philw

Yeah converting the bass to passive might be an option, but we’re actually planning on selling it so having it working properly is much the better option. Do you still have the preamp you pulled out of your bass? P

Hi Phil, Thanks so much for the pics, but yes, it was the battery box end I wanted - in particular, where does the red wire from the battery positive terminal go. If you look in my picture, the red wire from the battery terminal is disconnected. Cheers Phil

Hi Phil, Having spent some time looking inside a Honer Jack recently (https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/481089-honer-jack-electronic-repair/) I suspect the source of your noise problem might be the decidedly messy original wiring and the lack of any control cavity shielding - it really is a huge mess of over-long wires in there. To answer your specific question about bridge grounding, in "my" Jack there is what appears to be an earth wire heading off to the bridge, so I don't think un-earthed strings are your problem (although having just checked the continuity with a multimeter, there's a about 300Ω resistance between the bridge and earth, and that's a bit of a surprise - not sure if it's supposed to be like that). Anybody? And while I'm on, back to my recent Honer Jack post, if you were able to take a couple of pics inside your Jack to show me where the red wire from the battery goes, that would be very much appreciated. Cheers Phil

Afternoon all, I'm trying to fix the active electronics on my Wife's lovely old Honer Jack bass and I'm stuck, so I wonder if anybody can shed some light ('cause I believe I'm not the first to have tried to fix an active Jack). The active preamp is housed in a battery sized metal box that sits in a double sized battery compartment alongside the actual battery. As you'll see from the pic, there's clearly a 1k resistor with a broken lead-out and that's obviously part of the problem, but there's also a loose red wire from the positive connector of the battery that I suspect ought to make its way back into the battery box to be soldered somewhere on the preamp PCB, but I've no idea where - without it, the preamp has no power. So if anybody here who has a Honer Jack would be willing to open it up and take a few pictures so I can se where that red wire is supposed to go, I'd be eternally grateful. Thanks Phil

I had one of those, an Aria Cardinal CSB300 as my first "real" bass. Well, an un-modded one anyway. Wish I still had it really.

Hi Gareth, Hope you're well. That's a very kind offer but I suspect 120 will be too heavy, especially as I'll possibly be retuning back to E for a couple of songs mid-gig. And @Doctor J - you've never experienced a Paul Diello gig have you? There's typically time between songs, while Paul has the entire audience bent double with laughter, to build an entire bass guitar from scratch, so I reckon a quick re-tune to E will just about be feasible. Thanks again everybody for the help. I think I'll go for a 110 set, or maybe a 105.....Keep your eyes peeled for me selling a little used set of strings shortly. Phil

Thanks all. I think the majority of the songs I’ll be playing on the Wal will be down a tone (all strings, not just the E). So I think going up a gauge will be worthwhile - the tension on dropped 100 - 40 (D’Addarios I think) gauge just doesn’t feel right. I guess it’s just a question of whether I go to 105 or 110 (and experimenting with bass strings is an expensive business). P

Afternoon all, I have a series of covers gigs in May where a few of the songs will be played down a tone. I’ll be using my Wal fretless and it would normally be strung 40 - 100, but that’s too light a gauge for drop D. So what string gauge/brand/type should I go for that’ll work for both tunings? Thoughts and suggestions please! Ta Phil

Thanks all. That's all interesting stuff. I had a feeling that the VT 200 might be too good to be true. P

Anybody here have any experience of the Tech 21 VT 200 combo? It seems remarkably affordable and I'm not getting on particularly well with my current TC BG250. Thanks Phil

My Wal is lined 'cause I naively ordered it that way back in '83, but at least I had the sense to specify rosewood lines in an ebony fingerboard so they're only visible if you look hard. Anyway, I soon discovered that, for me anyway, lines compete with chocolate teapots in the usefulness stakes. When I look it's at the side dots (don't get me started on dots positioned between the "frets"! What utter madness is that?). And, well, I sometimes wonder what kind of looks an orchestral string player would get from their colleagues if they turned up with, say a lined violin? Happy New Year P

Me too. This come to just over €2k...

That's a lovely looking bass. The sound hole on the side won't make much difference in terms of what the audience hear. There's broadly two elements to the acoustic radiation of any acoustic guitar. First, the bass mostly comes out of the sound hole, but as low frequencies are radiated omni-directionally ('cause the wavelength is so long - around 9 metres at 40Hz), it doesn't really make any difference where the sound hole is positioned. The second element is the mid and high frequencies and they mostly come from resonance of the "top" panel - which is why the wood type, thickness and bracing technique are so important - and the top faces the audience so radiates towards them. Having said all that, your lovely looking acoustic bass still, like all acoustic basses (except full size double basses), probably won't be loud enough to compete with the interminable dirge of pretty much any six string acoustic guitar. Just had a quick look at the APC website (https://apc-instruments.com) - an interesting outfit that I had no idea even existed. P