Big_Stu

[quote name='andytoad' post='1207687' date='Apr 21 2011, 11:11 PM']I think i will go with as many cheap basses as i can buy for £1200.[/quote] Each one from a different shop - by mail order - and you have to let her answer the door to every delivery man!

I wanted a scratchplate for my SG Junior. I found one in the USA for the equivalent of £18. Because it was a vintage part HMRC wanted another £35 in import duty, after leaving it in a Glasgow office for three weeks before writing to me, while I gave grief to the shop in the USA not knowing where it was. I told HMRC to shove it, & had JayDee make me one from some old vintage blanks he had laying around.

[quote name='Bloodaxe' post='1204359' date='Apr 19 2011, 04:50 AM']Either good old-fashioned paint stripper (e.g. Nitromors), or some nasty solvent like Acetone (Cellulose thinner), MEK, or Xylene. Of the solvents, Xylene is probably the easiest to get as it's freely sold as Hammerite Thinners. You might get lucky with Acetone from a car spares shop.[/quote] MEK was a widely used solvent in the print industry. It was found to be dangerous to as little as one part in a miliion in air, if inhaled it attacks soft tissure; lungs, kidney, liver. It's not so much banned outright but avoided like the plague now.

[quote name='gjones' post='1202287' date='Apr 17 2011, 12:41 AM']Boston's was owned and run by skanky drug dealing gangsters. The father, Roddy McLean, and son who owned it got sent down for murder after they set fire to a yacht they were sailing from Rotterdam, full of cannabis, back to Edinburgh with a customers officer (they had just been boarded by customs) on board. Pops got 25 years and junior got 12. Most of the gear they had in there was stolen to order by junkies. The last time I saw the front door of Bostons open was while I was travelling past on a bus after the owners had been serving their sentences for about a year and saw a gang of rastafarians picking it clean. They were probably hoping the remaining contents of the shop would pay off various 'debts' owed. [url="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/feb/15/drugsandalcohol.ukcrime"]http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/feb/15/d...alcohol.ukcrime[/url] Ahh, the good old days.[/quote] The shop never got raided because they used to pass on the occasional bit of inside info to the police. I saw Roddy Jnr a few years ago on Chambers St. He was a shadow of his former self, obviously hard into something I was proud of the fact I once managed to rip them off, sold them a "Fender" pup that I'd got out of a Fenix.

Sounds like the pots are cut & boost pots, similar to the Fender TBX pot with a centre indent? He did fit htem occasionally. The switch I dunno, only switched pot I ever saw on one was a phase inverter, though you say one kills it? Maybe ask John Carling, or John JayDee Diggens who would have been at John Birch in '74. He has an almost encyclopedic memory of what was built.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1201722' date='Apr 16 2011, 12:08 PM']That's a pity... I take it he's only collecting the original Birmingham-made instruments?[/quote] Yes, to the best of my knowledge - and only SGs, or odds & sods. Also JayDee SGs too TBH I did refer some guitars that I saw on the 'net or in shops to him on the understanding that he's send me a mount/frame for my JB Magnum pickup; it never transpired so I've not bothered telling him of the last three SGs I saw. John Birch J1s turn up on Ebay quite often, kinda like a twin cutaway Les Paul (John told me that's where he got the idea from, at the time he built his first Les Pauls were ten-a-penny, so he hacked one to see how it looked & played - and liked it). They're very nice instruments, lighter than a LP, very wide range of tones - often with built in effects. Dave (H) Hill had a few, usually with a treble-booster.

[quote name='RichF' post='1201374' date='Apr 16 2011, 12:19 AM']the good old days, every saturday starting at Sound Control on St Mary's Street, then Live Music on Candlemaker Row, down to Mev's on Morrison St, and probably Rikki's on the way home.[/quote] I'm so old I even remember Mel's Music on St Stephens St down Stockbridge. It got gutted by fire I was told, with a lot of vintage stock in it. It was where I sold my first EB3. First time I saw Live Music it was just down from STV on Leith Walk; Vince still gets some good gear in occasionally. One word for a den of frequent discoveries ................ Bostons! Where I refound my first EB3 many years later, but it had been wrecked so I left it.

[quote name='noirpunk' post='1201251' date='Apr 15 2011, 10:11 PM']I'd love an Iommi style JB with the crucifix inlays etc, snowballs chance in hell though[/quote] John Birch built his first one it was specially built for his knackered fingers; and customised his "Monkey" SG ([i]& in return Tony funded the creation of John Birch Guitars as a builder rather than a customiser[/i]). But the "Old Boy" that Tony uses the most was JayDee's first guitar under his own name rather, rather than as a part of John Birch. JayDee has built all of his customs since & will make a copy for anyone - around about £1400 & a 18 month waiting list Tony Iommi and John Birch had a parting of the ways many years ago, not helped when Tony said in an interview that he used to use JB's but then JB was put in prison & "that was the end of that". Unfortunately it was a different John Birch, so the "real" one sued and won, despite Tony & the magazine making many apologies.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1201211' date='Apr 15 2011, 09:50 PM']I'd still be seriously interested in a JB EB3 if one ever came up for sale.[/quote] You'll be incredibly lucky to find one. There's an American collector; Gregg Dorset, owner of RockStarsGuitars who collects any and all John Birch SG's, he's gone stacks of them. He even has an agent in the UK who finds them. Last one I heard of was in Denmark, I was offered it, Greg bought it but it was lost in transit.

[quote name='noirpunk' post='1201017' date='Apr 15 2011, 06:01 PM']After quite a spate of John Birch related activity I decided we should put a thread together. To kick things off my 1973 short scale Rickenfaker, found on ebay as an 'under the bed' job. Original owner from new, original case, original strap and original stereo cable. [/quote] What's your 5th pot do? There were so many options from; effects, a simple Master Vol, treble booster, phase invertor. I'll have to take some better pics of mine. The EB3 sounds nice too, Geezer Butler was a big user of John Birch. Tony Iommi got him into them. Geezer had at least 3 EB3's & some JayDee's too.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' post='1195832' date='Apr 11 2011, 03:34 PM']I passed Mev Taylor's in Edinburgh today[/quote] I didn't know Mev Taylors was still going, assumed it was down the pan along with Sound Control. It was always a great shop since the Morrison St days. Is that the old "Rainbow Music" shop?

[quote name='daz' post='1186703' date='Apr 3 2011, 01:25 PM'](Below) A John Birch EB3 styled bass made in about 1976 for Jim Lea of Slade. This was made because the original Gibson EB3 that Jim Lea was using was stolen from John Birch's workshop. [/quote] Cheers Daz! The stolen bass was this one, which had originally been the cherry EB3 that he'd had for years. Refinned, huge scratchplate, new bridge, the mudbucker was removed & a JB Superflux is in the middle (which had been there since the late 60's). This must be a unique bass, which I would dearly love to find in a pawn-shop.

[quote name='noirpunk' post='1200513' date='Apr 15 2011, 12:00 PM']Congratulations Ash and welcome to the John Birch owners club! John Carling is a very nice guy, when I get home I'll upload a picture of myself (with my bass) and JC. Maybe we should start a John Birch owners thread or something?[/quote] Excellent! I did see JB Ric that but didn't realise there was so much John Birch love on this forum. Both Johns are or were really nice guys, since getting my bass I've spoken to three others who worked for John Birch (it's where JayDee started out) & they all had brilliant stories to tell, which I recounted back to JayDee & it brought back happy memories. One story is that one day two JB workers had a row in the workshop, it led to a scrap during which John Birch walked in with some potential clients for a lookaround. They saw the two guys rolling around the floor, fists flying, & walked out, never to be seen by John Birch again. The "potential clients" were The Police. Another was from when the JB workshop (in Rubery, Birmingham) was a delapidated ex-shoe shop. There were half a dozen guitars hanging, drying over a bath in what was still an old knackered bathroom above the workshop. Someone flushed the toilet next to it & the ceiling fell in destroying a few thousand poundsworth of guitars. Yes, I met John Birch a few times. I'd always been amazed at Jimmy Lea's sound (very high output pickups with an overdrive set to full, he'd let me have a go on his basses at a couple of gigs) & once they split I just had to have a bass like it. Though in his age (John was 79/80 when he worked on it) he made some small mistakes. The first time I went to see him he showed me his "den". This was pre-Sky; so he had 4 TV sets, all switched on which he watched at the same time. Each one had a video tuned to it, with the remotes ready so that if he saw something he liked he could tape it straight away. Sadly, two days after John phoned me to say that my bass was nearly ready, he was found dead in his kitchen, so it is the last guitar that JB ever worked on. The bass was featured in Guitarist magazine. A few weeks later I received a copy of it, with a note from Jimmy saying "Best Of Luck with the bass". H has let me play his Superyob MkII too, it's a fantastic piece of work, he says it's vastly superior to the original which is now owned by Marco Peroni.

[quote name='Beedster' post='1198333' date='Apr 13 2011, 03:52 PM']Oh man, I just p****d myself picturing a colony of ants making off with your Decade[/quote] I've found some documentary footage of a colony of ants in action; the taking of the Decade is entirely possible. FFwd to 5:20 for the actual action, though I just know you'll watch the rest................

[quote name='Wooks79' post='1197401' date='Apr 12 2011, 09:56 PM']Exactly, 52 members reading this thread as I type[/quote] 52, 52, any advance on 52? ......................... 58 now, any advance on 58? .............. 63, 63 ............... Being serious, I do think this has elements of a kangaroo court now. But I dunno if:-.............. .......... the bass sold via this forum? If so, then it's fair game, if not then it shouldn't have been brought here at all, there are small claims courts to deal with it. IF it was via here did Mark do it in his own name or as a business? If it was his own name then thinly veiled slander of the business is unjustified.

[quote name='bobbytodd' post='1191339' date='Apr 7 2011, 06:52 AM']years ago we did a live cd to pass around local pubs and it got us our first few gigs then word of mouth takes over[/quote] This! My son's band wanted a demo CD, all their own material tho'. At one gig I slipped the sound guy a few beers to record it. Made an easy cover up, had 500 CDs made, & they had gigs queuing up in no time. Make it a live CD & the potential land-lords will hear how good you are ........... or not.

[quote name='geoffbyrne' post='1189439' date='Apr 5 2011, 06:28 PM']Jack socket. Replace. That is all! (betcha it is). G.[/quote] Yup! almost a certainty. They do sometimes just "go" after working for years. Worth a possible quick-fix if you can see the part of the jack that touches the tip of the jack plug when it's plugged in & bend it over a bit harder towards the middle. If it looks like one of these ..... [url="http://cdn.sigma.octopart.com/552667/image/Neutrik-NYS229.jpg"]http://cdn.sigma.octopart.com/552667/image...trik-NYS229.jpg[/url] If that don't work, or the socket looks more like a long tube then you're looking at a new socket, which is easy if you can handle a soldering iron or a dead simple fix for any half-decent guitar shop.

[quote name='steviedee' post='1189050' date='Apr 5 2011, 02:35 PM']Stu are you suggesting I should just forget it and get on with my life?[/quote] Absolutely not at all, it's one of the things that I plan on getting a round tuit for. I know how annoying it can be when things aren't quite right, & it's usually after you've put the strings on & tuned it up so it's a sod to take apart to try to fix it again. + depending on how bad a squint it is it could well affect the signal from a single-coil pup, mine's a bucker

[quote name='steviedee' post='1188970' date='Apr 5 2011, 01:26 PM']Hi I dunno if anyone has the issue but its driving me nuts on the bridge pickup of my faker is angled forward if I loosen off the screws it eases out and straightens but then the screws don't sit flush![/quote] I've got the same issue on a humbucker I had put in my Tele. It's caused by the cavity in the body not lining up exactly with the pickup body, so when you tighten the screws the pickup levers against the side of the cavity. Or at least that's what it is in my case. I've not done anything with it cos it doesn't bother me that much.

[quote name='mcnach' post='1187330' date='Apr 4 2011, 01:16 AM']Heh... coming soon to a venue near you! well, it would be if you lived in Edinburgh [/quote] I used to live in Bonnyrigg - 23 years! ................ The Train Robbers got less! Now I'm about 220 miles south of there.

[quote name='mcnach' post='1187271' date='Apr 3 2011, 11:44 PM']Radge Against The Machine[/quote] Classic!!!

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1187141' date='Apr 3 2011, 09:50 PM']Ha I will give you £300 then![/quote] Not you "Pete" and not ME!!! There's a "peteb" logged in at the time of writing, & I don't believe in coincidence.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1186880' date='Apr 3 2011, 05:31 PM']I wonder if he is a BC member [/quote] Wonder no longer, Hi Pete! Hope you've got a sense of humour?

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1187090' date='Apr 3 2011, 09:01 PM']I believe you Big Stu, What's all that sand paper for though? [/quote] It's for doing my .... erm .... nails with, I've ... erm ..... got big hands! [color="#808080"][size=1]....bloody vintage ..... what would they know..... bleedin' experts everywhere.......I blame that Geldof bloke...... and Eric Burdon......, who left that bass case there? ...... stick it under the bed till the paint's dry..... is that microphone still on?.... you bloody fool ..... quick, switch it off before they hear this..... bugger!.....[/size][/color]