chriswareham

The EB3 copy stuff has now gone.

Onnea FinnDave!

Certainly beats my only other skip find - a 2x12 sealed guitar cab. Unbranded cabinet, but the speakers were 70s vintage Celestions. By the way Finndave, on your plectrum playing issue, I grip my picks between the tip of my thumb and the side of the first joint of my index finger. My remaining fingers are loosely straight rather than clenched. I use narrow "teardrop" shaped picks that I think are primarily intended for steel strung acoustic guitars. I don't find I need to exert much pressure from my thumb and don't get cramp even playing for hours on end.

So I've just moved house and had a load of stuff to take to the council recycling centre. Sitting on top of the skip containing electrical items is a familiar green carpet covered box - a Trace Elliot combo. I remark to one of the staff that it's a shame the former owner didn't have it repaired and sell it on or at least given it away. So he asks me if I want it. I say why not, and he clambers in to get it for me. One electrical inspection later - all of £17 - and it turns out it's not even broken, so I now own a BLX 80! Sounds a bit muffled at low volume, but cranked up it sounds great.

Looks like the Kandarian book of the dead in bass guitar form.

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1457226611' post='2996595'] Two point bridge and solid headstock points to 1972 or early 1973. Enjoy [/quote] That was my conclusion as well. The seller said he thought it may be from 1970, and one online serial number suggested that year as well. However, they were only built with "slot heads" like Mickeyboro's one until about 1971. Gibson used the 800000 range of serial numbers in 1969-70, and then restarted using it around 1973-74. Regardless of when it was made, it's a great instrument and I'm looking forward to trying it cranked up at the next rehearsal

I've been enjoying my bargain basement Avon EB-0 copy so much over the last year or more that I decided to splash out on a Gibson EB. A good example of of the long scale EB-3L model popped up on eBay, so I took a punt. It's an absolute beauty, with a serial number that dates it to somewhere in the very early 1970s (hard to be exact, as Gibson's numbering scheme was a bit random around this time). The sounds from the "mudbucker" neck pickup and Varitone control may be an acquired taste, bit I'm absolutely loving them! Any other users of this unusual bass on here?

I'm very tempted to make an offer on that Bass mirror if the hinged stand can be persuaded to open!

I bought an unbranded Gibson EB3 copy from eBay, only to find it's a long scale EB3L body that someone has attached a short scale neck from another copy onto! As a result it's impossible to intonate, but would make a great project for anyone who can find a suitable neck to fit the pocket on the body. The body is in excellent condition and looks to be a proper bit of mahogany, so most likely from an up market copy rather a cheapie, The hardware is in excellent condition as well. The neck is currently not attached to the body, and I'd prefer to post it that way to make a parcel smaller. It's free for the cost of postage to anyone, or collection from Enfield, North London.

Since my basses have expanded from three to five (so much for the three bass and one in, one out rules), I've had to upgrade to a stand that can hold five basses. That means I have a folding stand for three basses that is taking up space in my tiny house. Free to anyone who pays postage, or collection from Enfield, North London.

Wow, DR103. Peter Hook used one of these for most of Joy Division's existence and then we'll into the 1980s with New Order.

What's happening to your Burman amp? Please tell me you're not going to sell it as I don't think I'd be able to resist.

Was wondering where Mr Delvar was, as I hadn't seen one of his illuminating and authoritative posts for a while. It's also little known that the notoriously miserly owner of a certain litigious maker of guitars insists on using recycled IKEA furniture to make bass bodies, hence the "tail lift" problem from the poor quality wood.

If EHX are still making their valves in a former Soviet radio factory in Russia, then the valves will be OK but nothing special. Always amuses me when people describe their Soviet music gear like Polivoks synths being made in military radio factories as though that's a good thing. The design was rudimentary, the QA non-existant. In the case of the EHX valve factory, it's mostly derelict!

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1455124890' post='2976209'] Ah, I think thats my fault. Pretty sure Mr Geek accidentally included that when he was quoting something else I'd written. I said it, in the context that none of us are in a position to judge Adam Clayton's actual level of technical ability because we've never heard him play outside of U2. For all we know he may be able to give Victor Wooten a run for his money but never demonstrates that side of his playing because its innapropriate for the band that he's in. Hope that clears that up. [/quote] [quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1455141561' post='2976482'] Apologies - if you examine my original post and the post it quoted you'll see I actually messed up the quote tags and I didn't say that, it was the person I was quoting I actually thought "did I really say that ??" Till I read it carefully - I was trying to shorten the quote and made a Horlicks of it [/quote] Ah yes, in the context of the original comment it's much more appropriate. Which reminds me, quoting doesn't seem to work at all on the Android version of Firefox - I have to do it manually, which is even more error prone :-(

Interpol. Someone described them to me as being heavily influenced by Joy Division and the darker edged indie guitar stuff of the 80s such as The Chameleons and The Sound. I discovered that "being influenced by" should have been qualified by "but can't write a song for sh*t" when I bought their back catalogue on CD :-(

6/10, although apart from the Motorhead one that was by guesswork. Worth doing the quiz just to know that I wouldn't like to meet Lamb of God down a back alley on a dark night.

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1454928931' post='2974181'] an unimaginative or 'bad' bass player until he releases a solo album that showcases the full range of his skills. [/quote] That is such a crass comment.

Andy Cairns is often described as the nicest bloke in rock, as he's very down to earth and friendly. Dave Ball from Soft Cell took the time to explain to me how to get the synth sound on "Youth" which I was most pleased about.

Played the London heats two years ago. I know Mick the guy promoting the shows in London, and he is a top notch promoter with a great sense of humour. We weren't really heavy enough to be typical Bloodstock material, but had a good gig. Best bit was our then singer, an extraordinarily pretty young Italian girl, selling loads of our promo CDs to the predominantly male audience - we normally just give them away!

Sounds like JJ Jeczalik was making things up. FGTH could definitely play, as they played Relax on legendary music show The Tube where they featured as an unsigned act before getting signed to Trevor Horn's ZTT label. Theres also live footage, from The Tube again if memory serves, of them playing a very exhilarating version of Two Tribes with live keyboards, bass and drums. As for the Fairlight, plenty of them in the country at the time and thanks to the screen with a light pen, very easy to operate. Syco Systems, the UK importer mentioned above, were the main suppliers of high end music technology. Their place was actually in Maida Vale and burnt down, at which point they realised they'd forgotten to get insurance. I use their former repair guys, who now trade as Hammond Hire.

Missed this thread first time around. One thing I've been told, so take that as anecdotal until someone better qualified confirms it, is that modern class D stuff is rated at peak output while old school SS stuff is rated at continuous output. In other words, a typical "500W" class D will soon blowup if pushed hard, while my "125W" Acoustic 140 isn't struggling to match the same output level at roughly 25% on the master control. If so, it would explain several Orange Bass Terrors I've witnessed breaking down at gigs where my other head (100W valve) has no problems.

[quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1454002581' post='2965294'] The one constant is that i am always the most immature in any situation. [/quote] That's me in a nutshell in a band situation. Music is my big release from reality, so whether I'm rehearsing or on stage at a gig I'm always the manic one. Surprises people no end that I then go completely anti-social once the music stops, and it often comes across as arrogance :-(

The B120 is essentially the same as my L120 Mk IV. The active tone controls on the Mk IV amps each have a preamp valve, which makes them very sensitive. Once I realised this, I was able to get a good tone since I realised only small tweaksof the controls could dramatically alter the sound. The L100 is a rarer model though, so unless the B120 is being sold at a temptingly lower price then I'd go for that.

And keeping it bass-centric, Flavor Flav of Public Enemy is a very good bass guitarist