NickS

From this thread: Pretty sure this is it: https://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2010/11/columbus-telecaster-bass.html?m=1

More pics. I decided to refit the bridge cover the other way up as (a) there were witness marks that it had previously been fitted that way and {b} as originally fitted it was fouling the back of the bridge.

I rewired according to a P-bass diagram and it's working OK now.

It would be great if the late owner's widow hasn't yet thrown away the purchase receipt she mentioned seeing but I suspect she has. Here are some to be going on with, sorry about the (phone) quality of the first couple.

Great. The pots that are in there are marked B500K (volume) and D500K (tone) and the tone cap is marked .047; P bass wiring seems to use 250K pots and 0.047uF. I'll rejig the wiring and see if I can get a working tone control..

Well, that was the identification given me by someone in Tasmania who has an interest in guitars of this era, who said this: "Love it - amazing condition. Aria were putting out these kinds of shortscale Tele basses in the mid-late 60s, I've always fancied one. I think maybe there were some branded Lyle/Pan as well? http://www.rexbass.com/2010/09/aria-telecaster-bass.html " If you can give me an alternative candidate please do; the logo was held on by two pins, if that helps (there are holes in the headstock). I seem to remember Zenta branded Telecaster copies being sold in the UK back in the 60s.

Last weekend we stayed with a friend from way back whose husband died last year. As we were going out to dinner she said "Oh, you could take a look at Denis's old bass guitar. I threw away the wires and the pedal because I thought the guitar had already gone." It turned out to be an old Aria Telecaster bass. The body is laminated (polite way of saying plywood) and the thing is in remarkably good condition considering it has spent time in the loft. Pickup DC resistance is 2.7k so it's pretty low output. It's not unscathed, though. The logo is missing, the truss rod adjustment is seized, the neck shows signs that one of the screws wasn't on target and some of the screws were partly rusted in. The main thing I have an issue with is the wiring. Someone has replaced the pots and the way it was wired it acted almost like they were both volume pots. I could do with someone pointing me at a schematic, please?

Suddenly my previous posts (2008 - 2010) have become visible to me... anyway, it's almost like starting over so thank you for your good wishes.

Hi. I joined some years ago and thought I posted about the HH VS Bass combo I'd recently acquired, but maybe not. Anyway, I thought I'd do the intro thing. I'm primarily a UK guitarist (Basingstoke area) dabbling in keyboards, bass and vocals (I sing bass in a local choral society). I played bass, then guitar and keyboards for a while in a Reading-based rock covers band that fell apart about 6 years ago and then picked up the guitar & backing vocals slot in a soul covers band for another few years until our singer decided to relocate from Reading to Bath. Currently I'm playing guitar with a neighbour's band and we're working up some Foo Fighters, Black Keys, Whitesnake (!), Creedence and other bits and pieces plus a smattering of originals. I'm a retired network designer with an interest in electronics from the age of 11; I started my working life in production test and repair at Ferranti Computer Systems in Wythenshawe. My bass assets: HH VS Bass combo, Texas J-bass copy, Epiphone EB-0 (closet queen bought for a Free project, played maybe twice and never gigged), a couple of pedals (Bass Limiter/Enhancer, Bass Eq. I guess I could use my Line 6 M series units for bass if the occasion demanded it but I don't have a bass pickup for my Roland GR-55.

[quote name='Academy of Sound']has all the tonal frequencies that Mark has used over the years[/quote]Made me think of. [quote name='Eric Morecambe']...but not necessarily in the right order"[/quote]

With the bright strings/pups on my Jazz copy, I do use the tone (treble cut) control quite a bit. Playing covers, you may want a snarly Rick-y sound sometimes and a mellow snarl-free tone others.

On alt.guitar.amps there was recently mention of "hang time" in relation to driving speakers, the idea being that with a square wave into a woofer it would be possible to have the voice coil stationary for most of each half cycle, and that excessive power would be dissipated in the relatively low resistive load (?) of the stationary voice coil. This may be where the idea of DC came from, along with the suggestion that direct-coupled amps are more likely to produce a perfect square wave at low frequency than transformer-coupled amps.

[quote name='thedarxide' post='223343' date='Jun 20 2008, 11:58 PM']Depends on "cheap". I have a Nevada jazz that I swear by. Out of 20 basses, it's my favourite. I also have a "Texas" bass, one of those £50 jobbies on ebay, and I hit lucky with that one. My 3rd one is a fretless columbus, but that's not great. I keep eyeing up the SX ones....[/quote]I have a "Texas" J-style bass too. It cost about £42.50 + £10 p&p. It arrived with the pickup insides dropped out of their shells, but after fixing that, adjusting the truss rod and the bridge, and replacing the jack socket with something sturdier, I'm very happy with it. I like the range of tone, and it plays well enough. I was worried that the pickups might be low output (saving on copper wire!) but they're fine. The varnish on the neck is uneven in one spot right on the edge of the fretboard where it doesn't actually affect anything. I'm not worried if it gets knocked about a bit at that price, either. In fact, some of these instruments are so cheap that you could afford to smash them up on stage if you were that way inclined!

Thanks for the warm reception, guys! [quote name='"ahpook"']there's something about that HH stuff isn't there.[/quote]Mainly, these days, that it's cheap . And there's the glow. I don't understand why amp manufacturers don't light up their controls. I never meant to collect HH but I just seem to have acquired another guitar head (IC100L perhaps? Cut down from a combo, ouch. But only £25!) [quote name='"stingrayfan"']Welcome to the world of bass amps - although [b]if you've got deep pockets[/b], there is some new kit that's pretty light.[/quote]There's the rub. I only spent peanuts on the bass so it's difficult to justify lots on the gear. Our rhythm guitarist builds cabs as a hobby (instead of practising) and reckons I should look at some of the new lightweight (neo) 8"/10" chassis speakers. [quote]Nice intro by the way, and nice to have someone along from the dark side.[/quote]Could say I've seen the [i]light[/i], but it's too bloody heavy! (ducks and covers) @BassManKev - very pretty Stingray 5. I like. [quote name='"doctor_of_the_bass"']Ahh! H and H - great memories! Takes me back to 1984 when as a mere twiglet of a bassist, I'd regularly borrow a `Bass Machine' 250w head coupled up to the world's biggest cab, a 2 x 15" (felt like 15') Roost![/quote]I've seen a couple of HH 2x15" cabs pass through eBay - definitely some roady required. Mind you, the 18" horn at our rehearsal rooms gives it a run for the money. The 115 100W combo flaps my trouser legs quite adequately for the size of place I expect to play....[quote]The amp had a built in phaser - sounded fantastic![/quote]I've never dealt with HH of that era, but I hope the plug-in connectors on those exchangeable effect modules were reliable. [quote](aka Mirk Kang)[/quote]Didn't you used to be in 11:24?

Hi, folks. I bought a bass guitar in January after many years of playing 6-string guitars. It's a "Texas" branded cheap Chinese thing that has a lovely bright tone and is very playable after some initial adjustment, bought from a chap who runs an eBay shop. Under £45 new. It was really so that the Sunday night jam at the Swan could continue if no real bass player turned up, as had been the case before. Now I seem to be the bass player in a band that's struggling to get a set list together. I found this board while looking for info about the HH VS Bass combo: I got one free recently from someone who upgraded, but it's too heavy for me to lift into the car unaided! It joins my HH VS Musician (guitar) head and HH VS Musician 212 combo. I don't think I'll have the time to haunt these pages that often but thought I'd register and say hi. I have some experience with repairing the glowy-era HH stuff too. Cheers Nick