Sparky Mark

In my old age I'm getting to know some of the iconic basses that have passed me by over the last 45 years. First off was the Rickenbacker 4003 which I have tried a couple of times but never rated until I persevered with the 4003S. Now it's the Hofner 500/1 violin. I love the craftsmanship involved in their manufacture but reluctant to throw £1,500 at one before knowing if we'd ever gel. Following some homework I decided the hollow bodied Ignition was the way to go for me to try the ergonomics and tone. The next question was whether I'd prefer the 61 or 62 pickup positions. The truth is I like both 61 and 62 versions so much for their differences I can see me keeping both.

Over the past 12 years I've owned many Markbass cabs and still own several Markbass heads; I too love the punchy relatively neutral Markbass delivery. For me the Markbass sweet spot cab-wise is a pair of NY121P cabs with either 500 or 800 watt head. Super compact single 12 rig or surprisingly capable two 12 rig when more power needed. If your LM3 is one of the pre 2012 class AB versions I'd definitely keep using it until it packs up; I much prefer mine over the later class D version.

I find that when playing my Precisions with the tone turned down for a few minutes before gradually increasing it to the sound I prefer I never get it to wide open. I guess the electronics in yours is allowing a lot of top end through. This could be good depending on the rest of your signal chain; brightening up a dull sounding amp for instance. Why not just turn the tone control down until you get rid of the harshness?

Apart from the lack of a zero fret and the gap below the fretboard over the top, the Ignition violin is a pretty good facsimile of the 1980s violin even as far as using the correct pickup form with one being reversed. 1980s :- Modern Chinese Ignition :-

Me too. I wanted a 4003S and a matte black came up relatively close on eBay so I bought it untried. I was really pleased at how smooth (Teflon-like) it feels without the stickiness some high gloss finishes have with warm hands.

So a thread intended to reduce GAS for a Ricky results in another purchase and eager anticipation of its New Bass Day review. I'd be interested to hear how HJ likes the matte black finish on the neck?

What a great video. Changing the strings and controls at the same time made it impossible to hear which made the biggest difference; I suspect it's the strings. It'd be interesting to do a similar comparison of the Contemporary and Ignition.

I wonder how that affects the sound? Seems like an odd thing to do if the pickups are identical. They are only being used as volume controls aren't they?

Agreed. If there were any German made parts you can be sure they'd be highlighted a lot more than on just a throw away finger print barrier sticker.

Not at all. The Hofner staple pickup whether Chinese or German will be of almost identical design, construction and materials. It's an extremely low tech pickup. I was just giving examples of how some pickups (not the Hofner staple) might be more expensive than others. The material content of almost any pickup is pretty low; the big driver of cost is production quantity and whether it's hand wound in an expensive labour location.

Because there are designs that use different magnet types, wire insulation materials, hand scatter winding, wire gauges and number of windings to give very different characters. I doubt very much that Hofner would bother to vary the basic design of the staple pickup between its Chinese models. It makes more economic sense to benefit from the higher production quantities of combining both the Ignition and HCT staple pickups. Chinese production is all about volume; German is all about master craftmanship; whether German pickups are handwound I don't know but I bet the basic materials and design are the same. These are not technically advanced pickups.

I know Hofner need to differentiate between the Ignition and HCT range, and the woods and finish of the HCT are distinctly superior to the Ignition; that's where the additional cost is. But how different a bit of machine wound copper wire and a magnet can be is doubtful. The Ignition pickups are a German design too. It's not as if they are hi fi pickups; most use flats with them which makes way more difference than a tiny variation in construction elsewhere.

This is the 1980s Hofner that the Ignition violin is based on. Black knobs and switches.

If I were ever in a shop without a price on something I was interested in I would use my phone for a few minutes to investigate the best internet price which would be my starting point of any bartering process. Not fair maybe but no advertised price is the shop's choice.

Resurrection of an old thread because I'm not convinced the HCT pickups are German. The transit/storage stickers on HCT pickups merely state they are "Designed in Germany" which as we all know means they are made in China with local materials. I doubt there is any significant difference if any at all between HCT and Ignition pickups.

I think the market for heavy bass heads is so small a company like Behringer that needs high quantity production to make it pay just couldn't. When I compare the guts of a typical £350 300/500 watt class D head with the amount of relatively costly components (nine valves, 2 massive transformers, several highly populated PCBs and wiring looms) and assembly time involved in building a BVV3000I I'm not surprised it looks like only one or two batches were ever made around 2012. I wonder whether Behringer realised the error of its ways and just pushed them out at cost price to clear its stock?

Agreed, but it's actually a few pounds lighter than an Ampeg SVT so could be considered a lighterweight backup to one of those. 😊

I should do the same, but where will I ever find a 300 watt all valve head that sounds easily as good, maybe better (in my opinion of course) than an SVT for £350?