Maude

I've always had great service from them and although I really, really don't want to get into 'that' debate, I do hope they're still going to be a viable option in the near future.

I have noticed that, even blatantly described as 'Ric style bass', which should've caught the attention of the Schutzstaffel.

Absolute sh!ts. I'll keep my eyes and ears open down here 👍

I think we all know the selling of Rics (real or fake) isn't what this site has issues with, it's the threats from RIC that result from the selling of Rics that are the issue. Maybe if Fender (or any other manufacturer) made similar threats then Fender sales might be banned It's not a moral problem, it's a big fat John Hall shaped problem.

I'm guessing that's aimed @Bassassin more than me as mine is just a rectangle ordered cut to the correct size. I just filed out the 'pinky recess' and the rounded the edges, corners and recess with sandpaper. Whenever I have cut any acrylic I've used a pneumatic reciprocating saw with a standard hacksaw blade, albeit cut down to about a third of its length. I turn the speed down and use a fairly course blade (14tpi) to combat melting and clogging, if the acrylic is thin then I'll lower the angle I cut at so I'm cutting through more material to prevent cracking, obviously a curved cut will need the blade to be more upright. It only needs to be close to the desired shape as acrylic sands to shape so easily with sandpaper and a block.

Yes, we're all individuals.

Who makes them? Hmmmm baby! A very sexy lady friend of mine, Foxy Fye-ona, contacted me yesterday with regards to building her a bass guitar. She said she needed an instrument that she could feel throbbing , deep inside her. Well, I gladly obliged. After having been at it solidly for a couple of days I pulled it out and she let out a little squeal of delight. She declared that I had completely satisfied her urge, but she'd still quite like to try it standing up with a strap on. You know, the bass guitar like. AYE! I'll tell you what, she didn't half squirm around when I plucked her G string. 😉

I'm so glad you posted that picture. I've had this pickup knocking about at home and now I can see it's a Delano musicman style. 😉

I don't understand why any manufacturer would take a beautiful, prestine instrument straight off the manufacture line and paint it bright red, but I suppose some folks like it. 😉

She scares the sh!t outta me!

This YouTube vid always puts a smile on my face. Devon Bradshaw giving some tips but the real treat is his drummer, lovely laid back feel and some killer fills. On the subject of the Hofner, my Club with LaBella flats is superb for reggae, well trad ska in my house but it's close enough. 😉

After a bit of investigating I think these speakers are from the late sixties from the Rola Celestion labels, in 1970 the company was merged with another company and renamed Celestion Industries, then later in the seventies to Celestion International. I've found a page of serial numbers with dates so when I take the speakers out hopefully the stamp will still be on the gasket. It doesn't matter but there's something cool about have speakers a similar vintage to the amp rather than modern ones.

I've noticed in the pictures that the bridge pickup is not square and quite noticeable now the ramp is fitted. I might have to realign that as can't unsee it now.

😆

@Bassassin Those look lovely, nice organic shapes. I'd have liked to have done more shaping but for what I needed the straight edges worked best. It's a fair old slab and does add a bit of weight to the bass but it's relatively light to start with.

Ha ha, its not just my little finger that's weird 😯 I think it's something I've developed to keep my plucking hand in place as I get a bit lively when playing.

I've just measured and there's still 8-9mm clearance between the ramp and strings, and the ramp is 15mm thick. So just to give an idea of the issue I had, imagine being used to playing over a pickup, most of us do, but that pickup being nearly 2.5cm from the strings.

I'm a panelbeater so it's always whatever we're using at work. At the moment we're using Farecla G360 super fast compound followed by Farecla G360 super fast finish using a mini polisher. I was surprised how easily it polished up. I filed the cutout out then sanded it with P180, 320, 500, then 800 wet n dry, 1000w&d, 1500w&d and finally 3000w&d, then the polishes. Seems a bit laboured but it only took thirty seconds or so of each grade.

I was just typing a post in the recent ramp thread as I've now made my ramp which I mentioned in said thread, and I thought I'd do a very small build thread instead as it was a bit overkill for a reply to the ramp thread. My Rickenbacker 4005 copy has a massive gap under the strings due to it's design, the toaster pickups on Rickenbackers are mounted straight on the surface with no routing meaning the strings have to sit really high compared to a conventionally designed bass. This feels very odd when going for the occasional pop or when playing octaves with thumb and forefinger. Also the pickups are so far apart that neither one is really suitable as a thumbrest for my normal playing style, and the huge string to body gap make it weird to play resting my thumb on the body. So I've made a clear Plexiglass ramp to act as a full length thumbrest and to make the string to body clearance more like every other bass I've played, so it isn't a ramp as such. I just bought a rectangle of Plexiglass cut to my measurements on ebay for £6.50 and cut the strange shape in to the top right corner. This is for a weird quirk of mine where I always seem to rest my thumb on a pickup but hook my little finger down the side of it, I don't know why but I feel comfortable that way so I cut this chamfered bit to accommodate my pinky. The edges and corners were rounded of and then all polished up and it really is crystal clear. I'm hoping that under stage lights it will virtually disappear rather than trying to make a wood one that will never match the colour and grain of the top. The lower edge butts against the scratchplate to hide the edge and the top edge looks darker in these photos because of light refraction, or lack of light. I've fixed it with two screws under the strings which I don't think are out of place with the scratchplate and tug bar screws. I was going to use clear doubled sided tape but it looked odd and would collect dirt, this way I can remove to clean any dust that may get underneath. So there you go, a clear ramp/thumbrest/faux top thingymajiggy. 🙂

Thanks for that, I thought using the 4ohm would be best and possibly give more power if using both cabs. The plan, sort of, is to build a flip top combo with the amp and one driver, but if I've got another driver kicking about then I may as well make a second, matching extension cabinet. All this is relatively pointless as they won't get used in either band I'm in at the moment. One band I use EB and go direct through the PA with a floor monitor and the second band I solely use DB through my PJB rig and can't see valve driven 15s being much good for that. It's purely for fun and I need to do something with this gear that has very little resale value, so I may as well make something cool. If it behaves at rehearsal and sounds good then it's game on. 🙂

I know it's easy to unplug the lead but at a gig once sound checked, and between sets, I'd rather just flick a switch and leave everything connected. I'm fairly OCD with the routing of my cables so no risk of anyone tripping over them. It's fairly irrelevant for me anyway because at the moment I either gig my passive Rick or my Variax which is powered up the cable, but just saying.

One more question. Is there any real world gains to plugging both 15s (piggy backed in parallel) into the 4ohm out, over plugging them individually into the pair of 8ohm outs? Will using them in the 4ohm out pull more power out of the amp?

Or a passive bass. 🤔

I've given the amp a good clean up inside and had a look around to see if anything obvious was amiss. Now as I said I'm no amp tech but I couldn't see any obvious issues, burnt terminals or boards, swollen components or anything like that, and I know you can't tell much like that but it worked when it went into storage years ago and has been dry and warm indoors, the trunk it was in is beside the fireplace with a woodburner in, so I've dug out my old cabs with the celestion speakers in and given it a low volume test at home. The speakers are old Rola Celestion G15-150 8ohm, this is a guitar speaker but I used to use a pair of them for the bottom end of my bi-amped rig, basically they were used as subwoofers and that rig sounded amazing and was seriously loud, size and weight stopped me using it. I know they weren't handling full range as I'm asking of them now but surely the bottom end is the end that would've killed them if bass was going to? Anyway I'm going to take it all to rehearsal this week and try it at volume. The 15's are both in separate cabs and I can't remember if I wired the sockets to join them in parallel or series so the easiest way I'm guessing is to plug them both into the amp separately, each into one of the 8ohm outs on the back, I assume I can plug two cabs in at once. I might only need one but I'll take them both in case. (EDIT) I was having a dumb moment, they must be in parallel to give 4ohm, there's no reason I'd have wanted 16ohm, for a moment of stupidness I though 8 or 4 but obviously it would be 16 or 4. At home I tryed it with a P bass with flats and one of the Celestions and it really sounded quiet nice, a valve pre would obviously improve it but it was warm and vintage with plenty of thump, I was a bit surprised actually as I though it might be a bit quiet and middy but no. I banged through 'Get Ready' by The Temptations and it sounded bang on, until Mrs. Maude reprimanded me 😁 If it behaves at volume and sounds nice then I'll get it checked over properly and replace anything it needs.

To be honest I'd rather have a little mini toggle to turn it on and off.