Bloodaxe

Having had a nose around the Hipshot website I found this: [url="http://www.hipshotproducts.com/faq_pdfs/faq451d47d88c0bd.pdf"]http://www.hipshotproducts.com/faq_pdfs/faq451d47d88c0bd.pdf[/url] which is the routing guide for their trems - this looks very similar in that it seems to need huge amounts of timber removed to fit. Not overly sure about the Aluminium construction either (thinking of stress loading & that). To my mind, the Kahler is the superior product - but that comes at a price. Pete.

Greetings, Upgrading the tuners is a good call, as the Aria "Gotoh" variant can be a bit troublesome. Real Gotoh tuners should plop straight in. As to the rest, check the string spacing first. A lot of older Arias have quite narrow string spacings that might limit your choice. What pickups are in at the moment (if they're inna Jazz stylee I might be able to help). Pete.

I'll throw Percy Jones Colin Hodgkinson & Gerry McAvoy into the mix.

[quote name='mcgraham' post='106010' date='Dec 18 2007, 04:07 PM']I'd prefer to stick with a pure maple neck if I can, with graphite only if necessary, just to keep the feel and sound as similar as possible to what it is at present. I'd rather just have a stable version of what I've got! Mark[/quote] If you choose to go down the new neck route, specify a Quartersawn one. From the sound of it, you've got a Plainsawn neck which will be inherently more flexible. A three-piece laminated Quartersawn neck would be as rigid as a very rigid thing. Pete.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='105658' date='Dec 17 2007, 11:40 PM']#132 +10 = 744[/quote] No. 133 +7 = 751 (4 4 4 4 4F 5 5)

[quote name='chris_b' post='102551' date='Dec 11 2007, 09:00 AM']In your opinion. MOSFET technology has produced many highly rated bass and PA amps.[/quote] I didn't say it hasn't - I just said that there was a significant difference 'twixt Bipolars, FETs & Bottles. In my time I've owned & cranked a Bipolar 200W Hiwatt head, a Marshall 100W 4 x EL34 head, an Axis 200w 4 x EL34 head, and a Marshall 2 x 200W MOSFET Power amp. All four were very different as you'd expect. The only two that could have a valid side-by-side comparison were the two tube heads & even that's pushing it owing to the design of the Axis. To summarise: FETs are just another way of making things louder. Whether it's the tight kind of loudness for you is, well, down to you. Pete.

[quote name='Alien' post='102502' date='Dec 11 2007, 12:24 AM']Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor. To the layman, the only important word is the last one Andy[/quote] Well... last three words, really. The FET is essentially a transistor that works very much more like a valve than a regular non-FET (bipolar) transistor does, so thus sounds a [i]bit[/i] more valve-like. No comparison to a nice line of red-hot & glowing EL34s though. [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_effect_transistor"]Slightly technical Wikipedia article on FETs[/url] [url="http://www.satcure-focus.com/tutor/page4.htm"]Non-technical article on Bipolar (=regular) Transistors[/url] Pete.

1: Learn how to get a decent set of usable sounds out of my rig, as well as an indecent set of unusable ones. 2: Find a band & get gigging

[quote name='MB1' post='99235' date='Dec 4 2007, 10:05 PM']MB1. Whats Tuning?[/quote] Province of China, Capital is Of-Ki

Y'know, there's nothin' like tearing up a good club now and then - Jerry Lee Lewis Can we have everything louder than everything else? - Ritchie Blackmore

[quote name='Bassassin' post='96465' date='Nov 30 2007, 01:12 AM']And one for Bloodaxe - more pointy than a barrel full of porcupines, it's an Aria ProII ZZB Deluxe: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=120190530565"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=120190530565[/url] Jon.[/quote] Cease Sir! Comin' round 'ere temptin' me wiv orl yer flash forrin pointyness! Believe me, ONE explorer is enough. This one though has a normal bridge & only having 22 frets in a 32" scale [i]might[/i] actually fit in a Thunderbird gigbag. Pete.

I'd like to nominate this for "Thread of The Year". My 2p FWIW.. I don't "get" ERB's (& I regard that as 6-strings & up). I seem to recall encountering a 7-string fretless Sei at the last BW bash in Northampton, & when being offered a go declined saying "nah, you need to be a musician to play one of those". Read into that what you will. Neither do I see the ERB (7+) becoming a "mainstream" instrument anytime in the near future, however there always will be a market for music that does'nt readily fit any particular box (think ECM Records & Robert Fripp's DGM stuff), albeit a niche market. All power to those that want 'em & can see a place in their music for them - personally I don't & can't at the moment, but then I'm still trying to figure out botlleneck slide on a bass with a whammy bar so I've got quite enough outré sh1t to keep me occupied thankyouverymuch, & nobody (except me) has to like it. So There. Pete.

First played (in 1982 at a rehearsal studio in Hong Kong)... A suspected pre-CBS Precision - Sunburst & with a slip of a neck. Possibly black pickguard. Lovely. When it came time to buy I tried out the bright orange/maple P in the shop window & it just felt wrong - clubby neck, weighed a ton - hence my suspicion on the above. It was a bit outside my price range as well. In the same shop, up on a rack was this (sans Kahler & extra holes): Cost me a month's pay (£120) & it's still my number one. Pete.

[quote name='gypsymoth' post='95438' date='Nov 28 2007, 01:09 AM']nothing beats a good accordion and a hammer[/quote] There, fixed it! For me, hmmm.... John Surman: - Road to St Ives. Saxes over looped/sequenced synthy goings on. Ed Alleyne-Johnson: - Oxford Suite & Ultraviolet. Loopy electric violinining. Daniel Chorzempa: - J.S. Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D Minor and Passacaglia & Fugue in C Minor. If I had to sell my entire record collection exept one disc, this one would be it. Pete.

[quote name='pete.young' post='92614' date='Nov 22 2007, 11:20 AM']You're in serious danger of making a good job of this! I'd be interested to hear what you think of the Armstrongs. I've an RSB Special - 1 fretless which sounds a bit lifeless and I was wondering about changing the pickup, or maybe asking Wizard to rewind it. Also, how did you make such a neat template? Draw round the pickup, but then what - how do you allow for the collar thickness?[/quote] Dunno about the Armstrongs yet, I plopped one into my "acoustic" RSB-1 & tried it through a Tascam Bass Trainer & wasn't that whelmed TBH - but that's not much of a test. There's not much inside the casing of a split-coil Aria pup, so a rewind might be in order (though it could be something as simple as the magnets getting tired). Making the template was easy since I've got 5 other Arias to copy! Basically it goes like this... Cut a piece of 12mm MDF to approx size, stick over existing pickup cavity with double-sided tape, drill 1/2" hole in the middle, fit 1/4" router bit with bottom-mounted roller bearing, cut round & round in circles until the bearing stops up against the pickup rout, switch off router & peel off a lovely template! The other way of doing it is as follows... Place pickup (or bridge) onto a piece of 12mm MDF. Cut a strip of timber approx 2" x 1" into four pieces - two approx 6" long & two quite a lot shorter, put the short ones to one side. Using double-sided tape, butt the long strips up against the long edges of the pickup - then trim the two short pieces so that they fit snugly between the long bits & butt up against the pickup. Remove the pickup - you should now have a piece of MDF with four bits of timber stuck to it forming a rectangular trough. Drill a hole somewhere in the middle & flip it over. Fit a 1/4" router bit with bottom-mounted roller bearing & rout out as above. The timber strips will constrain the bit. When done, peel off the strips. It might be a good idea to shim the strips with some card so that there's some clearance 'twixt pickup & hole - 1 to 2mm all round is plenty. Pete. PS. It's now gone black - hopefully have some piccies next weekend.

Good fun innit? I've been merrily knocking £££ off the value of my old Aria SB-1000 to the same end [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=5094"](thread here)[/url]. As to the stain - make sure you use spirit-based stain (the nanny state water based stuff is rubbish) & let it dry for a couple of days before doing anything else. The drawback with this is that if you dose the fingerboard with Lemon Oil from time to time it'll dissolve the stain & you'll end up plastered with it. The alternative is to stain & then varnish the fingerboard until you can see your face in it. Setting up... Conventional wisdom says to get the maximum mwah the action needs to be as low as possible, which may mean you have to deepen the nut slots and/or shim the neck - if you're happy with it, leave well alone though. The intonation will be a bit of a lottery, as you'll need to "fret" the 12th bang on the marker to get the note. If you've got wide fingers, there's a fair bit of room for interpretation on this so let your ears guide you more so than the tuner (after all, Double Basses have a fixed, non adjustable bridge set perpendicular to the strings & that lot seem to cope). Enjoy. Pete.

[quote name='WalMan' post='89212' date='Nov 16 2007, 01:17 AM']Except almost losing an eye at the South East Bash [/quote] Operator error!

[quote name='Adam.M' post='89203' date='Nov 16 2007, 12:36 AM']They're nothing but trouble, i've had to live with 'em on guitars and no way are they going to invade my little bass world![/quote] Each to their own, & I know what you mean about guitar trems. But Basses ain't guitars, & the same seems to be true of trems. Mine's been in place for nearly 20 years now, & apart from one broken return spring (easily replaced) I've had precisely no issues at all whatsoever with it. It holds tuning just fine provided a new set are stretched in before laying about them, but does seem to go through A & D strings - they have a life expectancy of about a month with me (although I suspect that a combination of aggressive style + pick + left hand string bending exacerbates this). It'll track [i]any[/i] note perfectly as well. Pete.

[quote name='cris the man' post='89096' date='Nov 15 2007, 07:32 PM']i'd love a wammy bar for my bass ( tremelo arm ) however , i want it on my 6 string i believe this requires a new bridge , but i find my bridge really good does anyone know where to get a 6 string bridge with a wammy bar attachable thingymabob?[/quote] There's nothing sad about whammy bars. If I read you correctly, you're after an "add-on" that'll convert your existing bridge into a trem bridge. If I've got that right, I think you'll be out of luck & I'm not sure that it's actually possible without breaking some laws of physics. There are two main options - Hipshot - who don't do a six-string version & require that you make some serious holes in your bass (think of how a Strat is configured & you'll get the idea) & [url="http://www.kahlerusa.com/"][u][b][color="#0000FF"]Kahler[/color][/b][/u][/url], who do make a sixer - but it ain't cheap. You'd still need to rout a hole for the cam/spring arrangement to live in, but it's minor compared to the Hipshot method. To add to the confusion, there are two arrangements for a Kahler depending on how much space you've got available. Looking at your bridge it looks as though you'd need a 2406 as you've got a fair bit of space behind the saddles, but not a vast amount in front. They're well made, hold their tuning but are a bit fiddly to intonate. They're also f'in heavy lumps of solid brass. Have a close up... Pete.

No updates worthy of photos yet - I've been away from it for about a month as Life has got in the way (as has a certain pointy spattered bass). The refinishing is progressing, currrently the beast has seen off a spraycan & a half of clearcoat & looks like it'll need at least another can to fill the grain of the ash. As the ash bits are going to end up black, I may well knock the spraying on the head & lard some knifing stopper over it to speed the process. I can see it being a long haul, as I'm working in an unheated 'shop & the weather is now against me. Hopefully I'll get something more done this weekend. Pete.

Pretty much. Your amp is effectively running at half power. What amp & cab? Pete.

And now for some international weirdness... A [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Westone-the-Rail-fretless-headless-Matsumoku-80s_W0QQitemZ320181161881QQihZ011QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]Fretless Westone Rail[/url] Can't for the life of me see why these never caught on.

[quote name='Bassassin' post='87689' date='Nov 13 2007, 01:06 AM']Evenin' all. And finally, flinging taste bodily through a 20th storey plate glass window, while pausing only to chainsaw a passing priest & deflower a virgin or two, the delightfully restrained & demure Aria Pro ZZB Custom: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=280172585724"][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=280172585724"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=280172585724[/url][/url] I want that Aria. J.[/quote] Typical! I've just shelled out a wadload getting mine from the US & now this fetches up! %&$^%$%($%! Go on Jon - you know you ought to... The lowdown on these... (well, mine anyway) Bridge - Weird. No screw adjusters, but a pair of grub screws that clamp the saddles against the frame. Intonation is set by hand & then you clamp the lot up. Fine tuners work really well. Neck - As slim as a slim Jazz but only a 32" scale - very, very fast. String spacing quite Fenderesque. Balance - Superb - not a trace of neck dive, although it does want to flop forward - I keep mine penned in by draping the strap over the face of the top wing. Works well sat down. Weight - Not a lot. Sound - Aggressive to say the least. I have to wind the tone right back to bring it into line with my tastes. Wide open I think it could give a Rick a run for its money! Downsides - It's bloody long! 52" from tip to tip & there's a lot of space behind the bridge which tends to shift the neck over to the left giving you the feeling you're playing a 36" scale or more (the SB series do this as well). Finding a stand is a pain (I eventually sourced a "Dixon" brand stand in Macari's for £18), & a gigbag seems to be a custom only option (although I'm still looking). Oh, & it needs a very long strap. I'll watch this one with interest, should go up a bit with that paint job & its original branded hard case. The last one I saw on the 'bay was a caseless standard ZZB in turquoise 'burst that topped out at a mere £140, so maybe it won't. Pete.

Prolly the battered finish that put people off. If it was a Fender that'd be mojo & there's plenty as would be going all damp at the seams, but as it's "just" a Yam it's "scruffy". Beats me. If it were me I'd have that lot off - looks like a lovely cut of something under that burst. Pete.

[quote name='Mokl' post='85694' date='Nov 8 2007, 10:00 PM']I was just wondering if anybody could point me in the right direction for getting a headstock logo custom made. I am considering getting my bass restored to its normal finish, which would involve destroying the logo that is currently on there. Getting a replacement from the manufacturer is not really an option at the moment, so I'm open to all suggestions. Cheers, Matt[/quote] What bass is it for? Strike that, just seen it in the pr0n section. If it's a light coloured headstock & you just need it in black I might be able to help. Give us a PM if you're interested. Pete.