The fasting showman

What a great deal the OP got, mine came from BC'er Graham 1945 (thanks again Graham!) for a similar price. It's my favourite bass by far that I've owned and nothing has turned my head since I got it back in March 2016; it always gets compliments ,the sound not my playing, and sounds great whenever I hear live recordings of gigs and rehearsals. Mine is a Jan 1996 maple neck. I changed the bridge pickup to a 40J and it lost a bit of the pipe organ quality in the mid setting on the pan pot, it sounds more Jazz bass like now but with it's own character. It was translucent green but Graham had it sprayed black, it's gradually becoming trans green again!

Well said, that's exactly how I feel about my L5500! I wasn't aware of the existence of the MJ5 at all.

I've owned this for a long time... I need all the help I can get in the charisma department; I hope nobody is too horrified. Anyway, it sounds great for rootsy stuff. My G&L twangs and this one thuds and clicks!

You could do a lot worse than buying the Trace Elliot Twin bass head off BCer Ash in the Amps for sale forum. You can't lose money on it and it may help you decide which way you want to go in terms of circuit design etc. All the best, Martin

Just received a Boss OC2 from AJ; a great item, price, transaction, tracked post and everything! Many thanks, deal with confidence, All the best, Martin

Many thanks for a great deal on Pirastro upright strings, great communications throughout and great advice also. A pleasure to deal with. Cheers, Martin

Yes, i understood it to be a tele bass type 1 also, 'Root down' by Jimmy Smith being another good example of his sound

I believe he played on Bowie's Absolute Beginners single as well as playing for him at Live Aid, RIP

Chuffed to bits with the cab I bought off Colin yesterday, great transaction throughout. All the best, Martin

36 in total for 2019, 3 down on the previous year. I kid myself it averages out to 3 gigs a month. Almost! The bulk of the gigs were from a long term dep job I had that ended in September, August was very busy but December (when I should have made hay) was dire. All gigs were covers. NYE was a good gig at least. Oh, and a wedding gig in Sept with a band assembled for the day where I winged it on EUB for half the set, hopefully I got away with it; some nice wedding songs at that one rather than the usual play your standard set to the wedding guests. Remarkably for me I had 2 bouts of recording work I got roped into, nice to have your head patted as I thought those days were long gone for me. 2020 looking sparse at present but I'm working on it.... Happy New year to all, Martin

Hi, the number 406 rang a bell as my GK neo 212 has a P audio 406 tweeter, I think they are about £50. Worth seeing if it's the same item. Martin

Bought an Aria Bass off Peter and it's been a great transaction throughout; the bass is in much better condition than I expected given it's age and it was dispatched with real aplomb, bubble wrap galore! Deal with Peter with absolute confidence. Many thanks, Martin

Well said, the copydex will sort it as good as new. As Bill has said, reinforce the repair from behind the cone to bridge the join and it's a cheap fix without resorting to sourcing a new speaker. It's a common repair job anybody can do.

I bought my main bass 3 years ago this month off Basschat from Graham1945, it's a G&l5500 from '96. At the price it was more of a gift than a purchase! The switch to 5 string was something I did under duress due to the bands I played in ( the dreaded Uptown Funk was ubiquitous then) but the G&L completely rekindled my interest in bass playing and lead to me selling my beloved Stingray 4. The G&L5500 is a real sleeper bass and often turns up for sale cheap, there's often a complaint of them having a slight pipe organ quality to the sound due to the dual EMG 40DCs, I cured it of this by swapping the bridge 40DC to a 40J, another serendipitous purchase off ebay and a happy accident really. It now sounds like a souped up Jazz bass, I have a bass that far exceeds my playing ability IMO, I still love it and it often draws compliments on it's sound. Many thanks to Graham if you are reading mate!

Bought a GK Speakon bi-amp cable from Neil, great price and perfect condition. Recommended, many thanks again

....I've owned a couple of TNTs and Combo 300 Peaveys and there's a quirk they suffered from that isn't that big a deal once you are aware of it! It's partly caused I think by them being such a struggle to lift and plonk down. A few times I had a mains light on, fuse OK but no sound issue. On the PCB there is a plug in connector that connects the internal speaker to the amp (called a Molex I think) that can get dislodged if the amp is put down clumsily, it's easy to plug the connector back in once you know. Obviously if you wouldn't normally root around in an amp, and if it isn't broke, then nothing to worry about but if you are remotely handy it's one to be aware of that could save faffing around with amp techs. If you do look inside the amp you'll see how well made it is and over engineered. But yeah, try not to drop it down too roughly and it will be fine. They really are built to last and are easy to fix and keep going.

Peavey any day, looks like the OP has got the version with the Black Widow speaker looking at the cast frame. Nice sounding amps particularly on a table or stand (good luck lifting it onto said table or stand) they have great presence in a band mix, can out perform many a high end amp in some rooms. If you can play half decent and your bass is OK this amp won't let the side down. Enjoy it, I'd use M6 T-nuts to fit the side handles!

Chuffed to bits with the bass I bought off Jon, many thanks again. Martin

Hi Rob, My next thing to look at would be preamp gain for scratchiness or again the dreaded Cliff type input jack. Thankfully (annoyingly though!) it will most likely be something like a pot or a jack if it reverted back to normal albeit briefly. My 700rb needs all the pots doing with Servisol from time to time, when they are crackly without anything plugged it in it's that time again. All the best

I bought a GK 2x12 off Pete today; it's in perfect condition and the price was great as was the transaction in general. Many thanks, Martin

Glad that Polar have helped you out in this instance. As BassBod and Bill have said, putting a jump lead in the FX loop causes the switching jack (FX return?) to get opened up thus breaking corroded contacts. You won't notice any difference in sound quality or gain etc but it can restore some order to the sound if things had gone erratic, crackly, fading up and down in volume, weird pops. I have experienced this problem with 400rb/800rb and 700rbii heads. If you have got a spare guitar lead just try it between FX send and return. I have also got nifty with removing the preamp board and using Servisol on the jacks and pots but out of superstition I leave a jump lead in the FX loop! To echo a point Bill made earlier, after changing my old US 400rb to a UK mains transformer, the amp tech I use thought that the parts and circuitry were very easily fixable if need be. Mind you, he managed to sort out the old '70s SVT I used to have where others had failed so he is quite a demystifier. Likewise Basschatter Nick sourced an off the shelf transformer for an 800rb after Polar dragged their feet. So the parts are out there, I think there is a pdf online with all the components for the 700rb/1001rb amps; Rean jacks, Alpha pots and so on so forth. I must add that my electronic know how is very basic but I am fairly logical and can suss out a decent amp tech. The bloke I use isn't an amp tech to the stars or even a musician but he has been a great help over the years. All the best, keep us posted, Martin

Apologies if this seems a bit of a strange suggestion...have you put a jump lead in the FX loop? I have cured some real weirdness with GK RB heads this way, cutting out, popping, low volume you name it. I absolutely love the RB heads but alas the jack sockets and pots are a bit high maintenance. I believe there is a company in the US that supplies entire new 700rb/1001 rb preamp modules (quite cheap but that is minus customs etc) but I think that it will be something more trivial so give the jump lead a go if you haven't already. All the best, Martin

Great OP, 1,3,6,2,4,7 despite me having very little hair, 5. A mantra I need to remember as work seems to be drying up from September onwards. Martin