tomthebass

Midweek bump!

Picked one of these up last year as a travel bass - absurd quality for the money, super fast playable neck and the green finish is lush 😁 

Couple of near misses over the weekend but still here!

C'mon, collecting dust and needs a new owner to play with!

Hi Tom, just checked and 4.1kg on the bathroom scales. Cheers, Tom

Hi folks

Up for grabs a nice Stingray 4 made by OLP under licence from MusicMan.

I bought this as a project bass to refinish but have since found another in the colour I was looking for so offering this up unchanged. Nice grain and great condition no marks on the neck, a few very minor dings as shown in the pics. The scratch-late is a bit scuffed from removing glue a previous owner used to attach a thumb-rest, can probably be further polished if it bothers you or you can pick up a new one for around £15 or go for the all natural look as per pics!

These basses are fantastic value for money, look like the real thing and play beautifully. It has passive electronics - on my other one I've installed a Bart pre (a bit of routing needed!) and it sounds awesome!

I've given this one a thorough clean and set up with new strings 45-105 roundwound so good to go.

Can ship at buyer's cost, may be a little delay while I find a box.

Cheers!

Mark bought a Chowny bass from me today, great comms and came to collect on time, nice guy and happy to deal with him again, thanks!

Hi folks,

Up for grabs a basically as new SWB-1 short scale (30.5") with ebony fingerboard. I don't know what the body wood is but it has a crisp resonant sound and sustain akin to an ash/maple body/board configuration. Quite heavy for a petite bass at 4.3 kg.

Sparkling shiny condition as barely used and only at home, one tiny dinglet on the back see pic, otherwise unmarked on the body and neck.

Factory active circuit: pickup selector switch, volume, bass and treble.

I bought this as a potential travel bass, but found the short scale just a little too short for me, so am replacing with a 32" scale bass. To facilitate travel the neck screws have been replaced by hex bolts into metal ferrules in the neck heel so the neck can be repeatedly removed and reinstalled without compromising the strength of the joint. With the absence of travel due to COVID, the neck has only been off the one time to make this mod.

Looking for a sale as have run out of space for the herd, but you never know...

Happy to ship in a well padded box at buyer's cost or come and collect subject to lockdown law at the time.

All questions welcome!

Cheers

Tom

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the comments and ideas!

Partly the thread was to see how the community sees these basses as classics, and I'm hearing you loud and clear that you do. I respect that, so no panics and no butchery!

For background - I do have other basses with more punch, but this one just has a look and feel and playability that fit so I keep coming back to fiddle with it.

Looks like the single pickup upgrade is the way to go so I'll talk to Aaron and Veijo (but plan to drop in a new one rather than a rewind so I can keep the original unmodded).

Cheers all! Will let you know how it turns out...

Tom

😍 that's enough Aria's to make an opera!

That's the chap! 👍

About 700 I reckon, but there's an identical one for sale on fleabay right now (see above) so we'll find out! Obviously I'd be looking at proper routing, so it would still look the part. A bit like a Vigier? But yes the pickup switcheroo is on the table too, I believe there's a Finn who makes MM-style humbuckers under a stock Aria cover, anyone have any experience?

Cheers Andy - that's the dilemma, good to get views! Hope all well with you

PS stop crying 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aria-Elite-1-bass/264991542094

😋

Popped an aguilar obp2 into my passive Aria as it's a gorgeous playing and looking bass but lacks a bit of punch. Sounding crisper now but still looking for some more punch. Would this be sacrilege, an irreversible mod to an early 80s classic? (I'd be looking at a pair of 4" ceramic soapbars to match the original pickup routing, just popped these 3.5" EMGs on top to get a sense of the look).

Thank you - bit on the heavy side for me, beautiful instrument though and a steal at this price, glwts!

Must resist...must resist... how much does it weigh?

2 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Looks like a Bryston 14 amp? That would definitely help with bass - mine has a test certificate saying 968/967 w/ch @ 4ohms with around +-40A...

And did you not want to make the cabinets just a bit bigger for more extension? I used to have some Kef 104/2s with isobaric-style twin bass units which nearly rivalled my Ditton 66/series2s for quantity of bass, though not for extension.

Ah good spot. It is indeed a 14B! My brother's...had to give it back unfortunately...let me know if you ever want to move yours on 😁

Re the cabinet size, yes that could be design number 6... but I was going for the compromise here between deep bass and living room acceptability! But they already go low... I don't have a proper spl measurement system but there is audible bass from 29 Hz and they have a super kick with bass drum etc. Certainly enough aural awesomeness to make me rummage through my record collection to feast on the sounds 😋

Great thread! So one of my lockdown projects was to build a pair of isobaric speakers... managed to pick up four Seas bass units for not much, and built these cabs as a slightly more aesthetic alternative to rectangles - the bass units are 8" and there is one hiding inside the cab, so it can't be any narrower. Paired them up with some fountek ribbon tweeters. A bit of crossover tweaking and hey presto... huge meaty bass and drums, breathy midrange and delicate tops. My 5th attempt at speaker design, so a huge surprise at how great they sound. Upset my brother when we compared them to his very pricey Wilson-Benesch's. A shame those bass units aren't made any more, otherwise I might be going into production 😂

@Beedster Funnily enough my 16 year old son grabbed me a couple of months ago and said, Dad I've just heard an awesome track you might like. It's called Roundabout. Imagine my pride 😊 maybe that means musical taste is in your genes 😂

But you should also listen to Heart of the Sunrise. Turn it up good and loud and marinate in the sumptuous soundscape! 

That is a sweet looking instrument! And you've piqued my curiosity, will have to lift all my scratchplates to see if there's a hidden message 😄

45 minutes ago, molan said:

Thanks Ped,

Great video - hadn't seen this one before!

I thought I'd try & price it to sell rather than endless bouts of haggling. I've seen these up around the £2,500 mark but it 'owes' me less than that so I thought I'd try and sell it at a fair price

It is a very fair price...tick tock 😀

A friend has one, bought secondhand after clearly serving time on the front line as there is a big thumb crater above the front pickup and the back of the neck worn smooth as a peach! One of the most comfortable and open sounding expressive basses I've ever played. Looks not for me, otherwise I'd have nicked it already 😄

That's a great amp for a bargain price! Used one for about a decade, great tone with valve pre and plenty of power...I ended up fitting a thermocouple for the fans for quiet studio use. Would still be using it if my little brother hadn't pinched it 😄

Bump... open to reasonable offers of course

PM'd