Wilson_51_

yep i thought i was going crazy over exactlythe same issue when i was daisy chaining. I changed to a cioks isolated power supply and ran it on its on section, it's been fine ever since

depends on the size of the gig and what i can bring with me but they always get a coloured tone. If i'm using my big rig (SVT into a Barefaced 610) and it needs to go through the PA. I have one of those ampclamp wt pro, mic holders that slots onto the side of the amp. I bring an Audix D4 mic and just pop it on myself. I always ask the sound guy if its ok and usually there fine with it. If i bring the little rig (TC Electronic BQ500 into a Barefaced Supercompact), i use a vt bass preamp set to sound like my big rig and give them a DI pre EQ off the amp head.

Just thought I’d share with you guys i bought a BQ500 couple of months ago to use as a back up and as a mini rig for where I can’t lug around the big amp. my main rig is an Ampeg SVT and 610 barefaced cab. As my mini rig I’ve got the bq500 paired with a barefaced super compact 1x12. I run the amp flat and have a VT bass pedal that I use to get a remarkably close tone to my normal rig. (I a/b’d them with a lien selector until they were similar) obviously the SVT is amazing but for the gigs where it won’t fit in the car with all the other stuff, where there’s stairs or even just practices. It is amazing and it small enough to fit in my backpack of stuff!

just a quick update on this! It is now all back together (haven't bothered to refinish it but it might get one later this year) sound file is a quick rendition of the start of warpigs because i was listening to it at the time. It has brand new rotosounds on it at the moment. ill add some pictures when its light enough to take some decent ones!

Gun metal grey might be the answer! Thanks

the new pickguard doesn't have a white line. you've got me thinking now that british racing green wouldn't be the best choice. time to think of a different colour!

thanks i was thinking of this combination (excuse it being on a guitar)

So pickguard arrived from gig.ink yesterday. Fitted it and the neck pickup. All fits it’s on the first attempt which is lovely! Now all that’s left to do is the wiring. I am am considering a complete colour change. I already have a black and maple bass. So I’m tempted to change this to something else. Possibly British racing green? Does anyone one have any colour suggestions?

I carefully took out the electronics , so I could put them back in when/if necessary. I contacted Gig.ink to get a custom pickguard made up. I just scanned in the original and asked for a mm rout in it. he sent me a pdf to check it fits and will be making and sending out this week coming. Then i set about routing out the pickup hole, luckily being covered by i pickguard all i needed to do was cut a rectangle out. I don't own a router and have considered buying one for a while but funds would not permit, so i gave it a go with a drill,chisel and dremel with router attachment. Disaster struck early on. I noticed a small hairline crack in the neck pocket but thought it was a mark. the first use of the dremel and out came a hunk of wood. luckily it isn't too deep and will be covered by the pickguard and hasn't effected the neck pocket by what i can gather after refitting the neck. I know its not a clean straight rout and i should have used a template but its functional and i'm happy enough. I pooped myself when drilling the pickup wire hole to the cavity but it went absolutely fine. i sprayed the pickups with a black paint i had hanging around as they were finished in a weird silver that wasn't appealing for this project. I refitted the bridge and the new single coil bridge pickup. i popped the old pickguard over the rout just to make sure it'll be covered and added a dummy switch, which i might use for something when wiring it up. so whats left to do? fit the new pickguard when it arrives, add inn the neck pickup. Then it's on to wiring it up, i think ill use the same wiring as in the rickenbacker but potentially without the pickup selector or maybe use the small dummy switch as a pickup selector. I'll update later this week when the bits arrive!

Disclaimer: yes i could have sold this bass and got something more suitable, yes it could turn out to be a terrible decision! But i like to tinker, this bass doesn't owe me anything and its (mostly) reversible. So after my previous thread of refinishing a Harley Benton PB-50. It got me in the mood to do a bit more modifying. I bought an Ibanez ATK300 a few years ago for very cheap. At the time i was playing a Musicman Stingray in a Stoner band and wanted something that could mimic it well, as a back up. This fitted the criteria perfectly and the same model was used by Scott Reeder (Kyuss) which was also a big plus in my book. I changed up my set up last year to using Rickenbacker and sold the Stingray. The ATK has fallen to the wayside as i find it doesn't suit the sound I'm going for. So Active preamp out, MM pickups out. Passive and single coil in! Browsing through Facebook i came across somebody selling a pair of single coil Zombie Dust pickups housed in MM size cases. The idea struck me to turn the ATK into a passive, double single coil pickup monster. After Some thought I wanted to try and make this easily reversible. The first thing to do once the pickups arrived was to make sure i could fit the neck pickup where the pickguard is so if i don't like it i can cover the rout with the original pickguard.

Thanks you. I’m really happy with it. Hopefully it’ll age nicely over the coming years

So polished the frets and got it all working well. I can honestly say that this bass is great. I've recorded a little demo of it. So this is plugged directly into my audio interface with no EQ, compression or anything. Recorded in logic. Using new Labella Flats. First time round is tone full counter clockwise (0%) and full volume (100%) Second time round is tone full clockwise (100%) and full volume (100%) Third time round is tone full counter clockwise (0%) and full volume (100%) played to the original track Fourth time round is tone full clockwise (100%) and full volume (100%) played to original track The song is Pieces by Luke Tuchsherer. (it's in his backing band that this bass will be used)

So the strings, strap locks and pickup cover came this morning. All fitted and stringed up and set up. Played it and realised I haven’t removed the lacquer from the frets yet. So I’ll have to do that before this is fully complete. I’ve only given it a quick play to make sure everything feels right and works as it should. Initial impressions is that it’s good., although playing with a pickup cover is difficult. So next step is fret polishing. After that I’ll put up a recording of how it sounds. So pickup cover on and get used to it? Or remove?

Sorry I didn’t manage to get any. I was in too much of a rush to get things done!

Thanks guys I’m very happy with how’s its turning out. It’s not a perfect paint job by any stretch of the imagination but it’ll do and to be fair I think it’ll look better once it’s aged and reliced a bit from use.

So it’s now ready to assemble, I bought a bridge cover and “ummed and arred” over a pickup one too. Also added a thumb rest/ tug bar for aesthetic reasons too I offered up the neck to the body just to see how it’s going to look I changed the knobs to flat ones instead of domed. I’m now waiting on some labella flats, Dunlop strap locks (on all my basses) and I took the plunge and bought a pickup cover. I’ll update when I’ve got those added them and fixed the neck to the body. Then it’s ready to set up and play.

On to the the electrics. The original ones were fine for the job but I can’t help but meddle with these things. I have a bit of solder experience (I build my own effects pedals) so rewired using CTS pots and vintage style wire (note that I dislike this wire as it breaks easily and is hard to strip) I then started looking at pickups. I was lured by bareknuckled pickups but at the last minute found a second hand Seymour Duncan quarter pounder. I bought that and I’ll see what it sounds like

Now onto deciding what colour to do the body. Originally wanted to go butterscotch or white but both guitarists in the band both sometimes use there butterscotch or white telecasters. So after much thought and the fact I love the old pastel colours. I started thinking down that route. My precision is Surf green so that was out of the question. So it was a toss up between pink and blue. I decided in the end to go for sonic blue, and compromised that I might make a pink jazz bass one day. So I got down to sanding the body, priming and spraying.

Now the thing that I didn’t like was the shape of the headstock. It’s an Iconic part of the tele/ precision bass. So I went about finding a template and cutting the headstock to size. Also the colour of it was very anemic, so I ordered some tinted lacquer. After cutting and sanding to shape I added the tinted lacquer. Then added a new decal. I have a surf green precision I made with a “Franken precision” decal so got one made up for this build.

Just thought I’d chuck up a quick build diary/post of the refinish of a Harley Benton PB50. Ive been gassing for a ‘68 telecaster bass for a while, to use in a backing band for an Americana solo artist. I had the idea of buying all the bits separately and assembling but stumbled across the Harley Benton and for sub £100 with good reviews I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I went for the fiesta red one and when it arrived got straight down to disassemble and strip the finish. I used a heat gun and did a great job of burning the wood but I was sure it would turn out ok.