geoffbyrne

I've been suggesting on here for a while that if you're interested in valves you take time to look around here: [url="http://www.guitaramplifierblueprinting.com/index2.html"]http://www.guitaramplifierblueprinting.com/index2.html[/url] Myles Rose is an expert and can be freely contacted via the 'Feel Free to Ask Myles' thread here: [url="http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/forums/19/1/Guitar_Player_Forum"]http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.p...ar_Player_Forum[/url] Although most of this is aimed at guitars, it sits equally well with bass. Now I'm no expert, but many who know say that the finest 'tone-producer' of all is the 5751. Having tried it against various other valves of the 12**7 type, I think I agree. May I say that there are many so-called 5751s which are actually rebadged 12AX7s which have come up short of specs and are not real 5751s at all. There is a difference in plate configuration. I managed to get a pair od JAN Phillips 5751s recently and they sing beautifully - I have one in the V1 position of my guitar valve amp and I had the other in my Shuttle 6 up until I decided to put it up for sale. Both amps sound great. Another important point often ignored in threads like this is the importance of a matched Phase Invertor. This tube switches the signal from - to + & back again to go therough the power amp. It uses both sides of the valve. If each side has a different value the sound coming from the amp will sound rough, but if both sides are matched - or pretty damn near - then you'll get a nice smooth tone. I have a matched ECC82 in mine - I bought a set of 4. I also have, lurking in the drawer, an old Mallory ECC83 and a 4004A (military spec ECC83 made by Mallory) and yes, you *can* tell the difference when you put them up against the Russian & Chinese stuff around at the moment. They are much smoother & fuller. Although many will tell you the ECC83 & the 12AX7 are identical, Myles will tell you the European ECC83 has a mids-hump absent in US or Japanese 12AX7s, hence the 'British Sound' of ECC83s as opposed to the 'American Sound' of 12AX7s. Swapping valves can be a lot of fun. G.

Alert!!!!! The Sue Ryder shop in Barnstaple has 3 - one black/maple, one white/rosewood & one pale blue/rosewood. I'll stand out of the way.......... G.

[quote name='yorick' post='1121033' date='Feb 9 2011, 09:58 AM']How about some Creedence?[/quote] I *love* John Fogerty, but Blues he ain't. G.

Sorry, wouldn't consider *any* of the above as Blues. Look at: Jimmy Reed, Frank Frost, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, BB King, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Lightnin' Hopkins, Sonny Boy Williamson to name but a few. That's Blues. (Cream may have covered some of the above, but twisted them for their own purpose, Cream was set up as a free-form improvisation band) G.

Get an MXR-80+ & use it as an outboard pre. G.

Back in the 60s/70s a friend of mine had flats (Roto) on his Hofner solid bass (crocodile skin model) for 15 years to my certain knowledge, quite probably more. G.

Opened mine yesterday (bought off website) - no gigbag (Boohoo) but not *too* bad. The only thing worth mentioning is the 6th fret is a wee bit high, giving some buzzing, otherwise everything's acceptable - the pups are a wee bit to the bass-side , maybe a couple of mm. Pots are decent & quite progressive. I have a cream pearloid pickguard courtesy of Old Horse Murphy (Thank You Sir, donation to Basschat will be done this weekend) and an MM-style pickup courtesy of Moos3h to go on. Plus a set of flats if I can find a set in The Pile, otherwise it's used Black Beauties. I'm seriously considering doing a BEAD stringing & tuning as this would suit me with the Blues band. Little bit of work to do, but that was expected. Pretty happy. G.

[quote name='Mrs Tinman' post='1112785' date='Feb 2 2011, 06:37 PM']Sshhhhhh! Don't tell everyone! Was it the pics of my thigh high boots that convinced you? PS: on Skank, I mean! [/quote] Pics of Mrs T in thigh boots? I must have missed that!!! I'm gutted!!!!! G.

I have Overwater strings thru-body on my 35" scale Cirrus, and they're fine - it's my understanding they are made for Overwater by Picato, but I may stand corrected on that. You'll also find that many (defo HiBeams) of the DR strings will fit 35" scale too. I pretty much prefer old-ish dead strings, so 2 year-old Overwaters sound just fine to me!!! G.

+1 on Picato - some on Ebay at the mo. G.

I had my MAG400 in a rack for a while. I bought a couple of generic lugs off Ebay & stuck them on. I had to use a few washers to get the spacing right. If I remember, they didn't bolt on at every position possible, but went on the rack OK & didn't move around. The MAG is back in its case now & the lugs are in the drawer.. You can have them for postage if you're interested. G.

Black or cream pearloid would be great, but my choice would be (Yes, I *know* it's not a bass)... G.

Mine arrived in Loughborough today at 17:40! And I'm in Glasgow!!!! G.

I have the 5er, but with the pre replaced with a John East URetro. It rocks. This is basically the later Jack bass (J pups instead of 'buckers) with a headstock. Considering how much love there is for Jacks, I'm always surprised how little people think of the B. Thu neck, flattish fingerboard, narrow-ish string spacing. Good action. Don't know about jazzes being 'thin' - on more than one occasion I've been told that people have never heard a bass sound so 'bassy' as my B - I believe a lot of reggae guys use Jacks & Bs. I paid £100 for mine used about 6 years ago. Thay tend not to get as much as a Jack. Get it. G.

According to Agedhorse, the 6 was designed to 'not care' which particular valve was in there & really only uses it to provide that 'tube warmth'. I've had the Ruby, an NOS Mallory ECC83 and a Jan Phillips 5751 in. Both the latter 2 sounded better than the former. Despite the 5751 having only 70% of the gain of the ECC83, they both performed pretty similarly as far as overdive was concerned. I had a valve where half (one side) of it failed and this gave me lower output volume & no drive. A swap fixed that. Maybe you should try it. G.

[quote name='Salt on your Bass?' post='1107034' date='Jan 29 2011, 10:31 AM']If had had one criticism of the shuttle is that i dont get any drive out of it, or crunch . I run a very hot active 5, and i like my distortion crunch and overdrive.[/quote] I get plenty from mine. With the Cirrus it starts to overdrive with the valve gain & the pre-amp output both at 12 o'clock and it progresses from there as you turn up the valve gain. Have you considered changing the valve? The Ruby installed as stock isn't renown for its high quality. A decent brand ECC83 or [url="http://thetubestore.com/tesla12ax7.html"]this[/url] might work for you. G.

[quote name='Soliloquy' post='1106535' date='Jan 28 2011, 06:13 PM']There are loads of really useful and very informative threads on Talkbass about the Shuttle's. There's a guy on there who actually designed the amps, he goes by the name of 'agedhorse'.[/quote] Here: [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=694819&highlight=agedhorse"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.p...light=agedhorse[/url] Post #8, #13, #16, #19, especially #21, #29, #57, #64, #70 & #71 - I can't actually put my finger on the post that states the 31Hz, it must be in another thread, but I've read it in there somewhere, I just can't be arsed searching through all of Agedhorse's postings on talkbass. But be assured, with the 'Bass Extend' button engaged, there is little or no noticable difference in bottom end between the Shuttle 6 & pretty much anything else. I'm not selling mine because of lack of bottom - it's because I'm used to having 3 Mids controls on my Ashdown. G.

[quote name='icastle' post='1106894' date='Jan 29 2011, 12:13 AM']Not really. I'd recommend using T nuts and bolts to fit them though - they spread the load better than bog standard wood screws.[/quote] Plus the one..... Years ago I put small casters on a Marshall Combo & every time they hit a decent bump, the screwnails tore out. They didn't last very long. On my present cab, I got 3" wheels from B&Q & bored through, putting a nice big 25mm washer , locking washer & nut on the inside, 4 per wheel. These don't pull out, and they are all locking if I need it - I usually just do diagonally opposite corners, though. G.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='1106886' date='Jan 29 2011, 12:01 AM']30 watts was considered way OTT in 1964, wasn't it? The original WEM Dominator was intended to amplify the entire band, using its mighty 17 watts. [/quote] that was the idea of the Burns Orbit amps too - a mighty 60W they were!!! G.

In 1966, at the Dam Park in Ayr, the Yardbird's Paul Samwell-Smith told me he'd never used an amp (up to that point) more than 15W. That was the day Eric Clapton told me to 'F**k Off!!!!' Ah, those were the days!!!! G.

Back in the 60s, our bassist had one of these (all recorded about 1963/64): [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EKO-BASS-VINTAGE-MADE-ITALY-/390283193750?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item5adeb0ed96"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EKO-BASS-VINTAGE-MAD...=item5adeb0ed96[/url] You can see it in some pics here: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS_yOrMHQ0U"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS_yOrMHQ0U[/url] That's not the best one, but it is in the pic. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3JuUjvn5fw&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3JuUjvn5fw...feature=related[/url] long shot [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_pt4FHdbzA&NR=1"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_pt4FHdbzA&NR=1[/url] perfect shot here These were pretty much recorded on an old Grundig tape-to-tape with the one original mic in a garage - were we the original garage band? Behind John you can see his Fenton Weill bass amp with its featured 'Kick-Proof Grill' - 30 Watts, I think. G.

China Girl - Bowie - isn't too difficult chord/notewise, but sure keeps the fingers busy!! G.

I ordered a Sonic blue today off the website. Thinking of fitting an MM-type pup to it & stringing it BEAD. G.

My Laney VC30 guitar amp has a *parallel effects loop* with a pot which allows you to blend the FX signal with the dry signal, so this certailny exists - look for *Parallel FX Loop*. A Serial FX Loop is the standard one. An MXR-80+ allows you to blend a distorted signal with the clean signal on the 2nd channel. G.

Thanks Paul, I'll keep it in mind. G.