mcnach

Anybody else has experience with the TCE BAM200? I have no idea when we'll be gigging again, but the ever-optimistic me with a few bank notes to burn is thinking that a supersmall head would be the ideal backup that I would leave with my bag of gear and take everywhere with me. Both these amps look ok to save a gig at a pinch, but the BAM200 is around half the price so it's looking pretty attractive just now.

why did you think they'd be the same?

Not the one I saw. He started by saying he liked the sound but at some point he opened it up and found the speaker baskets were of a different construction to what they used to have, and he felt cheated because he felt they were using cheaper materials and construction. There was nothing I recall about the speaker sounding bad.

I've got a PRS SE Custom 24 and I can't speak highly of it enough. I love the pickups, the finish, everything. I've never been a big fan of coil taps on humbuckers, but on this guitar they sound great. I am mostly a Strat player, I love single coils. The PRS doesn't sound like one, but it has a very nice single-coil kind of sound in addition to the fatter humbuckers. Ergonomically, it's miles better than any Les Paul style. Go get it! This is mine:

Yes, they do feel a bit sticky at first but that soon goes away.

Yes, but necessary. Also known as NEW [insert type of gear] DAY threads. It's my new toy, so it's awesome. All agree. Then two weeks later the truth comes out

That, I like

Still less than half the price of an USA one. Prices have gone up all round! Before you say no to MIM, try them. They have improved a LOT from what they used to be 10-15 years ago. A good P bass for £600-700? In 2020? That doesn't sound bad at all.

When I found he plays with Dare now I was very surprised, as I can't see him playing much slap there. And he doesn't. He's a pretty good bass player, he's just unfortunately better known for his emulation of a typewriter with a bass.

Pots are not the best, standard tuners and bridge I can see they're not top dollar items, but they do the job (only had one with standard hardware, basses 2 and 3 I specified different hardware). I really have no issue at all with any of these... but screws... ugh.

There are places to cut down costs, and places where you don't. It's not a multimillion instrument operation, the savings are not that significant. Hell, charge me an extra tenner and use screws that are not an alloy of iron and cheese. I enjoyed my three Maruszczyks (now down to just one), and those screws were insanely bad. I broke off a pickup mounting screw without much effort: I started applying force and it was hard, then gently started to give way... only it wasn't being unscrewed, it was the screw being twisted, and it quickly sheared off leaving me to remove the bit of screw with a lot of swearing. Really, Maruszczyk, you make some really cool instruments, don't spoil it for the sake of a few pennies.

oh yes, do it with the pickup covers off. I am not sure the covers will melt but it is a lot easier to do a tidy job if you remove them prior to coating them. I used the 60-second (Rimmel?) one, and just applied 3-4 thin coats. It stayed put for a few years (I no longer have that bass)

Yes, it works, it's easy to remove too in the future and it doesn't damage anything (just be sensible). I still prefer to ground the polepieces first, if feasible.

why?

nail polish works very well, and you get a choice of colours However, I'd try to fix the problem first without nail polish: you need to ground the polepieces. If they're accessible from under the pickup, all you have to do is join them (conductive copper tape works, for example) and then join that wire/tape to ground. Then the polepieces will not make noise when you touch them. If that's complicated... then yes, nail polish is an easy solution. I have done it in the past.

It's a very nice preamp, if you like Stingray preamps. I'd go for the 3-knob 3-band version 'though. The semiparametric mids module is very cool. You may not touch it much, but when you need it it's like having the 7th of Cavalry coming to the rescue

It does look slightly off, and I am positive you can readjust by reseating the neck in the pocket... but for such a small difference, personally I would not bother. Of course, if it bothers you, and that's what matters then you can always reseat it yourself. It's easy.

Oh the glamour, eh?

That's good! I remember they had a period when lead times were a bit longer and they were moving to another wrkshop etc. I thought they were getting busier and that it was the end of the 10-week wait. It looks like it's still very similar.

I would love for all my gigs to go like that, where do I sign??? I'm talking about the extra £100. I'm not a stranger to finishing later than planned, but it would generally be £100 to share, not per person... and I tend to play in bands with anything between 6-10 members, so yeah, the extra £10-15 are really really useful. I might splash on the way back and buy a hot chocolate with EXTRA cream on top and marshmallows on some road services stop...

I get a strong sense of deja-vu That's where I was a year ago! First it was looking at those 48s and playing with the configurator. Then it was going to a shop where I knew they had a couple. Next thing I knew, I had ordered a VM4 😛

I liked that band a lot more when I could not understand English...

ah, the sound of a cutlery drawer being dropped down the stairs...

But this only ensures frets are of an even height, not that they're level. You're taking a big risk assuming the fingerboard is even. It looks like in your case it was even enough and your approach worked. Pretty ingenious with the file, I liked that . However, fingerboards are not necessarily even, not to the kind of tolerances we'd like to ensure frets are levelled, as anyone who has ever done a fretless conversion will probably have experienced. So be careful with this approach!

A kilt, however...