geoffbyrne

The power section works best when it's getting a full signal, so what I tend to do is turn up the master till I can hear it properly(!) and turn up the gain (you need to turn down the master at the same time) until I can hear the pre-amp overdriving. Then I reduce it a tad till it's clean (or, generalyl, to taste) and I'm good to go. Try giving your low mids a little boost & see how you like it. G.

FWIW I worked on an Epiphone Elitist 335 not so long ago and the quality was excellent. Took a beautiful setup & I would happily have kept it. G.

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' post='912707' date='Aug 2 2010, 12:47 PM']If you've bothered to make the frets go up and down, it's not a stretch of the imagination that the nut may do too, is it?[/quote] Mmmm. Not impossible, but unfortunately, you can't see the nut when he changes the lever over, so impossible to say. I'd say not, as dropping the nut would reduce downward pressure on it and therefore slacking off the strings, putting them all out of tune. Can't have that!!! G.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='912344' date='Aug 1 2010, 11:10 PM']Thought the ECC81 was 70%, I had one in a DHA dual pedal, for the cleaner side, was not loads quieter.[/quote] Depends which site you look at - some say the ECC81 is the equivalent of the 12AT7, while others say the 12AU7 - there's quite a bit of difference. I've always worked as its being the 12AU7 equ. Of course, a lot of these figures depends on the individual valve & where/when it was manufactured. If you look at Myles Rose's stuff: [url="http://www.guitaramplifierblueprinting.com/index2.html"]http://www.guitaramplifierblueprinting.com/index2.html[/url] there's a whole world of information there. You can contact Myles directly by going through the MusicPlayer's Guitar Forum. G.

[quote name='Alien' post='912321' date='Aug 1 2010, 10:39 PM']Got that for ya A[/quote] Oooopps!!!!!! Ta!!!! G.

ECC83=12AX7 - supposed to be 100% gain ECC82=12AY7 - supposed to be 40% gain ECC81=12AU7 - supposed to be 19% gain A handy one is the 5751 which is about 70% gain - gives you greater headroom at the cost of a little top-end volume. Your amp shouldn't have dropped that much volume unless it was a 12AU7 type you put in. G.

It's been EMG'd . G.

I have a 5 string B bass and it's pretty d@mn good. I've replaced the stock pre with a U-Retro and it sounds great. Narrow fretboard for a 5er (which suits me) and excellent QC, being made by Cort in the Korean factory. I'd say that £250's about right. Funny thing is, the B Bass is essentially a Jack with a headstock, and Jacks get plenty of love & sell well for around this price, so why not B basses? G.

Considering how recent the introduction of the Fender Bass had been, Jet Harris's solo in Nivram is pretty decent. In fact a lot of Jet's playing would have been extremely innovative at that time. Maybe worth going back to those early Shadows tracks & having a listen. G.

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='910160' date='Jul 30 2010, 12:25 PM']Funny, isn't it? I'd completely go the other way. As I improve on the bass, I feel myself becoming more comfortable describing myself as a bassist.[/quote] Like some others here, I play other instruments (drums, keys, clarinette, flute, sax - all pretty badly) and I play a lot of guitar as well as a lot of bass, so I'm kinda musician-oriented, but ask me & I'll say I'm a bassist as that's where I see myself now. G.

[quote name='27 frets' post='909870' date='Jul 30 2010, 08:12 AM']It looked to me that the fingerboard pivots up using the lever at the body end, rather than all the frets going down, - so it would keep the low action. But the question of how level the fingerboard would be where the frets are is one to ponder, would dips/divots matter if you don't press down too hard? The 8 string EEAADDGG neck suggestion sounds bizarre, not sure I could handle a neck that wide with up-down-up-down-up-down-up-down frets - would all feel a bit jagged! Would someone care to experiment?[/quote] Nope. There's a much higher quality version on Youtube & if you view that & increase the size of the picture, you'll see that it's the frets that drop, leaving quite a high action - no "Mwah" from that one! This technique has been around quite a while - I remember seeing this solution on a bass some years ago. G.

The problem is that when you drop the frets, you end up with a fretless with a really high action (for some!). G.

[quote name='JTUK' post='908558' date='Jul 28 2010, 07:18 PM']One thing to note. I believe the pre runs off 9 or 18v. My 9v version goes through batteries very quickly, ie a round 2 weeks, whereas the 18v has been going for as long as I have had the bass, which is since Novemeber and still going strong. I believe that this si a known John East feature so have a chat with him and expect to install 2 batts for the 18v version. As with all batts...don't leave the bass plugged in as that is a drain for nothing.[/quote] Sounds like your 9V is wired incorrectly. I bet your black line is wired to the main shaft instead of the ring. G.

[quote name='jumper' post='908465' date='Jul 28 2010, 05:29 PM']i have recently replaced the driver in my ashdown mag 115 (which had blown) with a celestion neo orange label 400 watt 8ohm and it sounds great. However now my mag 210 is being shown up to such an extent that i think an upgrade is in order to balance things out a bit. I see that the overall impeadence of the cab is 8ohm dose that mean that each of the 10's is 4ohms in series or 16 in parallel, (i think that thats the right way around) and if that is the case what about the tweeter? Dose this need upgrading or just leave it as it is? any thoughts or advice welcome.[/quote] I think you can leave the tweeter. 16 Ohms in parallel is, to my mind, more desirable than 4's in series At least in parallel, if something happens to one of the drivers, the other will carry on working whereas in series, if one goes the cab is dead. G.

Looks like a 'Mazetti' to me(?) G.

Wiring a U-Retro is a doddle - no soldering to the unit - there is some soldering to the jack socket though. The other thing that's nice is that each pickup-input has a level control, so if you have pups of a different output, you can get your preferred balance on the sound. Each pup has a hot & ground screw terminal. Attach. The hot (red) from the battery has a terminal too. The black from the battery goes to the ring terminal on the jack and the output goes to tip. There's a ground goes to the socket too. Screening with adhesive copper tape (link the strips with a drop of solder) never goes wrong. The U-Retro has pots with extra long threads to fit through wooden tops, whereas the J-Retro has short threads for the Jazz control plate. I have one on my B Bass V and I love it. I recently sold my spare to a member in Italy. G.

If you can manage to get an action that's useable then I'd live with it. Fixing this is hit & miss & can be expensive. If it's a bolt-on neck, I'd try looking around for a substitute. G.

Don't necessarily agree with that. My all-time favourite body shape would be that of the Fender Jazz (Don't assume from that I like Fender Jazz...es...es - I just like the body-shape) and there's plent of acreage in that. And my fav. colour would be a deep burnished reddish-brown, like a well-ripe chestnut! Any wood which achieves that would be a fine veneer top. In amongst all your images in that link I see another one of my all-time favourite basses - the Ibanez Studio 8 string. How did you find it? G.

This one's new on Ebay with fretlights fitted, and it's £280, so deduct so much for the fretlights, and it's not a very expensive bass - maybe round about £175? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cort-GB34A-bass-fret-lights-installed-NEW-/380247671488?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item58888702c0"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cort-GB34A-bass-fret...=item58888702c0[/url] G.

If BottomEndian's bridge doesn't work out, I could donate a Schaller 3D. Geoff

From what you say, I'd try *tightening* the truss rod until it's pretty nearly straight (very, very slight UP-bow) and raising the saddles. I reckon your hitting the bottom frets because there is a bow in the neck & the saddles were too low. I'd take out the pups & replace the foam underneath with layers cut to shape from a mouse mat, and you can make it that these hold the bass side higher, reducing the output from the G - also a decent set of strings might also be in order. Good luck whatever you do. Geoff

I've got a pair of Joe Bardens in the drawer. Very quiet, very detailed. Good mids, to this ear, extended highs & lows. Prime_BASS is currently interested in them and has first dibs, but if he decides they are not for him, you'd be very welcome to enquire further!! G.

I had a 'bitsa' J a while back. It was a Hohner Professional JJ Jazz with a stained maple body. It had various necks on it. The original was pretty much a 'P' neck which I later replaced with a J, then after that with an unlined 'P'. It passed on to Lemmywinks, whom, I believe, is still using it. Anyway, you can see the depth of grain showing through the dark staining here: G.

I played a Wesley about 7 years ago - had to wash my hands afterward - maybe things have improved? G.

Usually, in my experience, when an instrument starts to pick up extraneous signals, there's usually some sort of earthing issue. The fact that the effect is confined to one single bass might suggest this. I used to get something like Radio Tokyo (def. Japanese) when I plugged into a Zoom Multi-FX pedal, but didn't when it was removed from the chain. I never discovered why, just moved it on. G.