Shaggy

There is a dedicated website; http://www.hollowbodybass.com/ - but I don't think it's been updated in a couple of years! Haven't tried the Hagstrom, but there seem to be some very nice designs around at the moment from Epiphone (Jack Casady, Rumblekat and Allen Woody), Gretsch re-issues, Ibanez, Hofner, and Italia (as above). Definitely something special about semi hollow / semi acoustics both tonally and aesthetically - I love my 2 Gibson EB-2's ('58 and '69 "D") but it took me a while to find a really nice long scale one - eventually picked up an '85 Gordon Smith Galaxy (since gone, but if you ever see one snap it up....), and crrent squeeze; late '80's Steve Smith / Goodfellow custom "EB-2" with big Bartolinis. Determined to own an old Ric 4005 before I hang up my bass for good though.....

Retro Mesa Boogieness Part (3): The guitar rig. 1985 “no stripe” Mesa Mk III short head with Boogie Thielle 200W EV cab 100 / 60W (switchable) all-valve head, 3 channel (clean / crunch rhythm / saturated lead), spring reverb, graphic and parametricEQ. To my mind the best guitar amp ever built, the tonal configurability is endless. The later Mk IV and V has more flexible independent channel EQ, but the Mk III had the most saturated crunch tone of any Mesa, dual rec included. Small, but heavy – it’s a full 100W stack in a tiny rig. (’74 Gibson SG Standard posing for scale)

Retro Mesa Boogieness Part (2): The “compact rig” Mesa 300W Walkabout head with the Diesel 2 x 10 TBH I haven’t tried the matching 1 x12 which would be still more compact, but it’s so nice with the 2 x 10 I won’t bother – the power and depth of this little rig is just humongous. My main gigging rig – head feeds DI to FOH, and drives cab for stage sound. (’69 Gibson EB-2 posing for scale)

Time to ressurect this thread! Retro Mesa Boogieness Part (1): The all-valve stack 1982 Mesa D-180 with Diesel Road-Ready 1 x 15 and 2 x 10 cabs. I’ve had a few “big” valve stacks over the years – ‘70’s Orange 120 with custom 4x12, Fender Bassman 135 with H/H 2x15, and more recently; Ampeg SVT-2 pro with Mesa Diesel Road Ready 2 x 15 and 1516BE. Over the last 5 years I’ve DI’d so don’t need a big back-line rig any more, but I wanted to put one together for “projects” (and I just missed that wall of sound behind me too!) Criteria were; it had to be portable enough to stash into a small hatchback, and be “golden era” Mesa (late 70’s – ‘80’s) So this is it – I deliberately went for the 200W D-180 over the 400+ as being lighter, more compact, and less valve-hungry – it also has a cascade-gain “crunch” channel just like the Mark series guitar amps for overdrive to filthy distortion. (also I’ve still got the Ampeg head in the unfeasibly big and heavy category….) Pure sex, flightcased. (’65 Precision posing for scale)

Sold Andy a Roland V-bass - prompt payer and really pleasant to deal with (being a biking bro'....), patient in the extreme when I unintentionally messed him about half-way through the deal thanks mate, and hope you enjoy it!

At the risk of stating the obvious; the only thing that will sound like a Grabber is a Grabber of course! But to get close to authentic look / sound, and for that articulate tone you're looking for now, I'd say a Bartolini or Nordstrand soapbar humbucker (one of them ought to fit the Model 1 sized hole....) with a passive circuit.

Just bought a Tech21 VT-bass pedal off Simon - scanning the above posts he's clearly one of the main BC pedal-heads! Smooth, easy deal, great comms - I first PM'd him Wednesday evening, and got the pedal Friday morning which for me is fastest ever deal involving delivery... Thanks mate!

Bought a Mesa Boogie Diesel 2x10 Road-Ready cab off Rudy recently - great communications and a very smooth deal indeed. Met for the deal at a soggy lay-by on the outskirts of Bristol, where I was privileged to see his entire band and their gear squeezed into a standard sized hatchback.... Impressed! Thanks fella

Good score MrFingers! Fab looking bass - that rosewood board looks almost ebony dark - I love EB-2's so much I have 2. Thread title did have me wondering briefly, as the "D" model wasn't produced until '66 I think.....

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1342870705' post='1742098'] Hit me up when you want the necessary valve amps to drive enough it sounds good. [/quote] This. Something about maple bodied basses generally that demand to be played thru valve amps - not necessarily with drive, just the warmth seems to bring out full potential. I own 3 ('73 Ric 4001, '77 Gibson RD Artist, and '79 Martin EB-18), and they just don't sound good through anything else - I guess maple is denser and less resonant than mahogany, ash or alder. Lovely Ric publicity shot above....

[quote name='kevin_lindsay' timestamp='1342195088' post='1731424'] I use my rack mounted Aguilar DB680 preamp, powered by a Chevin ProControl 1200, Korg rack tuner, feeding in to an Aguilar DB410 cab [/quote] Confirms what I've suspected for years All the good valve gear ends up in Scotland....

[quote name='fumps' timestamp='1342190405' post='1731258'] That is lovely.......well done that man, that really is a pretty thing to behold ! [/quote] Thanks for the good words fumps - gigged her for the first time last night, and really chuffed; proper "big" Gibson sound, and so comfortable playing a reverse-bodieed bass again after a couple of years of gigging Precisions and my EB-2 styled Steve Smith semi-acoustic....

[quote name='jimijimmi' timestamp='1342178452' post='1730870'] Hi, great looking bass, what are your thoughts on the bridge/saddle piece? [/quote] Thanks jimi Bridge was this one; http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&rt=nc&nma=true&item=320925343518&si=FjTLAIZmQ69cF2mHSS%252BmrP2WMDE%253D&viewitem=&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc Very solid indeed , and seems to have more sustain than even the previous Schaller 3-D which is one of my favourite units. Limitations are that you can't adjust individual saddle heights, and a rather limited range of intonation length adjust (though not nearly as limited as the original Gibson '60's one) - on this bass those weren't issues at all. I did find the overall unit too high even adjusted down as low as possible, so had to file down the slots a bit - perfect now. Ideally I'd have placed the tailpiece a bit further behind the bridge, as on the pic of the blue Mike Lull TB4 here - mainly for aesthetic reasons - but wanted to cover the old bridge screw holes. If you look at the original '60's T'bird (my '65 TB IV) you'll see they were actually placed quite close (apologies to tonytiger whose Lull pic I've nicked....)

Never had a problem with the BBOT unit myself, and on a vintage Fender anything else looks plain wrong! Ralphe Armstrong is fairly scathing about them here mind; http://www.flyguitars.com/interviews/ralpheArmstrong.php (about 2/3 way down) I've had a couple of basses with Badass's factory-fitted (BC Rich, Martin), but to mind the best "Fender upgrade" bridge ever is....the Schaller 3D

[quote name='steve-soar' timestamp='1341943119' post='1726755'] Look who desinged the pups. http://cataldobasses.com/ [/quote] Not to hijack the thread, but I used the Thunderbucker ranch p/ups on my build, and they are seriously lush..... http://basschat.co.uk/topic/180496-the-welsh-fenderbird-mk-2-a-quest-for-perfection/

Cheers Col mate - I certainly didn't want to make a clone of Entwhistle's bass (f you Google Image "Fenderbird" you'll see hundreds...), but my aims were probably his too; a combination of the reverse body style - which is by far the most ergonomic for me, the '60's Gibson Thunderbird tone - which is just fabulous, and the simple strength and playability of a Fender neck. I was lucky having the starting point of an already lovely bass, thanks to Bob. Being a bolt-on neck opens up other possibilities too..... like fretless!

[quote name='debwilliams' timestamp='1341178744' post='1714897'] Very nice work Shaggy - but I assume you must be gigging out of our local area as Swansea has NO dodgy venues whatsoever . The Welsh Fenderbird is pretty catchy . [/quote] No, no dodgy venues at all......(*cough SIN CITY! cough*) Diolch for the good words Deb!