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Well I did eventually shell out the £200 for a set of Aguilar DCBs to replace the OEM Bartolinis; funded by the sale of my Markbass 801. I would like to report that I am bowled over by the change but to be honest, I don’t think the difference is that dramatic. I hadn’t played it with the Barts in for a few days before doing the swap, so maybe I would have noticed more of a difference if I had. A few points that others have not mentioned: the Aguilars have 3 retaining screws instead of two. Not a big problem but it would be nice if they came with screws, springs and/or foam. Instead you just get them in a cardboard box. Fortunately I had some black jazz bass type mounting screws left over from another project, so i didn’t have to order and wait for extra screws. The advantage of the 3 screw mounting is that you can adjust the angle of the pickup in two plains to get them perfectly aligned with the angle of the strings. The Aguilar DCBs are not as deep as the Barts. I didn’t notice this in my impatience to get them in the bass. Put it all together, got the strings back on and then wondered why the pickups were so far from the strings. I had to disassemble everything, find bits of foam and a few longer springs to get the Aguilars nearer to the strings. It was at this point that I got a bit miffed with Aguilar for not providing a mounting kit with their expensive pickups. Anyway I had enough bits and pieces from other projects to sort it out but still annoying. Funny how the cheaper end of the replacement pickup up market generally come with screws, springs, foam, copious wiring diagrams and fitting instructions. Get up to the refined high end atmosphere of Aguilar, Nordstrand, etc and you are lucky to get a scruffy bit of paper with a barely legible diagram on it. I hope I am going to grow to appreciate the Aguilar DCBs but I am currently wondering whether I should have gone for the Splits. I did consider it but thought the Jazz bass voicing would change the character of the bass completely. Still, it’s a very ergonomic and comfortable bass, so not regretting getting it.

Wow! Those are different and beautiful!

Agree with both comments above. I have lumped in with an Orange Terror Bass now but I would still like to see a user review of the Digbeth 500 head. Who knows what might happen in the future and it has got some good features for the price. I think it is a shame they haven’t come up with some more compact cabinet options but I guess it is in line with their design philosophy for the range: they have managed to make a solid state head pretty heavy and the cabinets seem to follow suit. They have obviously decided to buck the compact, lightweight trend.

My custom shortscale arrived yesterday! Thank you Tony Edwards Guitars! https://tonyedwardsguitars.co.uk. Apology for the quality of the pic. It doesn’t do justice to the burl on the fretboard and the tone of the sunburst. It’s 30” scale, 40mm nut, Babicz bridge and Tony’s own hand wound pickups. All for less than a Fender Mustang (USA).

Just a little addendum to the valve change saga. If you like clean headroom, I would recommend the MG version of the JJ ECC3. It seems JJ have various versions of the ECC83 but the MG is designed to give more clean headroom and a linear response. It certainly seems to do that, while providing nice creamy overdrive when you crank the gain. It definitely delivers more clean headroom than the original Ruby 12AX7 and the driven sound is more controllable.

I agree. The EHB 1000/1005s should get better OEM pickups, given their price. They are on the expensive side for the standard range. It’s not as though they are Premium, or Prestige. I might try dropping the height on the Barts before shelling out for Aguilars, or Nordstrands. Last chance saloon for the Barts. Having to shell out an extra £200 on pickups does hurt!

Pressure to get the Aguilars is growing! I tried D’Addario Pro Steels on mine to see if it would make the Barts sound less muddy and it just made it nasal and muddy☹️, so I have put Nickels back on but 50-105, which didn’t require any work on the nut. For me anyway, the proper medium gauge set sounds more balanced. I always felt the hybrid set made the top 2 strings too bright in comparison to the bottom two. I guess if you slap all the time the contrast is good but not for my Dad rock covers band. It has also improved the feel, especially because we tune down a semitone to help the vocalists. The extra tension makes it rattle less when I dig in. Do the Aguilars come with pickup height recommendations? I had wondered whether part of the problem with the Barts might be to do with the height but I can’t find any recommendations on their website.

About 4 months ago I commissioned my friendly local luthier to make a 32” fretless neck for my (fretted) Ibanez SRH500. Unfortunately he is so busy, with a custom short scale build for me among other commissions, that he hasn’t got round to it yet. I thought long and hard about this, before deciding that this would be cheaper than buying a new chambered fretless, or having one made. You can pick up a used SRH500/505 for not much money, so doing this might work out cheaper than buying a new bass, or getting a custom build. No reason why the neck shouldn’t be a 30”, although I thought it might look a bit unbalanced, even though the body is relatively small (width) for a full size bass.

OK folks. This process is amazingly straightforward, as long as your supplier has sent you the correct valves. My JJ ECC81 is fine (12AT7): sounds good but the Mullards I was sent are ECC84, that is not a 12AX7 equivalent. It should have been ECC83. Doh! The job is only half done but at least it won’t take too long when the JJ ECC83 arrives from Watford Valves. The original valves are branded Ruby. I did a quick Google search on them and it seems they are a low cost Chinese brand. Opinions in various forums range from they are crap to there’s nothing wrong with them. Apparently they have been used in various Marshall models as well. I guess manufacturers have to keep costs down and are bound to source components locally for their Chinese made products. I wonder if they put Ruby in the UK made amps. But hey, JJ are made in the Slovak Republic and loads of other makes are actually made in Russia. I doubt there are any still made in the USA or UK. One thing I noticed while I had the cover off but with mains, speakers and bass connected, and powered up, you have to look really hard to see any glow from the valves,me specially with the protective housings in place. Don’t take lack of glow to mean the valves are dud. Try it all connected before deciding you’ve put a dud in. Probably obvious to all you knowledgeable people but one YouTube video said to look for the valves glowing as an indicator of success. I am sure that applies to output valves in an all valve amp but doesn’t seem to hold for the Terror’s preamp valves.

I put Pro Steels on my 4 string and I think it has made it sound nasal and emphasises the unbalanced nature of the hybrid 45-110 set. I am going back to nickels but a proper 50-110 set of mediums. I suspect it is not going to be enough though and eventually I am going to have to shell out for Aguilars but maybe Super Splits rather than DCBs.

Thanks. That’s reassuring. 👍

I came across a post started in 2011 describing the process of changing valves in the previous model Terror. No pics though, as the links had broken. One thing that was not mentioned but is in some YouTube vids about valve changing, is the danger of residual current in the capacitors. I guess it is not a problem with the Terror preamp valves, as nobody has mentioned it. Is that right, or are there procedures I need to follow (apart from the obvious unplugging) to avoid getting fried?

Hi All, Reviving this thread with a question but first a bit of context. I just bought a secondhand Terror Bass MKII off fleaBay. It is apparently a year old, give or take. It looks immaculate, so I believe it and it seems to work fine. The manual says amp valves should be replaced every year. Given this is a used amp, etc, it strikes me it might be a good idea to replace the valves before relying on it at a gig. So… I have the new valves: a Mullard ECC84 and a JJ ECC81. I had a quick look at some YouTube clips about replacing amp valves (there aren’t many) and they gave dire warnings about residual current lurking in the capacitors. One gave instructions on how to bleed the residual charge from the capacitors but TBH it didn’t look like something I would want to attempt. Plus looking in through the heat vents on my Terror, I can see the two valves inside their covers and nothing else. I have a kind of feeling that the really nasty current would be in the output stage of a valve amp rather than the preamp and as this is class D in that stage, that is not an issue. Am I deluding myself? What precautions do I need to take when changing these valves? Nobody has mentioned taking any when describing doing the swap. Your experience of doing the swap would be gratefully received!

Thanks. That’s good to know.

Thanks for the recommendation. Do you still have to pay post-Brexit import duty on stuff from Thomann, or have they sorted that now? I heard a horror story about somebody getting a £200 bill on a bass, not that knobs are going to attract huge duty but it’s the hassle.

I found this with mine as well. The dots aren’t much use in the light either, they just blend into the beige tone of the neck. I have found that I am getting used to it now and I don’t have to look as much. I haven’t tried it on a dark stage yet. Getting a luthier to change the dots, or even stickers sound like good options. The other great irritation to me was the cheap toothpaste tube tops they used for the control knobs. I have replaced them for about £16 with tele and jazz bass metal ones from Northwest Guitars but they catch a bit on the edge of the indentation around the knobs. It’s manageable but keeping my eyes open for a better fit set. I would be interested to hear your view of the pickups as you get used to them. Quite a few people, me included, liked them to start off with and then went off them with more use. Replacing the Bartolini pickups with Aguilars seems a popular option. I am holding out against spending another £200 at the moment. I have put D’Addario Steels on mine to try to make it less muddy but listening back to yesterday’s rehearsal recording, it now sounds really nasal. I might put the nickels back on it.

I found a JJ 12AT7 on fleaBay for £13 inc p&p, which seems like a good price, so I’ve ordered that. I am going to stick with the valve combo that Orange put in the amp OEM. I’ll just have a spare 12 AX7; probably worth having just in case. I certainly don’t want to be putting a higher gain 12AX7 in the FX loop and DI. I think there was some criticism of the original Terror Bass DI being too hot, so maybe the change to a 12AT7 in that circuit was to calm it down. Anyway, it is reassuring to hear that the Clean setting is clear, without messing with the valve specs. That is just what I want: a warm clean valve sound most of the time, with the option to add some break up when it’s needed.

Thanks. Rats! I have ordered 2 x 12AX7 and no 12AT7. I’ll have to ring them up and change the order before they post it. 12AT7 is lower gain than the 12AX7 and there must be a reason why Orange have made that change in the MKII.

Thanks, that is very helpful. I am buying secondhand too, so it sounds as though it would be worth doing an immediate swap for new valves. I might put the 12AT7 on hold until I have heard how the clean switch performs but good to know, thanks.

I am waiting on the V2 version that I bought off FleaBay. The description said that it was a year old and never gigged… we’ll see. If it as good as everybody says, I am hoping it is going to give me the same range of tones as my Ashdown Little Stubby but louder to cope with gigging. A few questions for long term owners: how often do you have to re-valve these? is it a straight forward basic competence job, or one for an amp tech? Do the valves have to be biased and is that straightforward? another post suggested a valve upgrade would improve the clean tone. I can’t remember the particular valve recommended but has anybody done this and is it worth it? Thanks in advance for any wisdom on this.

I guess if your only concern is neck dive but a lot of us play short scale basses because they generally (but not always) are lighter than standard scale equivalents. For me this is a major concern to reduce back and shoulder pain and compliments the other joint related benefit of reducing the fretting hand stretch. As others have said, reducing the weight at the other end of the lever (the neck) is just as effective as increasing body weight. For me I have found the ultimate example of that is the Ibanez EHB series of short scale basses. I know other headless basses are available but possibly at a higher price point. I have the EHB1000s and it ticks all the boxes for me: lightweight, short scale (chambered body), ergonomic and extremely well balanced either on a strap, or sitting.

Ibanez EHB1000S.