lemmywinks

Going off the battery compartment rout I don't think any mods done to the bass in the OP will be classed as professional! Guitar wiring is incredibly basic, you can easily get results better than what you'd find in most cheap basses. Not sure if they still teach electronics etc at high schools but we were doing more intricate soldering work pre GCSE, honestly I'd consider it a pretty essential part of guitar ownership, not to mention massively beneficial if you ever need to make cables for your PA.

Most people can learn to solder guitar stuff in 15 minutes with a cheap USB iron I reckon, swapping the original wiring back in would be a very small job. I put a fair bit of money into my main bass but kept hold of the original parts in case I ever need to sell it, would take a massive hit otherwise.

That's why you put the original bits back when you sell it! Price is understandable on this one as the seller has devalued the bass with that battery cavity. Also when did those Stinger preamps get so expensive, they were cheap a few years ago weren't they?

No idea, usually neck construction though I think? I came away with the same impression from their fancy neck through basses as well, the low B just wasn't tight enough for me. I'd still be interested in trying one of the HB Enhanced basses as I love the idea of a budget version of a Sandberg California.

Was looking at the Enhanced basses a while ago for use as an interesting backup bass*, unfortunately I need a 5 and from watching the videos around at the time (the Basstheworld one was out IIRC) the low B was flabby, something which has stopped me pulling the trigger on a fair few HB basses over the years. If you need a 5 then that's something to consider as the Sandberg is going to have a solid low B and no amount of pickup or preamp swaps will make the HB as good in that department, *That's the official reason, in all honesty I just wanted one.

Weirdly the other day I was saving an old band CD from way back when (the disc is starting to fail and the only other rip was on a long dead external hard drive) and although I hated it at the time the two songs I recorded on a Bass Pod still held up. The ones I did via a mic'd up Hartke combo made me cringe though!

A pal of mine had one of those, in a fancy wine red finish. Weighed a ton and I hated the preamp but it was built to withstand some serious abuse. They were Samicks I think.

Or this: Or possibly this:

Better not show them this:

A lot of them are just people who have a rather comical dislike of Warwick and the people behind the brand, probably a big crossover from Spector fans as well or at least the ones that still haven't figured out the NS1 wasn't a Stuart Spector design. It's that weird trait some people have where they align themselves with a particular brand on a personal level despite having no connection to it other than making a purchase.

If you like the sound straight out of the desk then a small powered speaker wold be the simplest way to do it. I used a QSC K10.2 live for bass and have put guitar through it (via a Fishman Pro Platinum) before, sounded very nice if you like clean sounds. I put a 5 string through the K10.2 with no issues but if you're likely to be using it on a louder stage then you may want to look at larger/more powerful versions.

I think he just bought it from a guy called Tim Stevens in Warwick.

Yeah Ron I think, no idea if he's still knocking around, heard he had health problems a while ago. We stopped rehearsing there a while ago, nice sounding room but I think most of the equipment had been there since I was in high school!

I briefly knocked around with Jay many moons ago, he was a really good artist and did loads of HR Giger inspired pieces. You've probably seen him around Thornton years ago when he still lived here, had a massive mohawk and looked the part even back then. Last time I went to Berlin the fella had befriended a local fox and fed it chicken every night, was stood outside smoking and it just casually wandered up the long path and sat there waiting for him.

I bet they still have that old Peavey/McGregor stack in there! Non-interesting fact - John Sykes' nephew Jay currently sings in the punk band One Way System.

You could spec it yourself and order from Roger, that's true. What's also true is that Warwick have already done that, planned a small run of them, taken pictures, comissioned demo videos and offered them for sale which is an entirely different thing. The good news is that you aren't obligated to buy from either manufacturer. Never seems like HPW has these limited run instruments gathering dust around the factory and they seemed to be aimed more at collectors, I'm going to go out on a limb and say these will sell out and HPW will make a tidy profit on them just like all the other limited runs seem to.

The crazily priced ones are a limited run of 30 basses for all those getting their panties in a twist about these, even the Metroline ones are a limited run of 100. Warwick do this sort of thing every year, they're always expensive and not meant to represent the regular ranges. This one looks the nicest IMO:

I think you used to be able to download an older version of the app by signing in with your account on a newer device, downloading the latest version and then trying again on the old device. No idea if this works for free apps or just paid ones or even if it's still a feature. I only bought my iPad to use the Mackie mixer app but it would have been handy to have the Kindle app on there for the van journeys home etc, sadly even that requires IOS 12 which is mental. One of the best uses for old tablets is as ebook readers but in this case forced obsolescence renders them ewaste.

Super stuff, great playing!

Correct price is on the sticker:

Played with a drummer who used a mini kit (no details other than that it was orange, sorry) and he just left it set up in his van. Turned up to gigs, opened the side door and carried the drums in already on stands. Sounded monstrous when mic'd up through the PA, don't know why more drummers don't use them tbh.

I really like the LEL but I don't understand his criticism of the Sire preamp, aside from the cluttered nature of the bell plate which can be partially put down to the poor choice of standard knobs and close pot spacing. The Sires are as simple or complex as you want them to be - you can have a passive vol/blend/tone setup with the circuit turned off and the mid control is centred at a sensible point so you can ignore the mid sweep if needed. He seems to really like the passive V5 but for me that negates the main point of Sires - the excellent preamp which you don't really see at those price points where there are a lot of excellent passive jazz basses vying for your attention. I guess the fact he likes it shows they are great basses regardless, would rather have the preamp option though.

I think it also has a lot to do with the lack of demand for that style of front end, times have changed and the trend towards compact, intuitive amps which pack features into as few controls as possible is the opposite of those old TE heads which are pretty archaic in their execution. Whichever way you slice it an amp head based around a GP12 SMX pre is going to be pretty massive regardless of weight. An old TE preamp in a rack bag coupled with a powered cab would be a way to get that setup without the weight as would the preamp pedal they currently produce. Also with the constant debate on here about class D's apparent lack of heft (or whatever) and the perception that old school watts are louder/fuller there would be no guarantee that a lighter amp would sound the same anyway. The same people who still prefer their old Trace heads to modern micro amps would probably not be satisfied by a Trace with the same generic power section, especially seeing as a lot of them are already predisposed to think the original ones are best. Btw I played Trace in the 90s and absolutely ditched them because of how they sound as did a lot of players at the time, this was before we got old and also before bass amps were even close to being lightweight.

This is very UK centric and I think massively overestimates the global popularity and legendary status of TE. They aren't on SVT levels at all and checking sold listings on eBay will tell you all you need to know about how desirable they are. In no way did they dominate Ampeg etc in the USA which makes the UK seem like nothing in terms of sales. The point about them being stuck in an era wasn't questioning how good they sound or how usable they are today, it was simply saying that with the amount of choice people have now they are just not particularly desirable which again if you look at eBay prices is hard to argue against. They had their day and the market has spoken - nobody wants those old TE amps any more. As I said in the post above reducing their decline to Peavey taking ownership at their peak and letting them rot is just not true, they were on the slide and factories were closed long before ownership was finally transferred to Peavey in 2005.