Twincam

I have almost the same experience with older TE gear. Including liking a knackered old commando I briefly had. Bass amps have moved on so much since TE were in there prime so to say. That isn't to say the older amps don't have there place. TE amps are loud, the ones still going seem to be reliable, and there often found reasonably priced. And while I don't like there tone many people do. But compared to most modern amps the classic TE tone sounds a bit dated to me, or is that the tone is out of fashion maybe.

This is true.

Good example of double p pickup tone.

What's there tone like? Classic flat or more brighter like fenders or eb cobalts?

Here are some pictures of my refinished USA Musicman sub. The only critic of these basses is the rather industrial factory finish. And the terrible scratch plate. I had already taken the painted finish off the rear of the neck and applied a linseed oil and final tru oil satin finish. And I bought a used scratch plate Thankfully I have full use of my cousins car body garage, with a proper oven spray booth . I did the initial sanding, which I fully stripped off. And very kindly he did the final spraying. He has a colour mixing thing that has thousands of colours available. I choose a suitable red, I didn't want to go too fancy, flake finishes and candy colours are available but not my thing. Just to point out the red is darker than in most of the pictures. With original industrial body finish. The new plate and oiled neck already made a big improvement. Mid stripping of the finish. Was very tough on the front. I had to use an 80 grit on the dual action sander. Even then it wasn't easy going. The sides and back were not as bad. The front would of been extremely difficult by hand. After first coat of primer. It got two coats in all then sanded to level it. Just after painting. And here it is all built and set up. I think it looks really good. It plays excellently, while the paint was hardening I levelled the frets, recrowned and polished them like a mirror. Middle up close picture, is a true representation of the colour. The finish I asked to kept as thin as possible, but still being resistant and getting a good colour. The tone has changed very slightly, and i swear to me the strings move subtly more (I re used the same strings and same exact setup specs). I don't know if it was the refinish as it was very thick originally and now much thinner. Or the fret job, because I often notice with both mine and customers instruments, that sometimes a good fret job can make an instrument not only play and feel better but they seem to sound subtly better. Next up is to lacquer the headstock. Like they do on the "full fat" ones. I almost was going to refinish and colour code the headstock and apply a decal, but wanted to keep some originality. Even though it says sub bass, which those not in the know might confuse with the Sterling brand china/Indonesia made ones. I'm very happy!

Cheers Mark always happy to help.

Surprised I didn't think of that. Its one of my fav things to play. I've played it on all sorts of basses and it lends itself well to each different bass tone. Still best on a p bass though, i had a 96 fender usa special edition (the most p bass, p bass I ever heard lol) which nailed it.

Classic P bass tone here! Stuart's guitar's a bit loud mind.

That's a critical failure of the coils surely!

Had more time with the amp. Lovely harmonics and sustain. More volume than I need for home use and that's through a sealed 1x10. Nice eq easy to use, obviously has a baked in "Ampeg" tone. So maybe not for everyone. I think it's fantastic. Compared to my previous low watt valve bass amps (Wem dominator bass mk2 & Traynor bassmate), it's far more refined, with more bass, less floor noise. But then again it's modern so would expect so. The Traynor was a fantastic little amp, The pf20t is better.

Well the amp arrived next day, great service. Can't really play it to loudly, but did have a little go at low volume. Sounds good so far. Only going through a 1x10 sealed cab with tweeter. But has plenty of bass and seemed like it will have plenty of volume for my needs. Gain wasn't as much as I thought, 2 band sr eq didn't overload it as I feared. Although pushing things I could get a very pleasant overdrive, though volume was right down. Seems like it's the perfect wattage to get those tones without annoying the neighbours too much lol. Seems very well built. Slightly larger than I imagined. No unusual hum. You can hear the actual transformer if you put your ear right next to it. And nothing unusual coming from the speaker. One of the quieter all valve amps I've heard. So pleased there.

It's unbelievable that video was made 4 years ago and his instruments haven't really improved.

Quality instrument, with a cool name!

Funny twice a seller hasn't let me put the volume up, each time the item was knackered upon getting it home. Few times it's happened via buying a used item online untested too. So unless I can crank it a little bit I reject it. I mean 5 or so seconds of increasing volume (So not to suddenly shock anyone) is not going to hurt anyone. Bull the seller didn't know! Unless it's something loose which is very possible. Speakers don't just all of a sudden not work and start farting out. Check the driver(s) for coil rubbing because they are ok at low volume, soon as there at volume fart city. I check for coil rub now as routine, even if I have to remove a grill, also taking along a multimeter you can check that any coils are intact and showing a correct ohm reading. I suppose buyer beware etc but I would be tempted to contact the seller (politely) and say hey this is knackered. May or may not get a good outcome but why should you have to shell out for something that wasn't right.

Ah the bass clocks. I was looking for one before, forgot about that.

It's only for home use and to feel all warm and fuzzy, basking in valve warmth lol. Seriously though I do prefer the warmer, slightly compressed tone of valve. Last valve amp I had was a 15w wem dominator bass mk2, ok for home and recording use. Seriously loud and small gig worthy with a guitar though.

I might bid on this. Question what were you searching for to find this? Lol

I'm excited! First bit of kit ive been excited about for a good while. I've coveted one since they came out. Had to ask my girlfriend's permission, since she was eyeing something up. I cant wait to show her and talk incessantly about it's valve tone, she will be well impressed. Does anyone know around about what the factory delivery time is? i ordered via Kennys. Says allow up to 7 days, but hoping I get it Now! Haha

Funny was in a pmt recently and yeah bass I tried had a string height of at least one double decker. I think larger shops yeah it would be difficult to setup every instrument on the wall at once, but there should be a system. Instruments setup before there put up and one or two checked over the course of the day. All staff members should know how to correctly setup a guitar/bass.

It's a big put off unsetup instruments in shops. Because you really can't get a feel for the instrument. And you don't know if it's a good one or not. Tone as well will be somewhat affected. Surely every instrument when it's put on a wall could have had five min spent on it adjusting the truss rod and bridge. Your more likely to buy something you can play well than something that isn't.

Lol this is the mystery. Could be the pu or circuitry had an issue. More likely though he just fancied bodging, while laughing maniacally as lightning strikes around his workshop. While his assistant hands him random bargain bin parts at random. Testing the string spacing carefully with a sausage. And cutting the nut with a angle grinder. Its alive!

The only input I will add is if trying any used Fender is be wary if it's not already got a good action. I've seen more than a few used older Fenders with varying ski jump issues. In fact I've had a couple that had had ski jump issues myself. Thankfully I can sort that myself. You can't always see a ski jump either. These have all been USA ones too. So if the action is jacked up be wary. It could be that the owner has just left it unsetup (which basses hate over long periods!) but it could be to hide issues. Btw I'm not being unkind to Fender here (I like there instruments), this applies to any other make of bass that's over 15 - 20+ years in general.