Pow_22

Bass wise a 90's reissue Epiphone Rivoli in Cherry Red which i sold to an Irish band called the Sea Pinks.  Too many an amp to mention - Ampeg Sb12, Sound City 200 Mk3, Ampeg SVT II non pro, Ampeg SVT III Non pro....

So I'm a big fan of tube tone and for home use i have an Ashdown LB30 going into a Ampeg 212AV - very moveable and great sound.  However, through sheer laziness I've recently been using the in house old Peavey 1x15 combo at our rehearsal space and whilst it sounds ok its not amazing.  I've also never been a pedal kinda guy, just plug my P's straight into the amp and away i go - generally looking for a slight breakup to the notes without full on distortion.

On my daily browse of Richtones second hand site i saw the Dr Sparrow bass driver for not much £ and thought 'maybe i can make that old peavey sound a bit more....er....valvey'  So anyway, its now on its way to me.

Anyone else here use these cheap seemingly VT Bass clones?  Anyone getting that "Ampeg SVT on the verge of breakup" type tone or am i expecting way too much?

Price dropping to £450 as something has cropped up that has fired my GAS up

I recently was in the market for a Mesa Big Block 750 and came across theirs for about £1,600!?!?!

All my basses weear flats.  Every now and again i think i want some more 'growl' or 'zing' and i put rounds on....then miss the thump and 'bigness' of flats 

25 minutes ago, Sean said:

 

Did Picato make Status strings? Does that explain why the Status range of strings reduced when Picato went out of business?

I have heard that before.  I liked both to be honest, found Status flats a little less dark than Picato but i have definitely heard in other places that Picato made Status strings

My last set had black silks at both ends.  I actually had to shave some off the E string as it was sitting on the bridge saddle and dulling the tone.  Back in the day they were completely silkless which i loved

On 12/03/2023 at 20:36, binky_bass said:

Picked these two bad boys up this weekend... Looking forward to giving them a proper run over the next few weeks. 

 

They nicely complete my home rehearsal space/man cave!

 

 

 

Id love another BB750, always regretted selling mine

Sounds like Picato to me. They moved from silkless to black silks towards the end. Can still get sets on ebay etc but as a company they went bump a while back

23 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

Thanks, that looks better for me for what I play 

See my correction, it appears they do have a fan albeit i never noticed it when i had mine

5 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

Thanks Pow I saw that but just assumed they all had a fan, cheers, apart from that is there any difference 

The non pro's dont have gain or drive knobs but are much more akin to 'vintage' svt's.  Some might see this as a con in that they are cleaner at lower volumes and you cant crank the gain to get grit.  But at full bore the non pro sounds miles better (not that the pro doesnt sound good too)

completely my bad, just looked at some guts online and the II non pro does indeed have a fan.  Couldve sworn my old one didnt.  Sorry

There an SVT II Non Pro on bass bros website, very good price, easily the best of the 'II's' and no fan

Going to temporarily pull this whilst i have a think. It sounded too good tonight at rehearsal and i really think i need to concentrate on getting a gigging amp rather than start swapping basses etc

back up for sale.  Seen a Cabronita bass that has tickled my pickle.  Would consider trades/part ex for a black cabronita bass or maybe an Ampeg SVT III Non Pro (or older 'coloured logo' 3pro)

Warwick Streamer NT1 Rockbass to give its full title. A thru neck, gloss black, curved bodied active PJ bad boy similar in style to a spector.  As i say every time i sell a bass on here - i need to learn im a standard P bass man!  I swapped out the chrome hardware to a Warwick gold bridge and Wilkinson open back tuners (see numerous online reports of Warwick tuners failing). The tuners are drop in replacements with no extra holes/reeming. Come wearing thunderous Fender pure nickel strings and is immaculate!  Collection would be from Bolton or can meet up within reasonable distance.  Trade wise i would consider a black Fender cabronita P bass

Better pics to follow once im back from the rehearsal space

Hotrox is my go to place.  Cheaper than Watford Valves and dont put their valves in the freezer

D’OH, too late to the party. Wouldve had one of them pre-amps for my Warwick

Sold ont bay

Quite simply im not using this due to gigs being non existent and rehearsals and jams being covered by my Little Bastard.

Here we have a good condition Ashdown Spyder 330 head with fitted Roqsolid cover. There is one scratch in the tolex on top where a pedal board has snagged slightly.  These are by far my favourite ‘non-all valve’ heads and give a great clean warm tone.

They are surprisingly receptive to valve swapping and this one has a Harma Retro 12AX7 in v1 and a JJ 12AX7 in v2.  These don’t necessary get grindy, these are more about clean warm and deep valve tone.

Looking for £150 collected from Sunny Bolton.  I don’t currently have the means to post but if local-ish I could maybe meet up.

Pics to follow asap

Bought a warwick bridge off Liam in an effortlessly smooth transaction.  Deal in confidence

Ooh, missed this on my usual classifieds check…..and local-ish……tempted!

Still available

10 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

Your pointer is on the wrong side of the knob. If it points vertically up at the mid-point, clockwise goes P-wards and anti-clockwise goes J-wards. If it points down, you'll get what you see.

Ahh i get you.  Yes i know what you mean now.  I have the knobs on so that at the middle indent the knob is pointing directly down as i wear the bass.  Your answer makes sense now, cheers

My go to strings.  Their flats are superb.  Their grounds are good but take a little while to even up - the E is initially quite thuddy

15 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

I would expect clockwise to put more P pickup through - if it had a pointer knob with the pointer towards you, you'd see the pointer pointing more at the P pickup as you turn the knob clockwise.

 but i mean at fully ANTI clockwise the pointer is pointing towards the P pup, as i turn it clockwise i.e towards the J pup it certainly gets beefier and more P-ish.  Its not an issue just seems a bit counter intuitive