' date='Jun 27 2011, 03:06 PM']Hi Chaps Just got a Vintage copy of a single H Stingray. Had a quick shuftie under the control plate and it appears the humbucker is wired in series (which is kinda what I expected). Black appears to be grounded along with the screen, red / white soldered together and green goes to the vol pot. Wanted to fit a series / parallel switch for coil tapping. Just wondered if you guys had a wiring colour code for the Wilkinson humbucker pickup. EDIT: No matter, doing a bit of Googling, there appears to be several colour-coding schemes in use for Wilkinson pickups, looks like the most accurate one is the same as the Seymour Duncan one, so will try that with a toggle and see how I get on..... Ta, Ian[/quote] Assuming that the correct wires are soldered together then it could/should be black - south coil ground green - north coil hot Red and white is the tricky one, one will be the south coil hot and one will be the north coil ground. You should be able to work it out with a multimeter. Set it to ohms. Break the join at the red/white. Take the black wire and try it through the multimeter with the white wire. If you get a sensible reading (some kOhms) then that's one coil and black is ground. If you don't then it'll be black and red as the first coil. Then it's easy from there. The remaining wire will be north ground and you already know that green is the hot wire for the north coil. Matt

[quote name='basskit_case' post='1282100' date='Jun 25 2011, 01:22 PM']It is possible to get valid insurance if the bass is in a hard case though isn't it?[/quote] Not with ParcelForce it isn't.

[quote name='Jabba_the_gut' post='1281527' date='Jun 24 2011, 09:08 PM']Yet again a well known parcel company manages to let me down. Give them a parcel for a fellow basschatter yesterday morning first thing on a 24 hour service - check the tracker 36 hours later and the parcel is only just showing as having left my local depot. Useless. Last time they had anything of mine was a bass they managed to dent they wouldn't cough up even though it was fully insured (after a couple of months of contacting them). Aaagggghhh! Just needed to vent.......[/quote] They won't pay out even if you pay for the insurance - musical instruments are explicitly excluded from enhanced compensation. Do yourself a favour and boycott ParcelForce - they are absolutely no use to you, the insurance mis-selling gits.

[quote name='chris_b' post='1280945' date='Jun 24 2011, 01:23 PM']This isn't a recent thing.[/quote] I didn't say it was. I said that those basses in particular have been around long enough to have several distinct periods in time in which they were anecdotally regarded as "good" and "not so good".

It helps that none of my (older) basses were made for production runs long enough to debate the relative merits of different eras of manufacture Gibson G-3 : 1975-1985 (10 years, and last 5 years were sporadic production) Gibson Victory Artist : 1981-1986 (5 years) Gibson IV : 1987-1989 (2 years) Guild B401-A : 1980-1981 (2 years) "My 1980 B401-A is so much better than your 1981" - a ridiculous assertion! Is this just a Fender thing (and to a lesser degree Musicman) simply because of the length of time that the basses have been manufactured? Fender Precision : 1951-present (60 years) Fender Jazz : 1960-present (51 years) Musicman Stingray : 1976-present (35 years) These would be the main three longest serving war horses I guess?

That's looking great. I've said that there's only one place one can go after surf green, and that's shell pink I even did a wee shell pink mockup when I was deciding on the colour to refinish my Victory: Kinda glad I went with the gold in the end, shell pink looks great on Fenders, but not so much on things that were never shell pink in their lives.

Indeed - serial number BD100313 makes it 1981 according to [url="http://support.guildguitars.com/downloads/datingyourguild.pdf"]this[/url]. It was a 50/50 shot anyway, they were only made in 1980 and 1981 it would seem...

The vital question is - did you let the [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_smoke"]magic smoke[/url] out?

[quote name='Hutton' post='1278624' date='Jun 22 2011, 03:29 PM']Congratulations Matt that Guild looks superb. Also nice to see my old Gibson sneaking in to the side of one of your photos.[/quote] Thanks, yeah I've recently joined a band so the IV was taken to work for some lunchtime practising