Al Krow

Just seen your post on your FS thread: It's under 10lbs!! That's my magic number, these days, or tiny bit more at a stretch - and I'm not a particularly sturdy youth by any measure of that phrase! In which case, can I make one further suggestion: leave the existing tuners on, but before selling get one of these: Minotaur Bass Strap Black – Thomann UK If I had discovered these sooner, I wouldn't have sold my P35! It's given a complete new lease of life to a couple of my heavier basses and an opportunity for me to appreciate just how really good they are!

Agreed, and please add a 5000 and 5000A into that list for us 5 string players (plus a PH 5er whilst they're at it). I've been really very happy with the quality of my Indonesian made 1025. I get that 50 years ago Japan vs Indonesia would have been a big gulf in terms of economics and local skills. But my sense is that Indonesia is a pretty good location for decent quality bass manufacture these days. I'm guessing a similar debate to a Czech made Spector vs USA made Spector, or MIM vs USA made Fender. With Spector, I think the Czech version is superb and as much as I would love a US NS5, paying literally double is a jump only likely to be matched by a 10% (max?) improvement in parts and quality.

We seem to be travelling down an identical path! I kept my 1025 in preference to the P35 purely on weight grounds. I think the P35 edges it otherwise, in particular it has a tonally sweeter bridge pup. My 1025 doesn't have Ultralites and it will likely be a fraction heavier than yours with a 5 string neck, although I suspect not much in it as I think the 5ers have flatter necks, but it still comes in at a comfortable 4.4kg = 9.7 lbs. My guess is the Ultralites will shave a bit more than 0.1kg, I reckon more like 1lb = 0.45kg off the weight (well for 5 tuners maybe a bit less for 4 tuners). But I suspect the manufacturer will provide the precise weights online and then it would be a case of just removing one of your existing tuners and accurately weighing it (and then obviously x4) to find out what the weight saving would be.

I saw your FS ad and was interested that you had exactly the same experience with your BB P34 as I did with my P35 i.e. fantastic bass, but a touch too heavy. What's yours weighing in at? Completely understand where you're coming from about drilling holes in a high end bass - and with Ultralites as they have a smaller footprint the holes are very much exposed. (Although cosmetically the old tuners would liklely cover the new holes should you decide to move it on and provided you've disclosed the holes a purchaser shouldn't mind too much or, at most, you would knock a bit of the sales price). But they would shave I'm guessing 1lb off the weight and potentially transform it to being "just perfect". But I'm still with you in hesitating!

Yeah interesting one - I remember you complimenting on my (as it turns out wrong!) take on the bassline to this one 'cos it wasn't simply completely aping the guitar part, although it's pretty close to it. Key for me was getting it locked in with the drums and I agree it sounds more natural / less awkward than the original / correct bassline and we certainly don't have any gaps where the bass drops off entirely. Seems to always go down well with the audiences. I think I'll try them both and see which the band prefers when we next rehearse in 2025...😁

The slow it down function on YT is a game changer for learning new basslines / tabs! 3/4 speed or even 1/2 speed if necessary. That's a little trick @chris_b shared on a post a while back. Gotta be me in my top 3 most useful BC tips ever!

Hah, me too. Tabs on this clip which ties in with the OP's post if anyone's interested in re-working their cover (which I clearly need to!).

TonePump: Bass EQ at 55 to 70 Hz. Treble at 5kHz to 6.5KHz. Those are two very sensible / useful EQ centre points. Compare that with: Glockenlang 3 band EQ which has centre points: bass 40Hz (a touch low, but ok), mids 550Hz (ok) and treble at 18 kHz - so above most peoples' hearing range! Why on earth bother?! That one's getting dropped from my list (not that I'm thinking of replacing my TonePump on my Spector anyway!) Aguilar OBP3: bass 40Hz, mids at 400Hz or 800Hz and treble 6.5 kHz - much more similar in approach to the TonePump The best in terms of on board EQ control, however, seems to be John East's kit.

And also because numerous detailed studies have shown that it has negligible impact on your signal chain, unless placed over your 1/4" jacks.

There have gotta be some perks of being a mod, even if it means you're not a rocker.

Loved the post modern jukebox censor's edit you've just put through to my post! 😂

Oh deary, dear Douglas have you just revealed to all how to make a Richard of (aka to get around) the profanity filter?! Well that's very rebellious of you. You're defo an honorary punk 😁

Nope this was fast rock n roll...😉 (hope you enjoyed the drumming Douglas)

I thought her point at [1.50] was interesting though. If I've understood correctly the volume knob is post TonePump and therefore if you're getting an overly hot signal with lost definition coming out of the TonePump, then by reducing the volume you're just scaling back the output but not restoring the definition. Lowering the pups as you suggest should work just fine, however, as this is a pre TonePump volume adjustment and akin to dialling back the TonePump. She also mentioned [0.23] that the pre 2008 TonePumps don't have a trim pot.

I would normally completely accept such a gracious apology, no questions asked. But seriously! Apologising on a punk thread. WTF? 😁

It's in our set - got requested for a wedding! But we're lucky to have a top notch drummer. (Not saying you aren't Douglas, or maybe I should as this is a punk thread...😁)

But that's the point isn't it? For me, punk = rebellion against the 15 min prog rock tracks that the 70's gen, at the time, felt was stifling music. It was raw, simple, energetic and powerful. And if the Ramones (quite rightly as the founders of punk) qualify, why not Boomtown Rats, Green Day etc? Ok some punk bands were musically more talented than others. But that's true of all rock. If this isn't a brilliant melodic punk riff and drum line, what the heck is it?!

You're one up on me with MXR M82s then. Tried to love it second time around and just couldn't. Too brittle / harsh. Guess I'm going to be stuck with my Proton Mk4 for a while...

And the Ramones? Do they pass or fail the "SteveXFR it's really punk" test? 😉

Any of you BC'ers got a Rebop? Comments I've seen seem to be that suffers from neck dive but tonally pretty good / comparable to the Euro. Fair summary?

Nice little summary [1.45] output curves showing how beneficial dialling back the Tone Pump can be.

Not sure that's right. Anything over here in the same creative league as Green Day? This thread has got me learning my first new punk bass line in a while today: Adolsecents No Friends - kinda appropriate title for lock-down! And picking up on the posts above, remove the bass line and you lose a lot.

What makes for a truly great bass? I'd say let Ned Steinberger anywhere near the design. And Ken Smith wasn't too shabby either!

Ok thanks - so getting back up to the cost of the HB with a set of tuners. I was very pleasantly surprised that a UK manufacturer could compete with HB's offshore production costs. I think, knowing me, getting the HB used and swapping out a preamp and a pup sounds like the least hassle route! It's currently in competition with a 5er version of @mcnach's Schecter Model T Session which would be £100 more than a souped up HB, but seems to be very "good to go" straight out of the box and stacks up well against his VM4 from what he's said. I appreciate it's a P/J rather than a reverse-P/MM, but will be in the same ball park. @krispn Sandberg was bought new, before I discovered the joys of buying used and just priced at the going rate when I sold it a couple of years back. But prices of both new and used have gone up since then on a lot of bass gear. But hey that was just my contribution to BD and no worse than my missus' collection of parking tickets over the years. I wonder how much the price movements upwards have just been a function of £ falling post 2016? £ is not too far off where it was a few years' back though now so we might see non-UK basses (which is most of them!) falling in price again, fingers crossed!

With the same quality of woods (Alder) neck (Maple) and fretboard as the HB? Tuners included? I'm thinking that the additional effort re finishing it off will be a fair bit of work, which I know you would love to do and are geared up, but I suspect me much less so!