Owen

Just for reference, I have been doing my research and have emailed Armstrong Pickups cos internet lore has it that they make the originals

Thanks to this video I fancy a Ken Smith. At £5K from BD that is not going to happen anytime soon (as in at all before I die). Obviously there are all sorts of neck through stuff going on and build quality yadda yadda yadda. However, I have a bass I would happily plumb a couple of Smith Humbuckers into just for the craic. Do such a thing exist for bass bodgers like me to buy aftermarket or does anyone sell/wind Smith-alikes? I have found this but no prices http://www.kensmithbasses.com/parts-accessories/soapbar-pickups/ TIA

Great, now I want a Ken Smith.

I don't suppose anyone coming has a B Amp, a Strymon Big Sky or a Helix Stomp?

There are 3 machine heads which are the same and the D machine head is clearly different - it is an afterthought on the brass faceplate. I could well be wrong on this next bit, but the spacing of the original machines on both sides is also saying 3 stringer - wide apart on one side and the single one being in the center on the other side. I am entirely comfortable with my 3 stringer hypothesis which does put it into older bass territory. My 5 string has a new neck and the original was a 3 string to 4 string conversion. Here is a 3 stringer I found - with guts as well (for the TONE!)

Thanks all. I have clocked the name in searches but this bass is not one like the ones that come up. It is all solid and flame-y and ting so it a different kettle of fish.

Where did you run into the B+H/Excelsior info? I cannot find anything out about Excelsior at all.

It has been extensively patched inside to glue up cracks. There is a patch under the soundpost. The bassbar is there. The repair work looks good to me. And they all seem to be sound. It sounds good. It is set up with spiros so great for that spiro pizz sound. Arco and spiro is not anything that has ever floated my boat but given a nice set of arco strings I believe it would sound lovely.

It is not actually clearly stamped Boosey and Hawkes. I just went with what I was told because I did not trust my eyesight. It is just Excelsior.

Good call! I will get onto that later. Ta.

It has already been converted into a 4 string.

One of the guys my wife teaches with has a DB to sell. I used to teach him and it turns out that that his father in law is the brother of the owner of the DB. I was in the County Youth orch with this guy 35 years ago. The bass has not been played for 30 years. It is stamped Boosey and Hawkes Excelsior. It has it's fair share of relicing. There are numerous cracks but these look to have been properly repaired and patched. It is not ply and was clearly a 3 stringer which at leasr gives us a 100 year old + time frame. It is strung with Spiro and plays really nicely. If I did not crave the B I could be more than happy with it. I polished mine with chrome polish and a buffer wheel on a drill and it came up lovely. I reckon this one would as well. They want to sell it, and of course the big question is what do we reckon it is worth? They are not expecting to retire on the proceeds.

I hate compressors. I hate something else futzing around with my dynamics. I love the TC spectracomp. It does enough but not too much. I do realise this makes no sense, but there you go.

It sucks deeply. What is better is that it is avoidable for all now. Not so much when I was growing up.

But with proper protection you can still go to that gig. I have 27 ones and am uncomfortable going to a gig.

I knew cats had to have some use.

Sorry, I was talking about an API Tranzformer. I already have a Hellborg pre. Gotta try them all. The Hellborg does sound very nice indeed through the IP.

I had a chat with Guy at the DB bash before last and he was not too excited at the thought. But that was a few years ago.

An Ebay save search came up with one the right price. It would have been rude not to.

No one answered so I just bought one to see.

Yep, the B3n did not do it. It was purely working as an extra tone which was sitting with the original note in a way which gave it extra grunt/heft/girth/insert your cliche here.