mickster

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1418175096' post='2627747'] I see - so you approach a company which does not sell large parts like bodies and necks (except by exchange) and then wonder why you get no as a answer? You obviously don't know much about Musicman as they have recently produced a limited run with roasted maple necks available as 4, 5 or 6 string. It sounds like there's a level of delusion in these posts!! Are you sure they werent men in White coats? [/quote] Heh-heh-heh..."they're attacking the precioussssss...must defend...MUST DEFEND...!!!"

Most likely a typo. Give Dawsons a call & ask.

[quote name='thebassman' timestamp='1416758892' post='2613232'] with the 15, you can get a really dirty tone and still keep the overall volume really low. I've never tried a valve amp with only a master volume, so just curious. Cheers thebassman [/quote] FWIW Most valve amps in the 6 string world - where these are still prob the most common amps - also tend to have a single volume control rather than separate gain/master vols. Most of the distortion from amps like these - & indeed the LB30 - comes from the power section being pushed, rather than the front end. When you run your CTM15 at low volumes, you're only hearing the pre amp tubes distort. This can sound ok, but is often a bit thin & fizzy sounding. Most tube amp lovers will tell you that it sounds nowt like the distortion you get from pushing the power section... It's for this reason that its important to get a tube amp that's the right power for your needs - so that your gigging volume coincides with the power tubes starting to get hairy (assuming that's what yr after). Its also why lots of valve amp people tend to collect a number of different power valve amps to suit different volume situations. At least, that's my excuse haha!

Seconded on the nail varnish trick. I made exactly the same p/u swap on my 2012 US Standard, and solved the issue by painting the poles. The other way to do this is to run a grounding strip of some sort along the bottom of the poles, but the varnish trick is easier and has no effect on tone.

Try some flats on it, will replace the grind with some smoother thuddy tones. Also don't be afraid to turn the tone knob most of the way down, and play with yr amp EQ. Both JJ Burnel and Jamerson played basically the same bass as you, the differences in sound are down to strings and EQ (and fingers v plectrum, and technique, but ya get my drift...)

^^ walbassist is right - the American Series became the USA Standard series in 2008. I forgot that bit...

OK I'll have a stab: USA Standard: Latest version of the same classic P bass that has been made since the late 1950s. Highlights include custom shop pickup, rolled edges on neck, satin finish on back of neck, graphite support rods to strengthen neck. Traditional P bass tone circuit. Through body stringing. Hi-Mass bridge allows thru-body or top load stringing. Comes with good quality hard case (at least my 2012 model did). USA Special: Cheaper version than std, but still made in USA instead of Mexcico / Indonesia / China. 'Greasebucket' tone control, standard mass-produced pickup, traditional BBOT bridge. Not drilled for thru-body stringing. Still has graphite rods in neck (?). Gloss finish on neck. Neck edges not hand rolled. Allegedly cheaper hardware (tuners, nobs, electronics). Allegedly bodies use slightly more bits of wood than USA Stds - can't confirm this by experience. No hard case. Never heard of a USA Series. The other range is the USA 'American Vintage' series: These are recreations of original USA Stds from the 50's/60's/70's. Hardware is recreated as per the original model, and subtle issues like body & neck shape conform to vintage specs. These are finished in Nitro, which is thinner and wears much quicker / differently than the poly based finishes in the 2 modern models above. These come in sexy (but less practical IMO) original style hard cases. Hope this gets you started. There'll probably be someone along soon with more specific info / opinions on the diffs & whether they're important or not.I have a US Std & am very pleased with it FWIW. Take a look in the BC for sale section, as will be lots cheaper than buying new.

[quote name='Shaggy' timestamp='1408810169' post='2533732'] With a semi-hollow the tone isn't as affected as one might think, mainly as most have a centre solid section of light-density wood to avoid the feedback problem you get when you add pickups to an acoustic instrument However the body definitely affects the way the strings move (and therefore the amplified tone) so the tone IS more "acoustic" - warmer, more harmonics, a slower attack and faster decay (I think.....). I'd say it's far more noticeable on a guitar than a bass, but for example; my EB-2D above sounds quite different to an EB-3, which would essentially have exactly the same hardware, pickups and neck, but a solid body Edit - the other bonus is they're generally very light weight.... [/quote] Makes sense, cheers! Gonna have to get on one soon to try...

Pardon the daft question, but does the hollow body have a noticeable affect on the tone when played through an amp? I love the look of these hollowbodies, but have never played one, so just wondering whether they sound different to a solid-body with similar scale/pickups? Obviously, the pickups in these (ideally) aren't microphones, so they can only react to the moving string and can't 'hear' the hollowness of the body, same as on a regular bass, so just wondering how all this works...

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1408363534' post='2529356'] They photograph well. I did see a couple of threads on TB and elsewhere dissing Nash quality of components and build, but not having seen one in the flesh I can't comment. Enough of them are owned by celeb players, but of course that doesn't mean much. [/quote] There was a thread a while back on OSG where a bloke did a teardown of a Nash and wasn't overly impressed with what he found: http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=47291&sid=133e9d67def1ad38189e6c06d853a11d Never played one in the flesh, so not sure whether this is a general issue or a one off, mind...

[quote name='pqs' timestamp='1406377794' post='2511014'] Can anyone help me in uploading photos please? [/quote] Take a look at http://basschat.co.uk/topic/191620-how-to-add-a-picture-to-your-post/ hth

[quote name='Jono Bolton' timestamp='1404990068' post='2497584'] Your VS-212 is 8 ohms as well, so you'd not get full power out of the head with that cab. You'd need a 4 ohm cab, and even then you'd struggle with only 30 watts I reckon. [/quote] The LB is a valve amp, so it gives out its full power at both 4 and 8 ohms. The 'less power at 8ohms' thing is a micro amp/class D thing.

+1 Bought my 73 P bass from him - great service and some brilliant stock there

[quote name='KiOgon' timestamp='1400686717' post='2456113'] If it was only the alignment of the strings equally on the neck that was the problem, the first thing I would suspect would be the neck had received a jolt during shipping. Even a very good neck/pocket fit can be nudged out of alignment quite easily. I would have slackened the strings then slackened the neck bolts & 'got a feel' for where the neck wanted to sit in the body. Then tightened the lot up & checked again, if it's wrong it always will be but chances are things would have seated themselves in the right place for the sake of 5 minutes with a screwdriver. Easier than sending it back [/quote] This. I had this happen on my 73 precision and an AV Jazzmaster. I took the neck off to adjust the truss rods, and after putting the neck back the string on the treble side was closer to the edge of the FB. I loosened the neck bolts by 3/4 turn - strings under tension, and the neck reseated itself and the issue was solved. I think, being a bit of wood secured by 3 or 4 bolts, there's always a bit of imperceptible play that can drastically affect spacing as you go up the neck. Worth a try for the sake of 5mins of time, unless the spacing is really, really off. OP, any pics?

[quote name='Dave_the_bass' timestamp='1399893278' post='2448642'] My experience is that it's hit and miss whether you get charged or not. I ordered a Hipshot x-tender from the states and it got pounced on by customs. I ordered a bridge a few months later and it sailed straight to my door without accruing and additional fees/charges. The only reason I ordered fron the states is that, taking in to account all possible charges, they were still significantly cheaper than bassdirect. [/quote] This. I imported a Supertone from bass parts Resource on ebay, and it got through without additional customs charges. It did, however, take a ages to arrive (about 3 mths or so) and I had to chase the order via email a few times, so tbh wouldnt recommend BPR as a vendor. As Dave says above, I think it's hit-and-miss as to whether you get nobbled for import duties or not.

Also Sims Custom will do this: http://www.simscustom.com/html/home.htm

Just bought a couple of valves off Paul. A good price great comms and really quick posting. A thoroughly decent chap! Cheers pal!

[quote name='VTypeV4' timestamp='1394207328' post='2389186'] Not sure that applies to the little Ashdown as I [i]think[/i] it's cathode biased.. [/quote] Spot on, this amp is cathode-biased so no need to take it for rebiasing after a power tube swap. And you're also right about the 12AU7 valve in the LB30; it's a phase-inverter / driver so should prbly be left as is. If you want to experiment with changing the tone, i'd start by changing the 2 ECC83s (on the left side of the amp as you look at it from the front) & the power tubes.

Bottom one. Black blocks on Maple look a bit cheap & painted-on to me, and the rosewood board doesn't suit a natural body IMO...

Bought a Brimar valve off Gareth - valve is perfect and was well packed and very speedily posted. Wouldn't hesitate to be stuff off him again. Cheers mate!

I'd always kind of assumed some of that 'heaviness' in his sound came from Teo M's post-production buggery, but the track above is from the Live section of that album, so dunno. Could be a fuzz, could just be an old tube amp turned up to the edge of what those crappy old cones could take. Could even be the levels overblowing slightly on the recording. Me, I like to think its because MH was the bastard love-child of Mingus & Bootsy and the Funk was all in them there fingers

[quote name='Cyrene' timestamp='1388859682' post='2327040'] Michael Henderson's playing with Miles is awesome. [/quote] Agreed. Funky & inventive as all hell. Wasn't aware of his latter day 'soul' efforts, mind. Having listened to it, I think I'll stick to his Jazz fusion stuff... thx BetaFunk

I bought a set of TI jazz rounds back in September, and only just got round to fitting them. My first time with these; I was expecting them to be very flexible due to their gauge, but the A string was v noodly & hard to intonate. Looking more closely, the A & D strings looked almost identical, and I suspected that my set had 2 D's instead of an A & a D. Emailed a picture of the installed strings to Strings Direct late on Friday afternoon, and got a reply from Paul at Strings Direct about 20mins later saying that a replacement was in the post. The string arrived this morning - about 18hrs after I first emailed them - and all is now sorted. Really impressed with such a speedy, hassle-free resolution, especially at Xmas - would heartilyy recommend them to any BCers who havent yet tried them [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?&app=forums&module=extras&section=legends#"] [/url]