PaulKing

The Strunal is without doubt a solid, reliable, well made bass, that would see you good for many years. PLy basses are easier to look after and more resilient than carved ones. Thomann bases are variable quality, but the 33 carved sounds like a top end for them. Don't know much about them. My vote would be for the Strunal. I had one of those once. Great tone, solid as a rock.

I just stuck a Fire & Stone / KNA piezo on my bass to A/B it with Underwood (which is sadly on its way out). Great price, and first indications are pretty impressive. Higher output. More top end - so finger noise. I think slap is going to be quite honky. HAvent tried through preamp at any volume yet ... will report back. Also just took delivery of Shadow 951 to make same comparison. Underwood has always been my fave over Bassmax, Rev Solo, couple of others I tried.

I wanna know how loud you guys play, flippin eck! F-hole plugs, phase switch and a bit of EQ (Low cut esp). No feedback, standing right in front of amp. Or front of house.

I did a load of research and identified and fitted an external tweeter to the combo. Cost like £15 or something. Immense improvement. I tried to buy another recently but you can't get the original make any more, just copies. They might be just as good I dunno. PM if anyone wants details. The HF tweeter in the extension cab is so much better than the one in the combo though. I'm always tempted by the 121HF combo (which has same tweeter) but the size puts me off

Ha hey Jack thanks for the plug in the official video, nice work!

Ah - nice to catch up on the whole lovely story after our brief chats on Sunday, so rudely interrupted in th emiddle by my live set. Thanks for coming by the way - look forward to seeing a few pics/clips!? So long as it isnt of the first 3 seconds when Rhod played the wrong tune ;o) What a beautiful bass - I'll take you up on that offer of a session in Harrow some time.

Score

What's one of them?

Ha! The sofa used to be long enough. Not any more! Ah Tweedledum, either that's a clever comment, or you need info...? Which Kay...? In order: 59 Kay 5965, 59 Dallas Tuxedo, '63 Jolana Basora, '65 Kay 5920 'Speed Demon', '65 Hofner President, '65 Kay 5961 'Value Leader', '65 Harmony H-22

The sideline electric bass hobby has now exceeded the upright bass hobby. Easier to hang on the wall at least. Recently added an old Dallas Tuxedo to the gang. Sweet eh?

Thankyou so much

I've still got my B&H Artia Excelsior. Lovely bass. I did a bit of research a few years ago to find out more about these, as there are quite a few around still. On this thread https://www.talkbass.com/threads/boosey-hawkes-excelsior-or-golden-strad.440374/ That said, I'm not sure yours is one anyway. But there were quality student instruments coming out of Czechoslovakia in the 60s and 70s. Yours looks nice,..

GT47 was the final model. Whatever happened to Ivan's dream, after all that effort?

Which type were you after? I've got a box full of prototypes ... and two sets of the final wrapped E and A type that I'ma gonna keep.

PS Alyctes ... whats with the Cassini / Saturn images? My day job ... I make Stargazing Live for BBC2 with Prof Cox. You interested in that stuff?

Ah yes, the very same! [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/131112-sold-rare-vintage-eub-collectors-curio/page__hl__ormston+burns__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/131112-sold-rare-vintage-eub-collectors-curio/page__hl__ormston+burns__fromsearch__1[/url]

Alyctes - maybe I'd recognise that ruin!? I owned one for many years without any idea what it was. Stumbled into that one pictured by the OP years back, and was surprised by the heritage and collectability. The remnant / ruin was a curiosity, nothing more ... but legend has it that mint one pictured sold for 4 figures. You'd have to be a Burns nut to want one that much, and there are far more playable and nice sounding electric uprights out there. But it is without doubt very collectable and very rare - possibly single figures or a few more made, plus I think there was a later re-issue but equally few made. There' a text about them knocking around on the net somewhere. On this forum too...

Maintenance? I've got 2 ply basses that are over 70 years old, I don't do anything to them except abuse them at gigs. They might be vintage collectors pieces, but they work hard for their money! You don't really need to worry about maintenance on a decent ply bass.Not enough to decide composite is the only answer.

For something approaching gut sound and easy playability for blues and jazz, try Innovation (140B braided - solo guage if you want low tension like gut, or Silverslaps), Rotosound RS4000, Presto Light/Ultralight. All good strings, all over £100. You cant get decent strings cheaper. Velvet garbo good but pricey. Thomastick Weich are great for sure (millions of jazzers cant be wrong ...) but its a very defined, modern sounding attack for blues IMHO, not gut like at all. I've played them all. And get your bass set up! Or just get gut. Lenzner aren't too pricey. well... its relative. And get wound E and A, not plain gut - that's a very specialist sound and technique required. And set up. Gut are easy to look after, ignore everyone.

Bad form to post same post to multi threads I know (see others...) but: I have the Blackstar Fly3 with extension. I was a bit down on it at first but, now raising my score to 8.5/10 thanks to compressor and EQ. First, I figured out the value of the compressor on this baby. I never normally use any compression so I had it dialed right down. Then I read somewhere in a review about this amp (was it here?) [i]"... compressor ... almost essential on an amp of this size..." [/i]so i dialled it in. Wowser, what a difference. Suddenly got a heap more output and presence without distortion. Then I thought I should beef up the EQ a bit, lose that nasal honk. Running the bass through a boss EQ7 was all it needed. A big fat scoop, boost hi and low, cut low mid, boost output a bit - bingo. Its a shame to add another piece of kit to something that's all about portability, but as it basically sits under the sideboard in my kitchen, I can leave the EQ pedal plugged in. Now I can hear my bass tone! Pretty bloody good actually, a pleasure to play, rather than just a compromise solution. happy days. Running amp at 40-50% gain, EQ fully clockwise (scoop), compressor 30-40%, volume 75-100%. Cracking tone, plenty loud enough for home playing/jamming.

Update to this. Raising my score to 8.5/10 (via compressor and EQ). First, I figured out the value of the compressor on this baby. I never normally use any compression so I had it dialed right down. Then I read somewhere in a review about this amp (was it here?) "... compressor ... almost essential on an amp of this size..." so i dialled it in. Wowser, what a difference. Suddenly got a heap more output and presence without distortion. Then I thought I should beef up the EQ a bit, lose that nasal honk. Running the bass through a boss EQ7 was all it needed. A big fat scoop, boost hi and low, cut low mid, boost output a bit - bingo. Its a shame to add another piece of kit to something that's all about portability, but as it basically sits under the sideboard in my kitchen, I can leave the EQ pedal plugged in. Now I can hear my bass tone! Pretty bloody good actually, a pleasure to play, rather than just a compromise solution. happy days.

Update to this. Raising my score to 8.5/10 (via compressor and EQ). First, I figured out the value of the compressor on this baby. I never normally use any compression so I had it dialed right down. Then I read somewhere in a review about this amp (was it here?) "... compressor ... almost essential on an amp of this size..." so i dialled it in. Wowser, what a difference. Suddenly got a heap more output and presence without distortion. Then I thought I should beef up the EQ a bit, lose that nasal honk. Running the bass through a boss EQ7 was all it needed. A big fat scoop, boost hi and low, cut low mid, boost output a bit - bingo. Its a shame to add another piece of kit to something that's all about portability, but as it basically sits under the sideboard in my kitchen, I can leave the EQ pedal plugged in. Now I can hear my bass tone! Pretty bloody good actually, a pleasure to play, rather than just a compromise solution. happy days.

http://basschat.co.uk/topic/283797-blackstar-fly-3-bass-model/page__p__3048704__hl__blackstar%20fly__fromsearch__1#entry3048704 I give it 6/10. Fun and great for convenience, but puny bass tone really, and overdrive at very low gain/vol. Not surprising really. A nice toy to have where alternative is silence...