Stagg!!!!

[Maxcat]

[quote name='WarPig' post='436969' date='Mar 17 2009, 10:20 AM']Good luck Max! If thats what Guiness does to your basses im never touching the stuff [/quote]

Thanks Warpig Fun though isnt it.

[Andyalfa]

I know this doesn't help the current situation, but to avoid any further disasters, you should consider one of these...


I've got one and it's pretty sturdy and folds up quite small. It's a Foldable SV-EDB stand, made by Stagg specifically for the Stagg EUB. They are around £45 or so, which is cheaper than buying a new instrument.

[OldGit]

[quote name='Andyalfa' post='437374' date='Mar 17 2009, 03:16 PM']I know this doesn't help the current situation, but to avoid any further disasters, you should consider one of these...


I've got one and it's pretty sturdy and folds up quite small. It's a Foldable SV-EDB stand, made by Stagg specifically for the Stagg EUB. They are around £45 or so, which is cheaper than buying a new instrument.[/quote]


How does it mix with guinness?

[Andyalfa]

As I tend to drive to gig, I wouldn't know. I'd imagine getting the end pin in the bottom slot could be a bit tricky though.

[Maxcat]

Its a lot worse than I first thought. Guitar Tech took the cover off and gave one of those "Its Terminal" sighs.The pots are joined directly to a pretty complicated PCB pre amp. No way of unsoldering the pot cos the rest of the board will go wibble. Cant replace the shaft cos it doesnt come on its own and now he thinks the jolt through the knob has loosened the mountings of the board so that the sub bass pot is loose as well. One thing he was surprised about is that when you pull the control knobs off, only they should come out, but in both cases the spindles/shafts came out with the knobs. Shouldnt happen as they are almost rivet joined to the pots.

Anyway 5 options are available

1) Live with it and pick up the knobs everytime I do a little shoogle
2) Replace the pre amp (knowing the way these mass produced things are, it will probably be 75% of the bass price)
3) Jam something down to wedge the shafts in.
4) Take a bottle check and put a little araldite on the tip of the spindle (gulp)
5) Get another Stagg

That last one was a pretty expensive pint of guinness

Gutted

[Andyalfa]

I'd be gutted too if anything happened to mine. Amazing how quickly it's become one of the family. Given the fact that it sounds like a write off, you've nothing to lose by trying any of the first 4 options.

Do you have instrument insurance at all?

[Maxcat]

[quote name='Andyalfa' post='437460' date='Mar 17 2009, 04:17 PM']I'd be gutted too if anything happened to mine. Amazing how quickly it's become one of the family. Given the fact that it sounds like a write off, you've nothing to lose by trying any of the first 4 options.

Do you have instrument insurance at all?[/quote]

yeah Ill try and claim on that if 1 to 4 dont work

[Andyalfa]

Good luck.

[kembo_dee]

Hi Mate,

Can you play with the Stagg in this stand or is it just to hold the bass safely when you're not playing? Have you got any pictures of yours in it?

cheers

Kembo

[quote name='Andyalfa' post='437374' date='Mar 17 2009, 03:16 PM']I know this doesn't help the current situation, but to avoid any further disasters, you should consider one of these...


I've got one and it's pretty sturdy and folds up quite small. It's a Foldable SV-EDB stand, made by Stagg specifically for the Stagg EUB. They are around £45 or so, which is cheaper than buying a new instrument.[/quote]

[Maxcat]

Salutations and Huzzahs the Stagg is risen . Last night I spent a few hours trying to find away to attach the volume and sub bass spindles to the pots on the pre amp. Glue was too risky for obvious reasons and the hole is too small to get any sort of wedge into the housing. After a few tears and rants, I came up with the idea of making a little indent in the shaft with some snips to see if that would locate on the housing and hold the spindles in place. Partial success. Its not a permanent fixing, but the control knobs stay where they should be now. Its still quite easy to pull them off so I will just have to not pull them off. Anyway it works and I am now back in the land of functioning Stagg. Im also going to take Andyalphas recommendation and get the purpose built stand. It might be more Maxcat proof than the hercules. :blush:

Cheers

[OldGit]

[quote name='Maxcat' post='437992' date='Mar 18 2009, 08:26 AM']Salutations and Huzzahs the Stagg is risen . Last night I spent a few hours trying to find away to attach the volume and sub bass spindles to the pots on the pre amp. Glue was too risky for obvious reasons and the hole is too small to get any sort of wedge into the housing. After a few tears and rants, I came up with the idea of making a little indent in the shaft with some snips to see if that would locate on the housing and hold the spindles in place. Partial success. Its not a permanent fixing, but the control knobs stay where they should be now. Its still quite easy to pull them off so I will just have to not pull them off. Anyway it works and I am now back in the land of functioning Stagg. Im also going to take Andyalphas recommendation and get the purpose built stand. It might be more Maxcat proof than the hercules. :blush:

Cheers[/quote]

Phew!

[Andyalfa]

Hey Maxcat, great new! I hope you have many more happy hours of playing.

Kembo, the stand is for resting it on when you're not playing. I've not tried playing with it in the stand but I might give it a go later. I'll try and get a couple of pictures online too (both erect and flaccid as it were).

[Andyalfa]

Rather belatedly, here are the pictures of the stand in action, as promised.

The first is folded, next to the Stagg in a Bag.
[attachment=22476:stagg_1.jpg]
Here it is set up.
[attachment=22477:stagg_2.jpg]
This one shows the bass in place
[attachment=22478:stagg_3.jpg]
A close up of the neck bit
[attachment=22479:stagg_4.jpg]
And the bottom.
[attachment=22480:stagg_5.jpg]
Both the neck bit and the bottom rest are height adjustable. I have it set to the end pin is just above the floor.

[kembo_dee]

Nice pictures, I've been looking at prices of stands generally and this one seems really expensive.

Thanks for putting those up

Kembo

[quote name='Andyalfa' post='441517' date='Mar 22 2009, 08:58 AM']Rather belatedly, here are the pictures of the stand in action, as promised.

The first is folded, next to the Stagg in a Bag.
[attachment=22476:stagg_1.jpg]
Here it is set up.
[attachment=22477:stagg_2.jpg]
This one shows the bass in place
[attachment=22478:stagg_3.jpg]
A close up of the neck bit
[attachment=22479:stagg_4.jpg]
And the bottom.
[attachment=22480:stagg_5.jpg]
Both the neck bit and the bottom rest are height adjustable. I have it set to the end pin is just above the floor.[/quote]

[OldGit]

[quote name='kembo_dee' post='443012' date='Mar 23 2009, 08:06 PM']Nice pictures, I've been looking at prices of stands generally and this one seems really expensive.

Thanks for putting those up

Kembo[/quote]


Yeah it does seem a shame that they make the most budget EUB going but then charge a big wedge for the stand ...
The Hercules grabber still wins for me not least because I can use it for a bass guitar as well.

[crez5150]

Can anyone one recommend some strings please.....

[Karen]

[quote name='slobluesine' post='387378' date='Jan 21 2009, 12:16 PM']what is everyone getting out of their batteries on Staggs? seems to drain pretty quick on mine, anyone change theirs evry gig then?[/quote]

I have this problem too - it makes the bass very expensive to run and is fairly irritating when I have to change the battery in the middle of a show.

Having made some enquiries (thanks go to Tim at Zings), it is, apparently, a known fault with the electronics on some basses. Stagg will replace them free of charge, and you can either take it back to your supplier for them to get the parts and change the bits or they can send it back to the UK wholesaler. I'm in the process of getting mine sorted, so I'll let you know how I get on when it's back.

[Andyalfa]

I get about 3-4 months out of mine, but it gets fairly light use. 2 hour practise with the band a week, one or two gigs a month plus the odd bit of noodling at home if we've got a new number to learn.

That reminds me though, when I plug in earphones in for silent practise, I get an awful hiss from the pre-amp. Anyone else get this?

[butterfingersbeck]

Hi! My name's Simon Beck. I'm a 48-year-old self-taught multi-instrumentalist from south-east London, and I've just ordered a Stagg EDB in transparent blue from Thomann.

My main instruments are keyboards and bass guitar, but I also play chromatic harmonica, rhythm guitar, Stylophone(!), percussion and Theremin. I also own an electric violin which I'm currently teaching myself to play. You can hear some of my multi-tracked solo work (mostly blues-based) at [url="http://www.soundclick.com/simonbeck"]www.soundclick.com/simonbeck[/url]. I also currently play organ. electric piano and Stylophone with an 11-piece Ska/funk band called [b]The Skanx [/b]([url="http://www.theskanxband.co.uk"]www.theskanxband.co.uk[/url]).

I took a few double-bass lessons during my last year at school (my only attempt at learning an instrument properly) and have always wanted to own an upright bass, so when I was given a substantial sum of money as a birthday present from my Dad this year, I decided to take the plunge.

I'll let you know how I get on. Hopefully my wife won't mind because it'll take up much less space than an acoustic...

[OldGit]

[quote name='butterfingersbeck' post='646290' date='Nov 5 2009, 02:59 PM']Hi! My name's Simon Beck. I'm a 48-year-old self-taught multi-instrumentalist from south-east London, and I've just ordered a Stagg EDB in transparent blue from Thomann.

My main instruments are keyboards and bass guitar, but I also play chromatic harmonica, rhythm guitar, Stylophone(!), percussion and Theremin. I also own an electric violin which I'm currently teaching myself to play. You can hear some of my multi-tracked solo work (mostly blues-based) at [url="http://www.soundclick.com/simonbeck"]www.soundclick.com/simonbeck[/url]. I also currently play organ. electric piano and Stylophone with an 11-piece Ska/funk band called [b]The Skanx [/b]([url="http://www.theskanxband.co.uk"]www.theskanxband.co.uk[/url]).

I took a few double-bass lessons during my last year at school (my only attempt at learning an instrument properly) and have always wanted to own an upright bass, so when I was given a substantial sum of money as a birthday present from my Dad this year, I decided to take the plunge.

I'll let you know how I get on. Hopefully my wife won't mind because it'll take up much less space than an acoustic...[/quote]


Hi Simon
That all sounds fabbo!
No melodica? ina ska band? tsssk!



Have fun with the Stagg

[Mateybass]

[quote name='butterfingersbeck' post='646290' date='Nov 5 2009, 02:59 PM']Hi! My name's Simon Beck. I'm a 48-year-old self-taught multi-instrumentalist from south-east London, and I've just ordered a Stagg EDB in transparent blue from Thomann.

My main instruments are keyboards and bass guitar, but I also play chromatic harmonica, rhythm guitar, Stylophone(!), percussion and Theremin. I also own an electric violin which I'm currently teaching myself to play. You can hear some of my multi-tracked solo work (mostly blues-based) at [url="http://www.soundclick.com/simonbeck"]www.soundclick.com/simonbeck[/url]. I also currently play organ. electric piano and Stylophone with an 11-piece Ska/funk band called [b]The Skanx [/b]([url="http://www.theskanxband.co.uk"]www.theskanxband.co.uk[/url]).

I took a few double-bass lessons during my last year at school (my only attempt at learning an instrument properly) and have always wanted to own an upright bass, so when I was given a substantial sum of money as a birthday present from my Dad this year, I decided to take the plunge.

I'll let you know how I get on. Hopefully my wife won't mind because it'll take up much less space than an acoustic...[/quote]

Hi Simon

Welcome to Stagg EDB land, vastly underated instruments in my opinion, though they do need their rough edges knocking off. Build quality isn't great to be perfectly honest but they are easy to modify and sort out the little niggles that come with them, and then they become truly excellent value compared to what else is on the market. Every bit of wood on it is "maple" (the neck and fingerboard are one piece) though I suspect it's not the most expensive maple because they've covered it all in a black finish. Contrary to some non-believers, the bridge, neck, fingerboard and string anchor are all made from wood, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility to remodel/replace most aspects of this bass. The nut, cavity plate, battery box and endpin sleeve are the only plastic bits on it.

Might I point you in the direction of my flickr account where you will find [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52673786@N00/sets/"]pictorial modification and fix procedures[/url] for some of the niggles we experience. It's a work in progress so some of the niggles listed below aren't on there just yet.

To recap on the niggles so far reported, starting from the ground up:

The endpin tends to rattle inside the endpin channel in the body. I have taken mine apart to investigate why and it would seem something as simple as too small a bore for the endpin channel when drilled out at the factory. There is a simple fix which is to remove the rear electronics cavity "scratchplate" (the long one) and tape some small bubble wrap to the end of the end pin so that when it's in playing position, it is cushioned from the wood inside. The long-term solution would be to have a larger bore drilled in the body but that is a little drastic if the bubblewrap option works ok. The endpin assembly is removable by first slackening the strings and then removing the 4 screws which hold the string anchor block on to the body. This exposes the 2 screws (or sometimes 3 depending on how good the assembler in the factory was) which secure the endpin into the body.

Because of the extra length between the string anchor block and the bridge, the portion of string between these two points will resonate in sympathy when playing the bass. Wedge a piece of foam under the strings here to damp them.

The battery box on the rear contains the 9v battery. I have come across an example where the battery leads were soldered the wrong way round on the circuit board so that the bass would only work with the battery the "wrong way round" in the box. When you take the battery out, check to see if it corresponds with the terminal polarity markings inside the box. One tip I'd suggest is to make a mark inside the box in white so you can easily see which way round a battery goes when on a dark stage, because the marks are so small it's difficult to tell.

Some jack sockets don't make a great connection on the tip of the plug. If you find knocking the plug when inserted makes it cut out, replace the jack socket. When I plug my Stagg in, I thread the lead under the strings between the string anchor and bridge then round the back into the socket, this keeps the lead out the way so you don't stand on it and pull it out inadvertently.

Some electrics hum, this is easily fixed with some copper or aluminium sticky back foil tape. The blue peter fix is [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52673786@N00/sets/"]here[/url]

Bridge modifications listed [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52673786@N00/sets/"]here[/url]

The nut is often cut too shallow meaning the strings are too high from the fingerboard at the nut end. As the nut is nylon, it's easy to recut or file down to lower the strings. Also, being nylon it is easily replaced.

A cheap solution for a stand is to ask any drummers you know if they have an old snare drum stand which has a functioning floor section. I use one which is perfectly adequate for using on stage and at a push can be played on it too. It has a sealed end on the tube so the bass stands on the endpin inside it, and folds up very small... pictures [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52673786@N00/sets/"]here[/url]


I have two Stagg EDBs, one I've modified to a 5 string, the other I haven't decided what mod to do to it yet so it's a test bed for different strings at the moment. I can only reiterate that these instruments are extremely good value and sound pretty good too, and the laydeyz seem to like them

I think I've covered most points, if anyone can add to this list, please do so. I know this list seems quite a large one but just be thankful you didn't buy a Palatino (which is the same as the Harley Benton EUB500), that's a huge list!

Edited November 6, 2009 by Mateybass

[butterfingersbeck]

Thanks a lot!

I'm very glad I didn't go for the Harley Benton/Palatino bass, judging by what you said. Superficially it looks more elegant, but at least with the Stagg you know what you're getting - it's a bit like a Telecaster copy as opposed to a Les Paul copy with a hollow plywood top and a bolt-on neck. It'll be interesting to see how I get on with the neck profile; I'm used to a MusicMan Stingray copy (very much like a P-bass) and I've read that the Stagg has a thick neck even by normal upright standards.

Somebody on another forum advised me to save up and get a Steinberger, but even the cheapest costs twice as much as the Stagg. They do look nice though.

This looks like a very good and helpful forum. Thanks once again.

Simon "Butterfingers" Beck
London SE26

[yorks5stringer]

I'm getting less than 8 hours per battery, and yes, I'm unplugging the lead inbetween times.
Sounds like it needs the mod? (not the Moderator, who although very good, would perhaps not regard repairs as part of his duties?)

[Mateybass]

[quote name='yorks5stringer' post='647818' date='Nov 7 2009, 01:01 AM']I'm getting less than 8 hours per battery, and yes, I'm unplugging the lead inbetween times.
Sounds like it needs the mod? (not the Moderator, who although very good, would perhaps not regard repairs as part of his duties?)[/quote]

My battery just ran out this weekend. It was the original battery from when I bought the bass in February this year.

If anyone finds out what the exact cause is, perhaps they could let me know so I can add it to my list and maybe work out a procedure for those who's basses are out of warranty.

Cheers
Ian

[lemmywinks]

Thanks for the modification list and pics Mateybass, much appreciated!