kodiakblair

@police squad I wasn't doing a hatchet job on Ric, just refuting Michael's idea that 2 grand guarantees a perfect bass. Aye Ric's QC is pretty haphazard but so is Fender's and Gibson's. This TB post from tail end of last year made me laugh. $2.5k US Fender. Passed FMIC's QC, passed Sweetwater's 55 point inspection. Got weighed and photographed for the website. Nobody noticed the missing tuning peg screw 🤣 Insult to injury came when the Talkbass owner bought a set of screws to put it right, pilot hole had been drilled both off-centre and squint 🤣

If it was then half the factory must be in on it. You have the person who initially set the frets then the one taping the board for the spray finish. Next there's the person at the buffing station, the folk attaching hardware and pickups. Somebody put strings on it, did a quick set up then handed it over to QC; where they proudly stuck the little "Made in USA" label on it. Finally there was the person putting it in it's case. Given it wasn't an isolated case, the replacement the lad got was actually worse, one can only surmise that crap is deemed acceptable. Thankfully the matter was resolved with the third bass, shop manager shifted through the warehouse to find one with decent workmanship.

Both were brand spanking new $2.6k walnut Rickenbacker 4003s some fella on Talkbass got last December. First photo was the one he received on the 9th, 2nd photo the replacement delivered on the 16th. I posted it in response to Michael's "It isn't a perfect bass like you'd expect from a US Fender either." Badly cut nuts and poor fret work are not exclusive to budget basses, you'll see both on any production line brand; even premium priced brands. I know those are Rics but Fender US can be just as bad; same for Gibson.

I wonder how you'd feel if your £2k Ric turned up with frets like this 😀 Or when they were like this on the replacement sent the following week 🤣

Not if you ask questions. Perfect fit is rare when buying a replacement neck, £700 Fender necks come with a warning their official necks may not fit their bodies. Asking questions can save you a lot of work. Get a digi or Verner calliper and measure the pocket or the heel of the existing neck. Take photos with calliper in position and showing the sizes. If you want do the same for the nut width and neck thickness at a few points. Give the radius of any rounded corners if the pocket has them. Forward the photos to potential sellers and ask them to provide confirmation with photos. Legit sellers will reply, middle men with just a stock photo won't 🙂

https://www.banzaimusic.com/bourns-mini-kn-500k-log-xxl.html €3.47 each + postage Link to data sheet for a few other Bourns pots. https://www.bourns.com/docs/product-datasheets/PDB181-GTR.pdf

Get to ASDA and buy a pair of pillows, £4. Seriously they'll do the trick.

I watched the Peter K Lee video earlier today. Maybe it was just the stalls he visited but heehaw interested me. Plenty burl tops in evidence and bold colours ; all on the same old standard designs we had for decades.

My pal's Sunbeam 🙂

@SteveXFR Was there not also some story about a lawnmower engine saving their arse ? I reckon they're just about done. Not too many 40 stone 40-somethings harbour easy rider illusions never mind can afford it 🤣

Harley Davidson domestic sales are down 17%, down 12% internationally. Japanese exports to US up 8.5% Funny thing is both Fender and HD are owned by Servco Pacific 🤣

Been that way for years. Maple mostly comes from Canada. CTS pots are made in Taiwan. Tuners either come from Schaller in Germany or Ping in China. Roswell in Korea ship pickups and pickup parts to Corona. Hardware like bridges, knobs and strap buttons, all made in Korea. Unlikely, FMIC are a minnow compared to others. Corona puts out 1500 units per week, say 80,000 pa. China's Zheng'an county has 130 factories producing 2.25 million guitars a year 😀 Guangzhou has maybe 20 factories. Then there's Cort, Samick, World Music Instruments, half dozen plants in Japan.

Fantastic. What a great way to spend your birthday 😎

Nope, it wasn't a Thomann operation, not even the warehouse. Warehouse is located in New Hartford, home to Ovation guitars. If the folks behind the Reverb store weren't ex-employees then they had plenty of knowledgeable people close to hand. 'Cracking' the US has never been a Thomann priority. Potential market for EU/UK is 520 million customers, it's 330 million for the US. What there was has pretty much gone. Kurt at Rondo quit importing SX, Agile and Haeden a few years back. Sam Ash no longer sells their own brands, Carlo Robeli etc. Guitar Fetish currently have all their imported brands reduced by 50%, my guess is they're getting out of the game too. It's several years for me. Owned more than enough US basses to last a life time, don't miss any of the crap coming out of Hollywood, stopped buying records around 2002 and I don't eat fast food .

Could be. I know when DeCola left Peavey to work for Fender he was told elements from his Palaedium neck had been used for the Geddy Lee bass.

This one was my favourite of the US basses. Patriot, cheapest model they ever made 🙂 Really enjoyed the simplicity of it, set me down the path of single coil P-basses 👍

It wasn't an issue if you hold it like a classical guitar, lower horn hooked over your left leg.

They did that. Trim pots on the back of the bass allowed you to set the output level for each string to pan the string left or right if you were going bi-amp. Sold mine last year to a fellow BC member. That's it to the right of my Palaedium. Selection of some other Peaveys I've owned.

Take the pickup selector switch out of the equation, then ditch the completely stupid 'phase' switch. You have 4 wires. White is hot, black/blue+ bare are grounds. Red goes to the Tone Pot.

@neepheid It's nothing taxing Matt. Instead of pairing white/red as hot on the Vol pot you stick red on Tone pot lug 3. Just minded, I gutted one and stuck a preamp in it 🤣

It was never clever. You have some tonal variation with the humbucker through positions 1 - 7. 8 - 10 is your single coil, with little variation. Dan Armstrong used the same method on his London guitar/basses around 1972, he quickly saw the folly in it so added another pot, 1 did the coil to ground and the other was the tone pot. I always snipped the red wires on mine, gave the humbuckers a slight boost plus you have more control over tone.

Owned 72 Peavey basses, from all models released between 1978 and 2010. My 5 string DynaBass was some gunmetal grey finish. Can't say I was too impressed by Peavey's decision to stick a pickup designed for 4 string basses into a 5'er. Was the early 90's before they got around to having an actual 5 string pickup. 2nd gen DynaBass and 2nd gen TL-5 were improvements IMHO. Look how tight 5 strings are on the Ferrites compared to my 2nd Gen TL-5

Yanks on TalkBass were getting their panties in a bunch over these a few months back 🤣 Think I've had 3 basses where the Hipshot version came as stock hardware. Never had any call to use it but if my situation changed I rather pay £60 for the Guyker than £140 to Hipshot 👍

I'll be about £5 for a pre-cut pack of 24 but I'm pretty sure I can scrounge a 2" offcut from Mark at Bonnywood. Was fixing a butchered Concord started me off building and repairing basses 🙂

There are others, nut is broken and it's been shimmed with cardboard 😎