4 Strings

[quote name='Rick's Fine '52' timestamp='1352933057' post='1869636'] I'm no expert either on MM's, but I read somewhere that the first ones had white pickup covers? Sure someone will put the record straight on these two issues?? [/quote] Sure can - or at least our Anzacian friend can, taken from the site of he that knows about Musicman, http://myweb.ecomplanet.com/TOWN8019/ [size=4][i][color=teal]"B001000[/color]..First production model MM serial number. Reference "Fender The Inside Story" by Forrest White. Production commences June 1976. Natural with Flamed Maple. White pg. Black PUP. Knurled metal knobs."[/i][/size] From the same source is a known earlier bass (although, to be fair, not 'production'; [i]"[color=teal][size=1]X00205[/size][/color]..1976. "X" denotes a prototype. See pics at page 9 of 1976 MM Catalogue. Black with maple. White pg. Plastic "radio" Knobs'."[/i] He's a helpful sort and knows everything(!), helped me sort out my Pre-EB 'ray which is one of the many with no date stamps on neck pocket and neck but plenty of other details to place it date wise. While I'm not sure how cheap this is for an historic bass, the non-historic but just old Fenders being sold for this sort of price can only find homes in those with more money than sense (and I'm very aware that some have plenty of sense, but even more money!). Wish I did, I'd have this about as quick as I could write the cheque.

Neither are really listening to the drums and not to each other, maybe too much time spent in the bedroom. Wow, just realised it 16 minutes long!

Another happy customer here. I suppose you pay a lot for quality as they are not cheap but I'm very happy, mine are still as new after a year ( and while I don't abuse my gear, its there to serve me, not the other way around) and the cabs are as new too. They even go the very slight offset of the handle on my Midget just right too from their own standard template.

[quote name='zbigniew' timestamp='1352901790' post='1869089'] I find this cabinet very desireable Is that a 12" speaker? z [/quote] Yep, its a Midget T. Gigged with it in a church hall at the weekend, all on its own. Looked a bit silly but was plenty loud and deep. Gets used every day, one of the early grabs in a house fire. Weighs next to nothing but (for me at least) eye-wateringly expensive.

Bet it smells nice too! How do you like it compared to lacquer?

I think things have moved on. The quality of music nowadays is variable. You could listen to something nicely recorded like the Neil Cowley Trio (regardless of whether you find that experience annoying or beautiful!) and wonder how some of the blaring at all volumes 'pop' music makes it past any quality checks (are there any?). But similarly you can hear some beautifully recorded old Motown or Stax and compare that with some of the dreadfully narrow frequency and dynamic ranges in some of their contemporaries. Not sure you can paint whole periods with the same quality brush in popular music (or indeed, classical). I have a great deck, Rega Planar 3 with a K9 cartridge, for many years, since before cd days, always plugged in and available, it's just another format but gets played less and less as we don't buy vinyl any longer and so it has an increasingly smaller proportion of the collection. Records sound better on my cd player, I'm afraid. My deck sounds great, I thoroughly enjoy music from it. But, there's less weight to the sound from the deck, less detail and, of course, the 'sound' of some of the vinyl - similar to the sound of my frying pan. I love the electro-mechanical bit and the fact I can understand how it works and the extraordinary detailed signal from a groove. I have little enthusiasm for my cd player, lots for my deck. Convenient it is not. Romantic it is.

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1352827529' post='1868042'] I was kind of expecting them to demand he commit some form of ritual suicide at the end to atone for such a general dishonouring of everyone involved.... [/quote] I thought he was committing suicide. Not a shredding type appreciator myself but I always like to see Guthrie, even when limiting himself to the blues scale.

From rehearsal last night [attachment=123693:2012-11-12 20.34.39.jpg]

Rehearsal tonight, ECC81 on board, apparently around 70% of the gain of the original ECC83. Trying to stay aware of the sound and settings of my amp. I first thought I'd lost some of the depth of sound, but it was fine. I have lost some overall volume, but not much. The Streamliner has 'Gain', 'Volume' and 'Master' controls and a 'Gain' button. Wind the Gain knob much past 1 O'Clock and overdrive becomes apparent. Press the 'Gain' button and this doubles to extreme. Push the Gain all the way and you have a howling distortion of which a metal guitarist would be proud. Pointless for my purposes. I kept it in the 12 O'Clock position and the Gain button out of bounds. In fact all the controls care normally set at that position. With the ECC81 in place the Gain can be sent almost all the way round before any distortion. Or, it could stay in the 12 O'Clock and press the Gian button for a huge jump in output but still quite clean. For me, this is much better. For my regular use, I now need the Gain at around 2 O'Clock for the same output and decibels as 12 O'Clock with the standard valve. But I can now have the whole thing aggressively loud without distortion becoming the dominant feature. When the distortion does arrive its more subtle and, (I think, although I can't keep A-B'ing) smoother. A actually quite like a little distortion now, I didn't before. Rather like the distortion if you listen to JJ isolated tracks. This is good as we play Motown and soul. I won't be using it, even if its nice to know I still have the option. For me this is an improvement, makes my amp more useful (although those sorts of volume levels have limited use if you want to stay friends with your band members!) and easier to control at the expense of a little loss in max output (which has never been approached). The other improvement is a Streamliner thing. If you drive the 'Volume' into the output section too hard you get a horrible clicking sort of distortion which tells you all is not well, back it off. That no longer occurs. The Gain button now acts as a boost button for stadium gigs! I'm keeping the ECC81 and I'm happy it has brought about an improvement for my purposes. The original can be my spare, the ECC82 (which has the least gain of the three) reduced the output way too much for no real advantage in control of distortion. If you don't want the extent of distortion the standard set up gives, I can recommend the ECC31 as a replacement in V1. I now feel I have a more powerful and useful amp. Just for the record, original V1 is a JJ valve, V2 and V3 are identical Rubies. No idea why they are different. Thanks to Mr Foxen for the valves at a reasonable price, tested and beautifully packed and delivered next day. Anyone want to buy a Mullard ECC82?

Valvwes arrived double quick time, tried the ECC82, huge drop in gain (no fuzz no matter what I tried, even from my MM) and now has the ECC81 in. I will report back after rehearsals tonight. However, my comments will be in the context that I nearly didn't buy the Streamliner as Genz used the following nonsense in his advert for it, [i]'Our 3DPM™ adds heft and girth to each individual note, while enhancing the amplifiers responsiveness and headroom. It provides the dynamic and 3 dimensional tone and feel of an all tube power amp design.'[/i] Mine is being used for a bass guitar and so there will be no 3 dimensions to anything. If others can hear this sort of thing then they will be more qualified to comment on the subtleties of tone than me. However, I'm pretty familiar with my set up now and so hope make some useful comment.

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1352488975' post='1863848'] Long story but I dont mind telling it again. The Ex was a muso and when he moved out he left a bass behind. So I thought 'I'm not going to sit round moping I 'm going to pick up that thing and bloody well learn to play it'. So I booked myself some lessons and was hooked from day one! [/quote] Great story! The worm turns; be funny if he turns up at one of your gigs!

Ok, two valves from Mr Foxen on their way. To keep in line with Voxpop they are old Mullard valves, there's one 12AU7 and one 12AT7. I will only be playing with V1. I'll report back. In the meantime please pray I don't break anything, I love this amp and certainly cannot afford another! If there's no improvement the valves will act as spares

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1352397805' post='1862590'] I'm over 50 but haven't had problems so far. But that's no doubt because I've been playing less than 2 years. [/quote] Love the idea of a 50 year old lady taking up the bass. I know, sexist, ageist and all that but it's pretty unusual! What was the motive, needed bass for a play?

V1 seems to be the valve in which I'm most interested as its the over-drive valve (V2 and V3, I understand, drive the tone control). If I use a lower gain valve will this also reduce the level of the signal to the rest of the amp, ie give the impression of a loss of power or will it still give the same signal level but with less over-drive? If so, this is what I want. (£30 is probably more than I want to spend to try that out though!) There are three 12AX7 valves, if I replace V1 with a 12AU7 (apparently ~50% of the gain) or a 12AT7 (apparently 70% of the gain) what's likely to be the effect?

Ok, if it aint bust, don't fix it. I agree. I am happy with my Streamliner, even now take it for granted. But.... I've read a few comments about improving on the stock valves in a Genz Benz Streamliner. One person sped up the 'warm-up' phase which was getting longer with the originals, another achieved a different sound. It seems GB sort of encourage swapping them by maintaining the guarantee despite valve changes and making it practically easy to do. I have no use for the massively overdriven sound available on my STL 900 and would be happy for a more defined sound and less overdrive - even being able to tap into more power before the overdriven sound appears. Has anyone changed the valves in their Streamliner? Any effect at all?

My Musicman is typical of its period and has no lacquer on the fingerboard nor neck. It relies on occasional oiling/waxing by the owner. I don't think the last owner did any. The result wasn't an unstable neck but a dirty surface.

They will be unstable if they keep needing adjustment not because of how much lacquer has been removed.

53 year old using a heavy lump of a Stingray daily, adding my not inconsiderable weight to the wide strap, straight wrists advice. Body end down, neck end up for straight wrists.

Rather than buying more eq to lay upon eq why not consider the bass/amp/cab combination that suits you? As one who likes to keep things simple and normally play with everything flat I would find having all these gadgets to get my 'normal' sound rather irritating.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1351518921' post='1852050'] I think the issue might be the Jazz itself...if you are favouring both pups on full you are creating a mid dip already, then the amp might be slightly scooped unless you set the mids to ten. Not sure about the cab. It's kinda why I love the Jazz but don't use them as often as say a Ray. [/quote] Exactly my experience. Also, getting used to the less flattering sound of a non-scooped sound took me a little while when I went Barefaced. I found the Hartke cabs too be culprit rather than the amp. They were very good but my sound gets less lost now with the same or lower volume.

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1351512876' post='1851911'] It's a throwaway statement. No more point to it than saying Larry Graham did for bass what Nancy Sinatra did for boots, or Bernard Matthews did for British turkey farming. [/quote]

I'm in the fortunate position where I'm covering a lot of new stuff all the time so, for me, practice is 3-4 times a week to nail new material. Got a lot coming up, will be trying to do practice every ay for the coming couple of weeks. I won't be able to for practical reasons, but I'll need to be dong an awful lot.

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1351483689' post='1851665'] I have four Basses. I have a 5 string for standard tuning and a 4 string for Eb. I also have a second 5 string in standard and a second 4 string in Eb. Those second Basses are "back-up" Basses... I also have a full, 500W rig with a 4x10 and a 1x15, and a 500W PA rig... I haven't played live in over 18 years, infact not since before I met my wife... I mentioned to my wife that I'd kind of like to sell one of the back-up basses and she was actually disappointed. [/quote] Maybe she wants you to get out there and play!

[quote name='Ed_S' timestamp='1351376636' post='1850721'] According to the data sheet WD40 out of the can is mostly white spirit so whilst it's probably fine for the strings, depending on the finish and consruction, I wouldn't have thought a good rub down with thinners would be all that much good for the bass. Maybe I'm wrong, but I wouldn't do it to my gear. Once the spirit has evaporated, it's basically just light mineral oil, so why not just use fast fret? [/quote] "The main ingredients in fast fret is white mineral oil.." http://www.epinions.com/review/Ghs_Fast_Fret_String_Cleaner/content_597182811780?sb=1 (but then the writer notes being made in the US as its main attraction, so maybe the source isn't so reliable!)

[quote name='Ed_S' timestamp='1351353839' post='1850487'] I use Fret Doctor too - it's great stuff, isn't it! To those who use slightly more left-field products (Pledge, WD40, GT85, Trex etc.) would you disclose that in a for-sale thread? If I received a bass that somebody had routinely sprayed with WD40, I'd go absolutely postal; specifically straight back to the sender [/quote] Why?