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Obrienp

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Everything posted by Obrienp

  1. Obrienp
    I rate D’Addario short scale strings and the round wounds aren’t too expensive. I would avoid Rotosound short scale strings: they seem to have intonation issues, unlike their 34” which are great IMO. For the EB-0, flats would be in keeping with the general vibe of the instrument but they won’t improve the mudiness of that pickup. TBH roundwounds aren’t really going to fix the mudiness that much. You could replace the pickup with a DiMarzio DP 145, if you can find one, which is surprisingly crisp even in that neck position (I have one in one of my basses).
  2. Obrienp
    Yes. The main thing I notice is much less fatigue in my left hand, arm, shoulder and back. Sound wise I really can’t tell much difference between my custom shortie (P/J) and the Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass I used to gig. I doubt the audience notice any difference, unless I am using my Ibanez EHB1000S, which being headless and sea foam green, does look a bit unusual. It is quite difficult to get bags and cases purpose made for shorties but as somebody else said, some shorties will fit into guitar cases and bags (e.g. the Ibanez EHB1000S). Fender do quite a good short scale gig bag for not much cash. Generally speaking I have found the move to shorties positive. Typically they are easier to play and generally less strain, although I understand the Reverend Watt Plower is really heavy.
  3. Obrienp
    I recently sold mine, not because there was anything wrong with it, in fact the opposite but arthritis in my left hand is forcing me to go short scale. They are great bases but IMO the stock pickups were a bit weak. I put a DiMarzio set in which really gave it a new lease of life, plus they were a lot quieter. That mod plus, shielding the cavities with copper tape made it really quiet on standby. The DiMarzios have four wires, giving you the option of clever wiring combinations, should you wish (parallel/series on a push/pull, etc), or you can just use them vanilla. They have a super fast neck and are quite a lot lighter than your average J bass. They also look great with the lacquer style finish and top binding. The body does end up with lots of superficial scratches but I don’t think it is any more fragile than other finishes. Another common mod you might want to do is to change the standard bridge for something a bit chunkier. It is quite difficult to find one in the smoked chrome finish. Gotoh do one but be warned, if you have one of the models with the controls mounted through the body, rather than on a standard J bass metal plate, the top is carved (convex). In order to mount the standard bridge level, the top has a very shallow indent for the bridge. This route is not big enough to accommodate the larger base plate of the Gotoh (or any other) higher mass bridge. You therefore end up with the choice of enlarging the indent, or putting a spacer in so the new bridge will sit level. I gave it to a Luthier to sort out and he went for the spacer so as not to do a non-reversible modification. This required the neck to be shimmed to compensate for the slightly higher bridge. It all worked out very well but it wasn’t as straight forward as your average Fender bridge upgrade.
  4. Obrienp
    Now I love the look of that but I have this:
  5. Obrienp
    Thanks. I couldn't find them originally but I now realise that is because I was using my iPad to access the site. Edit doesn't seem to be enabled in the mobile version of the site. I logged on using my MacBook and hey presto, those dots are there.
  6. Obrienp
    Thank you for your kind comments Ben. I hope you get years of good service from the One10.
  7. Obrienp
    Hi Folks, I haven’t worked out how to edit the heading yet but this has sold.
  8. Obrienp
    Yeah. It does sound too good to be true. I just tried it on the bathroom scales and they say 3 kg (6.6 lbs), so it must be in the region of 7 lbs, give or take. It does feel like picking up an acoustic in comparison to my other basses. The chambered body must be helping a lot with the weight.
  9. Obrienp
    Yes. I just weighed mine with one of those baggage scale things: 5.5 lbs. I have changed the standard Bartolinis for Aguilar pickups, which were not as deep, so that might have had a marginal impact on the weight.
  10. Obrienp
    Sorry, I don’t know how to edit my original post but should have said that I am not open to trades on this I am afraid. I am trying to cover the cost of a recent purchase and I also need to thin the herd.
  11. Obrienp
    Update to the above. The machine heads are Wilkinson, not Northwest’s own brand. One of the pictures shows where the chrome has come off the edge of one of the retaining nuts. The grey marks on the nut are where I have used graphite (pencil lead) to lubricate the slots to stop the strings from binding.
  12. Obrienp
    I bought this Bronco bass from PMT earlier this year as an interim, while I waited for a short scale to be made by a local luthier. It is the ultimate mod platform as far as I can tell. Stock it is a sound instrument, let down by some of the hardware. I have only used it my home studio but it is a lot of fun. I have made some modifications to it, as can be seen from the photos. I fitted lightweight tuners from Northwest Guitars, with 14mm posts. You can see from the photo that I have filled the original screw holes with the old toothpick trick. The electrics have been replaced with CTS pots and a decent jack socket. I have shielded the cavities with copper tape so it’s very quiet on standby and fitted a Tonerider Precision Plus (TRP1) pickup, which sounds great. I have now replaced the original pickguard with a custom made 4 ply dark red tortoiseshell item cut to fit the precision pickup set. I also replaced the bridge with a chunkier item with individual saddle adjustment but the same (approx 18mm) spacing. It uses the same screw holes as the original but is a bit of a compromise. The design doesn’t really allow for enough saddle adjustment to get the intonation right, so I have had to replace one of the adjustment screws with a shorter item and use a spring behind the back of the bridge to pull the A string saddle back a bit. The intonation now sounds spot on to my ears. The neck plate and scratchplate still have their protective plastic film on. Condition wise the body and neck are in very good condition. There are a few minor scratches in the gloss black but none that go through to the wood. You will get all the original parts with the bass, so you can put it back to standard if you should want to, although you will need to sleeve the post holes, if you want to put the original machine heads back, as I have enlarged them from 12 to 14mm. I just fitted a new set of D’Addario 40-95 nickel round wounds. I decided to stick with the gauge it comes with as stock but I am sure it would be great with standard light, or even medium gauge. The extra lights are just so easy to play but I don’t they lack bottom end. Try and buy in Fakenham, Norfolk. Will travel up to 50 miles to handover, if I get the asking price. I have the original box but I am very nervous about posting TBH but will do at buyer’s expense.
  13. Obrienp
    I have decided to move on this hardly used Barefaced One10 to cover another kit purchase. I bought this cabinet direct from Barefaced just before lockdown, so it has been sitting in my studio without much use. It has never been gigged but I have somehow managed to put a tiny ding in the top edge (see photo), it hasn’t broken the vinyl covering. I also noticed while I was photographing it, that they were a little economical with the vinyl inside the top corners and you can see a tiny bit of the ply underneath. This is only visible with the cabinet upside down (see photo). A spot of black marker would cover it but I mention it for completeness. Comes complete with a Roqsolid padded slip cover. You are welcome to come and try it, or collect in Fakenham, Norfolk. I have a variety of amps you can try it with, or bring your own. I have the original (recycled packaging), so can post at buyers expense. I would also be prepared to meet you for a handover within about 100 miles.
  14. Obrienp
    I agree with the sentiment, plus my Gnome is my backup amp. My main amp for gigs is an Orange Terror 500 that has 2 x Speakon sockets, which I use to connect two cabs. In order to have my Gnome as standby, I need to remember to pack a jack to speakon cable in addition to the two speakon to speakon cables. If I ever have to do a hot swap during a gig, I will need to unplug one cable, plug in the jack to speakon and reconfigure the cabinet cables so that they are daisy chained rather than coming straight out of the back of the amp. That’s a lot of faffing about under time pressure, possibly in poor lighting and often cramped conditions. Admittedly I could configure the cabinets to be daisy chained out of the Terror but given it has 2 speaker outlets, I am inclined to think there must be a reason for that, so I use them both. It would be great if the Gnome had speakon out (even a combi). That way the hot swap would just involve kettle lead and one speakon lead out of the Terror.
  15. Obrienp
    One10s seem to be a match made in heaven for the Gnome. I have the basic 200 watt model but it sounds incredibly loud through either one, or both my One10s; so much so that I am thinking of moving one of them on because it is surplus to requirement with this amp.
  16. Obrienp
    😀 Well I was thinking about headroom really. As I said, the Gnome starts to push the 250 watt RMS rated One10 to break up at about 3/4 volume. It is an 8 ohm speaker, so must be getting a max of about 120 watts at full volume from the Gnome. Therefore, I am thinking a speaker rated at 100 watts is going to struggle when you turn the Gnome up. As a comparison I had a MarkBass Micromark 801 that had a an 8” driver rated at 200 watts at 8 ohms and the amp delivered 45 watts at 8 ohms. It was comfortable at full volume but it did have a lot of headroom.
  17. Obrienp
    I used mine for an open mic on Tuesday evening and it was great. I put it through a Barefaced One10 and it was pretty loud, clean and bassy. I’m not sure how it will work with a 6” rated at only 100 watts. I find that with the One10 you can push it to start breaking up at around 3 o’clock with gain at 12 o’clock. One10s are rated at 250 watts and are safe to (clean) 500 according to their designer. Anyway good luck. I am sure it will be OK if you keep the volume and bass down. I found the Gnome and One10 to be the perfect mini rig. The Gnome and cables fit in the pocket of my bass’ gig bag. With the bass gig bag on my back and the One10 in one hand, I have a hand free to open doors, use keys, tickets, etc and it is a really light, and easy carry: easily manageable on public transport.
  18. Obrienp
    You really should be able to get a good pair of JJs for about half that if you shop around. Appreciate it doesn’t change the fact that, if the problem is not the valves, it’s a waste of money but IMO it is always worth having a couple of spares.
  19. Obrienp
    Sorry to hear of your problem with the amp. I have a Terror 500, so I am interested to hear what the outcome is and whether you can get it fixed. It might just be worth contacting Orange customer service, they should be able to tell you how to diagnose the issue, if nothing else. Good luck and please keep us posted.
  20. Obrienp
    I had one about 12 years ago and my lasting memory of it, apart from the mudbucker, was the weight for something that looked quite dinky. I think mine was genuine mahogany, or at least sapele. I imagine they have moved to basswood, or similar now, so possibly lighter. Neck dive was a big feature too. Not saying this makes it a bad bass per se but I did eventually sell it and get a Squire Jaguar SS, which I found more versatile but also a neck diver. Upgrading the Jaguar was a lot cheaper pickup and bridge wise though.
  21. Obrienp
    Ah! Good point. The Aguilars probably need to be rails but I am sure Nordstrand can make custom single poles with the right alignment.
  22. Obrienp
    Well I didn’t use the Gnome in the end, despite pools of standing water. I must be crazy! I went through the first half of the set thinking there must be a problem with the mains supply because the amp seemed under powered . When I came back for the second set, I noticed that the PAD switch was on: Doh! It worked much better once I had corrected that! Fortunately, I brought a half metre square of foam matting so I was able to stand the rig on that together with the extension sockets to keep it out of the water. We will have to wait for Ash to let us know how he got on with the Gnome at his gig.
  23. Obrienp
    You are going to have to wait for Marvin to confirm the size. I think it is the D4 for the 5 string multi scale, which is actually a 6 string version (4.65” x 1.25”). Of course, you have to decide whether you are going to stick with the humbucker vibe (DCB), or go for the Jazz type Super Single, or the humbucker on steroids Super Double. It doesn’t look as though they do the Super Split (noise free Jazz) in the D4 size.
  24. Obrienp
    Yes, me too. Mine (just the basic model) has stayed in the gig bag so far. However, we are playing a gig in a marquee somewhere in Lincolnshire this evening and with the expected weather, I am not sure I feel confident to use the Orange Terror with its valve preamp. I might just find out how the Gnome copes….into 12” cabs.
  25. Obrienp
    Mine are D1 size, approx 3.9”x 1.5”. Obviously quite a bit different. Although with bar magnets, I would have thought they would be wide enough for a 5 string but maybe not a fan fret with diagonal pickups. Maybe the different format does have a big impact on the sound they produce. I’ll see how it goes before coming to a final conclusion about them compared to the Barts. My local luthier winds pickups at very reasonable prices, so that might be my next move if these don’t cut the mustard.
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