BassBod

Welcome aboard - plenty of us Bristol bassers here...many of whom will have ventured into Old Market, I'm sure. Interesting to read about your Pangborn history - I recall seeing a review of one of the aluminium fingerboard fretless basses a very, very long time ago...was it a Pbass type with two split pickups? I'd also love to learn more about Ashley's work - by the time I could afford to buy a good bass he was long out of business.

Shameless plug...I'm currently selling a John Marlow electric mando in the For Sales section of this very site.....

The Gollihur bridge is good, but it will save a lot of potential hassle to get it fitted by someone with (a lot of) experience. When you slacken the strings everything, including the internal sound post, becomes mobile. Its also a good time for a general fine tuning - nut slots, endpin fit, tailpiece chord etc. Good luck, but the end results should be well worth it

I had a similar issue - two EA CXL 110 cabs and an Eden WT400. Would go into thermal protection if pushed for too long, but should have been happy with the "4 ohm" load. Replaced the Eden with a EA500 head and problem solved. A few years later, sold the cabs, one got damaged in transit and the opened to replace the speaker...which was clearly labelled as 4 ohm, despite the external label on the cab saying 8 ohm. The EA CXL's are great cabs, but I think EA were misleading with their specs/labelling - and it has caused problems for users. I'm happily using a EA Micro head these days, but I went Barefaced (and would consider Acme) for the cab.

I could be wrong..bit I'm pretty sure I used Honeys with the magnetic (Armstrong) pickup on my EUB...and it worked fine? Didn't like the sound much..but it worked!

Nick kindly brought his new found Shergold round for quick looksy last night. I must say, it has a lovely neck and an even better sound! Really nice bass and far, far better than my (rather) distant memories of them would have suggested. I just hope there are no fretless ones popping up for sale over the next few days. Thanks Nick!

Well - yours is still the only "Fender" bodied Wal I've seen in twenty odd years of Wal spotting...and the body/weight/balance issues were the worst thing about the two I've owned. I think there's a potential market....although the 50p per bass may demand some serious haggling with Mr Herman. I heard in the old days it was tea and sandwiches.

I've got the SWR Mr Tone Control eq - something like 9 bands (but no Q). Fantastic if you're willing/able to be very specific and picky, but you need to be working in an environment where its worth it and you have the time to set up and tweak away. Its also got an eq off switch...so I most often use it to add a separate sound for upright bass with one channel amps, and apply some high pass filtering to avoid the rumbles down below!

I think its high time there was an official Spoombung artist model in the Wal catalogue, with at least 50p going direct to the artist for every model sold. Shall we start one of those poll things?

There is nothing unusual about SWR designs, its good old fashioned 1980's stuff. So any "good" experienced tech should find it all pretty familiar inside....just ask around for the best local amp tech and you should be fine. There is a sticky somewhere on here that should have a few that are close(ish) to you.

I shouldn't have looked.....

Nice one Greg...bit posh for my lowly bass, but that's the sort of treatment it needs!

[quote name='gcordez' timestamp='1328202115' post='1523613'] Martin Penning in Frome is outstanding. [/quote] Can you PM me a number?? Nice to know there's a good reason to visit Frome....

Ok, all you upstanding bass chatters - I really need to get my acoustic bass set up and sorted out (its a humble Zeller). Who do people use in the Bristol/Bath area? I'm not looking for anything pricey, just possibly a new bridge, sound post setting and a possible minor crack fix in the (carved) top.... I need names and numbers, please.....

I had one in a Zoot for a short while. The bass side was ok but I found the treble side was too hissy, and really not very nice. I also had quick fiddle with a P retro (in a good Tokai P) and thought it was a fabulous piece of work...it really does enhance a P bass without distracting you from its basic character. Like all the best active designs, you quickly forget its an active bass and just use it.

Scott - that was great! Almost makes me want to try using a pick......almost....

The old Trace ones come up fairly often on evilbay....and are pretty cheap. They are also heavy and usually in a pretty "well used" state. The power ratings look low (compared to modern stuff) but I don't think you could ever consider them underpowered in use. I sometimes use an old SWR Stereo 800 with my Trace GP11 and it works very well, but any decent modern PA type power amp should be fine. Don't forget that you can also use most modern amp heads as power amps too, if you plug the Trace into the effects return socket...sometimes the levels don't match too well, but the Trace has an output level control.

Sounds like the nut needs to be re-cut or replaced to suit your choice of strings - raising it with a shim will do as a quick fix, but getting it out cleanly (its probably well lacquered in place!) isn't easy. Once the nut is done then concentrate on the truss rod/neck issue. Tuning the bass slightly sharp for a few days may help the neck "give" a bit and leave you with a slight bit of relief. Laminated necks can be very stiff and sometimes won't set up well with lighter strings...but its a JD, so I wouldn't expect that to be a problem! I had one a few years ago (1985/6 model) and it was very well behaved with both 35-95 strings and regular 45-105. Good luck

It has to be a good quality active circuit to do the job well. Look up John East's site - he makes a good little blender circuit for exactly that..and he can advise you on combining it with his other gizmos. There is also a simpler circuit offered by Cafe Walter to blend a mag/piezo....and Bartolini used to sell one but I've no idea what it was called. The option to roll off the treble from just the piezo (independantly of the magnetics) is a good thing.

Look for an internal gain adjuster - some preamps have them, and if set very low the usual background hiss can be a problem....but turning the gain (i.e. signal) up higher can help a lot. Probably worth taking a photo of the preamp. There are some very good electronics guys on the forum who could help you decide if its worth repairing/modding or replacing?

I've seen Steve Swallow play (fairly close) a few times over the years - he doesn't make it look easy! Makes you feel pretty uptight just watching him...although the sound doesn't reflect this. I guess some of that may be from his double bass days. He also makes quite a mess of his bass with the pick..... I'd also look to Bobby Vega for inspiration...or maybe Colin Hodgkinson (but I can't remember if he always uses a pick or not).

Before you do, just for reference, try and remember the price of a decent pint around the same time......I'm sure he could afford it these days, but maybe let him off the interest?