lemmywinks

RE the whole "listening with your eyes" thing - with the licensed Barts it's usually the exact opposite. There's tons of posts on bass forums going back to the old Bart MkI days where people were wondering why their new bass with high end pickups sounded underwhelming only to be told that Cort/Ibanez Barts were nothing like the genuine article. Anybody who's had real Barts knows the Cort built Mk/BH aren't in the same ball park. Usable but ultimately pointless when Ibanez can build better in house pickups like the Powerspan or T1.

The mod you may be more interested in is the eq switch from VM3 to BEQ, the two plugs on the left. This one affects the voicing rather than just making the signal hotter.

I sorta do want to own an HB BZ-5000 one day, they look very well made. https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/F-kAAOSwVyJk2mIl/s-l1600.jpg

Mismatched knobs, could it be he who shalt not be named under a different guise?

They're usually about £100 less than that IIRC, there's an identical one for sale on FB near me for £270. The Money Traders in the next town over has matching lefty guitar and bass Spirits in black, been in there ages.

I just wish there was a proper drop in replacement, as it stands you either have to do some woodwork or build a preamp if your electronics fail!

Got the preamp from https://analogworkshop.eu/ installed this afternoon on my piezo equipped SInsonido, I bought this one: https://analogworkshop.eu/products/piezo-preamp/ However the person I spoke to said this might be more suitable: https://analogworkshop.eu/products/fet-acoustic-vol-tone/ Both are £40 + £5 p&p. It comes prewired with PCB connectors, vol/tone pots, a battery clip and a stereo jack. I would recommend buying an extra 2 pin PCB connector as you'll probably want to connect your existing battery clip wires to the 9v+ and jack switch to make sure it doesn't constantly drain your battery. It sounds excellent in the SInsonido, tbh I think with the tone knob almost rolled off (to get rid of that piezo scratch/clank) it sounds much better than it did in its stock form. It's very clean and transparent which is my type of preamp, that's just straight into the desk as well without even putting it through my Fishman Platinum. If you want to get rid of the troublesome mic/pre in the Sinsonido this is a very good option that's easy to install. The downside is that mine came with a notched volume knob that is about 0.3mm wider than standard so doesn't fit my knobs, I assume this is an error and have contacted the supplier.

The TC BH250 is pretty small at 22cm x 23cm x 6cm and has aux in. It's bigger than the Elf, BAM and Gnome but a lot smaller than a LMII for example, not quite gigbag pocket friendly though if that's what you're after. PJB BP200 is also very small (17cm x 18cm x 5cm) and has aux in, pricey though. I was looking at the Gnome/BAM200 but compromised the nano size for features and got the BH250 instead.

Still a decent price really, aside from the pickups and bridge it looks identical to my old Korean built (2002) C5 which has been my gig backup for years.

Is it this one, on eBay now for £125? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335004023994? Says Action V on the rear of the headstock and has more/better pics. I;m guessing intonation will be way out going off the saddle placement!

One of the neat aspects of the Fishman is that if you also play acoustic guitar/bass then you also have a great sounding live rig for those as well. I lent mine (along with my QSC K10.2) to a mate when he had an acoustic gig, accidentally just had an amazing acoustic rig lying around the house! I liked mine so much I bought the smaller Stage version for home use with my SInsonido and little Ibanez Parlour bass.

It depends on what sound you're after really, there's many ways to present your bass to the PA. What sound are you going for at the moment? Any pedals in the chain? Aside from modelling and multiFX there's quite a few dedicated bass preamps on the market now so maybe finding a store that stocks them and demoing a few would be beneficial. I'd be looking at the following - Ampeg SCR, Palmer Pocket Bass, Laney Digbeth, Eden WTDI, GK Plex (assuming issues with early units have been sorted), EBS Microbass, PJB PE, Two Notes ReVolt, Nux MLD, Genzler Magellan. I just need a bit of eq, mute switch, compression and a tuner so use a Fishman Pro Platinum as a single do-it-all box. I wish more bass preamp/DI pedals included a tuner tbh.

I have the Platinum Pro and Stage, they're excellent for electric and acoustic. Prices have gone wild in the last year or so though.

Ah excellent, thanks. I have a piezo strip in there at the moment and it works pretty well but I'm using a traditional acoustic type bridge. I always run mine through a Fishman Platinum Stage when plugging in so the preamp is just a buffer really.

Did you use the original stereo condenser mic bridge tube arrangement or replace it with a piezo strip? When I spoke to Soloette who designed that pickup they said it needed to be powered so hooking up a conventional preamp wouldn't yield great results. I'm about to trail my Sinsonido with a piezo preamp from AnalogWorkshop.eu, just waiting for it to arrive!

Worth checking what type of shafts you have, IIRC my Sire V7 had split ones for the regular ones and solid for the stacked whoch meant I needed screw on and push on knobs respectively. Not sure what they put on the M series.

Yeah slacken the hex screw off and move the top knob up slightly. Tbh I'm not keen on concentric knobs that are made from plastic/rubberised material and also the type where the upper knob sits in a recess inside the lower one as both of those factors make them more prone to this problem. I'd probably just fit better knobs tbh, the East knobs (or the Guyker clones on AliExpress which are always in stock) are a good bet provided your pot shafts are standard 6mm and 6 & 8mm diameter. EDIT these are the ones I bought to replace the junk rubber ones on my Ibanez, may not be suitable for Sire due to mix of split/solid shafts: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001707768926.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.27.787e1802v8RgCp https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002683252060.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.28.787e1802v8RgCp

Haha same, they're some of the better paying regular gigs we do. Playing sets in between bingo, open the box and Joe 90.

Surely this is the problem of the guy you were paying to work on your bass?

Even for the company I work for which only uses a handful of codes it can still be a ballache, especially when some countries decide they are no longer accepting certain codes and your shipment gets returned to you. We have to use a broker for things like that which is another expense, for small businesses choosing between more overheads or increased workload has no good side. We export a lot worldwide but we lost a lot of European trade straight away and what used to be a typically fast shipping process is now much more complex with every item having to be described down to its component parts, value etc.

We do this with our guitarist, lovely lad but can't sing for toffee although he loves to try. Hope he isn't a member here.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/671260178204062/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3A5ce8848f-9c39-46a2-8924-19f197b7b657 Scratch a V itch for not much money

I'd chop the cab part off and use it as a head tbh, probably not worth throwing money at unless you really like the amp. I had the rat fur 15" version, never liked it but our family cat at the time (RIP Timmy) loved it - a giant scratching post and a comfy bed rolled into one! Never sounded as loud as it looked/weighed and was always struggling for clean volume at rehearsals/gigs.

With Elixirs you're best buying from established music shops or dedicated string sites, not worth the faff trying to distinguish genuine from fakes on eBay/FB/Amazon etc as usually they aren't legit. I recently went back to them after a long time away, had a set on almost a year now and they still sound fresh.