basshead56

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1369921783' post='2094487'] The standard Epiphone Thunderbird with the bolt-on neck is very different to the Gibson, but the new-ish Epiphone Classic IV is almost identical. [/quote] I hadn't heard about these till the other day. If that's the case, I'd certainly try one-as I said, I'm an Epiphone fan Just remebered, my mate Brian used to have an "Elitist" model around the same time I got my white epi TBird (?-I think that's what he said it was called-chrome pickups and all that). That was an amazing bit of kit. It sounded great-waaayyy better than my Epiphone!

I own both Gibson Thunderbird (Studio models- IV and V) and Epi TBird (a limited ed. White) I found them to be entirely different beasts. I started with the Gibson 5 string because I wanted a 5er and owned only Fenders at the time. The Thunderbird was always on the GAS list, so made sense to kill two 'birds' with one stone-a Studio V. Got the Studio V and LOVED IT. Then ended up with the IV version in a trade later on-slimmest Gibson neck ever and gorgeous body lines-trimmer, faster-going places!!!. I picked up the white Epi for less than 100quid in another moment of madness. I found the Gibson's to be far superior in build quality. The necks are nicer and the the pickups have 'that thunderbird sound' whereas the Epi feels lightweight but still has serious neck dive and the pickups sounded gutless at times (especially on open E) - looks badass though!!! Disappointed, considering that every other Epi I've ever owned was great (maybe mine is more of a quality control failure?)! I tried the Pro IV in a store a last year and thought it sounded cool, but a tad to bright for my tastes-it's a T'bird - it's meant to make your bones rattle! Have you considered a second-hand Gibson Studio TBird? - I would get another one in a heartbeat! Or the shortscale one they did...

Hi All, Have come across this: [url="http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=597180181"]http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=597180181[/url] and am intrigued. I want to get a decent valve amp for recording and also to play my Baby clone upright through. Since it will be the best part of a year before I get all of my gear back in Ireland (including my beloved VBA400 full stack) shipped out here, and I cannot afford to buy (thank you engagement ring!!!) the second-hand Mesa Bass Buster 200 listed locally (it would go with the rest of my rig! ) My question(s) then is: Can anyone help identify this model? Power, grunt etc and what impedance will these go down to? Would it handle my 4ohm Mesa Powerhouse 8x10? Cheers Colin

FILTH!!! Nasty, horrible, vile FILTH!!! I want all 3!!! Anyone know what the cost is?

Hey all, Just thought I'd share my discovery here after a day working in the studio with a bluegrass/rockabilly band. I bought a set from fleabay last week after I found the ancient set on my baby clone weren't up to doing a studio session. They arrived from the States 5 days later. Stuck em on and... haven't put the bass down since. I thought they'd just be good for slap but they actually sound great for light piz also. They add much needed 'darker' sound to the tinny transducer pickup - the baby now sounds like an actual db, no bull. Guys in the studio were gushing about the tone all day! Chuffed! If anyone hasn't tried them, even for fun/something different-seriously, do it! They are the best 20 quid investment!!! And they're much softer on the fingers too! Haha

BC RICH Widow WMD 5

Cheers gents. I figured it was a MIM body alright. The USA neck looks fine but as a few of you suggested, the body raises questions. Cheers Shall stick to my 70's P's then (until a good deal for an ACTUAL Am Std comes along!) haha Maybe I should go for the 51 RI (CIJ) I got offered... Or mortgage payments... decisions decisions... As always, thanks all

Guy selling what he says is a 2011 Am Std. P Bass. Was LPB a factory colour then? Also, weren't the bodies string-through? There doesn't seem to be anywhere to string through. What u guys think? http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=577921718 Cheers Colin

I wasn't a fan-alway's used Ampeg or Marshall, for the most part. (Though i did have a 400+ that was too big and scary for a young me, so sold it on quick) Then I moved to the other side of the world-far away from my beloved monster rigs! Then a wonderous thing happened-I got lucky and got an old Ampeg SVT III and 410HE for about 400quid-bargain i thought. Great set up-perfect for what I needed. Well it had barely been in the house three days when i saw an ad from online auction site, from a chap wanting to downsize from his Mesa rig. sounded good so I arranged to go have a look and shortly afterwards I left his place with a Mesa MPulse 600 and Powerhouse 8x10 in (fetching silver)- a straight swap too! chuffed!!! Now the even better bit-I LOVE MESA!!!!!! I am a total convert! Have since got the matching 2x10 and 4x10 cabs and watching a deal on a 6x10 (though not mad about the cream tolex). I have never tried the 15 but I have heard one at a gig- sounded like a 15 should-fat! I am counting down to the day when i can get an all-valve Mesa head down here (for recording) to sit on top of my awesome cabs! The Powerhouse cabs sound effin' big and very punchy. Really tight and focused. The 8x10 is the most muscular-sounding cab I've ever heard. They sound even better when the amp is EQ'd perfectly. Only downside is the weight. The 8x10 is easily a two man lift (hence why the guy got rid of it) and the 2x10 is an awkward lump of cab, given it's size. Also the handles are in a funny location on the sides IMO. That said, I hope Mesa never change anything about the series (except maybe the weight) -they rule! simples! I hope this influences your decision for the better

My 73 has the gasket, as do all of my later ones (mostly 76-79) if that's any use... I have one (77) with an A/ 'jazz' profile neck, it cost me a lot less than most of my other ones from the same period, but this only goes to show that there is no real consistency with pricing for 70's Fenders. Take two black/black maple P's from say, 77, and watch them go for two totally different figures! It really does come down to the buyer and seller at the end of the day.

[quote name='ern500evo' timestamp='1359107614' post='1949876'] The Mesa powerhouse and Bergantno NV610 are probably the nicest cabs I've ever played through, unfortunately I didn't own either of them!! :-( [/quote] +1 for the Mesa. Was never really a huge fan of theirs (400+ aside) till I got lucky and landed a Mesa rig here in New Zealand. Wow, what a sound! Downside being that I dont have a road crew to shift it (8x10 I mean)! I like the 2x10 Powerhouse I got also. It's definately one of the best set-ups I've ever used or even heard. That said, Ampeg 610HLF, 210microVR and Marshall VBC 4x12 are all pretty awesome cabs too!!!

Problem solved. After removing the plate with the bridge and transducer pickup, I found two loose screws on the underside of it- once tightened-no more buzz. Set it up with a lower action and now she's a lean-mean rockabilly slappin' machine! Will post a pic soon

Hi guys. Just bought a copy of an Ampeg Baby style bass (no idea of brand-usual fibre-glass type body, transducer style pickup etc) and have a wee issue: The body seems to make a weird buzzing noise when i play on the A and D strings but when i push down at the bridge or the silver bar across it, it goes away. Does the bass need a set up or something? Everything else works, pickup seems to work fine, no buzzing or crackling or anything. Just the body keeps making this weird buzzing noise!!! grr! Any help would be appreciated Cheers Colin

I used one at a gig when I was at uni and fell in love. They had just stopped making them at that stage. As already stated here, they arent the loudest but they do have a speaker out! I hadnt got a decent amp myself at that stage so spent many a day looking through ebay and other placea to find one before giving up and getting a Fenser Rumble Just before I left for NZ two years ago, a mate got one in a trade but didnt want it and offered it to me for 75 euros with a case. If i hadnt just bought a micro vr and 2 cabs here-then a plane ticket, i wouldve taken it!!! Guess it wasnt meant to be.haha

I used a mate's Kingman for a couple of acoustic gigs and a busking session. While i loved the neck, i really got put off buying one-no louder than a P Bass unplugged-unless its a Mark Hoppus sig-they are pretty loud unplugged! I remember being genuinely gutted that it didnt hold its own but then again, that has been my experience with most acoustic basses. Try and get ur hands on a Fender Victor Bailey sig, aa amazing acoustic bass that sounds great unplugged or amplified. Always get compliments on it when i use it live!

[quote name='mike 110' timestamp='1354187152' post='1883176'] Thanks for that , there's one on ebay with chrome hardware and just a sticker on the rear of the headstock . Looks nice , but funds are low at the minute , so I'll have to watch this go to someone else ...sniff.. [/quote] Ah, that'll just be a normal American Standard that happens to be from 1996 as opposed to the actual Anniversary model. Those just had a sticker on the back of the headstock. Weirdly enough I've recently been watching both a 96 Fender 50th Anniversary jazz and a 96 american standard jazz- let both go too.

I was in the same situation a few months back-swapped my Ampeg svt3 and 4x10 for an MPulse 600 and Powerhouse 8x10. I did a straight swap and the ampeg rig only cost me around 450 pounds. I also recently replaced the preamp tubes in my Mesa when the amp began to make some low crackles and hums ( i poseted here about it and got some great advice as usual from Beedster and the rest) I popped in some JJ's and she's right as rain. I find the sound has changed a wee bit and there's a little less gain but i do mean little. Still heaps of headroom and a nice semi parametric eq to clean and tidy the tone. U can probably find the user manual for the mbasis online (like i did for the mpulse) -always handy to refer to aswell

Yip USA made. They had a gold individually numbered 50th ann. neckplate with a big 50 on it and a wee 50th anniversary sticker on the back of the headstock and/or pickguard i'm sure. Dont know about the string through bit...

If you're looking at upgrading the pickups you could look at Duncans or Dimarzios as pretty solid ootions, depending on what sort of tone your after. I have put Duncan spb3s in plenty of basses over the years and always makes em sound great plenty of mid grunt and fat bottom end. However they can be a tad noisy and you can end up grounding the crap outta them and still get buzz-they are a hot pickup. So much so that I have (as of this morning) swapped them out of my 73 Precision for a set of Dimarzio dp127 Split P pups. Wow!!! Finished the swap at 12.30 and have only put it down to type this. So much clarity!!! I took a punt and am totally glad I did. Do it! Haha.

Problem was twofold. Teplaced stock mesa tubes with some nice jj's and checked all pots. Seemed better but still crackling a bit. Scratched head for a bit then decided to have another go. Brushed the cable at the input jack by accident and it went. Figured it was a grounding issue. Tried another plug in the same rion et voilla, all good in the hood again. The outlet i had been using (directly behind my 8x10) is an older fitting and i reckon the vibration from the cab loosened a wire or two. Anyways all good now. Thanks Paul and Chris, greatly appreciated!

Hi all, Just been having a play on my Mesa rig and it seems to be making a low crackling noise now and then. Its not very loud but its quite annoying. Never noticed it before yesterday. Gain is set at 9 o clock and so is master volume. I thought it was the bass at first (my squier vm jaguar) -maybe a grounding thing, so i tried some other basses-my 77 P bass and my Dano DC-same thing. Im going straight into the amp so have ruled out any fx pedal issues and i have tried 2 different cables. Could it be a current/power issue? Preamp valves? Any ideas/advice would be appreciated :-) Cheers Colin

Hi guys, I'm looking at trying to mod my already sparkly Dano DC. I want to replace the boring old white pg with a mirror type plate, but am unable to find any online. Any thoughts? Also, how does the pg come off on one of these? i know there are 3 screws... do you pull the stack knobs off and then the pg just lifts off? Kinda unsure about this one, seeing as they are so light and fragile. Cheers Colin

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1342713333' post='1739864'] As a single cab it would be running at 8 ohms wouldn't it? It is rated at 300watts, which would be about what the head would put out.... So I guess that purely from a ratings POV it [i]should[/i] be able to handle it...but it's not as though you'll be running the head flat out is it? How big is the room for the annual sheep-shearers' ball? [/quote] Yeah, I doubt I'll be running the head past 1/3-they are beasts in terms of power-CHAMPION ! Sheep shearers ball?! Away 'n sh**e man-its all dairy down here now!

Hi all, Am looking for a more portable alternative to my current rig (M-pulse 600 and Mesa PH 8x10) for practice, recording and small gigs. Given that my Ampeg Micro VR is a hemisphere away, I need something down here that sounds badass. So figured my m-pulse 600 and a smaller Mesa cab would be the mutts'- plus I won't have to fork out heaps more cash. So I have looked at either the Ph2x10 (matches my 8x10) or the Scout 12. The Scout seems to be cheaper and far lighter (and I do like 12's - miss my Marshall VBA rig-in the same place as my Micro VR! ) than the 2x10. But I'm wondering if the M-pulse 600 would be too powerful for the scout cab to cope. Anyone got any suggestions? Colin

Hi All, After weeks of waiting for the parts to arrive so I could finish off my 73 Precision rebuild, I got bored and had a look around for a cheap bass to use for a couple of band projects, (saving my 77 for recording) when i came across a second-hand Squier VM Jag for not much money. Naturally I jumped at the chance! It arrived this afternoon (with hardcase) Took her out and gave her a lookover-VERY nice on first inspection. Good set-up, same strings as when it left the factory I imagine... Plugged into the Mesa rig- no scratchy pots or issues of any kind - sounds big and phat! Love the vintage tone! I've owned PJ basses before and usually found them lacking somewhat in punch (bar my oly white 78 P) but there's a real thump from this one! I love the neck, though I think this is just making me consider picking up another Jazz (after years of Precisions)! Overall, this is a seriously great bit of kit for the money! I imagine it'll be replacing the Dano as my weapon of choice for most of my live stuff now (bar the odd appearance from a Precision or two ) Will have a serious going over at rehearsal tonight... Pics to follow, (otherwise it never happened, right?!) Am quite keen to know what others think, so any thoughts from fellow Jag-enthusiasts? Also, am keen to add a Jazz-style ashtray/bridge cover- anyone done this? What other mods have people done to theirs Cheers guys Colin