Musky

Teisco have quite a following, as you might have guessed from the website, but I think their appeal lies in their cheesiness rather than any inherent quality. The pictures from the ebay auction are exactly how I remember the late seventies things sold in Woolies, and they were absolutely dire. It's entirely possible that Woolies were sourcing their instruments from elsewhere by that point, and by that time had no connection with Teisco.

You might want to look at the Teisco Twangers website. Some of these guitars were rebadged as Kay and Top Twenty for sale in the UK. What I remember of Top Twentys from the late seventies, was that they were extremely shoddy instruments, and were about the cheapest things you could buy that looked vaguely like an instrument. Unless anyone remembers differently, they were at that time only sold in Woolworths - just a guitar and bass version, which were clearly the bottom of the line being produced. I really can't imagine any cheaper being available, anywhere. The picture of the A 200 you've posted looks like a dream machine compared to the top twentys I remember.

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='23055' date='Jun 25 2007, 03:46 PM']First to spring to mind were these: Good Times - Chic Sir Duke/I Wish - Steve Wonder but in some ways, maybe it's easier to identify amazing basslines in funk/soul etc. As something from a completely different genre, how about: [b]Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed [/b] A totally sublime and brilliant bassline by Herbie Flowers...[/quote] I was working my way backwards through this thread and couldn't believe no one had mentioned Walk on the Wild Side, until I found silverfoxnik had got in there right at the start. Herbie Flowers line absolutely makes this song and is instantly recognisable, which to my mind makes it a winner. And I'm not even much of a fan of Lou Reed.

There's the short-scale sound as well. Which also brings to mind that muddy sound typified by an EB-3 or Telebass. And also the semi-sound of the Rivoli/EB-2 - rounded attack and often less sustain.

There were a couple of great links that were stickied, but which seem to have disappeared in the the move here. They were [url="http://www.garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassmanual/setupmanual.html"]http://www.garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassm...etupmanual.html[/url] and [url="http://www.weedhopper.org/bass_guitar_setup.asp"]http://www.weedhopper.org/bass_guitar_setup.asp[/url]. I found them both more useful than the fender one in terms of understanding exactly whats going on when you adjust the truss rod (particularly the gary willis site). As Muppet says, it can be difficult to give simple advice without knowing how your bass is set up to start with, but the fact that it's buzzing higher up the neck suggests you need to tighten the truss rod. Edit: Wizbat, that's exactly what I thought happened when you adjust the truss rod until I saw the Gary Willis site!

There's been a few threads on the Squier VM range, and a couple specifically on the TB. Opinion has pretty much been that they're great basses and fantastic value to boot. You might want to take a look [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=111"]here[/url] for a review.

Quality bass for less than £100? Try one of these [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Aria-Pro-II-RS-The-Cat-Bass-Matsumoku_W0QQitemZ330138772954QQihZ014QQcategoryZ4713QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Aria-Pro-II-RS-The-C...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url] Unlike the others you're considering, you can be pretty sure this will be worth more than you paid for it in a few years.

[quote name='kevbass' post='21550' date='Jun 21 2007, 07:42 PM']I wouldnt use T-cut, I did once and I ended up with what appeared to be smears on the area that I used it, if I were you I'd just leave it, black tends to show up more lacquer scratches than other colours anyways.[/quote] Yeah, T cut is relatively course (though still not as abrasive as the finest wet-and-dry used wet). It will remove light scratches but can take a bit of the sheen off. Which is why you'd need to finish off with a finer rubbing compound.

T Cut is fine for removing light scratches, though you don't want to go crazy with it. Just thin it out with water. Then use a lighter compound to remove any swirls.

[quote name='Adee' post='20725' date='Jun 20 2007, 01:06 PM']Thanks for that its helped kick start my search i've found the following possible names CLEARSOUND KINOR ARIA LORI KAWAI Possible all made and re-badged under various names in one of the Japanese factories late 60's or early 70's Not sure if I should clear it up and keep or sell at the moment ! If anyone has any further info please let me know[/quote] Aria were made by Matsumoku so you might fancy checking out [url="http://www.matsumoku.org"]http://www.matsumoku.org[/url] Kawai were AFAIK an entirely different company with their own production facilities, and would quite happily rebadge their instruments with anything an importer wanted. So while I've never heard of any of the other companies, if Kawai were knocking out similar looking basses it's quite likely they were also sold under other names.

There was a query about a very similar looking bass a little while ago. Bassassin reckoned that one was an Aria A200. I'll see if I can dig up the post. Edit - Must have been on BT. I can't even find it cached in Google. I did find a picture on the net though. [attachment=825:Arai_for...0_90__lb.jpg]

The pick up layout is like the old Precision Elite 2. Fender have never bothered to revisit this format, so I'd guess there's probably a good reason for it. So I wouldn't either, though mostly because it just looks [i]wrong.[/i]

I've just been looking at SteveRussel's WEM pages, and it sounds like this might be an ER30 - 4 x EL84, 3 x ECC83. [url="http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/britamps/watkins/er30.html"]http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/britamps/watkins/er30.html[/url]

[quote name='steve' post='18827' date='Jun 16 2007, 03:44 PM']they've got samples of the pedals [url="http://www.4mspedals.com/index.php"]here[/url], I quite fancy the phaser[/quote] Cheers - I hadn't spotted that. I'd actually forgotten all about the site until this thread. It's actually rekindling my interest in building something a bit different.

[quote name='steve' post='18728' date='Jun 16 2007, 10:38 AM']cool site, have you tried building any of them?[/quote] No - I was going to build the Noise Swash, but I left the noise band I was in so didn't really have the need for it anymore. They've rejigged the site since I last took a look - there used to be plenty of samples of the pedals, and they all sounded off the wall and pretty unique.

[quote name='Ant' post='18649' date='Jun 15 2007, 11:55 PM']here we are: [url="http://www.interruptor.ch/sirenschematic.doc"]http://www.interruptor.ch/sirenschematic.doc[/url] [url="http://www.interruptor.ch/Rasta-box.pdf"]http://www.interruptor.ch/Rasta-box.pdf[/url] go oooooon, make it for me and i'll cross you palm with silver.[/quote] If you're into self build, totally out to lunch pedals for a bit of noise, you could do far worse than take a look at www.commonsound.com. Loads of interesting pedals and step by step guidance on building the things.

There's no real secret to Myspace, Bebo, Faceparty or any networking website - it all boils down to how you market yourselves, exactly the same as your own web site. As has been pointed out, the days when you could set up a myspace page and wait for the page views are long gone. The simple fact of the matter is that myspace has the highest membership of any social networking site, and the highest public profile. In my mind that makes it the premier site. You want to be putting your energies into the most effective sites, but it does no harm to set up profiles on several and see which ones pick up the most passing trade and sign ups - I usually discount other bands for this - and then go with one or two that get the best results. It's also worth bearing in mind the demographics of these sites - Bebo has a younger audience than Myspace, Faceparty older - so you really need to be targeting your audience. Last.fm is a good one IMHO - it's used chiefly by music fans looking for other sounds they might like, and vastl under used by bands for promotion.

[quote name='markdavid' post='17521' date='Jun 14 2007, 12:12 PM']Hi , I was also wondering if anybody knew how much (roughly) it would cost to get the pick ups changed over by a music shop, i have been quoted £35 but i am a bit sceptical as this sounds a bit cheap as I have heard of music stores charging that just to cut a new nut[/quote] Sounds about right for fitting a new pickup if it's just a straight replacement, with no routing involved. Obviously it wouldn't include the price of the pickup though. It's an easy job to replace pickups - why not do it yourself?

Isn't there supposed to be a skunk stripe on the back of the neck on these things? Also there seems to be a difference to the fading on the back of the neck close to the neck pocket, like the neck was originally on another body. Add to that there's absolutely no sign of the Ricky he claims he's sold in his feedback, and I'd stick well clear. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320126121450&indexURL=3&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...bayphotohosting[/url]

[quote name='Rammsteinbrit' post='16342' date='Jun 12 2007, 04:45 PM']Yeah thats awesome, how much were the Harley Bentons? Because the AGB-200 is only £300 on GAK. Darby[/quote] The Harley Benton HBB 1970 was going for £135, but seems to have disappeared from the catalogue recently. The only Harley Benton semi Thomanns have got is now £165.

You can get away with using a plunge router to drill the holes for through body stringing - just check that it will drill to the required depth. Personally I wouldn't bother with two saddle bridges. As far as I recall only the earliest precisions, tele bass and musicmaster had these bridges, and the intonation suffers as a result, for something that's only visible to close inspection. It's your call.

Thomann were doing a Harley Benton semi that was almost identical to the AGB140, but a quick look on there website reveals that there only seems to be a more Gretsch like Harley Benton on there now. There was a thread about this on BT, and one of the mods (I think) had bought the Harley benton model. They were so similar that it was likely they were the same model, just re-badged. Worth bearing in mind before shelling out your hard earned.

[quote name='steve' post='15847' date='Jun 11 2007, 07:55 PM']just won a standard bad monkey of ebay, for £21 (inc £10 postage!!!), got some details for a mod.... i'm (hopefully) in business[/quote] Great deal. Where did you find the details for the mod incidentally? I might have a crack at this myself at some point.

If the email originated from ebay (you'd need to check the extended headers to be sure) your email is most likely from the the seller. In any event you'd by well advised to steer clear.

That pretty much sounds like a thumbs up all round. Got to be worth a punt on my Precision then. Cheers for that everyone.