King Tut

Spotted on insta. New Rick bridge insert coming soon from Babicz

Particularly those that came out before the Pao Ferro fingerboards. I'm not saying they're better but they might be perceived to be. Says he, hoping his first run Flea Sig that he bought as an 'investment' rockets in value!

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What @Cuzzie said about the lH500 eq. It's not very intuitive until you understand how it works. Your settings are very mid light and it's the mids that cut through a mix on bass.

Don't really matter mate, so long as you're enjoying yourself and having a laugh - that's all that matters really!

Also if you’re planning to switch basses mid set - that’s another can of worms. Actives are often much louder than passives, not to mention having different tonal characteristics so unless you can set them up so they’re sounding pretty much the same in tone and level, or have some kind solution where you can set up two switchable patches (by a multi fx or programmable amp) I’d try to avoid that for the time being until you’ve got a bit more experience gigging or playing in loud environments. I mean, I’m not saying it’s not doable, but I’m still agonising over pickup height setting, gain settings etc etc and I’ve been gigging for 35 odd years. I had a couple of occasions last year out on tour where we’d play a Blues Devils set first set playing as our own support band. And a Stray set as the main set. I’d use a Jazz or Mustang for the first set and a Ric for the main set. Being a vain bugger I don’t like wearing my glasses on stage. I’d get off stage first set having planned to alter the volume on one of my pedals to match the basses volumes. Then think ‘did i alter it or not?’ ‘Am I remembering last night’. Get back on stage - check the pedal and not be able to see the settings - grrrrFFS this getting old lark is doing me nut in!! To be fair to you it’s good that you’re looking forward and you’ve come to the right place for advice so I hope you get it sorted.What i will say - and you’re learning this already, playing loud and/or live is a different ballgame to quiet playing and different challenges arise - be patient, you’ll get there!

LH500 will be loud enough unless it’s going int a really poor cab. They’re blooming loud!

Nice!

Welcome buddy. Welcome to the deep end!

Well she's being well looked after and occasionally gigged. Do you know, it's still got the same strings on and I've hardly had to touch the set up at all - incredibly stable!

Yeah she's a good un mate!

With interest rates low I haven't bought an ISA this year. I managed to persuade Mrs Tut that a vintage bass would be a great investment and to my amazement she agreed. I'm not really a precision man but I reckon they're always going to be pretty good for resale. I've got little hands, so when this one came up reasonably local on here, with a 'B' width neck I decided to make further enquiries. Having asked the seller (from this site) the relevant questions, I put a lockdown deposit down a couple of weeks ago and drove over to Berkhamsted yesterday for a socially distanced collection. She's a 1974 model. All original with the only issues being some battle scars and a broken tip to the scratchplate. I got it home and gave it a thorough check over and I was immediately struck by how resonant it was. It was supplied with flats and had a bit more relief and a slightly higher action than I'd have preferred. I've already got a P with flats on so I set this one up with rounds. I've adjusted the relief, finding the truss rod to be working perfectly and pulled the action down to a more than acceptable 2mm at the 12th fret on the E string. A couple of the tuners are a bit stiff, which I can live with. There was a pretty serious crackle on the input jack but this soon disappeared with some switch cleaner. Pushed through my Peavey VB-2 and Big Baby 2 it gives a lovely classic rock tone. Although bought as an investment, it's inevitable that I'll gig it sooner or later, so I've equipped it with some Dunlop straplocks. Happy Tut! Some pics below - enjoy!

I collected a vintage Precision from Tiernan today. A sale was agreed during lockdown and i left a deposit for socially distanced collection once lockdown was over. The bass was as described - to be honest I think Tiernan undersold it in his description. Tiernan waited patiently for lockdown to end and I felt no pressure to finalise the deal. Communication was good so be assured you can deal with confidence.

The mark 1 Sires have quite a round fretboard radius which I found quite a struggle with small hands. The mark 2's have a flatter profile (although not the mahogany ones) so be aware of this if you're buying online.

That's brilliant stuff - thank you. D'you know what? I'm gonna keep the fecker as it is and use it for recording and maybe the odd small venue gig and embrace the 'drive'!!

Please post. I'm obviously interested but others may be too. We think Stray's original baseman used one of these but apparently he had a slave amp as well and went through a stack.

Good call. I'm using a Big Baby II with it which is a pretty efficient cab!

That was the first time I went to any kinda gig. Great way to start!

Ok so that's similar to my old LH500. I'll have a play about with that. Thank you

The recent purchase of a Peavey VB-2 has encouraged me to re-investigate the delights of my old Laney Supergroup 100 from 1969. When I bought this, my son renovated and revalved it using JJ power valves. It’s an absolute delight tone wise and great for recording as I can get an overdriven tone at reasonable levels with no problem at all. Unfortunately this is also the amp’s Achilles heels. The couple of times I’ve taken it out to gig I’ve really struggled to get it to modest volume levels without the tone breaking up completely. Ideal for a Sabbath tribute I guess but not very practical. I guess this is the nature of the beast and I need to learn to love it for what it is and how it sounds, but I was wondering if it could be modded for more clean headroom? Different valves maybe? Get someone to rebids it - would that help? Any ideas gratefully received!

I've had a couple of LH500's and moved them on but only because of the weight. Lovely sound, plenty of volume and easy to get a good tone once you understand the pre.

. . . Breaks out the popcorn!