CameronJ

Well, a lot has certainly been said about the symbols! Have to say the hieroglyphic knob labels make a lot of sense to me. Whether you’re familiar with the symbols for sawtooth and square waves is irrelevant. The pedal enclosure couldn’t be more clearly divided into 3 sections so *at most* you’ll only be thinking about 4 knobs at any one time for each. The top row of each drive section is just gain and volume, bottom rows being EQ shaping. Once you know these basic rules of thumb it’s a walk in the park. And I don’t even own the thing.

In a band mix you may well find the brightness to be a blessing to be honest. And I agree with @Raslee, the stock pickup is really good on these. The version 1 Electras had a Fender shape, whereas the newer ones (which it sounds like you’ve got) have an original Sandberg shape which divides opinion around these parts! I personally prefer the Fender shape but Sandberg have good reasons for changing it.

That would explain why it looks completely different in every bloody picture on the Internet!

Good Lord.

Oh yeah, sparkles seem plausible. It is “sparkling burgundy” after all!

Oooh! Mystery potentially solved. That looks lovely.

The red looks matte too...

Well, for a start, that’s a gloss finish but the photo Andy posted earlier (with both the red and blue in the same picture) appears to be more of a matte/satin finish. What the hell is going on here??

Yes, @AndyTravis can finally set the record straight on this bloody Pelham Blue inconsistency fiasco!

I found that with the right strings, my Electra with stock pickups could sound very old school. I had the first version Fender shape though and I’m not sure what changes there are in the new version...assuming that’s what you have? I actually had @thebassgallery move the 2-band preamp onto a stacked knob and install a passive tone pot in the spare hole to give more control both in active and passive mode - this version of the Sandberg (Glockenklang) preamp didn’t have a tone option in passive like the German Californias so it was a welcome addition. It was a very cheap mod so worth looking into.

You should be fine I reckon!

I’d say the D5 is certainly “clearer” by default. It’s a dynamic mic so won’t require phantom power, and in most cases I’d recommend sticking with dynamic mics for use in your amp. The Sennheiser 845 is a good mic (again, dynamic) so I’d say you’ve got your bases covered with that. No need to get a new mic unless you actually need more of them. What’s the volume level like with the 845 through your amp?

My 735a came factory fitted with D’Addario EXL170s but I definitely don’t remember them leaving any residue on my fingers. Maybe the BBPH is strung differently?

In my experience it’s pretty common to have some hiss (presumably that’s what you mean by “static”) when the treble control on an onboard pre is maxed out. I’ve never worried about it as I never completely max out my treble controls and the hiss quickly drops off when the knob is turned back down a little.

My solution? Buy an AKG D5 instead! Considerably cheaper and way better sounding “out of the box” in my opinion. There are no doubt many others out there but the AKG is my personal pick. It’s so good that I bought its slightly higher end “stage” condenser cousin, the AKG C7, which is also excellent. The SM58 is just the mic that everyone buys because everyone sees it used so often...it’s a self-perpetuating popularity. Kind of like the Fender Precision or Jazz of the microphone world. But as we all know, there are dozens of manufacturers out there making Fender style instruments that are at least as good and in many cases better than Fender. The nice side effect of not buying an SM58 is that the likelihood of ending up with a fake is almost zero as a result.

Baffling that Roland are telling you to use phantom power with a dynamic microphone. How did they tell you this? Over the phone? Via email? I’m thinking something must have gotten lost in translation for them to recommend that. On the mic/line channel of the ac60 amp, presumably you have the mic/line selector button pressed in - i.e. in mic mode, not line mode? If so then there may well be a problem somewhere if the amp is unable to get any signal out of the most widely used dynamic microphone in the world!

Chorus seemingly used throughout and talkbox thrown in for good measure? Maybe I’m alone in this but based on these demos I was totally unable to tell whether these cabs are any good or not...

Phantom power is only needed for condenser microphones - the SM58 is a dynamic mic so don’t use phantom power with it! If the mic sounds fine when plugged in without phantom power then all is well, no repair needed.

BD now selling tort pickguards for these!

@ianrendall that cavity is a beautiful sight to behold!

Oh man, this band looks and sounds like a whole lot of fun! Really enjoyed that.