dyerseve

I played using two fingers instinctively for about 18 years and was self taught. Recently however I finally had lessons and the one thing I am very grateful for my teacher pointing out if that I wasnt using rest strokes. Now I am incorporating them in to my playing and my technique is much improved. It was an absolute bugger to learn having played a different way for so many years but I am glad I stuck with it as I feel i am much more in control now and the sound is much more defined. I would definitely recommend you learn this technique. see here for an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_CS04_g4K4 I have some exercises tabbed out from my tutor specifically to learn this technique - if you want I can email them to you.

thanks for the very kind words guys. For my first ever restoration I was very happy with the results and this is a bass I will never sell as it has so much of my time and effort invested in it. The fact the it has a truly epic tone also helps! I am currently juicing up the rechargeable 9V batteries ready to supply the EQ once again as I have currently been playing it passive only. Interestingly, due to output level mismatch when using the balance pot blended 50/50, I now have each pup wired with it's own vol pot which I actually prefer over the balance pot..

And replied! All gone now folks.

I have some cables I made to give away. One end terminated in gold plated, decent quality RCA plug, the other with a 1/4" jack. Each cable is 2.4m long and made from a decent quality instrument cable. There are 2 available but happy to give both to someone as they can be used as a pair - I was running them from the outputs of my PCs soundcard to my active monitors. [url="https://postimg.org/image/m9jpekhhn/"][/url][url="https://postimage.org/"]image ru[/url]

and replied - 1 set now gone, one left.

I may be a newbie but I already get the sense this is a great community so I would like to contribute a little by offering these two sets of 2+2 tuners I have from Matsumoku era Vantage tuners - i believe these are actually produced by Gotoh. They certainly feel like quality tuners even if they are showing signs of their age. Anyway, hopefully someone can make use of these... [url="https://postimg.org/image/t6rxtrq4f/"][/url] [url="https://postimg.org/image/fnb3o2c5b/"][/url] [url="https://postimg.org/image/4z7cp8267/"][/url] [url="https://postimg.org/image/xre48p9tr/"][/url]

Hi All, Not exactly a "build" but as I am new here I thought I would share some details and photos from a resotration I have previously done: Before moving here from Australia I lucked out on the Aussie ebay and managed to pick up a very nice and unusual Vantage double P bass guitar for $400. handmade in the famous Matsumoku factory in Japan in 1980. The bass was very high end for its time with neck-thru construction, 18v active EQ, twin precision Dimarzio pickups, high mass brass bridge, more switches and knobs than you could poke a stick at etc. The bass sounded good when I received it but it was 25+ years old and looked it. The finish was a stained wood with a thick clear coat that had yellowed with age. The clear coat has lost all its lustre and was cracked and dinged all over. There was also some playability issues with the neck being very chunky (a 'C' shaped profile), the high mass brass bridge was great but wouldnt allow me set the action low enough for my playing style. It was also a neck diver and the active EQ was very unsual in that you could either boost the bass or the treble - not both at the same time as I was used to. So I decided that when time and money allowed I would restore this bass and add a few tweaks/mods. The first step was to strip the horrible old finish - hot air gun and paint stripper were the weapons of choice here. It was a long and stressful process with plenty of awkward places and shapes to strip the finish from but evetually I got there. Next comes the sanding, followed by more sanding and then some more sanding. During this stage I decided to tackle the chunky neck and sanded it down until it was much thinner but without compromising the strength of it. After much sanding with ever increasingly fine grit I finished with several passes with 1200 wet and dry whilst wiping ther bass down with white spirit in between. For the finish I decided on Danish oil as it was the combination of protection/colour and grain enhancing. Cant remeber how many coats I applied but i was a lot as the wood just drank it up. Next came the hardware choice. I decided to give the bass an update here and went with an Aguilar OBP3 active pre amp - this allows idependent treble, mid and bass boost/cut options - I also specced it with a with a switch that allows you to choose between two different mid frequencies to boost cut(i did this mainly to give me another switch with which to fill an existing hole from the old electrics). The other controls are volume and pickup balance pots and a switch to select between active and passive operation. The switch at the top of body near the neck is redundant. For the pickups I decided on some Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders which combine with the 18v active EQ gives a huge full bodied sound but also provides plenty of punch in passive mode. To further combat the neck-dive issue I also fitted Hipshot Ultralight tuning keys and actually thinned down the headstock itself by removing the facing laminate -personally I think it looks much better for it. The issue I had with not being able to set the action low enough with the high mass bridge I overcame by routing a recess into the body of the bass so that the 4mm base plate of the bridge was then flush-mounted and the action lowered by 4mm. So after installing all the hardware and stringing the bass up I was slightly pissed off to find myself n fret buzz city. Closer inspection revealed that the frets had started to lift away from the fretboard so i decided to take it to a pro to get the whole neck fret-dressed and the the frets reseated. It came back fully setup with new strings and plays like a dream. The neck profile is perfect and the bass is now beautifully balanced. Oh yeah, it sounds rather awesome BTW with limitless versatility and I dont think it looks too bad either: The sanding stage(the colour of the old finish is still visible in some places like the battery compartnment and truss rod recess to give you an idea): [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539442235/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539580563/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539581263/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539945514/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539440915/"][/url] Better get some oil on that naked body: [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539517165/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539516185/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539515615/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12540015864/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12540015864/"]Vantage 029[/url] by [url="http://www.flickr.com/people/69201764@N05/"]justmyfourstringsandme[/url], on Flickr [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539652643/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539647773/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12540021734/"][/url] Electrickery: [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12540028924/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539526825/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539662613/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539526315/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12540027274/"][/url] The finished article: [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12540051564/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539685183/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539546355/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539681253/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539541135/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12539540555/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12540046914/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69201764@N05/12540043074/"][/url]

also, if you were of the theiving persuasion, surely the first thing you would do after stealing a bass would be to take it apart to make sure it doesnt have one of these TrackR devices in it - i mean there are only so many places you can "hide" one of these things in a bass...

I am rather dubious that anyone would be stupid enough to get so close to an active lava flow that they could place a bass body "under" it just at the request of some idiot customer. Let alone that even being humanly possible given that, last time I check, lava was rather on the hot side and well, you know, heat tends to radiate from hot things...

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1472801023' post='3124298'] Having had a slight heads-up on this I made a start yesterday afternoon on a rather random improvisation with a scary feel, taking the Blue Poles as time signature! It may not be very popular... [/quote] Fancy seeing you here mate, it's Chris aka hearingisbelieving from HiFi Wigwam. Thought it was about time I joined a bass forum and this one looks the best one... look forward to hearing your composition in due course.

[quote name='Spaced' timestamp='1472830629' post='3124623'] Welcome. Fan of ...AJFA are you? [/quote] Thanks and gee, how did you guess? Actually it's not my fav Metallica album due to the complete lack of bass but it has some cracking tracks and I do love Dyerseve and To Live Is To Die

thanks for the warm welcome guys. yeah seems to be a great forum. will try and update with some pics of my bevy of beauties before too long

Yeah double P Vantages are very rare and this is the first one I've seen with 2 Ps and a set back. Sadly the bridges in the set necks are totally naff and the rest of the hardware isn't up to much either. However I think they still have the dimarzio pups so shouldn't be terrible. I am lucky enough to have a 1980 Vantage double P but mine is the top of the range model with neck thru, 18v active EQ. I changed the EQ for an Aguilar OPB3 and the pups for SD 1/4lbers, now it is an absolute tone monster!😈

Re. The action, I own an '80 Vantage that had that sort of action with the saddles in the lowest position. I say "had" because I ended up routing a recess for the bridge to sit in so it was then flush with the body and allowed me to get the action low enough for my liking.