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[quote name='KingPrawn' post='714368' date='Jan 15 2010, 09:33 PM']Can i ask. What in your opinion is the best practise amp around at present?[/quote] I've just got the Ashdown 5:15 mini rig & reckon it's V good for under £200 but there are a lot cheaper/smaller combos out there. How big do you want & how much you plannin on spendin?

[quote name='Merton' post='713051' date='Jan 14 2010, 08:59 PM']Cool! V interested to see how you get on with the Little Bastard, if i had the money I'd have one of those. Might know someone who'd take the 5-15 or Boxer off your hands too, so let me know - will be dwon your way on Sat 30th Jan too [/quote] Great if you know someone looking for a practice amp or combo give me a shout! Sat 30th is not a day I'm looking forward to - my car's booked it for 101 things that need doing + MOT! Wish me luck

[quote name='Sibob' post='713891' date='Jan 15 2010, 03:26 PM']This guy seems to make them [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MAPLE-THUMBREST-TUG-BAR-UPGRADE-PRECISION-JAZZ-MUSTANG_W0QQitemZ230420351309QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar_Accessories?hash=item35a61f894d"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MAPLE-THUMBREST-TUG-...=item35a61f894d[/url] Si[/quote] Thanks for the link Si, hadn't seen them on th e bay.com - that's looking good - but if I can find a bit of maple _ _ _ [quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='713897' date='Jan 15 2010, 03:30 PM']Mine runs almost the full length of my Jazz,i think some people call them B strings. [/quote] I knew them B loody great strings must be useful for something [quote name='~tl' post='713916' date='Jan 15 2010, 03:40 PM']I've got a two-hole one on my Precision (put on myself, but a Fender part) which is 2.5" long by 0.5" wide by just a smidge under 0.5" tall.[/quote] Thanks for that, mmm - bigger than I thought! Good job I asked Cheers all, John

I want to make a thumb rest for my '51 P ri & would love to know the dimensions of what's normal on a J or P bass, so if you've got one on your's - please can you run a measure over it & let me know? Because :- the '51 came with a single screw fixing & all I can find is 2 hole jobs! TIA, John

I've been very happy with my Trace Elliot Boxer 65, but when I got my Peavey Windsor valve amp for guitar it set me off GASing for an all valve bass amp. I'm only playing at home + rare get togethers with 2 or 3 friends, so normal practice amp/cab requirement but searching for a decent 'old skool' sound. As soon as I read about Ashdown's 30 watt 'all tube'little bastard I placed my order - last year!, Expecting delivery towards end of this month, (to coincide with my birthday - perfect excuse!). Meanwhile I've been pondering about what cab to match with. First I came up with was a Peavey 210, 175W - one of the lowest wattage rated cabs I could find, then I thought about the Ashdown Mini Rigs, the Perfect Ten 60W with 2 separate 10" cabs & the Five Fifteen 100W with 2x10" in one cab. I asked Ashdown about the small 210 cab but they're not available on their own, so I took the plunge & ordered a Five Fifteen Mini Rig to be getting on with. The intention is to use this as is & compare to the Boxer until the Little Bastard arrives, when I'll be able to do even more A?/B?/C? evaluating. The Mini Rig came today, so just getting the feel of that, first impressions = How can that be 100 Watts? Seriously loud enough for me but I'm surprised at the apparent levels I can get it up to in my small music room! As far as sound - I'd say it came from the same drawing board as the TE Very similar amps & the 2 x 10s seem pretty good, handling everything so far. So I'm likely to have a Ashdown Five Fifteen 100 Watt (amp only) for sale soon + I'll probably shift the TE Boxer 65 as well, if all goes to plan. Watch this space - or more correctly - the Amps & Cabs for sale in the Bass Chat market place. Cheers, John

Thanks :blush:

Happy new year to all Since having my Peavey valve amp for guitar I'm in love with valves again & this year's must have - for me - is a small all valve bass amp, upgrade from my TE Boxer 65. The best fit for what I need (home practice + get togethers in small halls at the most!) seems to be the 'Little Bastard' from Ashdown. Only 30 Watt, but they're valve driven watts! My main restraint being 'lack of £££s' & main criteria being quality of sound over volume or power handling, I'm looking for suggestions please? Hoping to spend under £200, looking at Ashdown 210 or even 115 but they're so 'over power rated' I want to find the best tone & frequency range for use at the lower end of sound/volume levels. Why do so many cab makers seem unwilling to advertise proper specs like frequency range, db spl etc.? I've only found some specs for the Ashdown range & it looks as if 2x10s will cover the range better than 1x15 without horn or tweeter. Can't find anything much with 12" drivers? Cheers, John

I've been getting intermittent crackling through my TE Boxer on & off for a week or two now, but the 51'P powerhouse seemed to bring it on big time. Every time I tried tweaking a pot, tried another bass, another lead, etc etc it seemed ok for a minute - then started again. I ordered some Servisol yesterday & it came today, (brilliant ebay seller = Knights-Electrocom). With the 4 screws out of the cabinet top & the amp slid forward, I could just see the holes in the pot' housings were all underneath facing the amp chassis, so to get a good squirt of cleaner in the right place I was going to have to remove the PCB assembly. Easy enough, first I had to get the speaker wires out the way, pulled the white wire connector to remove it - with a little wiggle & shizzer! the complete tag pulled straight out of the board! A classic dry joint. There was never any solder on the tag - completely clean looking - never been tinned! A minute cleaning the legs up with a file & a hot soldering iron - soldered back in - proper job. Squirted all the contacts anyway, cleaned up & re-assembled, must have been a 1/2 hour job. No more crackling - no more buzzing - but holy schomoly! Does that P bass have some thump? + it's like having a new amp Just everything else in the room vibrates now Cheers & Seasons Greetings to all, John

Great to meet Nick after the emails & PMs (was it only yesterday?) It was good of him to meet 1/2 way, hope the journey back was safe, the services car park was ice & slush chaos! It was a lovely drive for me, shades on all the time, blue sky & sunshine! Excellent deal on the 51 reissue P bass ;-) absolutely mint condition & yes it's mustard, think I'll have to call it 'Colmans'. EDIT: Not too late to change my mind, haven't been to the registry office yet have you seen a Marmite jar lately? Sounds superb through the TE & yes it has got some punch! Couldn't be a better bloke to deal with - could there? Only on basschat! Cheers Nick - Seasons Greeting to you & yours. John

[quote name='GreeneKing' date='Nov 21 2009, 02:17 PM' post='661016'] Nice tale, I'd love to see a photo of your original bass. One day I'll go through a massive drawer full of old photo's, but I can't remember any, maybe something taken in a dark corner at a gig in the back of a pub or club don't hold your breath Next thing my dad was pressured into making a left handed 6 string for our lead guitarist, that turned into the most gorgeous 'fusion' guitar you ever saw! 1/2 Strat, 1/2 Rickie with a sprinkling of Vox & very much 'cack handed', he loved it! Cheers!

I don't know the technical answers but I can tell you a little story, are you sitting comfortably - - - When I was 13/14 there were 4 of us, mates living within a stone throw of each other - who all got guitars about the same time, (I blame Hank Marvin & Bert Weedon mostly). So we started bashing it out together, (bad doesn't come close), but we tried & tried & tried again! Then Derek's big brother gave him his old drum kit, smashing - now we couldn't hear what we were playing. We knew someone had to get a bass but no-one had any money + we needed electric guitars + we needed amps! More weekday paper rounds & a Saturday butchers delivery job helped but there were so many things to spend it on, motorbikes, girls, beer, fags, music - in no particular order! Then I had a little crash on my bike & broke 3 fingers on my left hand. Hospitals were good in those days I remember the lovely nurse saying - in response to 'will I be able to play guitar again' - "probably not, you'd better get a bass, they've only got 4 strings!" My dad was a carpenter or to give him his full title, (I remember his headed paper), 'Cabinet Maker, Carpenter & Joiner', which was fully deserved, he did a 7 year apprenticeship at Harland & Wolves shipyard in Belfast, fitting cabins out on luxury liners with wood the quality of which I'm sure is something we can only dream of nowadays. Long story maybe - BUT - when I said 'Dad I need a bass guitar' & he said well we'll have to make one then! Next breath - [u][b]I'll have to find you some decent wood or it won't sound right[/b][/u][size="3"][/size] How he knew that I shall never know, he passed away in 1984 so I can't ask him now, but he came home later that week with some beautiful pieces of timber, I believe it was Iroko for the body, Sapele for the neck with Rosewood for the fret board. About that time I'd seen The Rolling Stones, probably on TOTP with Bill Wyman & Brian Jones using pear shaped or Teardrop guitars, so that was it - simple - no tricky cutaways - couldn't be easier! Many weeks in the workshop later, we had it made! I remember getting a catalogue from the local music shop showing the Vox teardrops, but mine was finished before I even saw that! I spent all my hard earnt on strings, single pup, T & V pots, bridge, nut & tuners, but couldn't get fret wire. Hours I spent calculating the fret positions, no calculators or computers then you know, then very carefully scribing the lines precisely on the rosewood. That was it - fingers getting better, no fret wire, so of course started playing it fretless - never looked back! Yes it sounded fantastic, it was the only bass I had for many years, many bands, many gigs - in fact until 1973 I think, when I had saved enough, (I thought), about £400 IIRC, to get my dream - A Rickenbacker. Went to that London, every frigginbacker I tried was a piece of crap compared to what I'd been playing, I was so gutted, my aspirations shattered. Eventually I found my new love - Blonde of course - Italian I'd never heard of, my lovely Gherson Blonde Jazz bass.

Hey Josh, I was asking the same question a while ago & got myself a Trace Elliot Boxer 65 for £77 in as new condition - it's great! Suits me sir - does everything I need, has a real good tone with plenty of punch & a touch of TE class. I'd seriously consider a Boxer 65 - 65W into a 12" or maybe even a Boxer 30 - 30W 10" (but I haven't tried one). Keep your eyes open on ebay, you might get lucky, there seems to be a lot of 'em around Essex way where are you? Good luck, John [quote name='JHBASS' post='642750' date='Nov 1 2009, 07:51 PM']Hey guys, I'm looking for a practise amp. But before we get started, Im looking for something similar to the Peavey TNT 100 or TKA range, in speaker size (bigger than 8" please!) and around 20-30watts (or above...sub 100 watts maybe). I've played through old Peaveys and I loved them! I need something around and less than £100 and older models (to be bought second hand) are also welcomed! So, if any of you have any ideas and tips (about the peaveys or other amps ) Ill be incredibly grateful! Cheers, Josh[/quote]

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='650713' date='Nov 10 2009, 03:09 PM']Nice idea. You do play a long way toward the neck too I notice. I find the floating thumb technique where you move the thumb down the strings as you change string, helps a lot in terms of locating, changing position along the length of the strings for tonal variety and damping strings. I used to play near the neck but find myself moving towards the bridge more lately, especially for rapid fingerstyle as there is less string movement.[/quote] Cheers - I find these days "rapid fingerstyle" is something my arthritic digits are not so happy with so not too much of a problem. I reckon I've got large to huge hands so plenty of reach without moving thumb down the strings too often.

[quote name='spacecowboy' post='650699' date='Nov 10 2009, 02:51 PM']I like that a lot! a very simple but effective solution! Congrats! Will the adhesive backing effect the wood finish if you ever took it off?[/quote] Hope not - time will tell Cheers

I'm playing 2 basses regularly now & on both I've found myself resting my r/h thumb on the side of fretboard/body area when finger plucking. My first concern was wearing away the finish in that specific area with constant rubbing & scratching with thumbnail. Secondly I was conscious of developing/improving my plucking by maybe forcing myself to use a standard position to suit my 'style'. Looking around I found a piece of woven carbon fibre sheet which is only about .0025" thick, with a adhesive backing & has a wonderful 'grippy' feel to it, due to the surface texture & the slightly soft under layer. This is what I came up with; a piece cut to pick shape, (for want of a better idea), bent & stuck in the right place! It works a treat

Sorted! After 1 phone call to Rotosound, nobody home except receptionist!, well it was poets day, 2 emails - no reply, another phone call - straight through to THE MAN! Almost 1/2 hour conversation - like you do - played the bum string down the phone to him - 2 days later, in the post today, as promised a replacement E string + another complete set as a good will gesture. Now that's what I call after sales customer care! A big WELL DONE to Rotosound, it's not often these days you get a result like that. Yes it was a faulty string - wateroftyne - you got it in one! Cheers, John