Musky

The pick up layout is like the old Precision Elite 2. Fender have never bothered to revisit this format, so I'd guess there's probably a good reason for it. So I wouldn't either, though mostly because it just looks [i]wrong.[/i]

I've just been looking at SteveRussel's WEM pages, and it sounds like this might be an ER30 - 4 x EL84, 3 x ECC83. [url="http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/britamps/watkins/er30.html"]http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/britamps/watkins/er30.html[/url]

[quote name='steve' post='18827' date='Jun 16 2007, 03:44 PM']they've got samples of the pedals [url="http://www.4mspedals.com/index.php"]here[/url], I quite fancy the phaser[/quote] Cheers - I hadn't spotted that. I'd actually forgotten all about the site until this thread. It's actually rekindling my interest in building something a bit different.

[quote name='steve' post='18728' date='Jun 16 2007, 10:38 AM']cool site, have you tried building any of them?[/quote] No - I was going to build the Noise Swash, but I left the noise band I was in so didn't really have the need for it anymore. They've rejigged the site since I last took a look - there used to be plenty of samples of the pedals, and they all sounded off the wall and pretty unique.

[quote name='Ant' post='18649' date='Jun 15 2007, 11:55 PM']here we are: [url="http://www.interruptor.ch/sirenschematic.doc"]http://www.interruptor.ch/sirenschematic.doc[/url] [url="http://www.interruptor.ch/Rasta-box.pdf"]http://www.interruptor.ch/Rasta-box.pdf[/url] go oooooon, make it for me and i'll cross you palm with silver.[/quote] If you're into self build, totally out to lunch pedals for a bit of noise, you could do far worse than take a look at www.commonsound.com. Loads of interesting pedals and step by step guidance on building the things.

There's no real secret to Myspace, Bebo, Faceparty or any networking website - it all boils down to how you market yourselves, exactly the same as your own web site. As has been pointed out, the days when you could set up a myspace page and wait for the page views are long gone. The simple fact of the matter is that myspace has the highest membership of any social networking site, and the highest public profile. In my mind that makes it the premier site. You want to be putting your energies into the most effective sites, but it does no harm to set up profiles on several and see which ones pick up the most passing trade and sign ups - I usually discount other bands for this - and then go with one or two that get the best results. It's also worth bearing in mind the demographics of these sites - Bebo has a younger audience than Myspace, Faceparty older - so you really need to be targeting your audience. Last.fm is a good one IMHO - it's used chiefly by music fans looking for other sounds they might like, and vastl under used by bands for promotion.

[quote name='markdavid' post='17521' date='Jun 14 2007, 12:12 PM']Hi , I was also wondering if anybody knew how much (roughly) it would cost to get the pick ups changed over by a music shop, i have been quoted £35 but i am a bit sceptical as this sounds a bit cheap as I have heard of music stores charging that just to cut a new nut[/quote] Sounds about right for fitting a new pickup if it's just a straight replacement, with no routing involved. Obviously it wouldn't include the price of the pickup though. It's an easy job to replace pickups - why not do it yourself?

Isn't there supposed to be a skunk stripe on the back of the neck on these things? Also there seems to be a difference to the fading on the back of the neck close to the neck pocket, like the neck was originally on another body. Add to that there's absolutely no sign of the Ricky he claims he's sold in his feedback, and I'd stick well clear. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320126121450&indexURL=3&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...bayphotohosting[/url]

[quote name='Rammsteinbrit' post='16342' date='Jun 12 2007, 04:45 PM']Yeah thats awesome, how much were the Harley Bentons? Because the AGB-200 is only £300 on GAK. Darby[/quote] The Harley Benton HBB 1970 was going for £135, but seems to have disappeared from the catalogue recently. The only Harley Benton semi Thomanns have got is now £165.

You can get away with using a plunge router to drill the holes for through body stringing - just check that it will drill to the required depth. Personally I wouldn't bother with two saddle bridges. As far as I recall only the earliest precisions, tele bass and musicmaster had these bridges, and the intonation suffers as a result, for something that's only visible to close inspection. It's your call.

Thomann were doing a Harley Benton semi that was almost identical to the AGB140, but a quick look on there website reveals that there only seems to be a more Gretsch like Harley Benton on there now. There was a thread about this on BT, and one of the mods (I think) had bought the Harley benton model. They were so similar that it was likely they were the same model, just re-badged. Worth bearing in mind before shelling out your hard earned.

[quote name='steve' post='15847' date='Jun 11 2007, 07:55 PM']just won a standard bad monkey of ebay, for £21 (inc £10 postage!!!), got some details for a mod.... i'm (hopefully) in business[/quote] Great deal. Where did you find the details for the mod incidentally? I might have a crack at this myself at some point.

If the email originated from ebay (you'd need to check the extended headers to be sure) your email is most likely from the the seller. In any event you'd by well advised to steer clear.

That pretty much sounds like a thumbs up all round. Got to be worth a punt on my Precision then. Cheers for that everyone.

They do precision pickups at quite a good price, and I've read the odd comment on various boards about how great they sound but I'm slightly worried that if they really are so good why more people aren't shouting about them. They're British, so I can understand that maybe they haven't made much of a name for themselves in the US. But has anyone had any direct experience of them on a precision, or any other bass for that matter.

It rather depends what you mean by 'vintage vibe'. Vintage precisions don't have the jazz pickup nor painted headstocks, so getting a 60's/70's vintage look would be very difficult. If you just want to relic it try looking [url="http://www.tdpri.com/resourceRELICING.htm"]here.[/url] There's are plenty of other resources on the net for relicing as well.

Another thing to bear in mind is that taking a job now will make it that much easier to get work in the future. It might not be the line of work you're looking to go into, but your next employer will always look more kindly at someone with a bit of work experience than someone who hasn't.

Inevitably, most of the Musicmasters available date from the seventies, with all the dubious quality control that goes with Fenders of that age. A friend bought one of the guitars in 1980, and it quickly got dubbed 'The Plank', even by people who were playing fairly cheap jap copies. Having said that. I bought one of the Vista series reissues, and it was fairly decent - no doubt helped a little by through body stringing, which the originals didn't have.

[quote name='fleamail' post='14087' date='Jun 8 2007, 11:25 AM']I found this one [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-4003-tuxedo-bass-1987-Nudeswirl_W0QQitemZ190120262729QQihZ009QQcategoryZ4713QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-4003-tu...VQQcmdZViewItem[/url] But why the heck did he striped down a rare bass like this! With the cream finish and the maple fingerboard it would be my dream come true!![/quote] I should imagine that he had no idea about its rarity, and just didn't like the finish. He bought it second hand, before the internet had the kind of resources it does now. I almost butchered an old '68 Rick to make it more to my taste, before I discovered they were actually quite sought after.

Yeah, they're extremely rare. So rare that it may well be a copy that Lemmy's famous for playing. Rick did offer custom options, but I seem to remember Lemmy saying he bought his on the cheap from some dodgy guy. Rickenbacker made a Lemmy signature bass a while ago - so rare that I've never even seen one in the flesh.

[quote name='mhuk' post='12222' date='Jun 5 2007, 12:06 AM']Yeah, but a lot of what? The body, neck, pickups?[/quote] I've never heard anything bad about 70's hardware (other than claims that older pickups sound better), but Fender were known to be rather lax with their tolerances machining the wood. Which meant warped AND twisted necks (I bought one on those - an S6xxxxx serial on a new bass in '81), oversized neck pockets (disastrous if mated to a 3 bolt jazz), heels wider than the neck, generally unlovely contouring - you name it Fender let them slip out of the factory. They also produced plenty of gorgeous, extremely playable instruments. You just can't tell until you get you hands on it.

-->QUOTE(Lenny B @ Jun 4 2007, 11:15 PM) [snapback]12171[/snapback] Is it possible to date a bass to its build month? Somewhere on my GAS list is a Precision, and i thought it would be nice to find one that was the same age as me (august 75) - see which one of us ages better![/quote] The answer is - possibly. A '75 may have a readable inspection date in the neck pocket. Otherwise you'd have to rely on the date the neck was made. See [url="http://www.provide.net/~cfh/fender.html"]here[/url] for details of the codes used.

[quote name='mhuk' post='12158' date='Jun 4 2007, 11:07 PM']It may be just shy of a metric tonne, but can someone tell me specifically what is poor quality about a late 70's Precision?[/quote] Perhaps nothing at all, maybe a hell of a lot. It was the variablity of Fenders quality control up to '81 that led to some real dogs making it out of the factory gate. Also short cuts on the manufacturing process led to Fender messing about with contouring and routing as early as the late 60's (at least on some models).

For me the pricing, in an ideal world, should actually reflect the value of a [i]players[/i] instrument - it's worth as a tool. Obviously that's not the case, and people will shell out for the 'mojo' of owning an older instrument, or for the sheer investment value. After all, they're not making anymore genuine seventies Fenders and the stock of existing ones can only decrease. But the logic seems to be, the older the instrument the better. And that logic is what I'm questioning, especially given the variability of seventies production. There also seems to be a common perception that the price (I'm deliberately avoiding the use of the word 'value' here) of 70's Fenders can only go up. In the short term I'm sure that's correct, but the crash in the classic car market does come to mind. Also can we be sure that, for instance, a five year difference between a '77 and an '82 will hold the same significance to the market in maybe 30 years time. To my mind basses are for playing, yet judging by the prices on ebay many people are happy to play 'pig in a poke' with seventies Fenders by buying based on the year and originality. Fine if you're an investor, maybe not so wise if you actually want to play the thing.

Absolutely. There's no doubt whatsoever that some great instruments came out of Fender during the seventies. It's just that now so much (most?) buying is done via ebay nowadays, there seems to be a greater emphasis placed on the date of a instrument rather than it's playability. When Schultz took over in '81, he tightened up quality control no end. So it's arguable that instruments after this date are more likely to be of better quality.