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Obrienp

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Everything posted by Obrienp

  1. Obrienp
    I never tried Reverb but thanks for the tip. I will investigate. Wow, a fifth of retail sounds like cutting your throat! GLWTS!
  2. Obrienp
    You are not kidding: somebody offered me less than £400 for it on fleaBay! Of course I want to sell a nigh on immaculate £1,400 bass for less than a third of the price new…..Not!
  3. Obrienp
    Hi Y'All, Sorry, never got round to doing the glowing valve money shot but it has sold.
  4. Obrienp
    Due to arthritis in my left hand I have been selling off my long scale basses and getting shorties. I recently bought a Guild B-240 EF fretless from Thomann as a replacement for my Ibanez Aerium (SRH500). The B-240 has a Guild branded version of the Fishman Sonicore under saddle piezo pickup system. I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as the Ibanez AeroSilk system in the Aerium but the string response of the Sonicore is quite uneven. The A & D strings are much louder than the E & G strings plugged in. The A & D strings are very prone to feedback as well. The string response acoustically is fine, so it must be down to the pickup system. The Sonicore seems to be one of the few dedicated piezo systems for acoustic bass and it is used in quite a few instruments in the B-240’s price bracket. I was wondering whether any of you folks have experience of it, or just generally have experience of under saddle piezos in acoustic basses? Does this sound like the pickup in the Guild is faulty, or is this par for the course with these systems? I have raised the issue with Thomann, along with the fact that the nut and bridge saddle are cut too low. The bass is basically fine apart from the setup and the amplified string balance, which might be a characteristic of the Sonicore. Should I be insisting Thomann replace the guitar? My inclination is to get them to send me a replacement nut and bridge saddle, and get my local luthier to set it up properly but I don’t want to do that, if the pickup system is faulty. Any experience/ advice gratefully received!
  5. Obrienp
    I hadn't thought of that. Good point.
  6. Obrienp
    Hi, Thank you for your enquiry. Yes it is available. I also have it posted on eBay now, so you could make me an offer through there (to short circuit the auction) and get all the buyer protection. It also means that I won't have to cancel the auction. However, if you would prefer to do it direct that suits me as well. I wouldn't get charged fees that way. The eBay link is : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185259041962. Kind regards, Pat
  7. Obrienp
    The string issue has already been answered, ditto hanging it on the wall. I have the 4 string version, so this might not apply to the multi scale but I find myself looking at the neck more often. I think it might be to do with the length of the neck and headstock in my peripheral vision. If I don’t keep checking, occasionally I end up fretting one or two frets higher than I meant to. I am probably not helping myself by playing a regular short scale bass with one band and the headless with another. The other thing you have to watch out for is the string clamps working loose but this might be because I am careful not to over tighten them in the first place. I have visions of stripping the thread by over tightening: you can put a lot of torque on them with an Allen key.
  8. Obrienp
    Probably way too late for you but there is the Amp Guy in Norwich. Find him on the web here http://www.ampguy.co.uk. He serviced my Ashdown Little Stubby all valve amp in November and as far as I can tell did a good job.
  9. Obrienp
    After thought: This company on eBay does Bronco pickguards in all sorts of finishes and custom configurations. They did one for me cut for a precision pickup set. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Squier-Bronco-Bass-Pickguard-Scratchplate-many-colours-/114628915838?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0
  10. Obrienp
    I did a lot of mods to a Bronco, which I sold recently. I did start a thread about machine heads and then discovered some drop ins. To quote the thread: I don’t know whether these are any better than the originals, or whether you can order from Spain without huge Brexit related customs hassles. If you just have a dodgy machine head that needs replacing and want to stick with a drop in; I have the original tuners for my Bronco, which you can have for nothing but the price of postage. Message me if you want them. Edit: forgot about the bridge. It depends whether you want to stay with the Bronco string spacing , look and mount holes. I wasn’t bothered about sticking with the look. I found a replacement, high mass bridge with 18mm spacing (0.5 MM more than standard), 4 saddles and roughly the same mount holes on eBay for very little but it came from China. The standard adjustment screws didn’t provide enough movement to get the intonation correct on strings 3 and 4, so I had to source shorter screws. To be honest, it was a lot of hassle and I wish I had just gone for a standard Fender style 4 saddle bridge with different mount holes and 19mm spacing. Yes a bit of hassle getting it aligned but the OEM bridge wasn’t aligned on the centre line anyway. Broncos are built at a price. Just get one with a big enough baseplate to cover the original mounting holes. If retaining the original string spacing is important to you, Babicz and Schaller do bridges with adjustable string spacing but they are going to cost 70-80% of what you paid for the Bronco in the first place. You will never recover that outlay. I probably spent around £280 on buying and modding the Bronco and sold it for £120. Lesson learnt as far as I am concerned.
  11. Obrienp
    I sold a TC Electronic BH550 to jimmybass04 just before new year (2022). It was a real pleasure doing business with Jimmy, especially as there were real issues with my carrier, Parcel Force. Essentially, they lost it for a while and it didn’t get delivered until 12 days after I dropped it off at the Post Office. Jimmy was very patient, especially as I had his money for the whole period: he had paid super promptly by bank transfer, as soon as we had agreed the deal. I have no hesitation in recommending Jimmy as a great person to do business with.
  12. Obrienp
    Curiosity killed the cat. I just gave it a try tuned down two whole tones: not as bad I thought it would be. This was with my custom bass with D’Addario 45-105 nickel round wounds. I wouldn’t say it was as bad as floppy but there was a lot of string rattle. Obviously, with the reduced tension, the neck went convex, so for a long term tuning option you would need to loosen the truss rod. The action would probably need to go up and not just at the bridge: I think the nut would need to be raised and the intonation adjusted. Tone wise it was boomy and a bit rubber band like but I didn’t find it too bad from a fretting accuracy point of view. I was able to avoid bending the strings but it needed a light touch with the plucking hand. I am not sure I could manage it live: I tend to dig in through nerves/excitement. To summarise: it is probably doable with some set up work but I couldn’t live with the tone you get. It might be better with higher tension strings.
  13. Obrienp
    Well it’s always worth a try. I don’t think it will do your bass any harm. I am tempted to give it a go now just to see/hear what happens.
  14. Obrienp
    I take it we are talking 4 string here? One band I play in tunes down a semitone to help the singers. One of my short scales handles that fine and I think it could go down the full tone without becoming unplayable but I don’t have the action set very low. I think dropping the 4th string to C would be too much, unless you have the action super high. The strings are just going to be flapping about and even with really high action it is going to be difficult to get the intonation right with so little tension. It would be really difficult to fret accurately without bending the string sideways. I guess it might be possible if somebody manufactures a high tension set of short scale strings but I haven’t heard of any. You watch: somebody will post that they tune down two whole steps all the time and it is no problem😀.
  15. Obrienp
    I have been having a really bad experience with Parcel Force, which is not quite over yet. I sold an amp and a bass just before year end. I sent one on the 30th and one on the 31st of December, both by Parcel Force Express 48 drop at Post Office. I knew they would not start moving until after the bank holiday but by the 5th they were still showing as collected and nothing more. I raised a case with them (not easy: hours online trying to get to chat with an agent). They did find them within 24 hours and they started to move. In the meantime one of my buyers had also started an enquiry and was told by Parcel Force that the parcel had not been dropped off yet and that he should contact the sender. This despite their own tracker showing it as “collected”. They had clearly been forgotten in my local depot. I don’t know what would have happened to them if I hadn’t kicked up a fuss: I even went to the Post Offices I dropped them at to get photos of their handover dockets. The parcels have now made their way to the buyers’ local depots but have not been delivered yet, despite expected delivery showing as the 6th on their tracker. I am just hoping they will be delivered tomorrow intact and not as a pile of pieces! I learnt a lot about Parcel Force, during this process, from the Post Office people I talked to. A lot of parcels go missing in their experience. Virtually none of them seem to be delivered on time. Parcel Force collections from nominated POs are very unreliable. One PO had an Express 24 package that wasn’t collected for 9 days! Now I appreciate that this might not apply to Parcel Force across the board but if you are in North Norfolk, I would recommend you avoid Parcel Force. I certainly won’t be using them again. I now need to try to get a refund out of them for delayed delivery and I hope I won’t be trying to get compensation for damaged goods! Update for the sake of fairness: the packages were eventually delivered on the 10th of January, so way outside the contracted time. Fortunately, both the amp and the bass were undamaged.
  16. Obrienp
    Thanks. That is reassuring.
  17. Obrienp
    Well this never happened. After the first rush of enthusiasm from me and taking into account the full order book of the luthier, I decided it was not a cost effective option. In fact the neck would have cost more than I just got from selling the SRH500, so it really wasn't worth it. That puts me in the market for a short or medium scale, fretless acoustic, or hybrid electro-acoustic of similar calibre to the SRH500 Aerium. I see that Warwick do various versions of their Alien acoustic bass in a 32". I quite like the look of the hybrid, slim bodied version with the Nanoflex pickup system (mag in the neck and piezo bridge). Does anybody have experience of these Warwick acoustic basses? On a similar theme: this is my first and probably last (given my age and state of arthritis) venture into fretless. Would the panel recommend going for a lined fretless, or just one with dot side markers? Also given arthritis in my left hand: do fretless basses require significantly more finger pressure to get a clean note, or is it marginal?
  18. Obrienp
    Nice looking bass that Les Paul DC. You got a bargain there! It’s a big slab of mahogany (I am guessing). How is it weight wise?
  19. Obrienp
    Ditto. I guess if you are on the Continent there is just too much hassle involved in buying from the UK now. I can’t see any way round that at the moment and I would be reluctant to ship abroad now as well. Shame!
  20. Obrienp
    For sale this compact, lightweight 12” cabinet with switchable tweeter and padded Hotcovers cover. This is the EVO II model rated at 300 watts (8 ohms). The full spec is here: https://ashdownmusic.com/products/rm-112t-evo-ii. The grab handle is placed really well and weighing only 12.2 Kg, it’s really easy to carry. I bought this 6 months ago and it has been gigged twice. I haven’t really used it apart from that. I have a Barefaced One10 which I tend to use for rehearsals, so this has been gathering dust. You will see from the photos that there are a few minor scuffs, mostly noticeably on the bottom: one that has gone through the tolex and some paint chipped off the metal corners, otherwise it’s in very good condition. They were a little economical with the tolex on the back, as you will see from the photo there is a bit of a gap in the seam. It doesn’t seem to be peeling to me and could be covered up with a felt tip. The cheapest I can find these cabinets online is £269. If you include the cost of the Hotcovers cover, you are getting this for a good price but I will consider offers, or a trade for a similar condition Orange OBC112, with cash adjustment. Try and buy in Fakenham, Norfolk. I will drive 50 miles or so to meet up and handover. I have the original shipping box, so can post it at buyer’s expense.
  21. Obrienp
    Thank you for the suggestions folks. I thought I should complete the story, for what it is worth. I decided that it would be more cost effective to sell the Aerium, much as I love it and look for a short scale acoustic bass to replace it. I am not optimistic that I will find anything that sounds and plays as well as the Aerium but who knows? Favourite at the moment is the Warwick Alien, which is a 32” but a real 30” would be better for my arthritic hand. Also the Warwick cost more than double what I raised by selling the Aerium.
  22. Obrienp
    Sorry if you were interested. This bass has now sold but if you like Ibanez’ innovative design, I am also selling a beautiful Affirma 5 string on this forum at a bargain price.
  23. Obrienp
    Now offering free p&p (48 hours) and price now £350.
  24. Obrienp
    Purely subjective view of my 4 string is that the neck feels shorter than my other short scale bass. It does take me a few minutes to get used to it when I switch to it from another bass. I find myself relying on the dot markers on the side of the neck more than with other basses. I think the body is the same size as the 34” scale version but I admit I haven’t compared the measurements. It sits well on the strap despite all of this.
  25. Obrienp
    See above for reduced price of £370 and UK p&p for free. Now £350 for quick sale. Would pair nicely with the Ashdown 12” cab I’m selling 😀.
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