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Everything posted by Obrienp
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Ibanez SRH500 Aerium Electro-Acoustic Bass in Dragon Eye Burst now SOLD
Obrienp replied to Obrienp's topic in Basses For Sale
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I am having a gear clear out. Somehow I have ended up with 4 bass heads, so I am selling off the ones I think people might buy. This is an Ashdown CTM 30 Little Stubby all valve head in very good condition. I have never gigged this but I am told that they are loud enough for small gigs with the right cabinet. It certainly makes a great studio or rehearsal amp and at 9kg, it’s a valve amp that won’t give you a hernia! I had this serviced by the Amp Guy in Norwich in November '21, so it’s nice and clean inside (no dust). All the pots have been cleaned and lubricated. Transformers, fan and valves all tested, and the output valves re-biased. Basically, it is good to go. The valves are all JJs by the way. The full spec can be found here on the Ashdown website: https://ashdownmusic.com/products/ctm-30-little-stubby. In summary it has proper controls, unlike the Little Bastard. Separate Gain control and predictable 3 band passive EQ. It also has the feedback control that really changes the character of the amp between modern and vintage, with multiple stops in between. Not pictured but you will, of course, get the kettle lead and I'll throw in a jack to speakon speaker cable. You are welcome to try and buy in Fakenham, Norfolk. I will drive around 50 miles to meet up, or deliver. I have the original box, so will post to UK for free for the right offer. These are selling at PMT for £778. Now £350 including p&p. No trades please.
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I am having a bit of a gear clear out. Somehow I have ended up with 4 bass heads, so I am selling off the ones I think people might want to buy. This is the TC Electronic BH550 lightweight head. The full spec is here: https://www.tcelectronic.com/product.html?modelCode=P0CIN. It has some nice features for gigging including built in tuner and two of their TonePrint slots for effects. You can change the loaded effects using their free app. It also has mute switch, plus balanced DI out with pre and post switch. The mute and effects can be controlled by a three button foot switch. Pretty well any switch can be used, so you don’t have to buy their quite expensive switch. I used a Digitech switch that came with a Trio+ but I am selling that with the Trio I am afraid. I have gigged the amp once (thanks Covid!) and I think it is in close to immaculate condition. You are welcome to try and buy in Fakenham, Norfolk. I will travel around 50 miles or so to meet up, or deliver. I have the original box, so can post at buyer’s expense. No trades please.
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This is the last of my big boy basses to be put up for sale. Unfortunately, arthritis in my left hand is forcing me to go short scale, otherwise I would definitely be holding on to this beautiful instrument. The full spec can be found here on the Ibanez site, although they are no longer selling the walnut version, so bear in mind that the body wood is Walnut and the fretboard is ebony.https://www.ibanez.com/usa/products/model/afr/ To summarise it is a boutique design bass by the late Rolf Spuler. Mine is the recent reissue, rather than the 90s version. It must have one of the most ergonomically designed bodies on the market. It is super comfortable to play either standing or sitting and lightweight, so you can do really long sets with it. The neck is super comfortable to play despite its width, being a really great shallow shape. It has a US Bartolini jazz pickup and the amazing AeroSilk piezo bridge, with individual saddles. There is a two band active preamp for the jazz pickup (stacked eq) and a single tone and volume preamp for the AeroSilk system. It has a set half neck through design, with two carbon reinforcement rods in addition to the truss rod. The machine heads are arranged to give pretty well straight string pull. You can get an impressive variety of sounds out of the two pickups by blending or soloing them. The piezo puts out a pretty convincing acoustic sound and can be made to sound pretty double bass like with the right eq. Through an acoustic preamp like the Zoom AC-2, or TCE Bodyrez it gets very close to an upright. I have used the +6 db boost trick on the preamp, whereby you drop the jazz pickup down away from the strings and move its connector to the connector labelled +6db. This gives a fatter more mellow sound than the original setup that is more appropriate for slap playing. It is easy to reverse this: just raise the pickup and reconnect to the +0db connector. Together the pickups can give you quite an aggressive growl, or a really mellow woody sound. No modifications at all, apart from Schaller strap lock buttons and I have restrung it with 50-135 standard medium gauge D’Addarios, as opposed to the hybrid light top/medium bottom it comes with. Condition wise I would say it is close to excellent. There are a few light scratches that I have tried to photograph. One of these is by the neck joint. At first I thought it might be a small crack but if it is, it is very minor. However I have reflected this in the price. The bass is in Ibanez’ Premium range, so comes with a fitted, plush lined case and an amazing multi-tool that I will, of course, include. You are very welcome to try and buy in Fakenham, Norfolk. I will drive around 50 miles, or so to meet/deliver. I have the original box and p&p is now included in the price. I paid the best part of £1,400 for this, so get yourself a boutique bass for the price of a MIM Fender. Surely a bargain at my asking price: now £750. It is priced to sell quickly but of course, I will listen to close offers. I would consider a trade for a short scale bass 4, or 5 string from Sandberg, or Maruszczyk, with cash adjustment as appropriate. This is no longer on fleaBay: just seem to be a bunch of tyre kickers and chancers on there. Also they now automatically realist your item 7 times, which might be fine if it is a basic auction but I had a reserve that was costing me £30 a pop and they don’t ask you if you want to repost. The only way you can stop it seems to be to end the auction early. Anyway, it is still on Reverb https://reverb.com/uk/item/49873881-ibanez-afr5-wap-affirma-2018-natural-walnut. I would obviously prefer not to have to pay their fees, hence the lower price on this forum.
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The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
That passes up one of the advantages of short scale basses! Shame! I understand the Reverend Watt Plower is a hefty brute as well. -
Unfortunately, arthritis in my left hand is forcing me to go short scale. Consequently, I have to sell my lovely Ibanez Aerium acoustic bass. The full spec is here on the Ibanez website: https://www.ibanez.com/eu/products/detail/srh500f_1p_05.html. Please note this is for the fretless version but that apart they are the same instrument, except I am pretty sure mine has a rosewood fretboard. To summarise it is a full 34” scale, 4 string, fretted, hybrid electro-acoustic bass. I say hybrid because it has an electric bass style body that is chambered/semi-acoustic. The top is spruce and the body mahogany, with a chamfered top edge where the arm rests. It has a super fast jazz style neck. It is really light and ergonomic. The really clever stuff is in the AeroSilk piezo bridge that provides individual string saddles that adjust for intonation like an electric bridge. The volume of each string can be adjusted, so that you can get the string to string balance you want. It has a simple but effective active preamp with volume and tone controls. It is fitted with D’Addario 45-100 tape wounds and provides a low action. The colour is Dragon Eye Burst. It is in great used condition, with a few small dings in the back (pictured) and some superficial playing scratches but nothing serious. The frets have little wear and the fretboard is unmarked. The protective plastic is still on the rear plate that houses the fine adjustment screws for the pickup system. I have fitted Schaller locking strap buttons. I think it plays beautifully and sounds great. You can get a pretty convincing acoustic (upright like) tone from it, especially if you use an acoustic preamp like a Zoom AC-2, or TCE BodyRez. These don’t come with a case but I can throw in a Thomann branded gig bag. I also have the original box, so can post at buyer’s expense. You are welcome to try and buy in Fakenham, Norfolk and I will meet/deliver within 50 miles or so.
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The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
I regret selling my Jaguar SS. I thought it looked good in black and chrome too. I agree it did suffer from neck dive but a grippy strap goes some way to stopping that. I put a matched set of DiMarzios in it and it sounded great, especially taking advantage of the wiring options that the 4 leads offered. TBH the original pickups weren’t bad but there was a big difference in volume between the P and the J. -
What does the panel think? I have an Ibanez SRH500 Aerium (see photo) 4 string with a fretted neck. I love the sound I can get from it when combined with an acoustic guitar preamp peddle (in my case a Zoom, or TCE Bodyrez). To my ears it sounds really close to a double bass. However, I have regretted not going for the fretless version, which I think would sound even closer to an upright. Recently I have been having issues with arthritis in my left hand and I have moved to short scale in my standard electric basses. Trying to kill two birds with one stone, I asked a local luthier to quote for making a custom replacement fretless neck with reduced scale length, to make it a 32”. The quote came out in the region of £400 with ebony board and decent machine heads. Now I guess £400 is about what the whole bass would be worth, if I opted to sell it. I doubt I would recover my £400 for the custom neck, if I came to sell it with both necks. Is it worth it I wonder? Would I be better off looking for another fretless short scale acoustic bass? Am I likely to get a better quote for the custom neck from another luthier? Incidentally, the only shortscale fretless acoustic bass I can find online is a 32” Warwick from Thomann, which starts at around £680 and has a conventional under saddle piezo. Somehow, I doubt it is going to sound as good as the Ibanez AeroSilk system.
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Sorry if you were interested, it’s sold but watch out for some more interesting gear in the near future: Ashdown Little Stubby all valve amp; Ibanez Affirma 5 string bass in Walnut (breaking my heart); TC Electronic BH550; Ibanez SRH 500 Aerium bass in Dragon Eye burst. Contact me if you are interested, or wait for me to get round to doing the adverts.
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Further update: I have now replaced the original pickguard with a custom made 4 ply dark red tortoiseshell item that cost £30. I have also fitted new D’Addario nickel round wound strings. If I could find a way of editing the price, I would have put it up to £140 but I can’t, so at £120 it’s a total bargain. No trades please.
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The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
The DP 145 is a more modern take on the Model One designed in conjunction with Billy Sheehan and less boomy/muddy but I see it has been discontinued. It is worth looking for any remaining stock IMO. It also has 4 leads, so you can play with parallel/series wiring and/or coil tapping. Not to say that the Model One isn’t a great pickup and certainly better than the stock Epiphone mudbucker but that kind of sound was good enough for Jack Bruce and many others back in the day….. -
For sale this amazing polyphonic synthesizer pedal for guitar and bass. Unlike previous guitar/bass synth pedals, it does not require a hex pickup. Just plug in your bass lead like any normal effects pedal and it tracks perfectly, even string bends and chords. The full spec can be found here: https://www.boss.info/uk/products/sy-300/. The unit has not been gigged and has not been out of my studio. There are a few minor scratches from use; the worst of which I have tried to capture in one of the photos. It comes with original box, UK power supply and massive manual. I am also bundling the Roland EV-5 expression pedal, which I think I have used 3 times. To be honest I don’t understand synthesisers and although Boss provide free, downloadable workbench software for it (which is the easiest way to programme your own patches) I still can’t get my head round it. I have downloaded and installed firmware updates and free additional patches from the Boss website. I understand you can buy additional libraries from various sources online but I haven’t tried. I had a quick look online for the street price new and it seems to be around £570 (list £695), so my asking price (now £325) with the bundled expression pedal is a bargain IMO. No trades please. Try and buy in Fakenham, Norfolk. I am now offering free postage.
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Hardly used Zoom B1Xon multi-effects pedal for bass. Never gigged and it has spent most of its life on a shelf in my studio. This is the one with the expression pedal for wah, volume/swell, etc. The full specs are here: https://www.zoom.co.jp/node/62. Try, collect, buy from Fakenham, Norfolk. I will post at buyer’s expense. Open to offers. No trades please.
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The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
I rate D’Addario short scale strings and the round wounds aren’t too expensive. I would avoid Rotosound short scale strings: they seem to have intonation issues, unlike their 34” which are great IMO. For the EB-0, flats would be in keeping with the general vibe of the instrument but they won’t improve the mudiness of that pickup. TBH roundwounds aren’t really going to fix the mudiness that much. You could replace the pickup with a DiMarzio DP 145, if you can find one, which is surprisingly crisp even in that neck position (I have one in one of my basses). -
The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
Yes. The main thing I notice is much less fatigue in my left hand, arm, shoulder and back. Sound wise I really can’t tell much difference between my custom shortie (P/J) and the Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass I used to gig. I doubt the audience notice any difference, unless I am using my Ibanez EHB1000S, which being headless and sea foam green, does look a bit unusual. It is quite difficult to get bags and cases purpose made for shorties but as somebody else said, some shorties will fit into guitar cases and bags (e.g. the Ibanez EHB1000S). Fender do quite a good short scale gig bag for not much cash. Generally speaking I have found the move to shorties positive. Typically they are easier to play and generally less strain, although I understand the Reverend Watt Plower is really heavy. -
NBD - Aerodyne Jazz Bass (I’m a terrible liar)
Obrienp replied to AndyTravis's topic in Bass Guitars
I recently sold mine, not because there was anything wrong with it, in fact the opposite but arthritis in my left hand is forcing me to go short scale. They are great bases but IMO the stock pickups were a bit weak. I put a DiMarzio set in which really gave it a new lease of life, plus they were a lot quieter. That mod plus, shielding the cavities with copper tape made it really quiet on standby. The DiMarzios have four wires, giving you the option of clever wiring combinations, should you wish (parallel/series on a push/pull, etc), or you can just use them vanilla. They have a super fast neck and are quite a lot lighter than your average J bass. They also look great with the lacquer style finish and top binding. The body does end up with lots of superficial scratches but I don’t think it is any more fragile than other finishes. Another common mod you might want to do is to change the standard bridge for something a bit chunkier. It is quite difficult to find one in the smoked chrome finish. Gotoh do one but be warned, if you have one of the models with the controls mounted through the body, rather than on a standard J bass metal plate, the top is carved (convex). In order to mount the standard bridge level, the top has a very shallow indent for the bridge. This route is not big enough to accommodate the larger base plate of the Gotoh (or any other) higher mass bridge. You therefore end up with the choice of enlarging the indent, or putting a spacer in so the new bridge will sit level. I gave it to a Luthier to sort out and he went for the spacer so as not to do a non-reversible modification. This required the neck to be shimmed to compensate for the slightly higher bridge. It all worked out very well but it wasn’t as straight forward as your average Fender bridge upgrade. -
The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
Now I love the look of that but I have this: -
Barefaced One10 with Roqsolid Cover - SOLD
Obrienp replied to Obrienp's topic in Amps and Cabs For Sale
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Barefaced One10 with Roqsolid Cover - SOLD
Obrienp replied to Obrienp's topic in Amps and Cabs For Sale
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Barefaced One10 with Roqsolid Cover - SOLD
Obrienp replied to Obrienp's topic in Amps and Cabs For Sale
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The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
Yeah. It does sound too good to be true. I just tried it on the bathroom scales and they say 3 kg (6.6 lbs), so it must be in the region of 7 lbs, give or take. It does feel like picking up an acoustic in comparison to my other basses. The chambered body must be helping a lot with the weight. -
The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
Yes. I just weighed mine with one of those baggage scale things: 5.5 lbs. I have changed the standard Bartolinis for Aguilar pickups, which were not as deep, so that might have had a marginal impact on the weight. -
Barefaced One10 with Roqsolid Cover - SOLD
Obrienp replied to Obrienp's topic in Amps and Cabs For Sale
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Update to the above. The machine heads are Wilkinson, not Northwest’s own brand. One of the pictures shows where the chrome has come off the edge of one of the retaining nuts. The grey marks on the nut are where I have used graphite (pencil lead) to lubricate the slots to stop the strings from binding.
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I bought this Bronco bass from PMT earlier this year as an interim, while I waited for a short scale to be made by a local luthier. It is the ultimate mod platform as far as I can tell. Stock it is a sound instrument, let down by some of the hardware. I have only used it my home studio but it is a lot of fun. I have made some modifications to it, as can be seen from the photos. I fitted lightweight tuners from Northwest Guitars, with 14mm posts. You can see from the photo that I have filled the original screw holes with the old toothpick trick. The electrics have been replaced with CTS pots and a decent jack socket. I have shielded the cavities with copper tape so it’s very quiet on standby and fitted a Tonerider Precision Plus (TRP1) pickup, which sounds great. I have now replaced the original pickguard with a custom made 4 ply dark red tortoiseshell item cut to fit the precision pickup set. I also replaced the bridge with a chunkier item with individual saddle adjustment but the same (approx 18mm) spacing. It uses the same screw holes as the original but is a bit of a compromise. The design doesn’t really allow for enough saddle adjustment to get the intonation right, so I have had to replace one of the adjustment screws with a shorter item and use a spring behind the back of the bridge to pull the A string saddle back a bit. The intonation now sounds spot on to my ears. The neck plate and scratchplate still have their protective plastic film on. Condition wise the body and neck are in very good condition. There are a few minor scratches in the gloss black but none that go through to the wood. You will get all the original parts with the bass, so you can put it back to standard if you should want to, although you will need to sleeve the post holes, if you want to put the original machine heads back, as I have enlarged them from 12 to 14mm. I just fitted a new set of D’Addario 40-95 nickel round wounds. I decided to stick with the gauge it comes with as stock but I am sure it would be great with standard light, or even medium gauge. The extra lights are just so easy to play but I don’t they lack bottom end. Try and buy in Fakenham, Norfolk. Will travel up to 50 miles to handover, if I get the asking price. I have the original box but I am very nervous about posting TBH but will do at buyer’s expense.