geoffbyrne

Probably not too bad for a commercial job. get a soldering iron (35W min.) & do it yourself. It's not that difficult. G.

You're right - you need another 8 Ohm cab in parallel. Providing both cabs are the same impedence, then they will both get the same power i.e. 250W split between both - 125W each, so get a cab with suitable rating. G.

Personally, I think cheap basses are currently the best they've ever been. With CNC routing there is, at least, a consistancy about the better-known brands even if they *are* cheap. I remember the really cheapo's being sold in places like Woolworths and they were really only fit for firewood. I picked up one once, and I think it started out with a FLAT fingerboard, but due to shrinkage & warping the fretboard was CONCAVE complete with now concave frets. The tone off the pickups was usually very thin as they didn't have many windings on them and I think many of the bodies were made from old orange boxes...... G.

Alas!! My Old Three Legged Mate, Scooby, is no longer with us! Not actually mine, (but he thought he was) I looked after him for the last 3 years of his life. Not a nasty molecule in his body - sweetest dog I ever knew. Bass didn't phase him - he'd either curl up just in front of the cab, or turn, growl & bugger off in the opposite direction (after giving me a lick!) I also have to report the recent demise of a border/alsatian (3/1) cross called Murphy from near Ballybunion in Eire, which we used to dog-sit. he was not a nice dog - he'd bite as soon as look at you, but that was what he was there for. Murphy was a genius dog - he not only had a vocabulary of over 1000 words (average 200) but he understood a fair bit of grammar too. Not yer average dug. He exibited no puppy behaviour whatsoever and rarely wagged his tail. He once licked my face after I gave him my breakfast cereal bowl to lick, but warned me never to tell anyone. He was a vegetarian. Badly missed - both of 'em. G.

No-one's mentioned Roger Waters yet. (And Bill Wyman *always* played short scale basses - the Framus Star was short & he used Mustangs in the studio....) G.

Come the end of August, we'll have about 20 cardboard packing boxes ranging from mostly type A ( roughly 18"x15x15 to some type C (roughly 24x15x15) surplus. If your interested in collecting from Loughborough, PM me. These boxes are now gone. G.

Friends of mine (Likuid Blue - 5 piece - in Loughborough) got £4500 for a NYE gig in London about 5 years ago. G.

I have a Yamaha Drop 6 (for sale) which has a scale length of about 26.5" and with 13 - 70's on it it goes down to B easily and comfortably lower if needed. G.

Confucious he say: "Nicking wife's nail varnish much cheaper than Badass bridge!!" G.

FYI here's a link to the spec sheet gains for the 12xx7 family: [url="http://thetubestore.com/gainfactor.html"]http://thetubestore.com/gainfactor.html[/url] G.

[quote name='voxpop' post='920838' date='Aug 10 2010, 05:51 PM']I have put these Mullard M8162 valves in both my Little bastard and Spyder. They give a very smooth tone because of the lower gain compared to the ECC83. They give around 60 - 70% of the gain compared to a ECC83 / 12ax7. If you prefer a smooth low gain sound then I can recommend giving them a try. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CV4024-M8162-12AT7WA-ECC81-MULLARD-KQDDK-8509-VALVE-1PC-/390164035409?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Consumer_VintageAudio_RL&hash=item5ad796b751"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CV4024-M8162-12AT7WA...=item5ad796b751[/url] Link is to an Ebay seller..............Its not me.[/quote] I'm not familiar with the M8162, but by the sound of the gain level, it 's probably the equivalent of the 5751. As I said above, the 5751 was lovely clean, but very harsh to my ears in overdrive. This is now in V1 of my Laney VC30 & sounds great. G.

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' post='920796' date='Aug 10 2010, 05:07 PM']What about EHX? Have you tried one yet? I replaced the stock valve in my Trace Elliot GP12-X with a EHX 12AX7 and the difference was huge. I'm selling my Trace now to go for a Shuttle 9.0 just because of the height and i'm thinking in keeping the EHX to try it on the Benz. If anyone has tried it i would realy apreciate a coment. Cheers[/quote] My understanding is that the JJ, Marshall, EHX & GT are mostly rebranded (but selected) Sovteks although I could stand corrected on this. I'll stick with the old Mullards. Tung Sol has quite a good reputation, as did Groove Tubes *before* Myles Rose left them. G.

Little mixer. G.

I honestly don't know - I just put 'custom jazz bass' into Google & chose pics, then picked out ones I liked. Personally I'd guess at walnut or cocobolo. G.

I don't think my dream bass exists - I'd probably have to get it made. Jazz body, 5 string, Ebony fretboard, neck through, 35" scale with narrow string spacing ( like my Hohner B Bass V), one MM pup in the MM position, Ash body with deep chestnut-coloured facing - probably walnut, John East pre, Schaller 3D bridge. Hipshot lightweight tuners. That's about it. Here's some I like: G.

This is not uncommon. Usual fix is to either put a bit of clear nail varnish on the threads of the grub screw or use some of that very thin silicone tape plumbers use, although that's a bit fiddly. G.

I have some valves around, so I though about trying them in my GB Shuttle 6. Now I know that the Shuttle is deliberately engineered not to be too sensitive to which particular valve is in there, but I thought I'd try. (There a poster named "Agedhorse" in Talkbass who is, in effect, Genz Benz' development engineer and it's well worth while finding his posts & giving them a read if you own a GB) I have: An unmarked tube I bought as being a 5751 - I have no reason to believe it isn't. The Ruby 12AX7 which is stock issue. A Marshall ECC83 A Chelmer ECC81 A NOS Mullard ECC83 A NOS CV4004 (Military Spec Mullard ECC83) I tried them at two setting - clean and dirty, through headphones with all the tones set at 12 o'clock. Peavey Cirrus BXP with tones centred, both pups, vol full. Please note that all comments are purely subjective and are of a personal preference. 5751: Clean - surprisingly sweet - certainly better than the Ruby Dirty - found it very harsh - not very musical Ruby 12AX7: Clean - OK, but not as 'sweet' as the 5751 - maybe more hi mids. Dirty - Not as harsh as the 5751, but still not great. Marshall ECC83 Clean - not dissimilar to the Ruby - maybe a little bit fuller - more low mids? Dirty - pretty much same as Ruby Chelmer ECC81 Clean - ECC81's are not known for tone, but this sounded OK - pretty much the same as the Marshall, but obviously with lower gain. Dirty - again, very like the Marshall Mullard ECC83 Clean - audible difference - sounds much fuller and sweet, maybe I'm kidding myself, but to these ears there is a benefit here. Dirty - maybe just a bit smoother & creamier than any of the above. CV4004 Clean - unsurprisingly, very like the Mullard ECC83 Dirty - not just quite as nice as the Mullard, but very close. None of these differences is 'in your face' - they are all subtle. Maybe they are all in my imagination. I've left the Mullard ECC83 in the Genz Benz and put the 5751 in V1 of my Laney VC30 guitar amp, and the Marshall ECC83 in V2 - it already has an ECC81 in V3. The Laney sounds great cranked. I'll carry the CV4004 with the Shuttle as back-up and put the Ruby & Chelmer as back-up for the Laney. G.

Watching that Lucozade ad always makes me think "Don't have beans for tea!!!!" G.

Build up using layers of black nail polish, sand flat, polish & seal with a couple of layers of clear varnish. G.

Congratulations - I'll give you a big hand (or two)!!! G.

Put an Artec SDA-P or SDA-T in there and plug your headphones directly into the jack. [url="http://artecsound.com/pickups/index.html"]http://artecsound.com/pickups/index.html[/url] G.

Well, my 5er was, but I'm not sure about the 6ers - maybe depends how old it is. G.

The power section works best when it's getting a full signal, so what I tend to do is turn up the master till I can hear it properly(!) and turn up the gain (you need to turn down the master at the same time) until I can hear the pre-amp overdriving. Then I reduce it a tad till it's clean (or, generalyl, to taste) and I'm good to go. Try giving your low mids a little boost & see how you like it. G.

FWIW I worked on an Epiphone Elitist 335 not so long ago and the quality was excellent. Took a beautiful setup & I would happily have kept it. G.

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' post='912707' date='Aug 2 2010, 12:47 PM']If you've bothered to make the frets go up and down, it's not a stretch of the imagination that the nut may do too, is it?[/quote] Mmmm. Not impossible, but unfortunately, you can't see the nut when he changes the lever over, so impossible to say. I'd say not, as dropping the nut would reduce downward pressure on it and therefore slacking off the strings, putting them all out of tune. Can't have that!!! G.