stereoplayer

Very cool! Congrats!

Ya, still no sound clips.  But…easily my favorite bass that I have!

Very nice! All my basses are stereo.  Great sounding bass!

4 hours ago, JohnDaBass said:

 

Had to do some re-organising in the basement so it was a good opportunity to show off my Acoustic 136 combo.

The combo was purchased new in 1971 from Roger Jenkins Sound Centre in Cardiff. Roger was one of the importers and distributors of Acoustic products at the time and as an employee I enjoyed a small staff discount. The Combo is all original except the original Eminence 100w 8 Ohm 15 ins square magnet speaker has been replaced with an Eminence 400w 4 Ohm  Kappa -C 15ins. (I still have the original speaker). Back in the early 70's I was not knowledgeable enough to calculate whether the Kappa-C had the correct specs for the folded horn reflex cab design, I just thought " well it's Eminence, it's 15 ins and it can handle 400w , so it must be right". Fortunately it has worked and lowering the impedance from 8 ohm to 4 ohm allowed the amp to output it's full potential.  

 

 

 

 

The castors and the H & H bar handles were added to help with handling. It works really well and sounds awesome. Isn't it strange how we used to manage our sound tailoring with 3 simple controls? Volume, Treble and Bass plus a Bright switch to and a little sparkle. These were fine amps built in California with great pride and professionalism. It's really sad how big corporations buy up innovative successful companies only to loose the key personnel and run the businesses into the ground. We are fortunate that those clever engineers and Innovators moved on to create other new enterprises that we bassists have benefited from.

This combo replaced my Selmer Treble'n Bass 50 Mk2 and Selmer 100w 1x18 Goliath rig. I still have the T'nB 50 Mk2 amp and I plan ( One day) to rebuild it with all new replacement transformers, valves and caps. I'm sure it will sound fantastic thro one of my Barefaced Super Compacts.  

Beautiful!

Still loving this bass!

Still loving this bass!

On 25/04/2021 at 06:59, wateroftyne said:

Is there not a risk of the bridge pup being overwhelmed? There’s going to be a massive difference in the amount of string movement....

Actually, the bridge PU is surprisingly powerful.  
The bass plays and sounds fantastic!

edit: I did fix the string spacing too!

31 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

@stereoplayer : The two pickups together must have close to no mids at all. Great for double bass like sounds. The pickups position reminds me of my Kramer 450 B. Must be interesting to hear all 3 positions. 🙂

Since it’s wired stereo, I can eq each PU as desired.  There are no lack of tonal options with this bass. It’s exactly what I was looking for when I designed this PU arrangement.  

I finished my fretless Walnut/Babinga, stereo, heavy contours build.  9.8 lbs

Yes, the A string is off in the pic...fixed.

I finished it today. It still needs a little more tweaking though.

First impressions, it roars! Those custom Tom Brantley tapped PU’s are powerful!
And the PU locations are very distinctive. FULL bassey gobness! And treble crunch snd punch for days. With both PU’s on in stereo a very separated sound field.
I still got minor problems, I have to expand the output jack route a bit...the stereo output jack is just crammed in there. Wire and connections are shorting.
And...I did put in the stereo/mono switch. Very useful so far.
Pics will come eventually...
Union Break, sit in the sun, and maybe an adult beverage...where have I heard that before?

Did I say it ROARS?!

 It’s just what I wanted!

I put the switches in and wired up the stereo output jack.  I have to enlarge the hole for the jack...it’s way to tight and it shorts out the jack if crammed in.

I did give it testing though.  It ROARS! Very distinctive sounding.  Pics to come as promised.

On 25/04/2021 at 05:17, BassTool said:

Those pickup positions remind me of 70's Kramer basses 👍🏼

Yup , Ric 4005, some Hofner  basses and others too.  I was shooting for the 4005 configuration.

44 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Is there not a risk of the bridge pup being overwhelmed? There’s going to be a massive difference in the amount of string movement....

It will be wired stereo, and eq/vol will be set by me.

I mounted the neck, bridge and pickups.  I put an old set of strings on it, did a quick set up.  Plays nice so far.  Just the controls and strap locks to go.  And lots of tweaking the setup. I only get one chance to put the controls where I want them...

On 24/04/2021 at 07:00, TheGreek said:

Wow....

You must feel like a kid on Xmas Eve...

I am having fun. Being retired, I need projects to keep busy. After coffee and waking up a bit more.  I’ll be working on it again.

A few more pictures out order.

I did shielding, and got the neck installed.  The PU's are installed too. Each PU has 3 wires.  The wire routes were tight but I did it.

Received today.  It looks gorgeous!

I started the assembly process.  I had to plug the holes in the neck from my test fit on another bass.

I installed the bridge and ground wire and I’m waiting on the glue to set up on the neck holes.  Shielding is  next.

I’m  very happy so far. The babinga neck looks great with the walnut.

My lighting for the pictures is terrible...sorry.

Shipment delayed...😑

Yes it does, but mostly these days I use my mini GK stereo rig.  It sounds great too!

I did tighten up the machine head covers that are famous for exploding or coming apart.  I used a small punch and tightened up the cover connectors.

I need a couple more adjustments to the bridge but I’m very close to being done.

5 hours ago, BoomTing said:

Do 4001s need strings that light or is it personal preference?

Looking good

No, not really.  It was my preference this time.  I’ve tried them a couple of times.  But, I might give up on them.  As much as I hate to say this...they are too light😕.  
I’ll play them for a while and probably switch them out for a slightly higher gauge.

My 72 Ric 4001. Had it since ‘73 or so.
Bridge maintenance...mismatched screws.
A good waxing is in order.
Clean the controls and jacks/switches.
Clean the case inside and out.
I might try to replace the mute pad that is missing...although I don’t use it.
The strings have been on a very long time...so long that I cut them off.
RotoSound FunkMasters will be going on.

51 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

In the spirit of scientific enquiry, Mrs Dare and I shall be testing these to ascertain which results in the best, ahem, tone (or whether any differences can be found). The participants in the study and the procedures employed will be the same each time. The only variables will be the instruments themselves. Full report to follow.

Definitely couldn’t post that pic on TB!

I still like bass.