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Obrienp

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Everything posted by Obrienp

  1. Obrienp
    Yes, I had to make new holes for the Wilkinsons. I filled the old holes with toothpick ends glued in with wood glue. I also had to enlarge the post holes as the Wilkinsons required a larger bore.
  2. Obrienp
    Agree entirely. Somehow it is even more irritating when they are just out enough to require some woodwork but so little that you have to be really careful how much wellie you give it.
  3. Obrienp
    OK, so I started doing the re-wiring to accommodate my 4 conductor pickup. I decided to push the boat out and use CTS pots, Sprague cap, a decent 3 way DPDT switch and a Trutone jack socket. For some reason, I really can’t think why, I had a spare Jaguar control plate, so I didn’t even have to drill the original (to accommodate the switch). That is where the good luck ended: I hadn’t bothered measuring the size of the control cavity. It turns out it is too narrow and too short to accommodate full size pots. I don’t really want to enlarge it, as I don’t have a proper router and using chisels isn’t that easy in cheaper woods: very hard to get a decent finish (with my woodworking skills anyway). I now have some Alpha mini pots on order: tricky to solder ground wires on the back of them without damaging them, in my experience: they overheat quickly. While I was on fleaBay I spotted a Warman MM pickup for £25. It has a four conductor lead and is hot at 12.5 k ohms, so I took the plunge.
  4. Obrienp
    Yes, I opened it up yesterday to shield the cavities as it was really noisy. Mine is a black one and it only has the two conductor pickup, in fact just a white one and the braiding shield, which they are using as the ground. The pickup hasn’t been potted completely. There is a mess of resin at either end, which I guess is hiding the start and end of each coil. I thought about trying to chip it off to get at the other conductors but the chance of damaging them in the process would be too great. I have a no-name 4 conductor Ray pickup that I took out of another bass. I might try using that for the extra switching options to start off with, before I decide to take the plunge on a Bart (if I can work out which conductor is which). The thing is I like the tone of the stock pickup in series and I don’t think I am going to get that from an exposed pole piece cheapo.
  5. Obrienp
    Brilliant! Thanks very much. Very tempted to go for it just to be able to use those extra conductors to do single coil/parallel/series switching but it’s about half the cost of the bass. Decisions, decisions!
  6. Obrienp
    Hi. Interesting mods and the bass sounds great. Just a couple of questions, if you don’t mind: 1. Which model Bartolini pickup is it? I couldn’t quite spot it when you held the box up to the camera. It seems there are 3 options: MMC 4, MM4CBC & MM42CBJD3; 2. How is the Bart volume wise compared to the original (which is pretty hot IMO)? Thanks.
  7. Obrienp
    Selling my Hofner Ignition Violin bass in excellent condition. Only about 6 months old and without any dings or scratches. Fitted with LaBella Beatle Bass flats 50-100, replacement more robust machine heads and traditional “tea cup” knobs. You will get the original machine heads, knobs and round wound strings, in case you want to revert. Also benefitting from a professional set up from my friendly local luthier, who sorted the nut and a few of the frets, plus neck relief, bridge height, intonation, etc. The replacement machine heads are better than the originals and use the same screw holes etc but still feel a bit vague, although they do seem to hold tune. With the benefit of hindsight, I should probably have gone for the even more expensive Hofner Germany machine heads sold by Thomann but they cost about a third of what the bass costs. I suspect even then they are not that brilliant: the guitar style machine heads are a design flaw IMO but they are part of the vibe of these quirky basses. You can look up the specs on line but the basics are: full hollow body, “staple” humbucker pickups, idiosyncratic pickup selector and preset tone options, 30” scale, quite narrow string spacing. I think it sounds really good for that 60s hollow body sound and of course for early Beatles stuff. In that respect I think it sounds more genuine than the contemporary range with the centre block. So why am I selling it? Well, I find I am just not playing it that much. I took it to a couple of gigs as a back up bass and used it on a couple of songs. I was expect to use it more, as I play in a covers band that does a lot of 50s and 60s stuff but it hasn’t really happened. Now I am gassing for a medium scale solid body and I need the money to fund it. The cheapest I have seen these online is £290, so £220 is pretty keen, as you get £125 worth of strings, machine heads, knobs and set up thrown in for free. You are welcome to try and buy in Fakenham, Norfolk. I have a box, so I can ship at buyer’s expense. I will also meet up within a reasonable distance, say 60 miles, or so. I am also selling a genuine Hofner Violin Bass Hard Case, for £45, or £40 if bought with the bass. The case has a few light scuffs but nothing that has gone through the tolex. Obviously open to reasonable offers but I need the money, so not looking for a trade..
  8. Obrienp
    Hi, Welcome. I’m originally from NSW but I’ve been living in the UK off and on since I was 7. Nice to have another antipodean on here! Trying to remember the layout on my EHB1000S (let it go a few months back). I think you are referring to the mids control, in which case, there wasn’t a detent on the sweep part (lower part of the control stack). That makes sense, as it would be difficult to decide on a factory default frequency range. You watch , somebody will correct me😏. Enjoy anyway. Great little bass. Only let go of mine to help fund a Nordstrand Acononyx.
  9. Obrienp
    I usually get that once they’ve heard me play. 🥴
  10. Obrienp
    @fretmeisterThere are two Jazz configuration Vox Starstreams: https://www.voxamps.co.uk/collections/bass-guitars. Pretty good value for money and they certainly meet your weight criterium. I have the passive single humbucker version and they are pretty well made. Also very ergonomic and comfortable to play. If you can stretch to the active one you get loads of quality parts: I can’t imagine anybody needing to upgrade it. Heck, I am getting a feeling of deja vu: have I already posted this? Old age I am afraid. Apologies if this is a duplicate!
  11. Obrienp
    Hi, They were off a 4 string but they are pretty long. Dimensions are 10cm length, 3.4cm width, 2.2cm depth. They might work on a 5, depending on string spacing but I don’t know how long the bar magnets are under the cover. Best wishes, Pat
  12. Obrienp
    I wouldn’t be without mine. I got the Boss offering: a bit more expensive than some but it’s still going strong 3 years on: it has great range and a charge lasts more than 6 hours. It automatically choses a channel based on what else is operating in the environment and to date, I have never had issues with radio interference (hope that wasn’t tempting fate). It doesn’t seem to alter tone and there is no lag that I can detect. Being able to walk around the room during soundcheck is a real bonus both for setting the mix and for getting your bass tone right. I don’t know whether this is unique to Barefaced cabs but what you hear on stage is very different to what the audience are hearing in the middle of the room.
  13. Obrienp
    All good points and I agree with you that tone is very subjective. My ‘51 P with the 1/4 pounder certainly cuts through the mix! I don’t have the Bronco anymore, otherwise I would measure up how far out the ‘51 pickup would be on string alignment. I wonder whether the poor string alignment would make it sound even more unbalanced? Anyway, @barrycreed I would certainly check out the Creamery pickup. I wish I had known about it when I was modifying my Bronco. It was quite a lot of hassle getting the split P pickup to fit but it did sound good.
  14. Obrienp
    I know this wasn’t directed at me but having had a Bronco I was upgrading and a spare ‘51 P pickup, the answer is no if you keep the original string spacing (i.e. the original bridge or replacement with the narrow saddle spacing). You would need to angle the ‘51 pickup to line up the pole pieces with the strings properly. ‘51 P basses had pretty well 20mm spacing at the saddles. On the Bronco you may have to do a little extra routing to get a ‘51 P pickup in at the correct angle and you would need a replacement pickguard cut appropriately. I have the Seymour Duncan 1/4 pounder ‘51 P pickup in my ‘51 P bass (self-build). It’s got a lot of gain and as Baloney Balderdash said, a lot of mids. In fact it sounds very bright and nasal generally. I only use it with the tone rolled right off and even then I find it lacks bottom end. I am not sure I would recommend it.
  15. Obrienp
    Village Hall benefit gig: not my village but playing for free. Completely knackered and felt I was a couple of BPM slow on everything but I think the lead guitarist had been drinking RedBull all day: he was hyper, so maybe he was pushing the pace more than usual. First time I had gigged with new (to me) Warwick Gnome iPro/Barefaced Two10 rig. I also decided on a whim to use my Vox Starstream instead of the usual P/J. I also use a Boss wireless system. Half way through the third number I started cutting out. It wasn’t clipping: Gain and EQ at 12 o’clock, Master hardly on. I did a quick round of pushing all the jack plugs in, checking I hadn’t accidentally engaged the tuner pedal, etc: still cutting in and out. Finally I turned the wireless sender in the bass’ jack socket. Normal service resumed. I can only assume that it hadn’t quite seated enough for the little battery saver switch to engage fully. It was a relief, as I had feared the iPro (I had bought off fleaBay) had an intermittent fault. All was good for the rest of the evening, so it seems to be OK 🤞. The gig was well received, so all is well that ends well.
  16. Obrienp
    Thanks for that confirmation. Well, you live and learn. So the volume control(s) on separate power amps (e.g. for P.A.) is in reality an input gain control.
  17. Obrienp
    Excuse my ignorance of how these things work but are you saying the Master is not controlling the output of the power amp? I had just assumed that the Gain sets the input signal level into the preamp and the Master the output volume of the power amp but I guess the implication of what you said is that the Master attenuates the output of the preamp into the power amp. Therefore, the power amp just gives its full output at all times? The only thing that affects the perceived volume is the input gain and the Master choking the output level from the preamp? Have I understood correctly?
  18. Obrienp
    I use the poor man’s Sansamp (Valeton Dapper) in front of mine but I very rarely use the EQ section on it. I find the EQ on the Gnome pretty useful TBH. It would be nice if the mids were split low/high but I get the impression that the EQ controls are interactive in some way, so they don’t seem such a blunt instrument. The Gnome certainly makes gigging easier. The standard one easily fits in a gig bag pocket. The iPro is a bit bigger but still relatively compact and light. A reflection after a few days of ownership, is that the increased dimensions of the iPro would allow for a Speakon socket, rather than the jack it comes with. Something I think Warwick should take into account if they do an update.
  19. Obrienp
    I used the iPro at a band rehearsal yesterday. We were in the hall that we will be gigging at on Saturday (a fund raiser for the hall) not a huge venue but bigger than your average pub. Two guitars and electronic drums through individual amps and DI’d into the PA (500 watts RMS active speakers each side). Bass through the iPro and Barefaced Two10S (@4 ohm) only, sitting on an Auralex isolator to offset the suspended stage. I had the Gain and all EQ at 12 o’clock with the master volume at about 8 o’clock and it was borderline too loud! Bearing in mind the control is off at 7 o’clock, it meant that it was running at minimum volume and still loud! It has got to be like thunder wound up! Tone on stage was very bass heavy but with the benefit of my wireless system I was able to walk around the hall to check the balance: a few feet from the stage, right to the back of the hall, it was much better, with the mids and highs coming through loud and clear. I guess that is the BF projection for you. I was thinking that the iPro wouldn’t be working hard enough at this volume level, after all it is barely on with the Master at 8 o’clock but it didn’t seem to be adversely effecting the tone, or at least, I liked the tone it was making at this level. With 100 or so people in the hall on Saturday night, we are probably going to have to turn everything up a bit, as bodies seem to absorb the sound. I am interested to hear what the iPro is like with Master a bit higher. I have also yet to try it with the Blues band I play in, which is a much louder outfit but I get the impression that the iPro is as loud as my Terror Bass (500 watt).
  20. Obrienp
    You never know, somebody else may know of a cheap bridge solution available in the UK. It seems there are quite a lot of aftermarket replacement parts for Broncos in the USA but most of them aren’t cheap. Personally, I couldn’t put up with the compromised intonation adjustment of the OEM bridge but I agree it is not worth throwing a lot of money at it. You will never recover it if you decide to sell. There is a thread somewhere on BassChat about modding Broncos. I went into more detail about my mods on that but more importantly, there are alternative solutions on there. It might be worth searching it out.
  21. Obrienp
    If you get a split Precision set, you can compensate the narrower string spacing by having the two parts overlapping. I did this on a Bronco but I had to do a bit of routing and I also had to make the original routing a little shallower in some places by adding some wooden strips. I also had to have a new pick-guard made up. A ‘51 P pickup is going to be too wide unless you set it at an angle. Of course, if you can find pickups with bar magnets, string spacing is less of a problem. There are some replacement pickups made for Broncos but they are expensive. Lots of people just fit bar magnet Stratocaster rails (humbuckers). Good luck with finding a cheap bridge with the same string spacing. I got one on eBay but it came all the way from China and had some design flaws that took a bit of metal work to sort out and it didn’t fit the original screw holes exactly. It might be easier and cheaper to to fit a more standard Fender type bridge with wider string spacing (and it might make it easier to fit a 34” scale pickup) but you won’t be able to use the original screw holes. If you are prepared to spend serious money there are various options with the narrower string spacing.
  22. Obrienp
    Yep, that’s what I found. I just use those rubber washer/doughnut things you stretch over the button once the strap is in place. A bit of a struggle to get on and off the large buttons on the Starstream but effective (and cheap).
  23. Obrienp
    Sounding genuinely acoustic with amplification is so tricky! Even with an SM57 in front of the instrument the quality of the sound is changed. Mics also suffer from feedback issues and are difficult to use if you like to move around a bit, so it is much easier to use an onboard pickup (not saying they don’t feedback as well). Piezos tend to sound harsh and brittle, magnetic pickups don’t really sound acoustic, combined pickup/mic combinations sound harsh (to my ears) and I have tried quite a few. The best result I have had for acoustic bass (guitar, don’t know about uprights) was with K&K transducers but I also use a Zoom A2 preamp that has “correction”. The upright bass voice really does correct the sound to be more acoustic, plus it has automatic feedback correction (a real problem with bass) but of course, that is reducing the tonal spectrum. There are others on the market from Fishman, etc, for more money. I used to play acoustic and slide guitar in various “acoustic” bands. I tried just about every pickup on the market and various acoustic amps/PA combinations. I eventually settled on Taylor’s ES2 system through an AER acoustic amp (DI’d to the PA) for regular acoustic and a Highlander pickup in my National, also through the AER, with radically different EQ profiles for each. Perhaps an AER bass amp is the ultimate solution for acoustic basses but they are eye wateringly expensive. Bose column PAs also seem pretty effective for amplified acoustic instruments but again really expensive.
  24. Obrienp
    A little update on this: I spotted an unused iPro Gnome going for reasonable money on fleaBay and took the plunge. It arrived today. I haven’t had much time to experiment with it but my initial impression of it, connected to a BF One10, is that it may be voiced slightly differently from the 200 watt version. It reminded me of the TE Elf voicing in YouTube videos (through decent speakers). A very pleasing punchy but slightly less transparent tone. However, that was with Gain and EQ all set at 12 o’clock and Master around 8/9 o’clock: hardly ticking over. I haven’t wound it up yet, or tried it through the Two10. The fan seems even less intrusive than the 200 watt version’s. To be expected I guess but the iPro is a bigger unit than the 200 watt version. They looked the same size to me in the group shots I had seen online but the iPro is a few centimetres wider and deeper, and just a bit taller. It is also a bit heavier. Otherwise it looks the same, save for the addition of the USB port on the back. The extra couple of centimetres make it look less comically small on top of a speaker cabinet.
  25. Obrienp
    Excellent. Enjoy! Do tell us if you work out a way to add Loxx.
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