molan

I've done all of these places - will try to gather my memories. As a fairly experienced US road trip person I can say that the journeys from place to place aren't the most interesting. On a lot of my trips the journey itself has been fascination but the roads and countryside in this area get very samey very quickly I'd plan to move from each one to the next as quickly as possible but add in more time at each destination to get a proper feel for the pace

Lead guitarist in our band had a nice Epi LP that was lacking a bit of 'oomph'. Our guitar tech fitted a pair of Fatboy pickups and changed all the pots, switch, Jack, caps wiring etc to quality parts at the same time. Totally transformed it. It sounds absolutely huge now and has great sustain. Makes me smile every time I hear it 😄

There's an older thread here about this: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/286544-bassics-preamp/page__fromsearch__1

The new PJB BG400 is cool. I tried one of these recently and it sounded pretty good. With the matching extension cab it'll handle a lot of gigs too

[quote name='zomnius' timestamp='1466142151' post='3073588'] So apart from the looks, the triplebuckers are amazing. At passive, the sound incredibly good. But it is not only the buckers and electronics, to me it is the combination with string tension and playability. I tested it at a rearsal studio when i first got it in to spare my fam. And i tested it together with a Wal. It really blew the Wal away (wal pro 1 that is). The wal was a fat sounding bass, but this was something else. To my opinion, it even sounds better than it looks, but that is just a matter of (my) taste i Think. [/quote] I own four Ritters at the moment and even I, who've been known to 'splurge' a bit on basses, wouldn't sink this sort of money into things just because I liked the looks I love how they sound and regularly gig mine. Each one sounds a little different - alder/maple, solid maple/ebony, swamp ash maple, cedar/ebony. My regular gigging bass is the alder body maple board one which will sound like nice J (for want of a reference point) but with a bit more onboard flexibility. The cedar/ebony one is the darkest and 'woodiest' sounding of the bunch and can almost replicate a classic old school Fender in passive mode with the tone wound back. For me it's tone and simple playability that wins the day over the looks every time

Yep - the big question to ask on a late 70's bass is 'how much does it weigh'. Not only does it effect how it feels to wear/play but it has a big effect on value. Selling a boat anchor is way harder than a 9lb beauty

I got a chance to test an ex-demo Markbass Alain Caron combo on Saturday. Full 500w into the 4 ohm 12" driver and another 300w into the compression driver horn. Sounded huge with a passive Lull P bass - pre on about 12;00 and master at 11:00. Had to cut volume on my octaver and envelope filter as the low end was overpowering! Very impressed indeed

It's all about supply and demand - very good '60's Fenders have been in high demand recently and prices have risen a lot over the last two/three years. As an owner of a '63J, a '68J and a '64P I'm quite pleased about this

Just out of interest - did you only write to the two FaceBook pages / profiles? Facebook message notification settings keep changing and a lot of people don't receive a note saying they have a message unless they specially log in to FB's Messenger app. I see this happening a lot in the many FB for sale type pages. Messages just not getting through to sellers easily.

[quote name='SisterAbdullahX' timestamp='1465594241' post='3069603'] What's it sound like?? [/quote] As I was in BassGear for the afternoon I had the opportunity to compare it against a Jule Monique and a Demeter pre - using The Jule M700 as a power amp. The bass I was using was a Suhr J in active mode. It was ultra clean and clear, almost 'hi-Fi' like (and I don't really like that phrase but YT seemed to fit at the time!). Whereas Monique has a lovely organic warm sound the Bassics had a really clean clear snap to it. The Demeter sits in the middle with a very clean sound set flat but it's easy to add warmth by playing with the dark / normal / bright and some bass boost. I should add that this is my regular gigging amp so it's my 'reference' point for trying new stuff. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to really go through all of the tone controls on the Bassics but it appears to have a lot of flexibility and the potential to add low end or mid boost, or both, could be really useful in a gigging situation. I really need to spend some more time with it but it definitely appears really solid and well made and I definitely like the idea of a super clean pre with lots of flexibility that you control on the floor. Felt like it would work well with effects pedals as well because it's just reproducing what's fed into it rather than injecting its own colour.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1465405142' post='3067972'] For that money you could get a used Diamond BCP-1. Not a 'remedial' compressor as such, but evens out your playing a treat without losing attack or dynamics. More importantly, it makes your bass sound like the Bass of The LORD, which is a very neat trick. [url="http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/diamobass.shtml"]http://www.ovnilab.c...diamobass.shtml[/url] [/quote] The Diamond would be my first choice too although I also quite like the Aguilar. Ovni Labs is a great resource for advice!

I had a play with one of these on Wednesday, really quite cool and love all the pretty lights - really useful on a dark stage

Tried to watch this - found it to be absolutely as dull as ditchwater. The whole programme seemed to be about the presenters rather than the bands - cheap, cheap broadcasting

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1465317151' post='3067085'] I don't like the Sadowsky preamp at all. Yet in a band situation, they always seem to sound amazing (mostly with other people playing them!). I'm the same with a P bass. Played solo, I find that they sound utterly miserable. In a band... they are always thunderous. [/quote] I concur - on both points Well, to a degree anyway, lol. I don't use my Sadowsky pre very much playing at home and often just go passive. Live I will always boost both lows and highs by the same amount. Equally, I rarely find P basses that nice played solo but stick one in a live band with loads of volume and they can sound great.

Just heard the offer is live again - may not last long though!

If it's brand new then get it back to the retailer for a once over

Have you tried a Gramma pad? My Berg AE210, rear ported, can get boomy but I've found lifting it off the floor and isolating it seems to help quite a lot (especially with suspended wooden stages!).

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1462116953' post='3040381'] Thanks for all the replies chaps. Yes, something that's just a power amp is what I'm thinking, so the Demeter is just right, albeit pricey! [/quote] It is a great little unit. I've heard a top pro (you can guess who) testing it back to back with the Aguilar TH5 power stage only and with a Monique as the common pre-amp. The louder we turned it up, and the faster he played, the more you could hear the difference in quality. The Aggie is no slouch but the Demeter had greater note to note definition and a faster attack. To be honest, if it was me playing I'm not sure you'd hear the difference though!

[quote name='barneyg42' timestamp='1465120176' post='3065373'] Really useful replies guys!! 😀😀 [/quote] There's a thermal protection circuit in there to stop it overheating. Sounds to me like you've got the master volume running to high for too long and that's making the whole unit overheat. Pushing the pre gain shouldn't have this result so it's the master you need to watch. There's a fan in there to help I think. Could be this isn't working properly and that's causing overheating as well. If it happens again maybe feel the amp chassis to see if it's running hot.

I think 'social media' killed the offer - I saw it on Facebook and it worked fine but soon after they killed the code so it didn't work any more

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1463143107' post='3048969'] So there's different kinds of relicing? It's OK if it was done at the factory but not OK if done by the player? That's a new one on me! [/quote] A luthier I know had a Fender CS Strat in for repair. It was a heavy relic version and the customer wanted one of the paint surface dings retouched. When the luthier asked why, as the guitar was covered in marks and dings, the response was "yes, but those are from the Fender factory and I did this one myself so I want it fixed". . . True story 😂