Maude

I've given the amp a good clean up inside and had a look around to see if anything obvious was amiss. Now as I said I'm no amp tech but I couldn't see any obvious issues, burnt terminals or boards, swollen components or anything like that, and I know you can't tell much like that but it worked when it went into storage years ago and has been dry and warm indoors, the trunk it was in is beside the fireplace with a woodburner in, so I've dug out my old cabs with the celestion speakers in and given it a low volume test at home. The speakers are old Rola Celestion G15-150 8ohm, this is a guitar speaker but I used to use a pair of them for the bottom end of my bi-amped rig, basically they were used as subwoofers and that rig sounded amazing and was seriously loud, size and weight stopped me using it. I know they weren't handling full range as I'm asking of them now but surely the bottom end is the end that would've killed them if bass was going to? Anyway I'm going to take it all to rehearsal this week and try it at volume. The 15's are both in separate cabs and I can't remember if I wired the sockets to join them in parallel or series so the easiest way I'm guessing is to plug them both into the amp separately, each into one of the 8ohm outs on the back, I assume I can plug two cabs in at once. I might only need one but I'll take them both in case. (EDIT) I was having a dumb moment, they must be in parallel to give 4ohm, there's no reason I'd have wanted 16ohm, for a moment of stupidness I though 8 or 4 but obviously it would be 16 or 4. At home I tryed it with a P bass with flats and one of the Celestions and it really sounded quiet nice, a valve pre would obviously improve it but it was warm and vintage with plenty of thump, I was a bit surprised actually as I though it might be a bit quiet and middy but no. I banged through 'Get Ready' by The Temptations and it sounded bang on, until Mrs. Maude reprimanded me 😁 If it behaves at volume and sounds nice then I'll get it checked over properly and replace anything it needs.

To be honest I'd rather have a little mini toggle to turn it on and off.

The jack plug joins two connections to complete the active circuit acting like an 'on' switch, so yes it will drain the battery. This is on most active basses, there might be some with a fancy circuit that prevents this but I don't know.

But he did tell me what band his mate plays in, so I'm going track him down to let him know if he doesn't get on with it to get hold of me. Back to gigging every week after this weekend for the rest of the year so I can concentrate on playing rather than eyeing up basses 😁

He's only gone and sold it to his mate. Nevermind.

I would guess the neck should be more stable as that's what it's designed to do in shingles, it stops them expanding and contracting with heat and moisture to limit splitting.

Let's bring it into this century with a funky up to date name. All this burst this and burst that is so twentieth century. How about 'Colon Squeeze' or 'Evacuation Splash'.

As far as I'm aware it's the same process that is done to cedar shingles for roofing to make them more stable and weather resistant.

I feel the same about Vibraslap.

Well if it gets better then it will be fantastic in a few months, it sounds mightily impressive already. 👍

Tell him to stop bloody hitting it. 😯😆 It sounds lovely. Will the sound change as it all settles in so to speak, or are they pretty stable as soon as they're built?

He's declined my offer as he's got an old mate looking at it next week and has given him first refusal. I've said I'm happy to give him £600 if his mate doesn't want it so we'll just have to wait and see now.

This is true and I didn't think of that. My Club bass doesn't 'feel' as short as it actually is on a strap. Sat down it's not an issue though.

Hofner Ignition series Club bass or Violin bass. Slim neck, short scale, very light, very good useable range of tones and between £250 & £300 new. Both available in black or sunburst.

Thanks for the info @Misowaki, I'm not too worried about the drive, quiet roads down here this time of year and a 100 mile trip will only be £15 in fuel. I'll see what he says about my offer. They seem to be appreciating in value so if I did buy at full price but not get on with it after a while then maybe just stash it for a couple of years until I could easily sell to my money back. A lot of people saying if you find a P Aero at a decent price just buy it as they're a bit rare, so who knows.

That red one is nice and I do prefer a slimmer neck. But there's just something about the P body shape if prefer over the J body shape. I've done a bit more hunting and a few people are describing the neck as J profile or somewhere between the two so hopefully not too chunky. And the big one is I'm not really up for spending the best part of a grand. I've sent him an offer of £500 so we'll see what he says. The ad says he's seen another bass he wants so needs to sell and open to offers.

We haven't had a gig for few weeks and I'm getting bored, and then I start spending money 🤣

I've messaged the seller and might go have a look. It's a hundred mile round trip though so wanted to be fairly sure. If it had a maple board that would clinch it.

Yes, just found this on some other (ahem) bass forum. Commercial User

I've no idea, I'm really not up on my models at all. I saw it and loved it. Any info good or bad about these is welcome.

I know it's worth what someone's willing to pay, but I just wanted a ballpark figure. If I bought it and kept it I wouldn't really care but as it's an oddball P, so to speak, I don't want to pay too much in case I need to move it on a year down the line. He's open to offers so if I got it down a bit then that's probably about right I suppose.

What do we think about £650? It seems steep if the one in that ad sold for £360, though that was nearly ten years ago. Doubled in that time, I don't know.

I don't even know if I'll like the tone compared to a traditional P, but wanted an idea on value before I make the journey to try it.

Hmm it's considerably more than that. I'm useless when it comes to the value of basses as I don't really keep up with what's what. He wants £650

I'm confused, were they released in 03/04? This one is a 94 apparently. 🤔