Soledad

Nice bass - reminiscent of the early Alembics to me - with a dash of '54 plate Corsa

Brilliant, a reminder of where all our shiny stuff came from: tea-chest basses, castanets, bagpipes... 'If you can't make it you can't play it'. Plus, it's a proper thru-neck Great find - the World needs people like this.

Not tried them myself yet, but been told several times that the nylon wraps will do just what you have in mind. Anyone using? nylon wraps I mean

Thanks for info Jabba You are not alone - I hate tru-oil. I don't really know luthiers but I know a few high end toolmakers (planes, saws etc) and no-one uses Tru-oil. A plane-maker I know introduced me to Osmo 1101 -like PolyX but low viscosity. He uses it on plane infills. Really good on close tight grain. I have a sample of Partridge oil from Skelton saws - he's an ex-gunsmith and knows a lot about oil based wood finishes. If interested, pm me and I'll ask him to get a sample to you. Thanks for info re fret slots - I'd often wondered how. Fine work indeed, would love to see the new bass close up. (Midlands bash a bit far for me though).

correction - I did buy an amp as well. Forgot already

Absolutely, start with the sound and work back - I have the same question but it may be chromes is my answer. I have just put half-rounds on my fretless (D'Addario nickel 45-100) and I'm not really getting the point so far. I mean they aren't smooth rounds (sonically). I'd like the mid and some top, won't get the rasp on fretless anyway. I suppose what I want is max brightness out of flats. Would that be chromes then?

Great place (here, and Kent) - enjoy. I've only been here a few weeks but bought one bass, come very close to another amp, and got a lot of good advice. Obviously the 'for sale' listings are deep dark traps for the unwary... just sayin'

I bought the Fame/Mayones BE4 fretless from Paul - the bass was well described but it's even better than the description, virtually immaculate. Really good to deal with, between us we sorted shipping to Kent and that went well and quick. Along the way I got some good advice and insight on amps and cabs. Top guy, excellent forum member, really helpful... all very good. Buy with real confidence here!

I may be helping shift this thread to the build section... but (bear with me on this) I'm no luthier but have been building high-end furniture for years. The wood merchants and users who know their materials will often hold a board of hardwood up between finger and thumb left hand, and tap hard 2/3rds of the way down with knuckle of right hand. The sound says (a) how dry that board is, and (b) this is our bit - it's tonal nature. If you got to try that with alder and ash (say) you'd hear what you expect right away - the ash is more crisp and a little higher (assuming fully dried stable woods - what is 'dry' is another topic). I've never tried ash v black walnut but would expect the walnut to sound more crisp and focussed, a slightly sharper crack sound. I'd expect the bass to be a little brighter with more pronounced higher mids. I think you can do the same with a finished bass - damp all strings and tap body - compare one bass with another - you can hear native voice differences. There's a timber merchant I know supplies many luthiers and he does this tapping thing a lot. Bob at Timberline, the luthiers here will know him. Sorry this prattles on - but a lot of what we seek starts with the woods innit?

Great thread for great basses. There's a 5 listed for sale here, and owner has pics of original brochures, the fine Wapping High Street price list etc. Those pics would be nice archived. Personally I feel the price is a tads strong... but maybe I'm still on the old money. (A grand... ??)

Just having a bass shipped to me, in transit now. All the big name carriers were similar price and I suspect they share some resources too. One key thing, get overnight - less time sitting in hubs, vans etc. And tracked of course. And absolutely as CameronJ says - after all packing is almost no weight.

My GP7 head is fanned but I only use it at low levels at the mo. Anyone ever switched the fan - I mean add a micro switch on back panel to kill fan at low levels??

Had a 90s from new (Bass Centre of course) - totally brilliant amp section, loved it. Gave it away in a moment of madness. That combo (built-in 15") with a 410 extension would give the new gen 500 watters a surprise I reckon. If you ever got inside a Trace head you'd see a fair bit of where the weight went - the massive output transformer. Wonderfully over-engineered, and very conservative output ratings. Bargains galore out there (though many are well road-worn). Maybe they'rs due for a comeback?

If I'm wrong someone 'shout', but as I recall, amp stability and signal control reduces as load impedance reduces. The amp's damping factor is a function of load impedance and is higher (a good thing) as speaker impedance increases. It obviously takes a lot of controlled power to deal with the peaks in transient signals and the amp is working hard when it has to pull the speaker diaphragms back from the extreme travel of the big transients. (I suspect it's working even harder at the start of a transient, getting the diaphragms moving from rest.) If my rig was powerful enough to always give required volumes, then I'd run 8 ohms in preference to 4 because I think the amp has tighter control of the speakers. Can I hear the difference? Probably not really, until the whole rig is just about maxed out and at that stage speakers are distorting anyway regardless of how well the amp is trying to control them. It reminds me though, we don't get owt for nowt - 250w into 8 becomes 125 into 4, but there has to be a price to pay.

The volume/tone stack on my gen1 V7 don't turn entirely independently - adjusting vol tends to take the tone with it. I don't want to squirt WD40 down the knob stack, and it seems the connection is between the knobs, nothing to do with actual pots. Can't see how to remove knobs (no grub screws visible, probably a push fit but feels v tight). It just seems the clearance between the 2 knobs is too close. The mid pan stack is fine btw. Any ideas please?

It's only fair to say what, and maybe why?

What oil do you use please?, does it depend on the woods applied to? I really like the shape of the f-hole, the way it's a part of the body form, dead good. And from the pic early on, you use the gents saw to cut the fret slots? And some of the woods you use - I bet you know Bob at Timberline Love these build threads, Top work.

A Lakland is around 3 times the price. If you're not pro you don't need either. So I don't need any. Save me buying a new amp !

Me too, so far. Got a gen1 V7 a few days ago. I grew up on passives anyway and modern amps have plenty of tone shaping (too much if you're heavy handed). I expect to spend some more time later with the mid sweep (a smart feature I think) but the bass sounds really good passive, and it's faster to get from one sound to another. Re weight it feels about the same as my Precisions (but see below). Here's the bottom line (IMHO) - a Sire of your choice is all you need. Get one, stop there and work on playing, technique and sound. Changing string gauge or just one cab will make a bigger difference than the next shiny bass. If you want a Lakland recognise that it's a want, not a need... WEIGHT: my V7 - 4 (gen1) is 9.6lb That's roughly what I reckon