
hamfist
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Everything posted by hamfist
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[quote name='bengreen49' timestamp='1387884871' post='2316767'] Is that a Corkwring wrasse in your avatar? [/quote] It's actually a particularly amazingly coloured severum I used to have. Oh, and thanks to all for all your kind words about the bass chaps.
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[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1387879363' post='2316667'] Good work! I just cleaned up years of tarnish and gunk off the brass bridge on my recently acquired Alembic with Flitz paste (its what Alembic recommend for cleaning brass components) Link here, £7 http://www.transtools.co.uk/accessories/polishing-and-buffing/flitz-paste-polish-for-metal-plastic-and-fiberglass-50g [/quote] Ooo, I like that, polishes and then protects. Might get some.
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OK, so ... are Farida basses the best pound for pound basses around?
hamfist replied to bagsieblue's topic in Bass Guitars
The Farida I owned was OK, although nothing particularly special IMO. You'll be hard pressed to beat some of the less "trendy" 80's-90's MIJ basses, Westones etc and some lower end USA Peaveys (like the Fury etc) for value for money. Astounding quality for under £200. -
Well, I'll been working on this little beauty for a few days and finally got her finished. And what a result. I am thrilled, both with the looks and the tones ! She's a Westone Thunder 1A with twin EMG P pickups (a standard P4 and a 30P4), plus the 3 band EMG BQC control pre-amp. I have stripped the finish and re-finned with natural Danish oil and lastly with wax. I've learned two new skills here. It's my first routing job (done with a Dremel 3000, the Dremel 565 and a 6mm Routing bit). I'm pretty happy with the result. I'll do it even better next time, but it's not really difficult once you have 50 quids worth of the right kit. I'd thoroughly recommend doing this rather than paying even more for a luthier to do a rout for you. They'll probably charge you £100. Get the kit yourself, practice on an old offcut, and you've then got the skills and the kit for life. I did it by first pencilling out the outline of the rout, then hand-drilling out with a large wood bit (with my normal big drill) down to a controlled depth of around 2cm, to get the bulk of the wood out. THen out comes the Dremel with it's router attachments and with care you can just hand rout it right up to about 0.5mm of the pencil line, down to your required depth (2cm for me). THen finish the edges with a big straight file, to get a nice straight line. THe corners I did with a 3mm router bit, again simply carefully by hand. Also new for me is an oil finish. Again I'm very happy with it. It's not the most wonderful bit of wood in the world, but then again, it's not too shabby either. And it's a dead easy way to get a nice pro finish. Much less effort than painting that's for sure. It certainly won't be as durable as paint but is so easy to touch up. I'll see how it goes anyway. It won't be that much effort to refinish it again if need be. As for the tones and playability. She's an absolute delight. Very flexible. Tons of juicy mids to cut through. I am very happy with it. And the sense of achievement at having done this myself really adds to the pleasure of playing. Lastly, does anyone have any tips for cleaning up the brass bridge ? OK, now the important bits, ...... pics. [url=http://www.ephotobay.com/share/wt-a.html][/url] [url=http://www.ephotobay.com/share/wt-f.html][/url] [url=http://www.ephotobay.com/share/wt-b.html][/url] [url=http://www.ephotobay.com/share/wt-c.html][/url] [url=http://www.ephotobay.com/share/wt-d.html][/url] [url=http://www.ephotobay.com/share/wt-e.html][/url] [url=http://www.ephotobay.com/share/wt-g.html][/url]
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[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1387807108' post='2315902'] Assuming you haven't been there already, there is a discussion forum dedicated to Westone guitars. If the parts are available, they will know here: [url="http://forum.westoneguitars.net/"]http://forum.westoneguitars.net/[/url] [/quote] Good idea. If I decide to go ahead with the project again in the future I shall ask there. Thanks Paul.
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[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1387782517' post='2315480'] I though Wilkinson did [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]1/2" hole tuners ?[/font][/color] [/quote] If you can find any let me know. I can't find any.
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I like that knackered black look. Very cool !
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Top man Tom managed to get me my second Knightfall by the morning of my gig on the 20th. Stirling performance ! Still overcome by how good this pedal is, and to have two of them now gives mucho live flexibility.
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[quote name='MB1' timestamp='1387743379' post='2315173'] MB1. Might be an idea to contact Aria Uk They may be able to help? as westones often used similar parts to Arias (They were made in the same factory) [/quote] Yup, for someone else wanting to continue the search, that might be a good thing to do. cheers.
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Update ..... I have put the idea of constructing a new THunder on ice, as I have used the neck to replace a bad one I had on another Thunder. However, it seems that Hipshot certainly do 1/2" hole tuners (it's the std. Rick size and certain other vintage era brands). So if you have a bit of cash, that's no problem. For cheap tuners in that sizing I think the only option is probably to buy used though.
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Are the D and G strings still visibly reasonably central over the pickup poles ? Could be that your new pickup set have the poles at different spacing than your last. Not sure why, but might be ?
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Sold a pedal to Phil. Top chap to deal with. Absolutely pleasant experience. Thoroughly recommended !
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[quote name='Bloc Riff Nut' timestamp='1387663689' post='2314439'] And I just bought the Pickle Pie from Alan. Heres another thumbs up for Alan, a quick and easy deal. Cheers! [/quote] yup, it's a bit sad really, me buying and selling two of the same pedal within a month or so. Don't know what it is about me and fuzzes. I'm just such a tart with them. Can't control myself.
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Ibanez Roadstar Bass 1983 MIJ Sold Pending the usual
hamfist replied to ash's topic in Basses For Sale
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SOLD As per title. Only about a month old. I have been doing a LOT of fiddling around and changing stuff in my basses recently, and have finally gone all EMG pickups in all of them, after a final "last" flirtation with passives (I suspect I'll go there again, but need the money at the moment). This Duncan pickup is my favourite passive P pickup, but having gone all active now, this'll need to go. COmes with instructions and screws. Has a tiny graze on one of the covers. £45 posted to your door in mainland UK. £40 if you collect from me near Southampton. [url=http://www.ephotobay.com/share/spb-3.html][/url]
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It's a great question and something I have wondered about too. I have wondered whether the string break angles over nut and bridge are factors. Also, I would be pretty certain that potential side to side motion of the bridge saddles (whatever the design of the bridge) would affect the "feel" of the string. To SUnburst66, does your 66 P have a very old style bridge where the saddles are not brilliantly secured from a side to side motion when you pluck hard ?
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Westone Thunder custom PJ, mint green. WITHDRAWN
hamfist replied to hamfist's topic in Basses For Sale
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Martin (MJW) installed power-scaling on a JTM45 that he built me a fair while back. It worked superbly ! And I had tried and compared a number of power-soak type devices to compare to. If budget was no object, I'd go with a 200W MJW with his power-scaling.
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WITDRAWN. I have come to the decision that the neck on this is not to a standard I am happy selling, and has come to the end of it's life despite my best efforts. I will be trying to put a new neck on it. Might keep it, then. Who knows ? For trade, or sale, here is a completely unique bass. It's basically a 1986 Westone thunder 1A version 3. These have longer necks and extra frets compared to the v1 and 2. They also have a rout for a rectangular pickup (originally it is a westone P pickup in a rectangular casing) in about the same position as an Aria SB1000 (inbetween a Precision and a Stingray). Obviously made in the Matsumoku factory in Japan, these basses are made from quality aged hardwoods, and multi-laminated necks. All quality stuff. A lot of time, money and effort has gone into this instrument. In addition to the rout for the (rather disappointing) original pickup, it is routed for PJ pickups. Just for info the original rout happens to fit an EMG 40 sized shell pretty well. The bass has been re-finished in a rather nice light mint green. And, with the Union Jack pickguard(s), it really does look amazing. There are two pickguards that will come with the bass, both in the same Union Jack design. One for the PJ pickups in the pics and one for the original pickup. I have tried an EMG 40 P pickup in the original rout and it sounds amazing also. The neck pickup fitted is a brand new Seymour Duncan SPB-3 quarterpounder, and the bridge pickup is a brand new Wilkinson Jazz bridge p'up (in the Fender 1970's position). The wiring is passive VVT. The pictures also show an extra dual concentric control, which is a John East active parametric mids unit, but this is NOT part of the sale. The bass will be fitted with a "dummy" pot and knob in place of it. If you are very keen to have this para-mids unit as well, then that would add £60 to the cost. The P pickup soloed sounds like a great Fender P. No surprise since it is in the Fender P sweetspot. The J pickup adds extra tones and complements the neck pickup nicely. The E string is tight and punchy, no wimpy E string here ! The mini-toggle switch is for switching the battery off for the para-mids unit. This will have no use with the mids unit removed, but I will leave the switch there as, obviously , there would be a hole there if I didn't ! Machineheads are the original high quality Westone ones, as is the high mass, cast bridge. I have no way of accurately measuring the weight of the bass, and my bathroom scales are useless. But I would say it is neither light nor hugely heavy. Maybe "slightly heavier than average" if I had to find a phrase to describe it. Comparing it to a 1980's neckthrough Aria it is very light though ! It's nut width is 39.5mm. The neck is not super-slim back to front, but is a nice handful. Quite similar to the feel of a Yamaha BB424 neck in size if my memory serves me correctly. The sale price is very difficult to gauge, but I'll let the bass go for £215 posted, (without the East mids unit). In trades I would be interested in something a bit different. I've been looking at Thunderbirds and Jaguars recently. I don't like Jazz basses, or their pickup configuration. I DO like P pickups and soapbars. I'm interested in old Jap basses and USA peaveys. Nut width must be 40mm maximum though. And basses must be 4 string only. No exceptions. Try me. The worst thing that can happen is that I may politely decline. Only for sale as I have another superb Thunder 1 PJ, and it seems simply greedy to keep both. I think this one is the more saleable too, due to the smart cosmetics. OK, here's pics. I'll also include one of it set up as a single EMG40-sized pickup. [url="http://www.ephotobay.com/share/gt-main-a.html"][/url] [url="http://www.ephotobay.com/share/gt-main-b.html"][/url] [url="http://www.ephotobay.com/share/gt-rear-downwards.html"][/url] [url="http://www.ephotobay.com/share/gt-neck-rear.html"][/url] [url="http://www.ephotobay.com/share/gt-headstock.html"][/url] [url="http://www.ephotobay.com/share/gt-front-body-b.html"][/url] [url="http://www.ephotobay.com/share/gt-front-body-a.html"][/url] [url="http://www.ephotobay.com/share/gt-body-rear-b.html"][/url] [url="http://www.ephotobay.com/share/gt-body-rear-a.html"][/url] [url="http://www.ephotobay.com/share/thunder-green-b.html"][/url]
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I think it's beautiful. I have contacted him in the past, and he seems a fairly decent bloke too.
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I currently also run a 212 NeoX. In my experience, this cab's LF driver gives much more upper mid frequency information than most cabs I have used (and that is a LOT of different cabs), so dialling the tweeter down will still leave decent clarity and enough mid information. With most tweetered bass cabs I find that there is an upper mids "hole" if the tweeter is dialled down too far. The Genz Neox NX2 is a cracking cab !
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[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1385740574' post='2291750'] Here it is: [/quote] Oh, that's nice !!!
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Really sorry to hear about that. I'm afraid that I have no great words of wisdom for you, but I don't think I'd trust that particular neck for the future. Any neck that moves so much, so quickly is simply a bad one. I guess a new truss rod could be a potential fix (and it probably is the problem currently), but I expect that a new rod plus the labour charges for replacement would cost as much as for a new neck. I wish you luck.
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I have a westone thunder,all in parts. Well, all except a set of tuners and a nut. I'd like to refinish it, and build it all back together again. Making a new nut is no problem. However, the holes in the headstock for the tuners are about 12mm (probably 1/2 ", I'd guess) in diameter. I can't find any reasonably priced replacement set for this size (they are 2+2 BTW). The whole project is to be done on the cheap. So what would you suggest ? The holes in the headstock are lined with a metal cylinder, but I could remove it and drill out the holes to the std 14mm, which would enable me to buy a cheap half-decent set of Wilkinsons or similar. Or does anyone have any suggestions for replacement tuners that might fit the original holes ?? Any help would be appreciated.
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You haven't mentioned your budget (I don't think), but there are heavily relic'd squiers and MIM Fenders on ebay pretty frequently. And they do seem to be pretty heavily relic'd. Just had a look and can't find any right now, but I have seen a fair few recently. They seem to go for about £200-£300.