BigRedX

One of my bands uses this for the drummer's click track. Works a treat and with the right headphone it has plenty of volume.

Looking at the the badge in the OP, I think the 3D model needs a slight bevel to the edges, also it looks bit thicker than the original. Otherwise that's a brilliant example of what Basschat does best! Personally I wouldn't bother trying to match up the pins to the existing holes. Fill them in, and drill new ones or simply glue the logo onto the headstock faceplate.

BTW when you take it to bits post some photos of what's inside. It would be interesting to see what is under the pickup covers.

This. My choice would be a four-string set based on their Axion Bass VI strings.

That headstock plate looks fabulous!

In that case I'd very surprised if what is lurking beneath the pickup covers bears much resemblance to what is fitted to a Gibson EB3.

The thing is the changes need to be in place plenty of time before the Covid restrictions are lifted, so that everyone knows exactly what is required once gigging anywhere is possible again. Right now what I am being told is that given the current situation (pandemic restrictions not withstanding) it's simply too much effort to bring the support band as well as the headliner over from the UK. @Al Krow I admire your optimism, but right now I see a opportunity which we have spent the last 3 years working towards by delivering at the UK gigs in serious danger of slipping away.

Fair enough regarding the gain for your set up. Although you could always consider a clean boost pedal (or similar that will boost the volume without doing anything else) before the Spectradrive. Check the dimensions of the original pickups carefully before assuming that any modern replacement will be a straight drop in. I learned to my cost when I wanted to "upgrade" the Maxon pickups on my 74 Ibanez Firebird. The SD mini-humbuckers which are an exact replacement for the pickups that would be in a 70s Gibson Firebird didn't fit the pickup surrounds on the guitar, and surrounds the right size for the SDs didn't cover the existing pickup routs. I learnt the expensive way after spending £150 on pickups that couldn't be used without a lot of additional work. Also bear in mind that the choke used in the Varitone circuit is supposed to be tuned to the neck pickup. Changing to pickup to something different might require a new choke to maintain the correct tone.

The current import situation harking back to the bad old days of the 70s has left me wondering two things: 1. Will there be a return of "grey imports" for items from big-name musical instrument manufacturers? 2. What will the 20s equivalent be of all those shops selling "import" records - the ones with a corner cut off the sleeve and an extra hole punched through the centre?

No. I said that last year it was postponed (obviously due to the pandemic) and this year if it is possible to go ahead we'll probably get over-looked in favour of a band that doesn't need multiple visas and work permits as well as carnets for all our equipment and merchandise.

Yes very short sighted. Our support tour already postponed from last year when it would still have been simply a question of sticking us and our gear in the van and heading across the channel to play the gigs that had been booked, looks increasingly like too much work to organise. The promoter has already hinted that even if it does go ahead at the end of this year it might be simpler for him to book an EU-based band as support, unless we can guarantee to have all the relevant paperwork in place for us to do it.

BTW if you do go for a replacement pickup check that it is the same size as the one you are replacing. The Maxon "mini-humbucker" pickups on my Ibanez Firebird guitar are sufficiently different enough in size for the standard replacements not to fit the surrounds, and for surrounds that match the replacement pickups not to quite cover the pickup routs.

Some things: 1. You can't accurately measure the resistance of a single item while it is still in a circuit, you need to remove it completely from the circuit to do this. When you select just one pickup the resistance is in parallel with the volume pot. It's also in parallel with the tone pot and the tone capacitor. Even with these set to their maximum values they will have an influence on the values observed. 2. The size of the cover and the number of pole-pieces visible on a 70s Japanese pickup (especially on a copy instrument) give absolutely no indication of what is actually going on physically and electrically underneath. 3. There is no guarantee that a rewind will not change the sound. I would only go for this option if the pickup was actually dead or by comparing it with another identical pickup you could show that there must be a short within the windings. If you like the tone but there just isn't enough output, why not just turn up the gain on your amp?

That's basically 30 years worth of buying CDs - it averages out at a bit over 1 a week, so not an unfeasible amount considering that many of them were second hand or discounted. They now occupy about 2TB space on a 4TB hard drive and fill a number of large boxes in the attic. BTW none of the other band members appear to have photos of our old cellar recording/rehearsal space from the 80s which is a pity so you'll simply have to take my word for its minuscule size. I do recall that our tallest band member could only stand in a couple of places without having to stoop to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling!

Why is the lack of Bluetooth perplexing? IME Bluetooth adds a very noticeable amount of latency to the audio, which will make watching videos a seriously uncomfortable experience. If you need to synchronise audio with video or audio from multiple sources, Bluetooth is to be avoided.

It's a fantastic system, and IMO the only serious contender for controlling MIDI synths from a bass guitar without noticeable latency. I've been a big fan since the Peavey version cam out. It's a pity that the current incarnation is not available in a more interesting looking instrument or available to be fitted into a bass made by the luthier of your choice.

Before they were all transferred onto my computer and put into storage my 2000+ CD collection occupied shelves that went from floor to ceiling both sides of the chimney breast in my living room filling approximately 6.7 square metres of wall space. BTW I have asked the fellow band-members of my 80s synth band if they have any photos of our cellar rehearsal space and recording studio, which I will post if I get them.

When I use a pick it will depend on exactly the sound/attack I am after (a have a box full of different weight material picks to choose from). However my default choice if I am not a after a specifically different sound is the Herco Flex 75 which I buy 100 at a time.

Isn't the bass in the OP exactly want everyone wants? A Rickenbacker that is essentially a P-Bass?

In the 70s almost every album I bought was either a "Porky Prime Cut" or a "Bilbo Bopper". IIRC the two were cutting/mastering engineers at the same studio which was the go-to place for getting your record cut. My own very first foray into vinyl in 1980 was a Porky Prime Cut. I can't say there was anything pretty special about it. Probably because my distinctly lo-fi DIY band recorded and mixed our 2 tracks in a couple of hours at a very budget 4-track studio (it was all we could afford, and in retrospect not actually a sonic step-up from our home recordings made direct to stereo cassette), and also because it was produced as a double 7" EP with 9 minutes of music on each side running at 33rpm. It did get us played on John Peel's radio show and the record itself is now worth quite a bit of money (although mostly because of the other bands who are on it).

IME (buying mostly indie/DIY records in the 70s and 80s) poor pressings were all to common. In would be a good month if I was only returning one record to the shop to exchange it (if possible) for a better copy. As I have said previously, I discovered that my local shop's entire stock of an eagerly-awaited album from "I'm So Hollow" was pressed off-centre to such an extent that it was unlistenable. Even the copy that John Peel played was noticeably off. All of the 12" single and albums I still own from that period are noticeably lightweight when compared to a modern 120g pressing. You could track the reduction in material used to press an album from the late 60s onwards to the near flexi-discs of the mid 80s. I do have to say that the dance music 12" singles I bought in the 90 were significantly better pressings than what had gone before, but I don't miss the lottery of wondering if the next single might have been cut with just too much bass for my tone-arm to cope with.

But you don't want to be hearing carrier frequencies. They should be filtered out at source, and if not done properly can modulate the audible audio to produce distinctly unmusical artefacts.

Interesting. Unfortunately it's not the whole story, if you read the article fully you will soon realise that it's not as marvellous as it sounds: 1. It's only a carrier signal - not actual musical content. 2. It could only be detected by visual observation of the grooves, not by listening. 3. Requires half speed cutting, not something that is done under normal circumstances. 4. It was only done on a acetate. No indication whether or not these frequencies would survive the mechanical duplication processes to an actual record. 5. The test was done at 10" diameter, where there is significantly more bandwidth available compared with closer to the end of the record (as per one of my previous posts). 6. Not reproducable under normal cutting room conditions, or capable of playback on hifi systems - although there are plenty of audio signals that this applies to when it comes to vinyl. So while it is interesting, it has zero real-world applications when it comes to producing records with audio content.

The problem with vinyl is that it is hard to reconcile the physicality and often luxury of the packaging with the poorly produced lump of plastic within. I love the look of a good record collection with its expansive 12" and 7" sleeves, but as someone whose vinyl mostly consisted of indie/DIY records bought during the late 70 and the 80s, I don't for a moment miss the badly pressed discs contained within. And to get back to the OP I'm not convinced that the current additional expense of vinyl over other formats is either acceptable or can be justified in terms of production costs.

Can you please explain why a better turntable will reduce pops and crackles? I thought that these were due to manufacturing flaws or damage to the record itself. Also while reducing wow and flutter should be a good thing, IMO the relationship of the hole in the "centre" of th record in relation to the grooves is by far the biggest contributing factor. The problem for all analogue music reproduction systems is that they rely on the real-time extraction of the information from the playback media, and any fluctuations in the mechanics of of the playback mechanism will adversely impact on the final sound.