largo

18mm's not a wide spacing in my book, most high-end 5-strings are 19mm as standard. I used to have a Warwick Streamer Stage I and that was 20mm spacing !!!! If you have the cash I'd be looking at the Stage I that's being offered. If you want wide, that is.

If the bass you fell in love with had the ying yang inlays, it was a Streamer Stage II. Absolutely beautifully built basses, and a great tone as well. Growly if you like, or would give the Fender'ish tone you like as well. Bad news is, it's a thru-neck. I've owned 4 Stage II's over the year, and love the instrument. A completely different feel to Fender mind you, so you should really try them out. Played a few other Warwick styles as well, but definitely believe the Stage II is the best of the bunch.

Mmmm, not sure if I should be speaking to you as you beat me to a P5 by (I reckon) 2 minutes..... And still a bit peaved as I was told by voxpop that he would get in touch on Saturday to let me know whether the bass was gone or not. Still waiting!!!! I'd be grateful for first dibs on the P5 if it doesn't work out for you? Back to the build, last weekend I went about building my very own Gramma-pad-a-like. I'll go through this Blue Peter style, so starting with the shopping list. Auralex Platfoam X1 from Studiospares @ £11.07 - I cancelled my web order half-way through and was emailed the next morning offering free delivery if I wanted to go ahead with the order. Wee tip!!! Carpet Speaker Covering from Maplin - 0.5m x 1.5m at £4.97 inc shipping Other stuff I had lying around. PVA Glue, Evostick Glue 15mm external plywood. Got an offcut from a joiner friend of mine. Staple Gun [b]Step One[/b] - Measure Schroeder 410L and cut plywood to size. 62cm x 45cm is a couple of cm bigger in each dimension. [b]Step Two[/b] - Measure carpet covering and cut to size, around 10cm too big round all edges. [b]Step Three[/b] - Spread PVA glue on top side of board and pulled tight. [b]Step Four[/b] - Stapled underside to hold in place. [b]Step Five[/b] - Measured Auralex Platfoam. Cut in half using a sharp meat carving knife. Don't tell the missus !!! [b]Step Six[/b] - Cut another panel of carpet cloth. Glue in place, and then use staples. Most of these will be hidden by the platfoam anyway. [b]Step Seven[/b] - Glue underside of platfoam using PVA. Also used fair amount of Evostick (not shown) as the PVA didn't seem strong enough. [b]Step Eight[/b] - Put on some extra weight and left overnight to dry. I now have what I think a Gramma pad will look like. Will be trying this out on Saturday's gig and will let you all know how it goes. My only complaint is that I forgot to take a picture of this when it was finished, and it's now chucked in the back of the trailer. I'll post a finished article picture after the weekend.

Oops, don't know whats happened to the pics but I'll get some back online asap... You can get a rough idea of the bass as it's the red, sparkly one shown on the www.shukerguitars.co.uk website, under custom options. However, there's also been a few changes. Gone are the red block inlays, it was decided that they didn't stand out enough and so Jon replaced these for standard Mother of Pearl. Looks much better. Preamp was changed to a J-Retro deluxe and the pickups have recently been swapped for a set of Wizards. The Big Singles sound fantastic but the gigs I play meant they were prone to buzzing around dimmer switches and the likes. Sei vs Shuker - I had the same preamp and pickups in each and the set-neck was much snappier and had a brighter sound to it. The Sei is definitely a duller sounding bass, more old skool if that makes sense. I can't make a direct comparison because it's different woods etc. in each bass but in my opinion the set neck has brought out the top end on my Shuker. Sounds much more aggressive, a bit like a good Warwick does. Bass is in a lockup at the mo' so will get some new pics over the next week or two.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='625015' date='Oct 13 2009, 02:29 PM']But why isn't a Jazz/Precision/Wal/Warwick/Alembic/whatever etc good enough?[/quote] Who ever said the above makes weren't good enough? It's sometimes just about being a little bit different

I'm in a pretty similar band to you Pete, and have the same thoughts from time to time. I currently have a Mark Bass SA450 and a Schroeder 410L which is brilliant and I don't know why I really think of changing. In terms of practicality I've been thinking CMD121P + NYC121 cab. Powerful enough, even as a single combo for smaller gigs but can add the other 12 when it's needed. Now for my other opinion.... Get yourself a SA450 so you can tweak those LOW mids a bit or an EQ pedal of some sort. I haven't played the Aguilar cabs but surely 2 x 10" are going to give more snap than the 12" speakers you are thinking of replacing them with. Oh yeah, and the only bass I had with a Bart preamp I couldn't get a snappy attack type tone out of it if I tried. I'm sure this hasn't helped you at all !!!

I've got a Warwick Premium Gig Bag (as new) that someone can have for £20 inc P&P. Sits in a cupboard as I only ever use a hard case.

Haven't built mine yet, but now have everything I need so hoping to grab a bit of time this weekend. My Schroeder cab is pretty much 60cm x 40cm so going to build a platform pretty much this size. Will post some pics when I get started.

Hi Tony As you already know, I have the J-Retro deluxe in my Sei and Shuker and it's a great preamp. The way John has wired it for me is the active/passive switch is now used for the LED's and the passive tone control has a pull switch. So I pull the passive tone control, the bass goes into passive-mode and the passive tone control works. He made it so that the passive tone control doesn't work in active mode (my choice) as I thought the 3-band EQ was more than enough when active. Maybe John could wire the pickup selector switch for series/parallel and hardwire both pickups on when playing in passive? I love it when you say you want a simple circuit (no mid freq control) ... all you need is .... vol / blend / 3-band EQ / series&parallel / LED's .... Good luck with the search Stephen

Does it have to be new? I'm thinking of letting my Sei Jazz 5 go for £1500 or as close to ?

Superb, some pictures would be great. The Studiospares website seems to have all the parts used in their desciption of the product, so hopefully that will work fine. First stop is a piece of MDF, or chipboard and the carpet store !!!

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='602848' date='Sep 19 2009, 12:32 PM']I'd not sell my Sado PJ @ [u]ANY[/u] price. [/quote] If you really want lightweight you should [b][u]sell[/u][/b] that Metro P/J and go for the NYC model with the chambered body.

Well folks, not long to Christmas (!) and our party run means playing gigs on a boomy, wooden floor for 7 or 8 gigs this December. Rather than shell out £70+ on a Gramma pad big enough for a 4x10 I wondered if I should try to make my own. I reckon I could do it for at least half that price. Here's my shopping list... - Auralex Platfoam - one strip - £11'ish - MDF board, or chipboard - £3'ish - Carpet covering - £3'ish - EVO Stick £3'ish - 2 x 1ft acoustic wedges - £10'ish A little bit of time & effort and hey presto! I think I'd have some sort of Gramma Pad style thingy .... So, before I begin can anyone think of why this won't work ? Happy to make a build diary to see how it all goes, although not promising miracles.