Musky

[quote name='Shacky' post='822330' date='Apr 28 2010, 07:19 PM']Thanks for the warm welcome guys. The only problem with being here is that I'm now G.A.S.ing harder than ever :/[/quote]Welcome to the forum and the surest way to bass related financial ruin! Top tip - never have basschat and ebay open in different tabs at the same time

A minor.

[quote name='BassBod' post='823321' date='Apr 29 2010, 07:29 PM']I started on one of these - something like £50 new in 1980/81. Not Japanese, very heavy body, neck made of who knows what. Did sound pretty good though. I think I've still got the truss rod cover somewhere. Any more than £20 is a crime...[/quote] 50 quid! I paid £70 for mine in 1980 I was ripped off!

[quote name='hagguy' post='822578' date='Apr 28 2010, 11:43 PM']tbh the ibanez i seen on preloved appealed to me because the guy was open to offers and trades, plus i'm a big ibanez fan, think they are great build quality. saying that i think the price is hopeful at best. i'd heard that rick's have a few issues with quality which put me off in the past, but they look awesome and i'm sure if i bide my time i'll get hold of a good quality rick on here, think i'll take a trip into glasgow check out a few out make sure it's not just gas. just out of interest which one would you recommend? 4001,4003 not sure what the differences are. which copies really stand up quality wise? prefer an owners POV heard the truss rods are a nitemare, is that a particular model? thanks in advance. cheer ian[/quote] Wow. I imagined the £750 price would be in a shop. The guy is clearly a chancer asking that kind of money for a private sale. If you'd like to know the Fuji Gen Gakki built basses (like the ones branded Ibanez) try typing 'FujiGen' into the search box at the bottom of the rickenfaker thread. You might like to try the same with 'Matsumoku' or just 'Mat' for another respected manufacturer. It's worth bearing in mind though that some of the 'fakers were so accurate they were afflicted with some of the same problems that Ricks were. If you want to check out the differences between the 4001 and 4003 take a read of the info on rickresource.com. Unfortunately I can't link direct to it, so you'll have to follow the links - registration page>Articles>bass models. Ultimately though there are less differences between a 4001 and a 4003 than there can be between the same model from different eras! There's also a great series of threads on the forum called 'Anatomy of a Rickenbacker' if you really want to get into the details. Edit: Yeah, what Jon said!

Yeah, sorry Jon. I wasn't trying to put you into the same bracket as Mr Digits as I know that your purchases are a labour of love and you buy what interests you rather than something you could just turn a profit on. Is that a copy of an L6 you've got there? I didn't think it was in the Gibson catalogue long enough for anyone to copy!

[quote name='tazza1' post='817732' date='Apr 25 2010, 12:04 AM']I hate the way he infers that he's not a trader & that they're all his personal basses. There's nothing wrong with being a trader just be upfront about it. His stuff is always well overpriced & a lot of it has some kind of issue. I wouldn't touch any of his stuff with a barge pole.[/quote] I thought exactly the same thing, though anyone looking at his feedback should realise that he sells a few to many basses to just have them for personal use. I don't think he's particularly overpriced though. He seems to sell a lot of stuff on it's first listing, which suggests he's actually selling a reasonable market price. The fact that he's picked it up from the 'bay much cheaper and relisted it just shows the power of cleaning up a bass and giving it a decent listing. Something Jon would probably attest to.

Just the title of this thread had me cracking up!

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='813157' date='Apr 20 2010, 10:15 PM']When I saw the thread title, I thought "If I was in London, I'd probably grab that". Then I saw the picture of the bass and changed my mind.[/quote] I see what you mean. He's changed the tuners and truss rod cover.

[quote name='dirtylittleherbert' post='811131' date='Apr 19 2010, 10:43 AM']Well I bought the cab, the sound is not as huge as I thought it would be. Wonder if the battery needs replacing in my Stingray.[/quote] Is it just the volume that seems a little lacking? A few people have commented that the Little Giants sound a little quiet for their wattage so perhaps that is your answer. Had a chance to use it in a band situation yet?

[quote name='Musicman69' post='810150' date='Apr 18 2010, 11:00 AM']Yep, just practise. Pay particular attention to the first few songs in the set at rehearsals, get em really tight. As the nite goes on the punters wont notice a few mistakes later in the set due to consumption of our good friend Alcohol![/quote] Alcohol - the musicians friend. You could always try playing the first set last. Problem solved.

So am I the only one who only scrapes the crud off the board with a pick when it gets higher than the frets?

Very tidy. Good job that's a lefty, or I might have been tempted to do something stupid.

You need a regular facebook page to set up a band page. If I remember correctly, you go to 'pages' in the left hand column and on the next page click "create". All fairly straight forward. You might like to download the iLike app as well. Quite useful for cross-posting to myspace (if you have one).

A lot of old Trace's had dates on the circuit boards. Though sending an email involves less rummaging about in the tool box.

You can't date an E serial MIJ from the serial number alone - 84-87 is as close as you're going to get with just that info. I'm not sure exactly when the Jazz Bass Special came out, but that might cut down the possibilities somewhat. I've got the vague recollection that the contemporary series (which your bass would have been part of - it's got the black headstock and same logo anyway) came out about '86, though I may well be wrong about that. Other than that you've got to strike lucky and get a date in the neck pocket somewhere (which might be in a japanese format). I don't think you can date them from pot codes. Sorry that's a bit vague, but then I'm a bit vague at the best of times.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='798220' date='Apr 7 2010, 12:10 AM']Thanks muchly for the input so far, guys The unsigned guide seems to be closest to the sort of thing I'm looking for - but it's £32.99 for a book with free web access thereafter. [b]Just amazed no-one's set up a similar 'venue' website for gigging musicians[/b]... or maybe they have, we just can't find it! Anyone else got any ideas? - the conventional gig guide sites seem to have lot of holes in them.[/quote] Someone has. Or rather someone had. [url="http://generator.org.uk"]http://generator.org.uk[/url] Last time I looked on there they had a number of spreadsheets, organised by region and populated with all the info you're looking for. Unfortunately it had become rather dated and I could see it contained venues that no longer even existed, which was quite understandable as it must have been a massive undertaking to even compile, yet alone maintain, for a non-profit venture. What they have up there now is a searchable but stripped down version, with no info at all on some of the venues listed. Still, it's a start and at least meets the 'free' criteria.

It can be worth bearing in mind that the setting on the volume control doesn't necessarily correspond to the power output, ie if the volume is turned up 75% of the way it doesn't mean the amp will be putting out 75% of it's rated power. It's not unknown for manufacturers to deliberately have most of the volume available in the first part of the pots travel to make the amp appear louder in the shop. Combine that with a lot of bass boost and maybe a bit of distortion to mask the sound of the speakers complaining, and it's easier than you'd think to blow the drivers.

[quote name='Bloodaxe' post='794646' date='Apr 2 2010, 09:13 PM']Well, having just taken the bridge off my SB-900 & jabbed a ruler into the recess. The ruler says 5mm, i.e. just shy of 1/4", so I'm forced to conclude that I must have made it up M'lud. I've probably taken my SB-1000 as a reference when I was [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtopic=5094&view=findpost&p=53106"]butchering that about[/url]. IIRC at some point in the proceedings a belt-sander got applied to the top & as a result the bridge rout ended up a [i]lot[/i] shallower. Pete.[/quote] Cheers Pete. I'm just sweating some of the details on the old Arias. I only recently noticed that the bridges came in 3 different string spacings rather than the 2 I thought hey did.

[quote name='Bloodaxe' post='792879' date='Apr 1 2010, 07:47 AM']It's a very shallow rout - about 1/16" - so anything with a large enough baseplate would cover it. Also there are two types of the "standard" Aria cast bridge... The SBs have solid cast brass ones but the "lesser" models tend to have plated aluminium alloy castings. The chrome on these has a tendency to blister, & the alloy quality isn't exactly Aerospace standard. I've seen a Cardinal with quite heavy wear purely caused by 30 years worth of hand contact! That said, there's still nothing wrong with them. They could be better, but the same could be said about most bridges. There's a huge amount of apparent love for the Badass, here & on Talkbass, but to me it's all just smoke & mirrors - after all... a bit of bent tin was good enough for Jaco.[/quote] Got to agree with you about the supposed merits of replacement bridges. I never realised the Cardinals had aluminium bridges. The plating on my CSB300 seems ok, though it looked liked the bass had only had light use when I got it, but my 380 has pitting on it even though the rest of the hardware is devoid of any signs of corrosion so you're probably right about the quality. Interestingly the rout on the 300 is 1/4" deep. Which models have you seen the shallower rout on?

Hi Bobby. I've used 79 strand hi-fi speaker cable before. It's cheap, easily available and heavier than the stuff that seems to get used in most cabs.

If you're watching sit-coms as well as dramas you should check out Only Fools and Horses. It was hugely popular and is something of a British institution. And +1 for Fawlty Towers if you haven't seen it already.

[quote name='Bassassin' post='791753' date='Mar 31 2010, 12:15 PM'] You don't see many of these, though. Although the trickiest bit would be trying to find the top parts of the co-ax control knobs. [b]Bridge is swapped[/b], phase switches look like replacements and generally it looks like it's had a bit of a kicking, tbh. I'd give him about £50 but not much more. J.[/quote] It always baffles me why people swap out the original bridges for 'better' ones like Badass/Schaller/Gotoh. Besides the fact that the originals were routed into the body so any replacement is going to be a bodge, the originals were far more solid and just as well constructed as any of the popular bridges from the usual suspects.

In a word - sandpaper. Assuming it's an unpainted headstock, take it back using a light grade sandpaper initially, then go to a very fine grade. Finally use T Cut to buff out. Then lacquer, apply new decal (if you want one) and re-lacquer. You might want to take a look at [url="http://www.reranch.com/basics.htm"]http://www.reranch.com/basics.htm[/url]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='789946' date='Mar 29 2010, 09:09 PM']Isn't that Korean?[/quote] I had an idea that the CV's were Chinese and the VM's were Korean. Might have got that wrong though.

[quote name='noelk27' post='788272' date='Mar 27 2010, 11:20 PM']Don't know about any gnomes in the attic, [b]but he's certainly got bats in the belfry. [/b] I’m no lexicographer, or mathematician for that matter, but most 'must' have a completely different definition in American English than it does in the Oxford English.[/quote] Tune-o-matic was the sellers actual ebay user name wasn't it? And oddly enough the Jazz bass that was constantly relisted by someone trying to expose him as a supposed fraud was CAR as well. Perhaps he only had a little left over.