MrFingers

9 hours ago, TrevorR said:

However, my personal vintage is Pre-CBS so that means the chance of having a bass to match is slim to none!!!

Danelectro/Silvertone/Harmony,…

On 09/04/2024 at 07:28, Lfalex v1.1 said:

that'd leave Jazzes, customs, and maybe some of the earliest Japanese efforts.

Maybe Burns or Shergold, also?

Rickenbacker, Guild, Mosrite, Höfner 500/1 with the blade pickups,…

On 08/04/2024 at 21:05, sergelebasse75 said:

Congrats on your new bass! How does that Vari-mid eq sound? Is It useful? Or something that you almost doesnt play and instead eq from the amp? Just curious about that preamp. Thank you

 

It's like a regular 3 band EQ (so an indent at middle of the sweep where there is no EQ applied, and then a cutoff/boost on either side of that indent),the small knob closest to the bridge is the mid-control for boost/cut, and the ring around is is a stepless frequency selector to select the midrange from a rather broad range, where the mid-control is active on. So you can choose which mid-frequency you boost/cut. 

It makes for a very versatile tone circuit that basically allows you to ignore the amp EQ, as you can very much build & shape your tone on the instrument itself. Only downside is that you can't switch fast from one sound to another, and that the knobs are very free-rotating.

In terms of tonality, that vari-mid reminded me vaguely of a WAL bass of an acquaintance that I once played that had the parametric EQ, you can get the same sweep.

On 05/04/2024 at 14:49, Agent 00Soul said:

Not a bass (obviously) but:

 

My first electric instrument was a Jazzmaster that I got in 1984.  Nobody was buying them then so it was dirt cheap.  A few years later, I unscrewed the neck and found out it was dated 15 June 68, three weeks from my date of birth.

 

I still have it.  I didn't know this was a thing until I read this thread!

 

Do you have any pictures from the eighties, when it was stock? It's intriguing because it's a CBS-era Jazzmaster with a small headstock, which is the first one I ever saw.

OP: No, I haven't. From 1987, so that's deep into dark side of the 1980's... Maybe if I can find a Stingray I like.

I need to re-learn that the neck does not start at E anymore and that A is now in the middle

People who know me know that I like my basses designed before 1970, with 4 flatwound strings and not a battery in sight… so when this popped up locally for 2nd hand Squier Affinity-money I had to jump on it.

A 1993 Ibanez Soundgear SR885BK, made in Japan at FujiGen. With the 2 AFR-J5 pickups and the 3-band EQ with variable midrange swoop (I think they call it the Vari-mid), afaik the only year they came in this combination. Decent bit of kit with Gotoh hardware and a very fast neck. Good enough to give it a try.

Well... since we're posting. New to me since the beginning of the month (2019 model)

This has the be the smallest bass I've ever had in my actual posession (I did have a 24" National Valco on loan for a while), and it is by far the one with the most thunderous and brutal sound.

1999 Epiphone "Elite" EB-3. From the period when Orville shut down, but before the Elitist-series were rolled out. Basically an Orville with the Epiphone name on it. To all intents and purposes an accurate copy of a pre 1965 Gibson EB-3, except for the bridge, including the rather chunky neck. Has an actual early sixties Gibson mudbucker in the neck.

It's a custom built instrument, the Gildaxe SuperSonic. Based on the Fender Performer bass.

https://www.bestbassgear.com/ebass/bass-of-the-week/bass-of-the-week-supersonic-bass.html

The headstock reminds me of a Watkins/WEM Rapier bass, but in a more extreme form.

On 19/02/2021 at 15:04, Jus Lukin said:

what a nice bonus with the proper Gibson pickup!

BEHOLD! The bringer of mud!

52 minutes ago, goingdownslow said:

I love my Epi Elite for all the reasons you have stated.
The Babicz bridge helps with better intonation and string height.

I was first on the prow for an Elitist version, but not one popped up for sale in the EU (I've had lines open as far as Sweden, Italy & Greece). Probably a combination of not that many being sold here in the first place (they were rather expensive IIRC) + people are hanging onto them for dear life because they ARE so good). 

Everyone is raving about Hipshot or Babicz-bridges, but the horrendous 3-point self-destructing contraption is doing its job, so I'm sticking with it.

1 hour ago, Grahambythesea said:

Did you get stung for import duties?

I did have to pay my fair share to the taxman. But it was noticeable less than I expected/feared/calculated. In hindsight I got a tremendous deal on this bass. 

There is an agreement between the EU and Japan that import duties are being reduced to 0% for most products, so it's only the VAT of your country of residence (21% in my case) and the brokerage fee for the transporter one has to pay (for Fedex, it's 14.5€ per order, regardless of value). Those taxes scale with the price of the item you buy and the price of the shipping. Since the instrument was pretty cheap, and shipping was also on the lower end of the spectrum, the added costs were also manageable (read: lower than my mental limit I was willing to spend on it).

5 hours ago, Grahambythesea said:

How’s the neck dive?

Present but manageable. I have a very smooth & slippery tweed strap, and that makes the head go down. With a more coarse leather strap, it stays where it needs to stay. It's nowhere as bad as the 34" scale versions.

Yep, it has that sound. Very thick, wooly & full!

It says "Made in Japan" on the back of the headstock, and Korea never made a proper EB-3 (30.5" scale with 20 frets and wide control spacing)... not to mention the Gibson headstock that is a telltale "Japan Domestic" trait. The Elitists came with a tombstone-one for export.

Since a long time I've been latently lusting after a proper EB-3 bass: shortscale, set-neck, 4-way rotary switch. With the emphasis on latently. The prices on Gibsons have exploded the last 2 years, with even playergrade late 1960's EB-0's fetching 4-figure sums, and since I'm a rather picky person, I wanted an EB-3 with the pre 1965 specifications (deep-set heel, wide control spacing), which would further bloat the price. I was aware of the Japanese versions of those (Greco, Burny, Orville, Epiphone), but those seldom if ever appear outside of Japan, and if they do, top-money gets asked for them.

So I let that idea of owning an EB-3 for what it was. Then I started browsing eBay in search for a deal, and there I saw a Japanese Epiphone listed with a very short & poor description, but also at a rather low price (just a smidge more as a regular longscale Epiphone EB-3 would cost in the local store), located in Kyoto. Four people were advertising that bass so I had my suspicions it might have been a scam, as one seller had a low price, and the others were asking nearly double of it, more alike the other offerings of different instruments. So I asked the cheapest seller how that was possible, and he said that it's a central pool of instruments, and each independent seller can ask their own asking price, and the instruments are also sold locally outside of eBay. His ratings were absolutely perfect, with almost everyone saying his packing & protection was superb. It would need to be, because it's an all mahogany instrument with a Gibson-like neck (1 piece mahogany, 17° tilted headstock, big hole for the trussrod), and no case included.

So after pondering on it for some weeks (hoping Epiphone would announce something for Winter-NAMM, which they didn't), I noticed 2 Sundays ago he offered a 5% discount on top of his already low price, so I thought to myself: "you know what, fck it, I'll bite. His ratings are good, I'm paying via Paypal, so I do have decent protection,...". So pressed the BIN-button, paid and then wholeheartedly expected to receive a message stating "yeah, it sold locally, I'm sorry"... But that message never came... instead I received a thank you for the payment, and a promise the item would ship on Thursday via FedEx. Could it be that that bass didn't get sold for more than 2 years, at that low of a price?

On Thursday morning I received an SMS that FedEx received my package, and it was scheduled to arrive next Monday... Then a delay in Memphis, so it would be Tuesday, but on Tuesday no-one is home here, so I had to postpone to Wednesday... And on Wednesday, a white van stopped and delivered me a sturdy cardboard box (all hail FedEx' method of pre-paying customs & duties, so it clears fast). In it was a layer of bubble plastic, a layer of newspapers, another layer of bubble plastic, a gigbag (got that for free), and inside that a shape that reminded me of an instrument, in a layer of bubble plastic & foam... I peeled away the protective layers, and there it was, undamaged. I now also have enough padded plastic foil to last a lifetime.

A quick test on the amplifier learned me the bridge pickup was cutting out, unless I pressed on it, meaning that a wire was shorting somewhere, but the pickup itself wasn't dead. So I opened up the patient for an overall inspection and a bit of cleaning, and saw an exposed wire touching the baseplate of the pickup. Insulated it, and the pickup worked again like it should...

But then I noticed someone had been tampering with the wiring. The bridge pickup is the original GOTOH PAF-bucker with plastic-coated coax cable, but the neck pickup had been changed out for "something with a really old braided cable"... So I removed the cover of the neck pickup, and I was greeted there by something that was distinctly not a GOTOH-version of the sidewinder pickup. It was old, dusty, had a wooden spacer between the coils and measured 30k Ohm... Yep, that is a vintage Gibson mudbucker.

So now I have a proper EB-3, with a really chunky 1960's neck, and the one thing the Japanese versions are considered "inferior" for (the weak neck pickup) already been replaced by a vintage Gibson unit that absolutely blasts.

Ordered a set of shortscale flatwounds, will then further dial in and adjust to my likings. These crisp roundwounds aren't doing it for me.

Also DIYed myself a string cover and wooden tugbar.

If Epiphone can't deliver, well... I can. Started out as a regular mid nineties cherry Epiphone Rivoli I. A lefty friend of mine wanted one, so I refurbished in a pelham blue-ish color, and the wiring and pickguard of an EB2D. [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXNg2L18E5w"]Sounds humongous[/url], and is I think a unique piece. Many manly tears were shed when trying to pry in the wiring harness (big CTS potmeters with the long shaft, many wires, small F hole)...

offsetguitars.com learned me that sweetwater had a batch in yesterday, but all were already pre-ordered. The shop where I ordered (and cancelled) mine said "January 2014, that's the earliest", and that's a "Fender Authorized Dealer".

Ampeg Scrolls, with their "see through" F-holes

Yes, you can copyright shapes, the difference is in the law. In the US, the law says that having a copyright doesn't mean you can "lay back and watch mayhem unfold over those who copy" (in the rest of the world you can do that), you have to [b]actively[/b] search for violations. Fender & Gibson also have copyrights on shapes (mostly headstock designs), but they didn't care to actively search for violators, and when things got messy, and they wanted to cease the production of copies of their design, the court said "yes, but you had to actively protect your design, you failed to do that, so basically there's nothing we can do to stop them anymore".

That + there are people on the Rickenbacker-forum who are kinda elitist, and make it a sport to hunt for copies, notifying RIC (the mothercompany of Rickenbacker) and since they actively protect their copyrights, many 'cease & desist"-letters are being sent.

Thomastik Infeld flatwounds... Many are lyrical about it... I find them horrendously overpriced rubber bands...
And the new Fender 9050's... They feel like D'Addario (because they're made in the same factory?), I liked the older, HEAVY tension, very tough ones better)

1mm thick, so nothing too extreme.

If I recall correctly, the "Labella Original 1954" (0760M) remained unchanged. And the elder Fender 9050 (the ones with the real high tension, from 5-6 years back) were the same as the ones in the sixties.

It's here (bought it secondhand from someone), and it's awesome! Did the "bridge-reversal-mod", got it intonated with the stock strings, but a set of LaBella flats is on the way. And while I agree with "Essential Tension", I have to say that the song Galveston is cool as well! Fit & Finish are superb, I do have a nicely cut nut (not all Squier VI's have that I noticed), and sounds really like a VI should.

Played as a fingerstyle bass:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5iJBoVSIn8[/media]

Played as a guitar:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHJUvO2Gr8g[/media]


My setup includes: "raising the bridge & bridgepickup to absurd heights, so I have enough downward pressure on the saddles. And shimming the neck.

Can happen, the '68 Coronado I had here at home had a (subtle) BE as well: