Bigwan

147 quid. They've sold on here for similar. Great, great, great pedals. If I didn't have an HX Stomp I'd have another one in a heartbeat.

Just now, spacecowboy said:

Well... You'd think I'd learned my lesson after dropping my fret press caul on my big toe... Lots of swearing for 5 minutes ...

Ouch! It doesn't take much to cause that sort of reaction when whatever it is is dropped from a height!

The bass looks lush by the way!

17 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Some interesting ones there @Bigwan

I bought my Warwick Thumb NT in 89 from Sound Control Glasgow. Tried the Thumb and the Streamer but preferred the Thumb probably because i was a Jack Bruce fan. 

The ACG's look amazing. Not actually tried one.

I like the look and sound of MM but tried one when they appeared in shops years ago and the neck felt too wide for me.

Your WAL experience did surprise me as i found mine very comfortable to play but had a dead note on G string which on hindsight might have been something simple but being young and naive and having no help from WAL i traded it for something else possibly my Jazz.

Its amazing how we experience basses in different ways.

Dave

 

I'd highly recommend ACG @dmccombe7. I've owned 4 (one of them twice!). They've all been top notch. My current 2 are going nowhere!

I've not played many Wal basses, but the one I had felt TOTALLY different to another Mk 1 that belonged to a friend. Different neck shape, weight and balance altogether. His was a far more pleasing soft V neck profile. It's not a bass I'm likely to revisit given the current market price. I bought at £550, sold for £1450 a couple of years later. Could probably get north of 4k for it nowadays and it was in particularly bad condition, not by my hand I might add!

It's different strokes for different folks innit!

I need to stop looking at this thread. Cheap or not it all adds up to costing me a fortune! 

On 05/06/2021 at 12:44, spacecowboy said:

Frets filed flush to the board, none of them had moved or tried to wriggle free so that's nice! Just waiting for some inlay material to arrive before doing the fret inlays then I can glue the board on!

made a start on the nut and got the inserts installed, grub screws fit and raise the bridge up well, won't notch it until the strings are ready to go on and I'm setting all my heights.

It's the same wood piece as the fingerboard so I assume they're happy being back together! 

And this handsome chap is my dog who is busy telling me I shouldn't be in the garage on such a nice day! 

 

Barefoot in the garage? You're a braver man than me! 

I can think of a quite a few over the last 30 years! 

Warwick Stage 1 Streamer - lusted after one for years. First time I played one (Sound Control in Glasgow) I hated pretty much everything about it. It was a well used/abused example but it put me off nonetheless. Never played one since, but have enjoyed other 'wicks so maybe someday I'll cross paths with one again... 

Modulus - played a 4 string in the Bass Centre in Wapping about 20 years ago. Yuck.

Wal - owned a Wal custom for a few years. Bought it cheap (£550) when I was going through a Tool phase. Spent a long time trying to tell myself it was a great bass. And it did SOUND great... It just felt like an unergonomic lump of lead. To my mind Alan at ACG has improved on the Wal idea in every regard... 

Musicman - had a MM5 in the late 90s. Nice flexible bass. But the MM4, Bongo 5HH and Bongo 4HH basses I've owned since have left me cold... 

Shuker 6 - nothing to do with John, all on me this one. Ordered a custom bass without be 100% on exactly what I wanted. 

Sei - again lusted after them for years. I've played about 8 different examples from memory. Other than a headless 6 Flamboyant, the rest did absolutely nothing for me at all. 

Fodera Ying Yang 4 - (Bass Gallery visit) never really been MY dream bass but it has been for many. I just couldn't believe how "meh" this bass was... But then I'd just played a beautiful Fodera Emperor 5 and the Skarbee Celinder Update 4 minutes before, which are easily 2 of the best basses I've ever held in my hands. Certainly in my top 5 anyway. One of the best bass days. Met @Flanker of this parish that day and had a blast through his (new to me) Thunder funk head. Sorely missed you are mate. 

Sadowsky 5 - (different Bass Gallery visit) again, a long lusted after bass. Again toppled by the Moon 5 jazz I played it side by side with. The Moon was spectacular. The Sadowsky was OK. 

I'm sure there are loads more. I've had a lot of basses through my hands over the years. 

I can handle as heavy as it gets really, but I prefer (as previously mentioned) some contrast. 

Killswitch and Soilwork are favourites. Love a bit of Mudvayne. Anything with Devin Townsend. Tesseract get quite a few spins, along with a few other djenty bands, Meshuggah, Periphery. 

My YouTube music radio stations are entertaining - everything from John Mayer and Fleetwood Mac to Mudvayne and Ziltoid! 

French, sleek, modern, purple, growls...

UK made, plush, fancy wood involved...

Assembled at home from quality parts...

If this had been here 2 weeks ago we'd have been talking! Alas a Vigier Excess 5 came up and is sitting in my lap as I type... And going by it these basses really are next level!

1/4" I believe. 6mm is SO close....

12 minutes ago, OliverBlackman said:

I wrongly assumed the ramp was there to rest the thumb. @ped has corrected me.l although I’m now more confused about its relevance.

It restricts how much you dig in on the strings. Works REALLY well for that actually. I had an adjustable ramp on a Shuker 6 I ordered years ago. My current ACGs have pretty large pickup enclosures so don't really need a ramp.

13 hours ago, JapanAxe said:

I never got the whole ramp thing - it always looked like a crutch for players who haven’t sorted their finger-style technique.

👀

Tell that to Billy Sheehan who's been using his P pickups as ramps for YEARS... Or maybe Gary Willis who's a fan of them... But different strokes for different folks!

Edit: I see somebody beat me to the Sheehan/Willis comment, but I think it bears repeating...

It's here... And it's SPECTACULAR! 

Edit: unlike my photography skills... 

Used EBS Fafner would be what I'd be looking for myself... 

Just bought a bass from Rhys who was kind enough to respond to my wanted ad. It turned up well packaged and in super quick order. First time I've bought anything since Brexit - the Irish Sea customs debacle could have put a few sellers off, but Rhys sorted all the paperwork for the courier with minimal fuss. Couldn't be more pleased with the bass and I'd definitely deal with him again. 

Last week...

Missed it by deliberating too long... But I'm not too sad... I have something else French coming!

(@walshy I was quite sad for a few days though!!!)

10 minutes ago, eude said:

 

5 minutes ago, Merton said:

Go on... you know you want to!

Yes I do... But no, I can't!

1 hour ago, Merton said:

Same story with me; in fact it was the exact same Recurve bass which took me on my journey. My first ACG Custom, a 33” Finn 5, was superb but as soon as I then got a 32” Finn 4 I realised I wanted a slightly shorter 5 too. I now have 4 ACGs of different flavours but they are all bang on what they were supposed to be, based upon my learnings from that first Recurve and Finn. 

I could see a 30" 5 string (or 30.5" as Alan makes them) ACG in my future... although probably distant future given recent events!!!

1 hour ago, BassApprentice said:

This for me is the hurdle, I would love an ACG/Sei/Shuker but I would have no idea where to even begin. I don't think I've spent enough time with enough basses to even know what I would want them to make. 

Just another excuse to try and buy more things 😂

All I can tell you is how I started with ACG - buy a used one to get a feel for what you think you might want. I bought an ACG Graft Recurve 5 from @Black Coffee of this parish... Actually I loaned it from him for a few days with a view to buying it... And transferred him money pretty much the same day I was that impressed with it. (I don't delieve in "signs" so much but on my way home from picking up the bass there was a pretty clear one as I was driving behind a Jeep Cherokee with an odd numberplate "xxxx ACG" - TRULLY BIZARRE!)

Anyway, living with that ACG for a while taught me what I like about what Alan does.

Zero radius fretboard - love it

Neck shape - love it

Scale length (33") - could be longer. I was used to playing Lakland 5s at the time so matched their 35" scale with my custom

String spacing - OK @18mm but could be wider, went with 19mm but adjustable. 

Pickups (singles with an odd placement) - sounded great, especially the neck pickup but wanted twin P pickups and fatter enclosures. Ended up with a mix of Alnico P at the neck and reverse Ceramic P at the bridge. Alan was great with suggestions in this regard. 

4 way selector switch - nope I had that on a Dingwall and didn't like it. Went with the all dancing 5K pre - this is the only thing I'd change if I was going again, and only because I've now owned a bass with the ACG version of the East Retro-P! 

Recurve body shape - yup, like it a lot. 

As for wood choices, I had my own ideas about what I wanted and Alan didn't dissuade me. I also wanted my pickups in a non-standard position - front pickup in normal P position, but bridge pickup as close as possible to the neck pickup. Worked well for me and the resultant bass is a dream! 

I've had 4 ACGs now, the original Graft Recurve 5 (gone but served its purpose well), my custom 5 Recurve (I doubt I'll ever sell this one), a custom 4 Recurve (similar spec to my 5 string, regretfully sold), the 4 string Finn "cricket club" bass (sold, regretted, bought back). Not a bad bass among them to be honest!

Looks like I'm going to get a chance to find out for myself! Woop woop! 

5 hours ago, Sarlscharisma said:

https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Vigier_Excess_4_SH.html.

 

There's also a review on the Excess on the page

Yeah I'd seen that one and I'm tempted. @Dood's video review is of the ACTUAL bass that bass direct have for sale too! 

Alas I missed the boat on 2 (yes, 2!) Passion IV 5 strings over the weekend. Have wanted ads up - it's time for a bucket list bass so have ads up for Vigiers, Spectors and a left-field-in-comparison  Dingwall Super P! 

Thanks @Balcro! I'm holding off changing anything until I can play the cab with my band in the setting it was intended for and then we'll see what's what!

45 minutes ago, Phil Starr said:

I assume this is the cab in this thread? So I bought a heap... - Amps and Cabs - Basschat

Have you addressed the issues you mentioned there, fixed the leaks and checked the glue on the old Peaveys? Without fixing the leaks and other issues replacing the speakers won't solve the problems.

It was quite common for 2x15's to use speakers not initially designed for bass, Peavey used the 1501Black Widow in their own 2x15. It has the metal dome and was designed for guitar but sounded great for bass. Excursion was terrible by todays standards 1.6mm from memory but the cab was more than loud enough. If this is sitting in a rehearsal room I'd fix everything i could and just stop worrying, if it blows then you are no worse off and you can replace the speakers then. 

If not then the Beyma's recommended in the previous thread are still probably your best value for money replacements. Avoid anything with LF in the designation like that Fane. They are designed to be the LF part of a 2-way speaker system with a horn and will sound very dull in a 2x15.

You know I'd forgotten I'd even started that thread - thanks for the reminder Phil! I did deal with the issues on the cab at the time, but it doesn't sound particularly pleasing with the BWs, albeit solo at the minute. Holding off on rashly changing drivers may be the sensible move.

On 05/05/2021 at 10:54, Balcro said:

Hello Bigwan,
What's the size of the the old Laney beast. Any idea of the internal volume and secondly, (couldn't find any online pics) what is the diameter and length of any ports?

15" speakers seem to need between 50 & 150 litres each to work well in a cabinet. A lot of variation. Let me know the figures.

 

Sorry, @Balcro I missed your initial message for some reason!

2 separate chambers, dimensions are as follows:

24" x 15.25" x 16" (internal) (610mm x 387mm x 410mm)

2 ports, each 4" (101mm) internal diameter, 4.5" (114mm) long

I'd imagine it looked a bit like this in better days: