BillyBass

On 29/03/2023 at 23:41, dub_junkie said:

I'm quite taken with the platinum San Dimas P/J five string. BAX Music are offering it at a tempting price but I keep telling myself I don't need another five.

 

Seems not to be in stock, but if you don't mind waiting.  £761 but I think you can get another £5 off if you subscribe to their newsletter, or something, it was a pop up when I went on the site.

I would be interested to see if the stock pre amps improved with the platinum pearl and black models?

By the way, have you changed the B string on your red fiver?  I stuck a 135 in and I might change that to a 140 shortly.

Signed

1 hour ago, Frank Blank said:

Ive just realised, no really, that I was in Peach and didn't look at any basses at all..! I'm an idiot.

There is a lot to stoke up the Gas on their walls but if you gas after stuff like Jabba basses and Nortstrand Acinonyxs, you would probably escape with your credit card intact. 

Enjoy the case, I might be acquiring one of them soon myself.

I went to Peach guitars before Covid.  I was the only customer there at the time, though it was probably midweek.  Much better stock of basses than Andertons, Guitarguitar, or DV247 etc.

Expensive, but the most versatile pre amp available to us over here in the UK, as far as I know.

Before you shield it, just loosely fit the pre amp in the appropriate places and you'll see what I mean about having to drill out the last hole a bit and the need to remove a bit of wood for the bass/treble pcb thing.

If you are used to this, apologies  in advance for teaching granny to suck eggs but...drill from the outside in.  There will often be an 'exit wound' when drilling and that is best on the inside of the cavity and not on your shiny metallic blue finish.  I only needed to drill it out a tiny fraction mind.

Then, after removing a few mm of wood in the cavity for the bass/treble thing, shield it.  

I jumped straight in, shielded it all, put the pups back in and then thought the pre amp would be a quick job but then had to chop away a bit I had just shielded!  

37 minutes ago, la bam said:

 

 

Phwoar!😘

13 hours ago, la bam said:

 

It's absolutely everything about them (apart from the shielding)....

 

The necks are superb. The luminous side fret markers, the high mass bridge, and the tones you can get in passive are unreal. Really loving it. Took some time to get used to where to put my fingers with it being a reverse p, but so comfy to play now and every note stands out.

 

They're stunning in real life too, a lot nicer than the photos and videos.

1 minute ago, la bam said:

 

Great stuff, I'll give that a go.

 

Does anyone know where to buy the copper tape from? And the wire?

 

I did it years ago  on a different bass using aluminium tape I think from b & q?

 

Got to admit, I love this charvel.

Amazon

The Charvels are lovely aren't they, such comfortable necks.

I'm still keen.  I might take two.

Hi @la bamI presume your bass is the Charvel you mentioned in the other thread.  If so, I suggest you shield it whilst you are removing its guts.  The benefit of the sticky copper tape used for shielding is that you can place an earth wire onto it and then stick another bit of sticky copper tape over the stripped end (making sure the strands are splayed out) thereby connecting it to earth without the use of a soldering iron.

Still, soldering irons are cheap and it doesn't take long to get the hang of using them

4 hours ago, la bam said:

 

Hi, I have a charvel pj too and I'm looking for a preamp. Which one did you use? Thanks.

Oh and....pictures please😃

On 25/03/2023 at 17:31, la bam said:

 

Hi, I have a charvel pj too and I'm looking for a preamp. Which one did you use? Thanks.

I used this:

https://www.east-uk.com/product/uni-pre-5-knob/?v=79cba1185463

Be aware, it isn't quite plug and play.  I had to drill out the 5th knob hole, slightly, to allow the active/passive push-pull pot to fit.  Also, the bass treble knob has a long pcb thing fitted to it rather than being loose, connected by wires.  The problem with that is the Charvels have shallow sections in the cavity where the knobs go; this then rises a few mm about a cm or so past where the knobs fit.  Unfortunately, the John East bass/treble pcb thing is too long and though it fits in the cavity with room to spare, it doesn't fit into the shallow section around the knob hole.  Consequently, I had to remove a few mm of wood inside the cavity where the bass/treble bit would fit.

So I would say the John East stuff does require you to have a few tools handy...or get a luthier to do it I suppose.

I like the John East pre amp as it has semi parametric mids and a proper passive side with a passive tone knob.  You pay for that though, they aren't cheap.

I had a Nordstrand pre amp fitted to my Charvel fiver but I prefer the John East

On 23/03/2023 at 09:28, BigRedX said:

 

Like the 70s, the 80s were good at the beginning and again at the end, and boring in the middle.

On 23/03/2023 at 10:47, BigRedX said:

 

Due to the rise of and influence of The Smiths and other tuneless guitar bands IMO.

On 23/03/2023 at 09:32, Velarian said:

As others have alluded to this, I would suggest that the best decade would be from the mid 70s to the mid 80s, so yes, it would definitely include the Stranglers in my book.

On 23/03/2023 at 16:15, stewblack said:

Yes! 77 to 84 for me. A 7 year decade!

Yep, what they said 👆

Early 70s: Glam rock, Prog, Bowie, Sabbath, Zep and Purple

Late 70s-early 80s: Punk, & (what later became known as) post punk, Rush

Though I was more into the Sex Pistols and the Damned at the time, the mid to late 70s had some great disco stuff out of America too.

8 hours ago, BassAdder60 said:

We do Hotel California and we have a single guitarist 

It sounds fine if you adapt the bass line in the chorus and solo to fill it out 

Our guitarist was firm about not wanting a second guitarist but he was a rhythm guitarist trying to do lead and I think instead of putting the effort in to adapt he would veto stuff he found difficult.

We are a punk band/new wave band so all our songs roughly fit into that category.

With a previous band we tried Hotel California but it was vetoed by the guitarist as it was him on his own and I think the Eagles had three guitarists, one with a double necked guitar.

12 minutes ago, binky_bass said:

I bought a brand new Juke HZL120 for my wife from Amazon US, cost just under £600 including shipping and 'built in' taxes, whereas the UK retail price pretty much everywhere is £975, all it needed was a US/UK adapter (which Amazon covered the cost of!) and we saved £375. Some things are cheaper to bring in from The States for some odd reason...

I think we pay quite a bit extra for American goods.  The manufacturers never know how much the exchange rate will vary so they err on the side of caution and add more to our price.  I would think twice before buying something with a warranty I wanted, like an expensive Mesa head, but American strings or pedals are possibilities.

I ordered three packs of DR strings from Amazon.com. (i.e. the American Amazon).  They cost me $102.80 (roughly £85 to £86) which is considerably less than I would have paid Strings Direct.  Ordered on Sunday 5th March, arrived Tuesday 14th March.  Amazon US included the VAT in the transaction and I was not asked to pay customs duties.

I've had a $100 gift voucher in a US Amazon account for a couple of years.  My brother lives over there and he wanted to put a Christmas present in my UK Amazon account but he cocked it up and I acquired an American Amazon account.  Not knowing what to buy for $100 that would be cheaper than buying here, I didn't use it.  That is until I thought of buying strings.

If you buy stuff from the same seller, the postage is cheaper and, as I found out, can be cheaper than getting it over here.

I started gassing for a Thunderbird after watching this:

At about 45 seconds in you get a bit of bass not smothered by other instruments.

The bassist in this band is on Talkbass and she said her bass is a Gibson Thunderbird.

On 03/03/2023 at 11:42, lidl e said:

This one popped up locally here today. Looks cool. No affiliation. 

 

https://touch.adverts.ie/electric-basses/charvel-pro-mod-sd-bass-pj/29437235

 

 

That isn't cheap for a second hand bass, you can often find them for £700 new over here.  You may have less options in Ireland though, I suppose.

I love the look: shell pink, tort, roasted maple and block inlays on a dark fretboard!

21 hours ago, BassApprentice said:

I know you went in with mods in mind - but it just seems off that a £1000 bass (currently on offer online it seems) needs that amount of fettering to get it sorted.

 

They do look really cool though 😁

I would have to agree with you that a £1000 bass shouldn't need all that work.  

These are roughly equivalent to the MIM Fender player plus series basses; made in Mexico but with better hardware: posh bridge, luminlay side dots, rolled edge fretboard, DiMarzio pick ups with a noiseless J pup.  They also have the beautiful roasted maple neck and fretboard and the flash colours, though I'm not sure if these would add to the price.

The biggest issue is the cheap pre amp they come with; if you buy one of these just assume it will be improved by a better pre amp.

I saw two shops not too far from me selling them at £699; DV247 in Romford and 'Stompbox' in Northwood.  DV247 also had a guitar rack in stock that I wanted so I went there.  The bass was possibly a return; it was immaculate but had Rotosound flats on.  Fender stuff always comes with Fender strings, so I'm guessing someone bought it, put the flats on it, then changed their mind and sent it back.

The slight fret spout did make me think in the shop but I thought it would take me longer to drive over to the other shop and buy theirs than sort the frets out myself.

The John East pre amp is really expensive: £285, but its an easyish fit, has sweepable mids and active passive with a passive tone knob too-it does everything I could want on a bass.

So I have spent nearly £1000 on this (or more if you consider the travelling and new strings).  I feel its worth it; the other bass I was considering was the Spector Pulse 2 but these are £1000 and there was a possibility I would replace the tone pump pre amp on that so it could have ended up even dearer.

On 02/03/2023 at 16:47, msb said:

With an oval red pickguard it would have that olive thing happening.

I don't know about Nova Scotia but olives in shops around here aren't lime green metallic!  Unless, of course, you've been eating olives grown around Chernobyl.

🤣

Nowadays, if you are after the old school Charvel look, Jackson or Ibanez might have what you need.  These new Charvels are fender shaped objects.  

If you want an active PJ bass, with a very comfy Jazz sized neck these are for you.  

54 minutes ago, uncle psychosis said:

I like that a lot. Good work - shame about the fret sprout. 

I ummed and arred about the fretspout in the shop (DV247 in Romford) but I knew I was buying this with the intention of modding it so I thought it would just be another task to add to the list.  Learning to do all this stuff myself was part of the attraction. 

5 hours ago, dub_junkie said:

What happened to your J/J five string?

 

Lovely bass btw. I'm hoping to buy the pearl platinum P/J five string as a back up/alternative to my J/J five at some point

 

 

I've still got it; I just use it at home at the moment.  The band I used it for folded a few months ago and the current band I'm in doesn't go below E, so I'm just using 4 strings at the moment.  I'm sure I'll need a fiver again in the future so I'll keep it.  I just love the look of these Charvels.

I haven't seen/played the platinum pearl Charvels but the photos on the internet look good.