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If you can play those tupe of bands then youre more than capable of joining a band. Youll never feel ready to join a band, but as soon as you do join one, your playing will improve 10 times quicker than having lessons. Youll naturally push yourself harder, have to play songs you wouldnt neccessarily pick and learn to gel with other band members and what they play - all stuff that you cant get from having a lesson - and far more valuable.

The gold knobs turned up today. Now finished. Looks a lot better than i thought in real life (if a bit more gold than originally planned).

Yeh ive previously had tbe 'just plug your bass straight in here (di box)'. Thats lazy sound engineering. Try doing that with a guitarist and theyll start stropping!! All i was trying to work out is if i could send my amps sound to their di. Its not a special sound, its not a world changer, but its a nice sound, nice and even and nice and compressed. This was to make life easier for them. In usual sound checks where we bring the backline i havent had to spend more than 30 seconds on the sound check. Sound guys love it and cant believe how easy ive made it for them. Its like (plays 2 notes across all 4 strings) "oh, er yeh, thats perfect - next!" Interesting that the way im going to have to do this is a sansamp, flyrig or vtbass pedal, when my amp head is capable of doing the same thing.

The advise of roughing up the guard first and then doing a very light cover first worked a treat.

thats a good idea. im going to keep it black for now though, just so i dont mess it up and need to respray it again.

yes, whether its to do with design trademarks or what i dont know, but every precision type scratchplate will not fit every precision type bass. some wont fit over the control recess, some wont fit over the pick up spaces etc - and some will, but may need completely re screwing down as the screw holes are in the wrong place. i couldnt find a replacement for the v4 anywhere. i contacted the manufacturer in the end (jhs) but the one they suggested definitely looked like it wouldnt fit. it had screw holes in different places and the pick up space looked much closer to the edge of the scratchplate than the existing one i had. its definitely worth asking round round first if a replacement will fit your bass.

.......... and just looking at photos from 86 - where did i get the idea he had gold scratchplate screws from?! they look normal to me - but hey ho i like the gold now!! and it doesnt look as cluttered in real life.

ok, so notible differences: 1. its not got the Fender logo (because its not a Fender - theres no way i could experiment with £1500 worth of bass). I would have considered putting a decal on, but the finish on the V4 was that good and gloss varnish finished it would be a disaster to strip it all back. 2. the hardware isnt Fender and the bridge isnt a schaller 3d. Because im no expert i decided to get the V4 as it had good quality hardware as standard in chrome and had the exact same harware available in gold, so in theory it should be a straight swap over without having to re drill or glue any holes. 3. the scratchplate is 3 ply but it was impossible not to spray over the middle ply of white which would have given it that scratchplate outline. 4. just need the gold pot knobs and jack nut. 5. ive decided for the moment to leave the strap locks in chrome as i dont want to swap yet as in case they dont hold properly and i get a mid gig shock! 6. theres a slight rise at the bridge, and a small hum at high levels, but im going to get that looked at. 7. the string retainer needs either a longer screw or repositioning despite being a direct replacement, but should be a 2 minute job. All in all the bass plus parts, paint etc came to around £260 - which is fantastic value.

Just got to add the gold pot knobs and a few set up tweaks and then itll be time to give it a gig!

and finally re fitted with gold screws.

So, hardware fitted, now it was time for the scratchplate. In the end i couldnt find a replacement so after taking advice on here i decided to spray the white scratchplate black.

Nwarly finished my first attempt of re creating the 86 precision on a budget. Using a v4 ive replaced all the chrome hardware with gold....

Dannybuoy and Iojo are spot on. Thats what ive been getting at. Even now, theres a thread on here regarding sansamps and how good they are and where putting it in line or in the send return loop is seen as absolutely fine and normal practice. However, putting an amp in either of those positions causes quite a confusion. I asked the question to Tech 21 as initially i was looking to get a vt bass di pedal, but then discovered that the vt500 amp had exactly the same circuitry. Tech 21 were fantastic in their responses (big thanks to Lloyd) so much so i will be buying either the pedal or the amp to put in my rack alongside the evo. They confirmed both ways are fine (with a few things to watch) and really explained the best way to do things and what effects both ways would be like sound wise.

On my evo i have the amp modeller (Sunn) sorted and the right compression setting all pre programmed in, and its 2 channel so i can flick between basses seemlessly for the detuned songs.it also has the built in tuner and great di. The amps now nearly weigh as much as the pre amp pedals as theyre so light, so id be more then happy carrying the amp around as a 1 box solution, rather than what id have to replace it with - tuner - a/b box - preamp pedal - compressor.

That one line out 1/4 jack would solve everything, but i just have a 'send'.

Thanks for all your help so far. Lewisk - thanks for thst. Youre right, it does look like the send are pre aĺl the effects and colouring. So i wouldnt gain anything. Jrixn - thats kind of the goal im after - in effect a basic 1/4 jack line out. This would be great, but just 2 questions: 1. What are you using to go from xlr to jack? (ie a special cable or adaptor). 2. When you say line out, which is that on the amp? 3. And is 'into another amp head' via the main input or send/return etc?

Cheers. Ive been told by jhs that they sell them, but they dont look right - screw holes in different places, pickup spaces to close to edge etc, so ive reverted to trying to spray paint it.

how is everyone using their pedals? as an inline pedal, or stand alone through a bass amp heads send/return?

Remember to set up a dedicated user on the laptop and have all internet, notifications, alarms and updates switched off. Otherwise prepare for embarrassing hour long waits whilst it updates and unmistakeable windows themes tunes coming in at will. Even a usb going on and off will cause the alarms. And set so your screen saver doesnt kick in and lock your laptop mid playing.

I guess what im wondering is if i used say, a sansamp so it went: Bass - sansamp - pa Bass - sansamp - venue head - venue cab Then what is the difference between a sansamp or di pedal and my head? A sansamp or any di pedal would use di to the pa and thru jack to the venues head and speaker exactly like im trying to do with my head.

Thanks, thats what id usually do when using my set up, but this scenario is slightly different. In this case im wondering if my amp head can be used before or in line with the venues head and cab. Id ask markbass, but ive never once had a reply off them to any of my questions.

That was my first thought, but we have a few fairly large out door gigs coming up, where i imagine theyll have at minimum an 8x10 etc and i wouldnt know if my amp could give enough out at stage level. So im trusting them to ensure the monitoring is adequate. As theyre festivals we wouldnt even have more than a 10 minite sound check id imagine. Effectively im trying to use my amp head as a di box.

Hi all, gig wise, i usually use my bass straight into my amp head and cab and di from the amp head into the pa. nice and simple. however, weve got a lot of upcoming shared equipment / stage change over gigs etc and im just trying to confirm if i can use my amp head as a 'thru' to their amp head and cab, so i can get my sound both to the pa and the hired in bass rig? im thinking: bass - my amp head (no speaker) - di to pa bass - my amp head (no speaker) - 'send' output - input on their bass head - cab. is it ok to use the 'send' out of my amp to the 'input' (not 'recieve') on the front of their bass head via a normal guitar cable? im pretty sure they wont want me plugging into their amp return chains (and they might not even have one) etc, so im looking for a way of plugging straight into the input on their bass head. Theres probably more simple solutions - but using pedals is another expense, and kit to carry around, and swapping amp heads isnt really an option as theirs will be matched for the size of the stage etc. im using a class d markbass evo 1. thats why i want to use as a di as it has my sound in one small lightweight package (amp modeller and compressor all built in). I do have a spare ashdown amp, so if people think this is ok to do i can try it, but just need some reassurance before i try it.