nick

Hi all, just acquired this lovely 1980 Marathon. Been looking (on & off) for a sensibly priced, decent Marathon for a long time.... so when this came up on BC, I had to have it. Got a few dinks & the usual crazy lacquer cracking, which I personally love, but its in pretty good nick for its age. Needed a couple of turns on the truss rod (previous owner had not touched it from buying bass new), and after lowering the the action a bit & restringing with a fresh set of DRs, it really plays like a dream. The jacksockets are a bit dicky, going to to rewire & replace with a mono switchcraft, and probably going to rewire the pickup in series (currently wired parallel) along with upgrading the slightly crackly 100k(?) pots to CTS ones.

I do like the Jumbo Tonebender & Wooly Mammoth, very different to each other.... but my favourite at the moment is a Maestro Brassmaster clone I built. However next planned build is a 'Violet Rams Head' Big Muff clone with mid control, so that could be the one for me....

I put an MM neck, a cream pearloid scratchplate & an EMG on my sonic blue Ryder body, strung with black nylons.... gig it regularly. It's a good bitsa & made a fairly decent P-Bass.

Off the top of my head....Ian Astbury, Will Sargeant, Hooky, Nick Mason, Shaun & Paul Ryder.

A small discreet voltage doubler (9v to 18v), negating the need to have two batteries, and could also be retro-fitted to existing intalled EMGs, would have been more useful.

Been considering a Promethean for a while. The new Promethean model makes the Beta Alvin manufactured Harley Benton BA500H seem more appealing to me now.

Hi Iain, Welcome & hope you enjoy the forum! Cheers Nick

Martin bought a Seymour Duncan 'Quarter Pounder' off me. Prompt payment, good coms - what's not to like? Top man - recommended. Thanks Nick

Paul bought a P-Bass body off me. Straightforward sale no messing about, the kind of deal everybody likes. Recommended. Cheers Nick

[quote name='leroybasslines' timestamp='1325189539' post='1480808'] They look excellent value for money! Trouble is, when a company like this only has an eBay store and doesn't say much about their product I get suspicious! How come they're so cheap? Where are they made? Can they do custom requests, etc? I'd be delighted if someone has dealt with Seco Guitars before and could recommend them...especially for fifty quid! [/quote] Hi Liam, hope you're well mate. Have you considered Mighty Mite? I've got one on a Sue Ryder bitsa P-Bass, its a decent neck for the money. Give us a shout if you want to check it out. Cheers Nick

[i]Another recommendation for Status flats. I've converted to them from La Bellas, find them a bit more focused in the mids & they're about half the price.[/i] [i]Webstrings are good also, old school thumpy tone.[/i]

Initially bought it, just to sell on, but I loved the U-profile neck so much, I decided to keep it. Had the pickups rewound by Wizard, rewired it & changed the bridge. Frequently take it out & no issues gigging it, when I fancy a change from P-Bass. It's certainly more than paid for itself!

Along with Fender CIJ/MIJ, don't discount old Tokai Hardpunchers if you come across any on your hunt for the perfect P-Bass.

Big Bass Man bought a set of La Bellas off me. A typical no-nonsense Yorkshire man deal....he's also named Nick - what's not to like Recommended without hesitation.

Steve, Bought a set of La Bellas from me. Lightning fast payment, crystal clear coms - the guy's a credit to the BC Market Place. Recommended. Nick

Fretless tips [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VokAbAfTfCc&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VokAbAfTfCc&feature=related[/url]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1322237842' post='1448472'] ue to a deal I cut with a local shop to supply them with instruments, I'm not shipping out as many as I am bringing in, so for the first time have an excess of boxes. So if you want one of two, come collect from The DoomHäus in Greenbank/Easton. [/quote] Need one or two bass boxes if you've got them mate. PM you in a little while.

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1322153480' post='1447328'] You didn't say which generation pedal you have - but the problem got worse when they moved to the PCB surface mounted switch. The original Swedish non true bypass versions were superior in the fact that they have flying cables going to the switch which meant any duff switches could be replaced easily. Now that the switches on the true bypass versions are soldered directly to the board, it makes replacement very difficult unless you have some smart arsed solder sucker. You're just as well getting a new switch (make sure it will fit in the cavity between the pedal top and the circuit inside) and attach it to the circuit using flying leads after you have cut the existing switch out. It's a cost cutting exercise that has become a pain in the arse. I much prefer the original non true bypass versions - and this cheap switch failing annoyance is just one of the reasons why. Never experienced distortion, erratic behaviour or anything like that though... [/quote] I've got a first generation grey non-true bypass Multicomp. Despite the warning on Ovnilab about the older ones, mine is still going strong, no issues. Though it hasn't got an active switch, it works fine with my P-Retro.