ped

Peavey millennium?

Just landed - I've been after a black and maple one for ages but the series 1 (with scratch plate) versions are quite hard to find compared to the series 2 models. I ordered a custom scratch plate from TinyTone who were great and pretty quick too. BC member @wright/watt had a spare excess plate which he kindly sent me so it was used as a template. The black plate arrived the same day as the bass! The bass is really interesting and I can see how Vigier have taken their idiosyncratic left of field approach to a bass which is more traditional in terms of shape and feel. It still has those Vigier staple touches such as the supercar shape, unique electronics and graphite 10/90 neck without a truss rod. As soon as it arrived I took the strings off (it's been a while since I've had a quick release bridge on anything so that was easy) and gave it a clean, changed the plate (bit of a mission given how the pickups are attached to the plate using bolts) and knobs. Chucked some Elixir 40-95s on it (the 10/90 neck is designed to be dead straight with this gauge string) and I've been getting to know it this afternoon. First of al lit's very light. Seller said 3.3kgs which I can believe. It's made from two pieces of ash with a very thin coat of paint - the grain texture is visible below. The neck has a satin feel and having settled after its ride here it's got almost zero relief. The pickups are two Benedetti single coils which I'm quite familiar with, having had them in various versions in a number of Vigier instruments. They can be a little noisy, so here there's a hum cancelling circuit which is adjustable through a hole in the scratch plate. It works pretty well, and hum is vastly reduced and consistent throughout the pickup pan range. Since installing a mesh router in my office I can get hum at certain angles but generally it's quieter than a standard jazz bass, certainly with the pickups soloed. The controls are vol, pan, bass +/- 10db and treble +/- 10db. Weirdly the controls aren't centre dented which threw me at first. Honestly there's so much sizzle onto I find a neutral setting is bass on 0 and treble on -10. With pickups roughly centred there's a 60s spacing jazz bass with a bit more bite and a thoroughly growly bottom end. The highs are a little more focused and less 'open' than my Celinder, and my fave found is slight front pickup bias which gives a nice Rickenbacker style clank. I think the front pickup might need to go a little lower, but owing to the design I will have to use some washers behind the bolts - that'll mean removing the pick guard screws again which I can't face this evening! The bridge is nice, a little tarnished (actually the whole bass has marks, bumps and wear on it which I really don't mind) with an interesting system - intonation is a bit of a faff because you have to move the saddle with the string slackened and it's tricky to get right. There’s no saddle screw/spring which looks nice though. Once set everything bolts into place nice and securely. What else to say.. well what was nice was that I emailed Patrice Vigier a while back asking about the Excess range (I've never had one despite being a vigier fam for 20 odd years) and took the opportunity to congratulate him on his retirement. He said 'It's all been possible because of musicians like you' which I thought was nice. Good vibes. Just some quick snaps for now!

I bought a bass from Philipp which arrived safe and sound, as described. Great comms throughout and a pleasure to deal with. Cheers!

I think we set it up in about 2017 maybe... really as a bit of fun and initially as a semi test environment for BC. It's clear to me that the reason BC is so huge is because of the timing; it was really the only UK bass forum around in 2002 when it was called Bassworld, and with forums, if you have the audience, you have the market. Bass players are also such a nice demographic to cater for, being largely fairly non egotistical, relaxed, middle aged blokes with a bit of disposable income. You can't say that about most guitarists!

Bought a pedal from Dylan that he must have put in a time machine because it was here almost as soon as I paid! Cheers! 🍻

Pedal shelf update! I’m going to spend some time comparing the QTron to the Mutron later. First impressions are that it sounds remarkably similar, perhaps having the gain control uncoupled from the volume makes it more usable on my lower output basses. like the Mutron I like it best in ‘High’ mode which I don’t think you get on the Nano version

I must admit since getting a backbeat I use it ALL the time, but I treat myself to the bass board when I’m really going for it (it never leaves the house though, although it’s pretty easy to live tbh)

@Woodinblack will probably know how to do it, don't listen to me

Ah I didn't realise the bassadder27 account had been deleted. Not sure what we can do in that situation!

You can combine both accounts and choose which one to keep 👍

The preamp is designed by HAZ labs for Smith. Again as Alembic were also innovating at this time it’s quite hard to separate who was copying whom but here’s the manual for that pre. I don’t think Alembic ever made a preamp with built in envelope filter (obviously they had and still have filter based preamps)

I don’t think Ken’s style was so well established back then and he more than likely did it to make a name for himself. Having heard Ken talk about how the innovators like him and Carl Thompson evolved it seems like it was largely by getting basses into the hands of equally innovative bass players who were themselves quite a small and tightly knit community. A ‘no’ from Ken could easily have been a fatal mistake, and he might have thought it would strengthen his brand/relationship with Stanley and others. I think lots of those early innovators have designs they’d be fairly ashamed of nowadays!

It's not Ken's fault

I had mine a long time ago and don't remember even looking into what the knobs did technically, so I was semi surprised to read that myself (mine was a three knob PJ setup) but it makes sense, on reflection.

The MVP preamp is active, the tone control is a passive cut or active boost either side of the centre position, and the blend is active to keep the volume the same. Really neat setup!

Hopefully he misses it because tort is a crime 😂

Host them on YouTube which will mean if copyright is claimed then you’ll have ads or something added to the video but you’ll be free to share.

Dad3353’s a drummer!

Yeah it’s massive and heavy. I don’t mind that though for some reason most of my fave pedals are right chonks

There’s usually one or two on eBay. Here’s one https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304672459306?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=oNpKAk_ZTl6&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=om7uGMI4RRi&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY Often people don’t show the battery compartment so worth asking if the seller doesn’t know.

Anyone else notice the doggy getting baked at 1:00? He certainly looks rather happy with himself after a couple of puffs! I echo Linus27s comment; lovely playing, nice touch, great timing - I'd like to see you throw a bit more at it. Have confidence that you can play it 'correctly' - free yourself up to chuck yourself around a bit more and make it yours. Thanks for sharing

My favourite is the Danelectro Cool Cat, the 18v one. Just sounds very lush and doesn’t lose any bottom.

Hi mate I’m afraid I can take no credit for organising this bash so best for Colin to come back to you on that one. It looks like another great event. Unfortunately I was way up in Aberdeen at the time!