brensabre79

great link above. Although I would say that the noticable effectiveness of the expensive PIO capacitors is quite little. And beware of those really very expensive ones from the 60s that pop up on eBay. Voltage doesn't really matter on a bass, 100v tolerance would matter on a 240v circuit - i.e. it would melt! but not for a passive bass. So get some cheapo Poly ones (like Fender do these days) of different values and see what suits you best. A lot depends on the pickups you have, and the tone you want in terms of finding the sweet spot frequency to roll off.

[quote name='Iheartreverb' timestamp='1385556176' post='2289548'] sh*t, How big are those poles! once you factor in cost on top for correct bridge mount and cover they're only about £15 cheaper than actual Ric's. But honestly, thanks for showing me these and your advice. If these sound better I'd go for them anyway. [/quote] Bridge mount? not sure I follow ya there. I got a set for my Rockinbetter, fitted the bridge pickup onto the Rockinbetter base - it's just particleboard or some such - but it came supplied with one too so I have a spare. It took about 10 minutes to fit. They sound awesome. I went for the classic sounding one. Depending on what brand of copy you have you may have to modify the pickguard / mount anyway. For a Rockinbetter the hole for the neck p/u was a bit small so i enlarged it. I also put the capacitor mod on mine, and yes it does make a difference to the 'mid-scoop' but i prefer the neck pickup alone anyway.

[quote name='Iheartreverb' timestamp='1385548169' post='2289457'] this is my old bass at the minute. I see your point though, when i had a precision and plugged it in my amp on the settings I had my Ric copy on I could barely keep the walls on my flat. soooo much more output and low end! With regards to the pickups I just loose volume and low end in the middle pos. Looking at Ric pickups to put in it at £220 a set!!!! [/quote] You can probably get quite a boost from your compressor pedal as a quick fix. You could try [url="http://geminipickups.co.uk/"]Gemini pickups[/url], they do a nice Ric set for £130. Or there's [url="http://www.kentarmstrong.com/"]Kent Armstrong[/url] - Neck pickup is lovely, even though it's for guitar (like the early Ric's had) I think it might be a special order though, or in the guitar section.. the mid position will always scoop the sound - not just on Rics or copies because the frequencies picked up by the two pickups interact and cancel out in the mid-range. The further apart the pickups are on the bass the more scooped the sound can be.

I'll add to what is said above. Whenever I use my R bass at gigs I usually end up mainly on the neck pickup. the LF is way more than I get from an F bass, but there are no low mids. Thing is, I can get the R a lot louder without interfering with the guitards. Whenever I use the F bass, the low mids are more prominenet and the guitards say I'm too loud, even if I'm quieter. It's all down to not stepping on each other's frequencies. If I don't touch my amp and try it at home after a gig, the tone I end up with from the R bass is horrid on its own, really there's a lot of mid in there that I don't hear at the gig - and I mean real mid, not low mid. It sounds almost nasal. In the mix though it sounds great.

I agree, I have passive basses that are louder than some active basses. I think if you had a super hot 18v Pre you might start to need the attenuation though. For a Stingray or something they are not much louder than a passive instrument (unless it's an early PreEB!)

Most Eden stuff is pretty top notch in my opinion. At 300w it should be OK for smaller gigs and larger ones with PA support (i.e. stage monitor). It'll have a different sound to your Ampeg, tighter and more focussed. If trouser flapping low bass is your thing I don't know that it'll cope too well with that. The 10" will move less air than the 15". But if you're after a decent, portable rig you can do a lot worse than this one. [b]**** Beware that the cab is 4 ohms and so is the minimum impedance of the amp, so you won't be able to add a second cab to this setup. ****[/b] You would have to have two 8ohm cabs for a mini stack. Or better still a 4 ohm 2x10 or 2x12.

You could also try [url="http://www.geminipickups.co.uk/bass_85.html"]Gemini pickups[/url] - nice guy to deal with, some interesting options [url="http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk"]Bare Knuckle[/url] - a couple of options

BEWARE The Rickenbacker Truss Rods - they aren't like normal ones!

[quote name='Bolo' timestamp='1385189817' post='2285410'] Peavey had some valve powerblocks.. classic 120 or something? However I don't think you are going to get that 'bounce' from switching poweramps. That's gain stage stuff right there, as poweramps are generally designed to just make it louder. .... Found a pic: [/quote] Thanks for this. Looking for new ideally but i'll see if i can source one

I'm with RR on this one. I've tried all sorts of valve pre-amps, pedals etc. I can get the tone, just not the bounce or the weight of sound. I play my Hybrid head with the gain wound right up and the master vol barely on. It's stupid loud, but no weight, even if there is lots of bass. Through the Sound City amp at the practice room it feels like someone has dropped a 1 ton bouncy ball 2 ft behind me when i hit a note, same cab. There's no way I'm lugging that to gigs though, it's a PA head for a start, its wider than my speaker cab and it has a penchant for spontaneous combustion.

+1 for the Carvin BX series. Goes great with a Barefaced Super12 too. A Basschatter brought one to a gig for me to try, I bought one the next day. I've got the 500, I had the Shuttle 6.0 before that with exactly the same issue as you describe for me, clinical and lacking in the round hairy things. Never had it at full volume, there's plenty of power! Bassgear have them so you can try.

Brilliant to have all this info in one place. It needs to be stickied immediately!! [quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1300803749' post='1172128'] What was the situation with rosewood board neck truss rod adjusters? Were they all heel end adjustment, with no plug at the headstock end (no sign of anything, just a blank scallop), or did that vary through the years? [/quote] All heel adjusters until early 80s I think, check above. No plug indicates no skunk stripe either, meaning the route for the truss rod was done from the top before the rosewood fretboard was added.

Yeah I'm not sure about either of the pics. '64 clay dots as said above. '75 reissue I think they have 70s pickup spacing, but 4 bolt neck and heel truss-rod adjustment (not bullet) I'm not sure on the neck profile of these. the necks went quite chunky some time ion the late 60s / early 70s, then went thinner again. Mine is a '74 4-bolt and it is like a baseball bat, but I'd imagine the reissue probably has the more standard, thinner profile. D'oh, typed a bit slowly ther

I use a compressore, great pedal, lovely and warm, rich sound. i changed the tube because I had a NOS ECC81 lying around and wanted to see what a difference it makes. Quite a significant one actually. The compressore is unlike most tube compressors in that the valve is actually part of the compression circuit, so the behavior of the individual valve will make a difference. Changing the tube is a doddle, just 2 screws and a wiggle Most so-called tube compressors are just a solid state compressor with a tube pre-amp, including some notable rackmount ones. Not necessarily a bad thing. But I've not found one as warm and 'valvey' as these. For me the only thing missing is a meter or indicator light to let you know when its kicking in - it's very smooth so not always that obvious until you nail it! but even then it's fairly transparent, you just get a bit of a 'MwwaaAAAH' (thats the technical term)

OK So it seems Mesa have priced themselves well out of my range with the new all-valve lightweight heads (starting at about £2k!). Such a shame. I've been looking at alternatives, petitioning manufacturers and trying to find my own solution. I'm slightly fussed about the weight issue, but more fussed about the cost and size issue too. The thing that appealed about the Mesa Prodigy was its compact package. My speaker Cab is only 19" wide. Perfect for rackmount gear. not so good for most all-valve heads which are generally wider than that. I love the pre-amp on my Carvin, but the valvey bounce is missing for me. So I was thinking I could combine the pre-amp of my Carvin with a valve slave amp and make my own perfect head. Carvin do make an all-valve slave amp, the TS100, and it's about £650, unfortunately its a stereo 50w/50w and while it can be bridged to get 100W it'll only go down to 8 ohms, I need 4. They also make a 100w all-valve guitar head in a lightweight and compact package (about £1k), it looks good, but it has 3 channels for guitards and I don't really need the pre-amp section at all as I've already got one! Can't help feeling like I'm paying a lot for stuff I don't need there... So, does anyone know of any all-valve 100w - 200w @ 4ohm no frills power amps that is 19" wide or less, preferably doesn't weigh [i]too[/i] much (I appreciate big iron is best, but come on it's 2013), and isn't extortionately expensive...? I know it's possible, I just havent found one!

I love 'em. I tried the steel ones a while ago and didn't like the tone of those. i usually use steel because Nickel ones always go black very quickly for me. A normal set of steels will last me 2 gigs tops (a week) before they are like rubber bands. I tried the DR coated (red and black) neither lasted much longer than normal strings for me (maybe 4 gigs) and with a pick the coating flaked away. 6 months ago, on the recommendation of someone else who has a reaction with normal nickel strings I tried the Elixir nickels. They are still on my bass and zingy as the day they were put on. About half of our 3 hour set is pick work, no flaking or fraying for me! After a while the black will start to appear where the coating has worn down, so far this hasn't happened for me. I used to spend £100 a month on strings to keep the treble alive! not any more.

There's no right and wrong. It depends how you use the compressor. And the other fx for that matter. And what you want to get out of the whole thing. As a general guide to get you started Compressor first if you want to even out the sound of your bass all the time, you can set it up so it just ticklesthe peaks or squashes the whole sound. this will have an effect on the sound you get from the other pedals. Compressor last if you want to even out the sound coming from the other pedals. Generally most of them will boost the level a bit (especially if you use a few at once), so getting the compressor to kick in at the right level without squashing too much can be tricky. I find that if you compress the effects with the bass sound it sounds less layered, and more like one sound if that makes any sense. A bit like, when you compress the reverb with the lead vocal - it sounds more like the natural room sound rather than a reverb effect added on top... So experiment away, work out what suits you best

The Carvin BX500 can go down to 2 ohms too. With the same power as 4 ohms @ 500w. With a Super12 it is insanely loud. OP I think maybe the drop in volume when you put the -15dB pad in is making you think its a drop in bottom end, when it's just an overall drop in volume. The thing is if you overload the pre-amp it will sound dirty and lively. When you put the pad in you might have to adjust the gain, eq etc. to get the sound you want. If you're talking about a serious lack of LF even after you have done this I would start to think there may be a problem with something and check my batteries etc. If you leave the pad off and turn down the volume on your bass do you get the same effect?

I don't think it's that simple (sorry Lozz) I've used DHA, Valve compressor, valve preamp etc. and they do warm/dirty up the sound nicely,but without the valve power stage that 'bounce' you get from all-valve is missing. It sounds right, but doesn't feel right... My Carvin amp is the closest I've got with the Class D types, (I found the Markbass stuff a bit cold and dull personally), but still it does not compare to the Sound City 200 head in the practice room. There's no way I'd hump that around to gigs though, too big, heavy and delicate. The new Mesa amps looked promising, a relatively light weight all valve head, sadly it looks like they will be incredibly expensive. The quest continues

Well Pete, the 'mis-matched' 2x10 / 1x15 setup was indeed popular for a long time. As was the Laney Linebacker... Thing is, some of these were designed to work together. My rig with similar speakers was bi-amped with a crossover for example, and it worked brilliantly. but that does not mean that any old 2x10 and any old 1x15 will work well together, especially with just the one amp. SOME of the Barefaced modular series were designed to be used together or apart. The Super12 and Compact were part of this range, along with the Midget I believe... Having said that, I personally see no need for these sort of stacks unless you're playing in a stadium without PA support! To the OP. The Super12 will easily handle twice the power your Ampeg can muster. You can get the full 500 watts out of it just by using the Super12 on it's own. You'll get 60-70% of that with the compact on its own (8 ohms). If you use them together in series you will still get about 70% power. That's with all the knobs at 11 mind... So just use the Super12, turn it up so you can't hear every person in a 30 mile radius telling you to turn that f****g thing down!!

Have you changed to thicker strings? if the action seems higher than before it may be that the string grooves on the bridge and nut need widening for higher gauge strings... Or do they just seem stiffer?

If that bass above were mine, i'd get rid of the stripes and stick a black scratchplate on it

[attachment=148737:Mint-Jazz.jpg] Here you go. it's an affinity but you should get the idea

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GeetarGizmos-GUITAR-NECK-INSERT-KIT-Stainless-Set-of-4-Luthier-Tool-Bolt-On-Neck-/131008125674?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item1e80b15aea"]These[/url] are what you're looking for...

Yep a 'studio switch' can be one of the most valuable additions to your bass if you want to preserve your tone