LukeFRC Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 So years back I picked up my streamer - and anyone who's seem me on these boards for a while know it's taken a while for us to grow close.... On the plus it is superlight, amazingly made bass - on the negative I couldn't stand the tone. A few times I tried to sell it but (thankfully) no one bit. Trying a few highend basses and I realsied that the playability of these basses was far higher than my warwick- mainly because the set up was set up to compensate for some fairly major fret wear. New frets was always something that was going to happen.... Fast forward to the start of this year and the MEC pups and MEC pre were swapped out for Bartolini pups (awesome) and Glockenklang pre (awful for this bass) the pups were great and stayed while the pre was sold. For most this year the bridge pup was wired straight to jack with no controls- and it sounded great! I was saving up for a new pre and twice got the money and then spent it on something else- one of these was an engagement ring so in the great battle of future wife vs. bass guitars... well I love one more than the other! Eventually I stuck the original preamp back in there (sounds good, I preferred the sound straight to jack though, saving for the ACG again!) Anyway while saving I decided that I should get something done about the frets.... problem is I have met guitar tech's in shops who are amazing, and ones who are not. And I've not paid for a set up in about 8 years... I didn't really know any of the local tech's or know if I could trust them with my bass. Well when CHRISDABASS stuck up a thread here showing off the first bass he had made I started to take note, firstly he was local, he was building his own basses, and was friends with a funkyspuke who I had sold a bass too years back- and figured funkyspuke was a decent guy, so his mates probably were too... So last weekend took my bass along to Saltaire to give to Chris at Alpher Guitar and Basses - a cup of tea, a tour of their workshop and shown their own basses they made, and a week later go back to pick up... well it looks like my bass but feels so good - the whole thing's been cleaned (unexpectedly) the frets levelled and polished and neatened up to perfection. I can get really picky about my necks and his work is flawless! He also discovered that early warwick frets are/seem harder than current warwick frets; sorry about that! So I'm pretty chuffed with the work and my bass and wanted to stick up a thread recomending Alpher as techs for any you within a train ride or drive of leeds/bradford! thanks Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBboy Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Good news! Glad your enjoying your bass more, I'm always of the opinion that the feel/playability of a bass is paramount. Don't know if they still do, but I think they used to use bell brass for frets on Warwicks (very very hard!)? As an aside, would it be possible for you to just wire in a passive wiring circuit? Seems to make sense if you loved the sound straight from the pickups so much (and a lot cheaper and easier too!). I guess if you've got holes for 4 pots, you could just go for volume and tone for each pup, or do volume, blend, tone and then maybe a toggle switch to bypass the controls and go straight to the jack. Just a thought! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 [quote name='TRBboy' timestamp='1350160392' post='1835398'] Good news! Glad your enjoying your bass more, I'm always of the opinion that the feel/playability of a bass is paramount. Don't know if they still do, but I think they used to use bell brass for frets on Warwicks (very very hard!)? As an aside, would it be possible for you to just wire in a passive wiring circuit? Seems to make sense if you loved the sound straight from the pickups so much (and a lot cheaper and easier too!). I guess if you've got holes for 4 pots, you could just go for volume and tone for each pup, or do volume, blend, tone and then maybe a toggle switch to bypass the controls and go straight to the jack. Just a thought! [/quote]well i can turn off the preamp by pulling the volume pot up - it's more the pickup loading that changes the sound in ways I like- it opens up the top end - a good preamp with a high imediance input and active blend should do it. yeah, it's bell brass - but apparently harder than newer stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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