three

Thanks musicavenger, an interesting point. I tried every permutation - soaks, warm-up etc. But the distortion remained. A few of us found the same thing - my 500 is now gone (I bought a new 2x250 and it did exactly the same thing - so that was returned). I’m now using the power section of a db750 with a Hellborg pre - wonderful (in terms of my personal tone goals)

Hmmm... for me Agi as a company is not what it was, and its more recent products don’t appear to have the reliability of earlier gear. I use a db750 and love it but I’m not sure I’d buy a more recent amp. An OBP3 just failed on me - out of warranty and impoosible to repair because of the epoxy seal. £200 to replace with fitting - Agi didn’t appear to give a toss. To the OP, I hope that you get this issue resolved at reasonable cost - £200 is a lot of dosh

Just received an excellent bag from Gareth - perfect communications, item in superb condition (as advertised), well-packed and rapid shipping - everything was extremely easy and a great deal in every respect

Tried just about every configuration (including just DI into FoH - ‘can be fantastic with a great engineer and great monitors). Current main rig is valve pre and A/B power. However, I’m not using the valves. These are by-passed with a SS pre straight to the power section (it’s a Hellborg into a DB750). Sounds glorious to me but it’s all so personal. I tend to play modern(ish) active basses (Status and Spector) but a P sounds pretty good too. My overall tonal aim is immediacy, clean extended dynamic range (capturing the complexity of the basses), lots of headroom and power. I have a small and light option (BAmp) that gets very close, but not as close as the above. Cab is a Berg HD210 - good for monitoring and more. To take this in anither direction, I think a lot is in technique and fingers. I sometimes see bands with the most simple of rigs - P into cheap combo - and it sounds glorious

SIMS have some nice celluloid tort too, and does Jack's in Manchester - probably about £80-90 from SIMS or £60 from Jacks

There will be many with far greater knowledge than my own, however, as far as I know, the 'straight' pickup (i.e., non-split) was standard on Fender's original Precision basses up to around '56/'57. So I'd say, yes - a P can have either split or single pickups

I was in conversation with the Bassdoc recently re: a replacement tort guard for a US 44-64. I sent him the original Lakland guard and he sent back some images of the celluloid tort that he has in stock. In his opinion, and mine, it's no better than the material that Lakland are using. My plate was promptly returned and I'm still looking for some beautiful '60s style tort. I had a Spitfire plate on a Limelight J a few years ago. It was simply staggeringly well-executed and could easily pass for (a very good) 'Fender '60s plate. Originally imported for around £200 (not by me) about 7 or 8 years ago. If you have to have something almost identical to '60s tort, I don't think that there's a better alternative to Spitfire. Horribly expensive but lovely.

Some lovely Laklands appearing - here's a couple more

I suspect it’s Fender’s International series Monaco Yellow. Just beautiful - very ‘70s

I’ve used a Rumble in a rehearsal room - light, loud and versatile - I was very pleasantly surprised and would consider one for easy gigging. There’s also an AER Amp Three for sale on here too - I had an Amp One and it was very special (the brand is certainly worth consideration). If you stick with separates, have a look at the Bergantino amp options (BAmp and Forte). Not cheap but a superb unit. You’d need to think about protection for gigs - a very cute box but doesn’t appear massively robust (mine’s in a Peli)

The guarantee has worked for me too in the UK. On the noise issue, I’ve experienced this with both my Hellborg power amps - one sold, the other returned to Thomann. There’s definitely an element of harmonic colouration/distortion that you’ll either appreciate or not (I’m in the latter camp). With the first amp there was also intermittent internal noise

I recently went over to see Max to collect a bass from him - everything worked perfectly - an incredibly easy transaction with excellent communications throughout (we still talk on Basschat). Very honest and rapid in responses and action. I can recommend without any reservations as a totally upstanding member of our community (and a really good and knowledgeable guy too - just a pity we didn't have longer to speak)

Clive Brown in North Yorkshire has an excellent reputation (thiugh contact isn’t always easy)

I’ve posted fairly extensively re: unexpected behaviour with the Hellborg power amps - my stereo power amp went straight back to Thomann (I’d previously owned a mono power with which I wasn’t entirely happy). The pre, on the other hand, is stunning IMO