BassBod

I enjoyed the Nigel Kennedy set, only slightly marred by the patronising R3 intro hosts. Really nice to see Mark King working outside of his natural environment. Best thing I saw. Eddie Reader was great. Won’t waste time slagging off the oasis lot..horrible noise.

I’d combine the enhancer with a FET preamp, for a bit of clean boost. I seem to remember the first part of the enhancer knob’s travel gives the valve a bit more gain..and the eq kicks in after around 9 o’clock.

I'd be going Uke, and having a more relaxed time...unless you feel the double bass and its presence on stage is an essential element to the gig. I'm sure if you asked your fellow band members they would all say double bass. To act as a balance to this, just roughly work out the real costs to you of driving/parking vs train. I've always found it easier to get reimbursed for tickets than personal miles and parking.

In a multi laminate neck, the added stiffness of fibre rods is possibly overkill. I remember Wal (chunky laminated necks) decided against it back in the mid 80’s. i’ve got one traditional J neck with carbon rods, and it hardly gives under string tension - with the truss rod undone it remains virtually straight, despite being a very thin profile. Sounds great but it’s not very forgiving, and won’t take a low action without some fret work.

Nice to hear it’s still performing - lovely amp😎.

If I still owned one, and it was reliable I’d keep it. PA’s are getting smaller, lighter and better. Modern small active PA speakers can carry some bass into the room, even fairly small systems. That makes the little GK’s a viable close monitor in many more situations than a few years ago.

Long time ago, but I’m sure my WT400 went to Jon for a check over soon after I got it, partly to check the fan worked. He was impressed by the quality of the construction and components. Good amps. I only sold mine because it went into thermal shut down driving two 8ohm cabs at volume. Later, I discovered those 8ohm cabs contained speakers labelled 4ohms by their makers 😳 so I was actually running it down to 2ohms. Thank you Euphonic Audio.

The current values look ok to me...they used to be around £650 -£700 new, so £300 feels about right. No one with a ten year old GK paid £800 for it (hopefully!). Also, the painted metal cabs can scratch easily, so if they haven’t lived in a bag they can look pretty rough, even if they are in good working order. Last time I looked out for one most examples on offer looked pretty rough 😳

They are just a very old design now. Go back 10 years or more, and there wasn’t much that could do what they do for the size and weight - now there are many small heads and cabs that can..and more. I also don’t think the later models added any performance...if anything they seem to have more circuit noise than previous versions.

One quick thought - swap the preamp valve? The hum seems to be input/load related, and it’s the most likely thing to be damaged or unseated in a “drop”.

I had a WT400..the fan was thermo controlled, and only came on if I was driving a 4ohm load. It was a bit hissy, but no hum. It was a lovely amp, and very well behaved. I’d suggest Jon Godsland (Orchid Electronics) in Exeter.

Good job they all look the same 😜

But there is the MkV AH250 in between....doesn’t that bug you?

It’s going to be cheap bass in a Hiscox, which is pretty much what I used to do anyway. Now I just need a gig worth flying to.

Noticed recently that my instrument insurance (with Allianz via broker) now specifically excludes claiming damage for any instrument that travels in the hold, in any case. The instrument has to be physically with you in the cabin to be covered. This level of risk evasion looks new to me, and a bit useless for “worldwide cover” 😳

Went for the custom moulds a few months ago, having used generic fits of various kinds for 15 years. The customs are far better, although I'm still surprised how well the Flare Audio metal things work (but I found them uncomfortable if worn a lot over a few days). The only issue I've noticed is the low end of my bass sound is attenuated more than the midrange (with ER17 filters) so I have to be careful not to over eq to compensate. Its a pleasure to finish a loud gig and not feel the effects driving home, or the next morning. I'm also wearing them for quieter gigs, to block out noisy crowds or if I'm standing close to cymbals. If you want to play music for years ahead, just get some.

That’s the Birchwood Casey stuff, made for gun stocks. It’s good, thicker and builds quickly. I use it for maple fingerboards as it keeps dirt out and helps lighter wood look clean. Got some nasty health warnings on it (for California) so I use more natural tung oil for general finishing.

Yes, I was going to bring my PJB BigHead....but completely forgot when I loaded up the car. 😳

Charlie’s original Perspex Bass was made by Nightingale, I think. It’s got a lovely figured maple neck, dark rosewood fingerboard with a Perspex headstock glued on, in a scarf joint, under the first frets. It weighs several tonnes, but strangely feels quite good on a strap - it’s really well balanced. Sounds huge. I think the headstock joint needed re-glueing a few times, over the years. Last year he had a new 51P style see thru bass made by Seb Pechia (Riverside Guitars). This one has a maple neck/fingerboard - partly because of the rosewood CITES restrictions.

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