LeftyJ

Someone in the Netherlands is selling two (!) Peavey TB Raxx preamps:

https://link.marktplaats.nl/m2254244925

Ad says they're already on hold, but not sure if that's about both. Same seller also has a H&K Fortress preamp with poweramp and floorboard for sale. 

Ibanez always sell a 28.6" set, for their Mikro basses (GSRM20). 

Briefly had a Fender Japan '57 P reissue that I really didn't get along with. I didn't like the fat and wide neck, the very lightweight basswood body, or the very dry and thumpy tone even with fresh roundwounds. Sold it to someone on here who loved it, and had a gold anodized aluminium pickguard made for it (try finding those in lefty) for more authentic looks. I don't have pics of it anymore, but just imagine your typical 2TS Precision with a maple neck and board 

I had two Carvin LB75's for a while that I also really didn't get along with. Both were silly cheap and really well-built and comfortable to play, but the tone was sooo... bland. Just meh. Didn't really care for the looks either. They weren't bad basses, just very uninspiring and dull. 

I paid just 250GBP for the black one (i think here on Basschat) and 350 for the flamed walnut one (on Gumtree). The black one was all stock, and the better of the two. The flamed walnut one had its neck stripped of its lacquer, slightly shaved down and refinished in tung oil. Funnily enough I sold both to the same guy, with a few years inbetween . I bought the black one back at one point to try again, but quickly sold it again for all the same reasons. 

Could this have something to do with the switch from 33 7/8 to 35" scale? Or were all of the early ones 34" and did they only switch to 35" with the series II? 

Definitely the same bass! Wow. 

11 hours ago, Pirellithecat said:

Great!  That's the answer!  Works.   Having said that I think that the Ashdown preamp rather compliments the Ashdown power amp ...... putting the Digbeth in as a replacement, isn't as pleasant as using it at the front end, even with the Ashdown Pre flat or the EQ turned off.   But many thanks!

When plugged into the FX return you can adjust the Ashdown EQ all you want, but it isn't in the signal chain because you've bypassed the Ashdown's preamp section. So it has 0.0 effect. If you want to make changes you'll have to use the Digbeth's EQ controls 

I haven't had an Ashdown in years, but when I had an ABM300 Evo II C210T I always thought it sounded very boomy and needed quite a cut in the low frequencies to work for me. Especially with a 5-string. Not sure if that's the preamp voicing or the amp as a whole, but I could imagine it being the latter. 

12 hours ago, Pea Turgh said:

I reckon a scalloped neck from a 5 string (but only put 4 strings with a wider spacing) would go great with that.

I've got a great idea for a headstock logo too! Quick, where's my sharpie...

13 hours ago, FugaziBomb said:

I always wonder if these passive music man models are successful for the company in terms of sales. It just seems so weird to me to take a Stingray bass and strip it of the things that make it special - the preamp and the humbucker.

Some early Stingray prototypes had a reverse P pickup in the MM pickup position. So indeed absolutely nothing like on the Joe Dart shorty, but it's not weird either. 

Not too familiar with PayPal (haven't used it in years, I only had it for my eBay ventures and it's been well over 10 years that I last used that). How is a Friends & Family payment different in terms of buyer protection?

On 30/03/2025 at 03:04, GR7G5TER said:

Explains why Mr Bax' Linked profile states currently looking for opportunities.

Yes, Jochanan Bax was fired from his position of CEO in January - by his brother and FIL. He'll possibly be looking into buying back the company though.

On 21/03/2025 at 12:52, nick said:

I understand Hosco is an export brand for Gotoh.

Ha, I wasn't aware. I only know Hosco from their luthery and guitar maintenance tools. I have some Hosco-branded polish pads and a vintage truss rod adjuster (for the old Fender-style neck heel adjuster type with a crosshead). All excellent stuff. Never knew they also sold guitar hardware under that brand name. 

That's lovely! I've always liked the smaller bodied American Deluxe Jazz Basses of the late 90s and early 00s and kinda want one. They made lefty 4-strings in sunburst and a pretty cool black metallic finish with gold pickguard. I'd really love one of the black ones! Prices are gradually going up though, it seems. 

5 hours ago, eude said:

Does that mean that a flat board would just be a solid colour?

Probably! Sanding a radius exposes these layers, but I recon you'd only see the top one if it was perfectly flat. Although I expect a little sanding will always be applied to properly level it after carving it to the right thickness. Unless the laminates are manufactured to extremely high tolerances, and come out exactly right. 

28 minutes ago, Russ said:

Richlite is basically made of paper - it's multiple layers of paper impregnated with phenolic resin and baked under high pressure. It's sturdy stuff that's somewhere in between a wood fingerboard an a pure phenolic one. 

The boards on my Status basses are too - you can clearly see the layers thanks to the fingerboard radius. This is my 2012 S2 Classic 5, after applying a little WD40:

This "overengineering" can be quite apparent in wooden necks too, and the difference can be quite substantial. I've had 4 and 5 string versions of several of my basses, and despite sharing the exact same specs in terms of woods, electronics and construction, they always sounded different: the 5-strings have always sounded tighter and slightly harsher, without the warmth that the 4-strings exhibited. The only difference was in the neck, which was always more rigid (and just simply contained more wood) than the 4-string counterparts.

My graphite necks are actually the exception here, because the necks on my Status S2 Classic 4 and 5 are more or less "hollow" shells.

It was most apparent in my Ibanez ATK's, of which I've had two ATK300 4-strings and one ATK305 5-string (and at one point I've had a second 305 at home that was passing through, so I could compare them). The 5-string necks were much more rigid and those 5-strings lacked the beef of the 4-strings and had more brittle top end than the 4-strings despite being 100% identical in every other way. 

19 hours ago, martthebass said:

Sure I saw something on YT where a guy had both the CW1 and the newer all-wood CW2 and played them against each other.  Sorry, it was the S2 classic vs the S23.

That's @lowregisterhead of this parish  

@woodyratm mentioned having both a CW1 and CW2 and talked about doing a comparison video, so you're probably not crazy.

37 minutes ago, Owno said:

 

You’ve got the wrong guy, I’m just a random Swedish basist and my name is not Tim.

Oh, lol! I'm on a Dutch bass forum too, and there's a guy there with the username Owjeej which would more or less translate to Owno (oh no) phonetically, who just bought a Mullarkey too. Quite the coincidence! 

The only thing off was your mention of a Serek, when he compared his to a Mustang instead on our Dutch forum 

On 17/03/2025 at 21:58, Lozz196 said:

A few years ago I put a Badass bridge on a 51 Reissue Precision. To me it modernised the sound, emphasising the highs and tightening the lows. Not to a point where it would be noticeable in a band mix, just at home volumes. 

This sums up my experience on my Fender MIJ 1975 Jazz Reissue pretty well too. 

Slightly enhanced brightness, tighter lows, somewhat diminished fundamental - and to me, no perceived boost in sustain / note decay. I do like it a lot, it's been on that bass for some 15 years now and it's not coming off any time soon 

27 minutes ago, Russ said:

I mentioned them earlier, but Aristides seem to be doing some interesting stuff with composites - not sure what their "Arium" material is (I suspect some kind of stabilised fibreglass), but it's apparently a lot more stable than wood, and they seem to be selling a lot of instruments... 

The bio on their site is quite ambiguous about it, but the concept was in fact designed by this guy, who founded Catalyst Guitars. He called the material he came up with "SoundCompound", which was cast around a carbon graphite base structure. Aristides' bio doesn't mention a previous company using it, and only names "a team of Dutch scientists at Delft Technical University", but Catalyst were a pretty cool company. Their designs were more traditional than what Aristides does, but the technical concept was definitely very cool: Catalyst Instruments est 1996. – Jedistar

Done! 

Will you be sharing the results of your survey / thesis once it's done? Might be an interesting read. 

On 15/03/2025 at 01:45, PaulThePlug said:

Just watching that and thinking the same... layed back fender-esq headstock.

Ibanez Made Roland Synth Controler

Fujigen yes, Ibanez no.

The Roland G33 is more related to Greco, and borrows some features from the GOB-II range. Ibanez (Hoshino Gakki) and Greco (Kanda Shokai) did work together and share some designs between them for a while, and both had their manufacturing done at Fujigen Gakki.

Modified Roland G33 midi bass

Edit: not midi but it does have a hexaphonic pickup to hook it up to a bass synth.

On 13/03/2025 at 12:24, Owno said:

New bass day! I acquired this Wilcock Mullarkey yesterday and took it with me to rehearsal - what a lovely and well-built instrument! Dare I say even better than my Serek…

It only just struck me that "Owno" and "Owjeej" are in fact the same guy. Hi Tim 

Yep, this one has been posted here before. That's @sblueplanet's. Looks lovely with the anodized aluminium pickguard 

6 hours ago, Cato said:

Given the curren vogue for headless instruments, with several companies launching new lines in he last few years, it will be interesting to see if it has any effect on the prices of the original wave of headless instruments.

Good call! I came here to say Status Graphite. With Rob Green's recent semi-retirement, and his departure from all-graphite necks, I expect prices on used models to go up.

Same for Pedulla and Vigier, Michael and Patrice have also retired but their instruments remain popular.