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Everything posted by Obrienp
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Many thanks @James Nadaand @Maude. That was what I was hoping. I will take some tension off the strings but not so much that I mess up the intonation: I actually payed a luthier to set this one up as I have struggled with floating bridges in the past.
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Hoping somebody will read this. Has anybody tried putting alternative strap buttons on their Ignition Violin bass? I put Schaller S locks on all my basses and I want to do the same with my Violin bass. The neck button is obviously not going to be an issue but I am wondering if the button at the bottom is an integral part of the tailpiece anchorage? There are also two small screws attaching the tailpiece to the body but they don’t look very substantial. If I unscrew the strap button to replace it, is the string tension going to pull the tailpiece off the body, or are those two screws enough to hold it?
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Lobster discovers Fender / Gretsch are telling porkies about spec
Obrienp replied to fretmeister's topic in Bass Guitars
You have reminded me that I changed the electrics for Switchcraft and CTS but I am an inveterate tinkerer. I remember the switch being a bit loose but actually the Switchcraft unit I replaced it with wasn’t an enormous improvement. If I were going to do it again, I think I would go for a blend pot. Oh and general warning, if you replace the pots for solid shaft CTS you will need new knobs and the genuine US Gretsch ones are expensive. I just thought the bridge was a bit ticky-tacky, not necessarily that it didn’t do the job. I wondered how long it would last. -
Lobster discovers Fender / Gretsch are telling porkies about spec
Obrienp replied to fretmeister's topic in Bass Guitars
Wow, the debate is getting a little heated here. I thought the pickups in my G2220 sounded pretty good: not like anything else I had tried. I seem to recall they were very hot and I assumed that was the cause of some of the hum. Now I know they are single coil, it explains it. There is a lot of comment on TB about how noisy these basses are and quite a lot of that predates Lobster’s “revelation”. I guess it is a bit underhand of Gretsch/Fender to claim they are humbuckers when they aren’t but I don’t really understand why they did that. Funnily, the pickups are the last thing about this bass that I would have wanted to change. The bridge was the weakest link IMO but easily changed for modern Fender style 5 hole design. The machine heads were a bit vague but functional. I did change mine for Gotohs but it wasn’t really essential. Generally, it is a good little bass for not a lot of money. The fellow BassChatter who bought mine found he didn’t get on with the slab body and moved it on but if you can cope with that (and neck dive), I wouldn’t let the type of pickup put you off. A bit of copper tape shielding should calm the noise down. -
The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
I think you must be talking about the Variax bass there. Look how quickly they discontinued that. I can only assume that was because us bassists actually like owning multiple instruments, or was the modelling bad? I doubt the latter, if my Variax guitar was anything to go by: most of the models were brilliant. The weird thing was that the Variax may have sounded like multiple different guitar models but it didn’t feel like them. Maybe that’s why we like to own multiple instruments: they don’t just sound different, they feel different too. I think the difference in feel affects the way you play and that in turn probably affects tone as well. -
The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Obrienp replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
I’ve just put 50-100 LaBella Beatle Bass flats on my Ignition Violin bass. It might not be possible to say your much better built Contemporary Club will be the same but the slots in the nut were wide enough for the heavier gauge LaBellas out of the box. The nut still needed tidying up because the strings weren’t breaking at a good angle but the slots were wide enough. This will probably attract lots of criticism but where I have been going up a gauge and found the nut too tight, I have used a round wound string (of the correct size) as a nut file. I have found this effective even on proper bone nuts but you have to use a gentle touch and don’t press down hard unless you are sure you want to lower the string height at the nut. I have to agree with scrumpymike: I’m not sure you are going to get the sound you want out of a Club, even with the centre block in the Contemporary model and especially with flats. Good luck though. I hope it works. -
A used pair of Bartolini BH2 pickups removed from my Ibanez EHB1000S. In very good used condition. Price includes P&P but you are welcome to collect from Fakenham, Norfolk. Would trade for quality 4 conductor MM 4 string pickup, like Bartolini MMC4, or Nordstrand/Aguilar equivalent, with cash top up as required.
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This is a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Jazz Bass bridge pickup (4 string). I put it into an Aerodyne J-Bass for about a week before deciding to sell the bass and putting back the DiMarzio it had in it before. Consequently the pickup is hardly used and is in very good condition. I did use the mounting foam though, so that is missing. The screws are there and I can throw in some springs if you would like. The price includes P&P but you are welcome to collect from Fakenham, Norfolk.
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This is a hand wound '51 P-Bass pickup, with 5 lead wiring allowing for parallel/serial switching of the coils. Essentially the pickup has been divided into two coils: one for the top two strings and the other for the lower two, so you can wire it as a standard single coil or a later P-Bass type split coil. The pickup has been used but is in good condition. I put some cloth tape wrapping on as the coils were exposed originally but that would be easily removed if you prefer to see the wiring. The specs are in the second picture. It's 12.42 Kohm output. This cost me over £70. Priced for a quick sale. Inc P&P but you are welcome to collect from Fakenham, Norfolk
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One unused, unopened pack of D'Addario Flex Steels for 4 string long scale bass. These are round wound medium gauge. I believe these are no longer made as I couldn't find this exact model on any of the usual UK string dealers' sites. The price includes p&p but you are welcome to collect from Fakenham, Norfolk.
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One unused, unopened set of D'Addario short scale, super light gauge, nickel round wound strings for 4 string bass. These are the gauge fitted to Squier shorties like the Bronco and the discontinued Jaguar SS but IMO better being D'Addario. The price includes P&P but you are welcome to collect from Fakenham, Norfolk. Now £21.
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I am sure you are sorted by now but I only just saw this. Towards the bottom of this page: http://www.projectguitarparts.co.uk/Pages/hofnerparts.html.
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I don’t know. Instinct tells me light tension would not be ideal on a shortie but I have to admit I haven’t tried. I have Labella Black Nylon tapes on a fretless acoustic bass and they are a bit slappy compared to the original round wound bronze D’Addarios. I have LaBella standard tension flats on a solid bodied custom shortie and they feel quite stiff compared to the D’Addario Nickel round wounds I had on it before. Maybe medium tension might be worth a try but I guess not if you really dig in and like a super low action. The trouble is with LaBellas, if you get the wrong ones it’s quite an expensive mistake!
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There seems to be a lot of love over on TalkBass for Low Tension Flats. I assume they mean LaBella for the LTFs. Personally the idea of LTFs on a short scale sounds like a recipe for lots of rattle but there you go. I have also seen a few pics of Acinonyx fitted with black nylon flats but I have no idea what make. I haven’t got my Acinonyx yet, so I can’t vouch for these suggestions. I would be interested to hear what you try and how they work.
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IBANEZ TALMAN TMB35 SHORT SCALE 5 STRING BASS - *SOLD*
Obrienp replied to Obrienp's topic in Basses For Sale
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I’ve been thinking about one of these too, as I am struggling a bit with my 5 string and 19mm string spacing basses these days: so much so I have put my 5 string up for sale. I would be interested to know if you settled on one and how you found it? Very few web sites give full specs but it seems from one of the box shifter sites that the Ignition models have a marginally less deep neck at the 12th fret than the Contemporary and German built models. However, I have seen so many errors on shop websites, that I take them with a pinch of salt. I guess the other thing is, if you think you are going to keep the bass, you can always shave the neck a bit. Most modern builds with a decent truss rod can take it. Some people say this affects the tone but I would have thought a few millimetres won’t make a significant difference.
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This is a fantastic bass and can’t be beaten for the money, IMO. I would love to hold onto it but unfortunately the 5 string stretch is just too much for my arthritic left hand. I am having to resign myself to sticking to 4 string shorties. It’s a shame as I have only owned it for a few months and have hardly used it. The full standard spec can be found here on the Ibanez website: https://www.ibanez.com/na/products/detail/tmb35_1p_01.html. Essentially it is a 30” scale 5 string with a 45mm nut and quite chunky neck. The Precision pickup is surprisingly good for the price point IMO. The jazz is a bit weak but works well to blend in a bit of brighter tone to the P when you need it. The standard strings are fine for nickel rounds and it has a nice low action. I have done a few upgrades: completely rewired and shielded, with Alpha potentiometers, with a pickup blend instead of the second volume and a push/pull volume that switches the combined pickups between parallel and series. The pickups in series is like the “all-in” option on the Nordstrand Acinonyx, it effectively makes them into a big humbucker. This boosts the bass and mids, while retaining a slightly clipped top end. It also boosts the volume a bit. Note in series mode the blend control does nothing unless you turn it all the way to the bridge pickup, when it acts as a mute. The copper shielding, plus ground wires everywhere (see pic) completely removes the single coil hum that is a downside of the standard TMB35. I have also replaced the standard bridge with a Fender high mass item and changed the standard plastic knobs for metal. Condition wise, the only mark I can find is a tiny white mark on the back of the headstock (see pic). Otherwise it is in as new condition. I have priced at what I think is reasonable for a quick sale, given I spent more than £80 on component upgrades and these retail for around £220 at the moment. I will provide the original bridge and plastic knobs. You really don’t want the original pots and jack socket. It does not have a case or gig bag. I would prefer a cash sale but would consider a trade for a good condition Hofner Violin bass with extra cash from my side depending on model and condition. Sorry, I can’t afford the extra for a German made model. You can try and buy in Fakenham, Norfolk. Not convenient for most I know, so I will travel to handover/meet around 60 miles, or so. I have the original box, so can ship to UK addresses at buyer’s expense. It’s going to be somewhere between £30-35 by UPS with insurance, I would guess. UPS is a bit more expensive but they do seem more reliable than a lot of others. I’ve had some bad experiences with the usual culprits.
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Working on a strict one-in, one-out basis, I am reluctantly putting up for sale my Ibanez EHB1000S in Sea Foam Green. This bass has only been gigged 4 times and is in very good condition. I have replaced the OEM Bartolini pickups with Aguilar DCBs. This is a solderless conversion (see photo) using connector blocks, making it easy to reverse, or fit a different set of pickups. In addition to the Aguilar pickups, I have replaced the plastic knobs with metal ones and put 50-105 D’Addario nickel rounds on it, which seem more balanced than the hybrid set it came with. Condition wise neck, frets and fretboard are all perfect as far as I can see. There are a few little dings on the residual headstock from changing the strings: almost impossible to avoid IMO. The top of the headstock is a little faded at the corners (see pic), I think from rubbing in the gig bag, as I haven’t bashed, or scraped it. The body is perfect except for one tiny paint chip by the front strap button, where it came unscrewed (also pictured). I have glued in a bit more wood into the hole and put a dab of wood glue on the screw, so I don’t think it is going to come out again, unless you deliberately unscrew it. The full spec can be found here on the Ibanez website: https://www.ibanez.com/na/products/detail/ehb1000s_1p_01.html. Briefly it is a 30” scale, extremely ergonomically designed instrument. Plenty of contours and a super light chambered body mean you can play it for hours without discomfort. It balances really well on a strap with no perceivable neck dive. It’s 41mm at the nut, so it’s not going to feel cramped, if you like a P Bass but because the neck profile is quite a shallow D, those of us with short fingers don’t struggle either. An advantage of the headless design is you use standard length strings, clamp them and then cut off the excess. This means you have a much greater choice of strings for a shorty and you don’t have to pay the short scale premium. Pricing: I haven’t been able to find any precedents, so I’ll explain how I got to my asking price. These retail for £799-830 according to my research. I paid £800. Because it has a few marks (as described) I would bring it down to 3/4 of new price (£600). However, I paid £220 for the Aguilars, £30 for the metal knobs and £25 for the strings. Strings I discount completely, ditto the knobs but £95 seems a bargain for the Aguilars. Obviously it will come with the stock gig bag and the unused finger ramp. This is priced to sell quickly but obviously you are welcome to make an offer. You will get the original knobs and strings. For the asking price I’ll throw in the OEM Barts. This is a one-in, one-out, so I’m not really interested in a trade. The only thing I might go for would be a a similar condition Hofner Contemporary Violin bass with extra cash from your side. You can try and buy in Fakenham, Norfolk. Not convenient for most I know, so I will travel to handover/meet around 60 miles, or so. I have the original box, so can ship at buyer’s expense. It’s going to be around £30-35 by UPS with full insurance.
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I guess you are referring to the +6DB port. Funny, I tried that on another Ibanez I had but didn’t think of doing it with the EHB1000S. Doh! However, I am happy with the Aguilars now; so much so, that I never use the active circuitry.
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Chowny/Retrovibe to become fully UK brands
Obrienp replied to BassApprentice's topic in Bass Guitars
Thank you for such a thorough explanation of your position and the difficulties you have in producing a product in this globalised economy. I think we are all grateful to you that you keep on going despite what seems like a Herculean task. I think you have a lot of plus points on your side: the environmental aspect of buying locally; first world production at less than US prices; different designs; improved quality and features. Yes, it does put your instruments in a different price bracket but they still represent value for money IMO. I hope plenty of punters will be able to raise the cash and I wish you success.