BigRedX

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1462281161' post='3041696'] I'm doing that in my 50s. I'm gigging way more than I ever have done in four decades of playing and loving it. Er, mostly. The only thing wearing thin is my hair. Boom-tish! [/quote] Me too. The last time I was in a band as busy as the Terrortones was back in the early 80s, although I probably would have been gigging more in the intervening years if I'd been in bands that were more popular...

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1462260896' post='3041448'] That's cool when you're 25 but starts to wear a bit thin when you're in your 30s and trying to balance a gigging band with a full time job and maybe a family. [/quote] Everyone has to make their own lifestyle choices. There's no rules to say that you have to have a career and a family once you are in your 30s. [quote name='Lw.' timestamp='1462268331' post='3041513'] ...the successful people in this industry aren't the ones who have had everything fall on their lap. [/quote] Very much this.

And photos or it didn't happen!

Plenty of "active tone" from your amp controls.

These two: I don't think I could pick between them. The black Gus was made for me to my specifications. It's my preferred bass for recording. However the red Gus looks better on stage and it's slightly more aggressive sound can be beneficial when the live mix is less than optimal.

AFAICS the current accepted definition of vintage is anything over 25 years old. That means anything made before 1991! That puts it into perspective... Also means that all my Gus guitars and basses will be considered vintage within the next 10 years!

One thing to remember is that the Epiphone version of the EB3 is 34" scale whereas the standard Gibson version was 30.5" scale. This means that the position of the neck pickup in relation to the string length is different on each. Of course you also have to take into account that the Gibson versions had several different positions for the pickups depend on the year the bass was made in. Also the Epiphone doesn't have the varitone circuit of the original. Like all Epiphone basses this doesn't really have much in common with the Gibson it was derived from other than the basic shape of the body.

[quote name='SICbass' timestamp='1461746666' post='3037238'] People have been dragged out onto the street and publicly flogged for doing less than that. [/quote] I don't see what the problem is. I suspect at the time if you needed a bass that would cover both Fender and Gibson tones this was the cheapest and most convenient way of doing it. Besides there was nothing special about the bass just another Fender.

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1460960393' post='3030057'] I tried the Pitchfactor with my Deep Impact - it was OK but the Pitchfactor tended to compress things a little making it sound slightly less analogue and rich. The arpeggiator was fun though but its a massive faff to get around the factory arpeggio presets so I sold it. Really wish someone out there would make a non MIDI programmable arp pedal...a couple like the Pitchfactor get so close but there's always something that detracts from useability with bass synth. [/quote] Do you really mean [b]NON[/b] MIDI programmable? These days I'd be very reluctant to buy anything but the simplest of devices (3 knobs or less) that didn't have programmability and MIDI control. Besides I think that you'll find anything that requires a micro-processor for it's main function usually has enough spare processing power for programmability and MIDI control to be trivial add ons.

I sold the last of my Boss half-rack gear a while back, but IIRC the screws required to hold them in place in the rack tray were short and stubby with an fairly wide head - not a standard looking screw. Might be worth getting in touch with [url=http://www.roland.co.uk/support/repairs_spares/]Roland UK[/url].

Despite the fact that there's little of the original finish left (BTW why do old Fenders see to shed their finish at the drop of a hat?) at least the wood doesn't look as though it's been sandblasted with coarse grit like the bass in the OP.

[quote name='Kex' timestamp='1461677774' post='3036659'] ...but she wanted me to strip off the hardware and electrics, and even if i could do that ( I can't)... [/quote] Just out of interest why can't you do this? IME it's the easiest bit of refinishing a bass.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1461678875' post='3036669'] Just focus on the look ... loons and glitter, platform boots, no spandex ... the music will take care of itself. [/quote] This. I trust you will be dressing appropriately?

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1461588373' post='3035855'] I saw this a few weeks ago - this caught my eye...I could only count 4 knobs. "[color=#AA5A86][font=Calibri][b][color=#fbfff8]TT[/color][/b][/font][/color][font=Calibri][b]The Gibson pickup fitted 69' stamped 68 inc pots a[/b][/font][b][font=Calibri][size=3]ll 5 knobs are 60s originals"[/size][/font][/b] [/quote] The fifth knob is on the lower horn.

[quote name='NoirBass' timestamp='1461580033' post='3035755'] Agreed, Having measured with a cocktail stick as suggested, the hole goes right thorough to the other side of the case, suggesting there is also a hole in the main pcb. That said, I think 10mm would be more than enough. I'm assuming something like this will work: [url="https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/en/products/m2x10-pan-pozi-machine-screw-mild-steel-bright-zinc-plated-din-7985?utm_medium=google_shopping&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=google_shopping&gclid=CjwKEAjwgPe4BRCB66GG8PO69QkSJAC4EhHhRMIeZwuFikz8HogWlMG0Tfe2h2Ug1eXpYTkIB0pn9xoCcWjw_wcB"]https://www.orbitalf...0pn9xoCcWjw_wcB[/url] [/quote] I'd open the rack unit up and double check before securing it with a screw that long. When I said fairly short I meant 5mm max.

IIRC the screw length is fairly short - as the indent in the rack tray plays a large part in holding the unit in place.

I've owned basses of all vintages from ea ly 60s to brand news ones made in the last 5 years. The ones I currently use on a regular basis because they look, sound, and play fantastically where all made less than 15 years ago.

A very nice Travis Bean TB2000.

When is it deliberate effect and not just a by-product of the equipment being used to amplify or record the performance? Overdrive and compression has been around since valves were first used in amplification. Reverb can simply be the product of the acoustic space used for the performance.

IME pitch to MIDI is unlikely to ever satisfy any half-way decent musician. The laws of physics dictate that the pitch detection circuitry needs at least one full wave cycle to have a good guess at the note and preferably more in order to properly eliminate inaccuracies caused by sharpening of the attack portion of the note. So the lower the note the longer it takes to detect the pitch. Swapping to a piccolo bass is at best going to halve the latency time. Whether or not that's going to be good enough only you can say. However Tony James of Sigue Sigue Sputnik who has been playing bass lines using pitch to MIDI for probably longer than anyone else, says that even with using a Roland MIDI guitar instead of a bass he still has to play ahead of the beat in order for the synth sounds to be in time with the rest of the music. Also be aware that the conversion to MIDI data adds further latency to the sounds. If you are serious about using a stringed instrument to generate MIDI data for synths then you should look at the [url="http://www.industrialradio.com.au/products/pro-4-midi-bass.html"]Industrial Radio MIDI Bass[/url], which uses sensors in the frets to dictate pitch and only uses the actual audio data for trigger information. They also a do a MIDI guitar with the fret sensing mechanism so obviously they don't believe that pitch sensing alone is fast or accurate enough even when the notes are an octave higher. Alternatively brush up on your keyboard skills. I developed enough of a keyboard technique to far eclipse anything I could get out of pitch to MIDI systems in about a week.

That looks very nice indeed. And kudos to Dave Wilson for suggesting matching the back of the neck to the new body colour.

Again it's a case of using the right tools for the job. On stage unless it's tiny or you like to stay stood right by your amp, you can't beat a good wireless system. However in the studio it's good quality (OBBM) leads all the way.

Any photos of the back panel?

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1461260871' post='3033089'] A proper all-tube is around 35kg, so I'm guessing around 9kg. Which would be very light for a valve amp. [/quote] If that's the case, you can put me down for one right now. That would be only 1kg heavier than my Tech Soundsystems Black Cat which has a P2P wired tube pre-amp and 2 x 500 W class D power amps, in a similar 2U case.

Would someone hazard a guess at what 1/4 the weight of an all-tube equivalent actually is?