Matt P

I will be taking custody of the r-400 this evening, i'll only get a chance to give it a proper run out on Sunday morning at church but that should give me enough to decide if I'm going to order one. I'm pretty excited to have a go at running valves again and i'll report back with my thoughts. Matt

I'd certainly like to test it out. Matt

I don't have any experience with the BB2 but from my past couple of years gigging barefaced Midgets I think you might be surprised at the volume that a single Barefaced cab can produce. Have you spoken to Alex at barefaced to discuss your needs? he's really very good at suggesting suitable cabs. how big are the venues that you are playing? I've played pub gigs with a single midget and my Markbass F1 and not had any issues keeping up with our drummer or our noisy guitarist. I have a feeling that a single BB2 might be all you ever need unless you're playing large venues with no PA support. Matt

i think you've been given some great advice so far, I started out on a Yamaha RBX765, picked it up for about 120 quid, 19mm spacing, as I only had one bass back then I didn't really know any different, since then I got my 77 precision and got used to the standard spacing on that. then I ordered my letts 5 and it came as 17.5-18mm ish spacing, this felt perfect from the start, I have tried the tighter spacing of the Ibanez and warwick 5's whn i' was looking for a backup bass and they all seemed very cramped, the squire vm p-5 I have now is perfect, exactly the same spacing as the letts and a similar character to my 77 precision. the best advice I can give is to look into floating thumb technique, this has been one of the best things I have done in years, everything sounds clearer and more defined as the low b isn't constantly vibrating (even if I don't actually hit it) Matt

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1463180826' post='3049416'] Beer is water based, so I'd go with Phil's water suggestion. If you have any IPA (The alcohol not the beer!) then id' follow it up with a spray of that which will displace the water and evaporate quickly. Let it dry thoroughly, and you'll probably be OK. Water will not hurt the electronic components - companies that reclaim & resell old PCBs are known to put them in a domestic dishwasher as a first step to get all the muck off. [/quote] I'd definitely go for the IPA for this, I've twice dropped my digital thermometer into the brew bucket when making beer, both times I quickly dismantled it and washed it off with IPA, and both times it sprung back into life when it dried off and I put in fresh batteries. Matt

I think that the main issue that you are going to have is getting hold of a genuine Superfly 1000, I don't think they were actually officially released, about 30 were apparently supplied to Ashdown by the factory and some went to sounds live but they are identical to the 500w versions, I think that you have to check the serial number with Ashdown to get confirmation that it's a 1000w version. I had one of the 500w versions and the preamp was fantastic, unfortunately the power amp sections on the 500w versions weren't that great, I got a serious squeal very early on form one of the outputs and about 6 months later the other output started to go the same way, I gave it away in the end to someone who just needed a preamp for recording. this is the thread I found on TB where I got some of my info. I believe that Ashdown have a rep who is a member on here, hopefully he'll be able to fill in any blanks or correct me if I'm wrong. if I were looking for an Ashdown then the Retroglide looks like the top option. Matt

have you spotted this? [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/282884-new-amp-test-handbox-r-400-new-to-the-uk/"]http://basschat.co.u...-new-to-the-uk/[/url] Matt

If it's a straight power amp you want then this might be an option, not cheap though. http://www.demeteramps.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=62&product_id=92 Matt

somehow I didn't get notifications from this thread, M3x8 pan head screws will probably be about right, it might be worth picking up a small selection box of m3 and m4 nuts and bolts, a washer between the screw had and the tray is a good idea too. Matt

Has anyone managed to Track any of these down yet? or got confirmation that they're coming to Europe? I asked in Guitarguitar on Saturday about the TMB605 an they phoned me back this morning to say that only theTM100 was available. Matt

is there not something stamped into the unit next to the hole? I've seen the screw spec stamped into some units. Assuming that this is a Japanese Unit I'd expect it to be a Metric screw, measure the diameter of the hole and round up to the nearest millimetre, (i'd expect it to be 4mm or so), then just pick up a selection of (M4) screws, shine a light into the hole and see how deep it can go, or use a cocktail stick to judge how far the screw can go before it hits something, then fit a slightly shorter screw so it doesn't short on something inside.

I've never had any problems being heard with my F1 and a single BF Midget, and our drummer can be a noisy so-and-so. mind I thinking of pulling the trigger on one of those new handbox r400's Matt

have a look at freshman guitars, the last one I played was astonishing for the 190 quid price tag ( I thought it was a 500 quid guitar) yamaha, epiphone and tanglewood are good choices as well. Matt

I can drown out a drummer with a single 8 ohm BF Midget and my Markbass F1, in fact I've played gigs with only one cab plugged in, the barefaced cabs are very efficient. A BB2 and the LM tube 500 should be able to demolish small buildings. Matt

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1461076779' post='3031213'] More info: Footswitchable - not possible. Rackmount - nope, but there is a flightcased version available. [/quote] that's not a deal breaker for me, was more of a nice to have feature than a necessity. Matt

when I checked the prices and used google to convert it they ran about £480 ish (give or take a bit) pretty sure it's under 500 though (plus a bit for shipping I guess) I think my piggy bank is definitely in danger! Time to try it out I think! Matt

actually the more I look at them the more I'm drawn to the case on the top one, but definitely with the metal toggle switches, the surround colour is going to be the difficult bit, I think I need to try out the test amp and then I'll know if I need to break open the piggy bank. Matt

The last one for me, but with the black faceplate surround, is it possible to have a footswitch for the drive? Matt

I think I've found the website. [url="https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.handbox.pl%2Fcgi-bin%2Findex.pl"]https://translate.go...-bin%2Findex.pl[/url] hopefully the translated version any idea what the differences are between the amps shown are? some have pushbuttons, some toggle switches an there seem to be different layouts as well but they are all on the R400 standard page a test of this amp would be ace, maybe if enough people want to try it we could book a couple of hours at a rehearsal room and give it a test with different cabs and basses, I'd be happy to chip in for the room hire. Matt

that looks rather nice, if you don't decide to keep it then I wouldn't mind a go with it, I had a look at the prices and they seem very good value (provided that my google conversion of the price was right!) If you are going to keep he Handbox I might make a bid for your Mesa! Matt

I like them really chunky (ooo-err missis!) The Letts 5 has a neck like a 2x4 and it's perfect, quite deep and square, with a fairly flat back, really helped to sort out my poor left hand technique. I tried a Jazz a couple of weeks ago and it was like a toothpick, I jut couldn't get on with it. Matt

I've bought a camera lens and a job lot of 1/4" plugs from Mike and both transactions were perfect, great communication and incredibly swift postage. Matt

I also find the Ibanez sr series too tight, the cort that I tried (A5 I think) had the same spacing as the sr series (16.5mm) I ended up with a Squier VM p5 which is about 18mm and perfect for me (the same as my Letts 5 string) I think that musicman are 17.5mm (except the sterling sub which i think is 16.5 or even narrower.) the RBX 765a that I had was 19mm which I loved at the time but can't manage now. Matt

whether this can be done affordably will depend on whether the neck and the fingerboard are separate pieces of wood or actually one piece, is there a "skunk stripe" of darker wood on the back of the neck? (this would usually indicate a single piece neck) if it is a separate fingerboard then it's not too difficult to remove the fingerboard and fit a new one, if it's a one piece neck then it's a much bigger job. Matt