razze06

Have you never seen a pregnant bass before? That's how you get fenderbirds btw.

PA speaker stand could work in terms of solidity and taking the weight. Still need to build the attachment.

Westone thunders were by and large good quality instruments. As PaulS says, some were better than others, and others again were meant to go toe to toe with top of the range instruments at the time. Pics please

[quote name='JPJ' timestamp='1426522120' post='2718794'] Sorry, I should have mentioned that the new piezos are a lot 'hotter' than the stock Stagg ones, but you can use the trim pots on the preamp board to calm them down. After a bit of experimentation with levels I'm very happy with the sound of the new pickups. [/quote] I have worked the input levels on the amp and the bass, and the sound is good now. Adding a piece of neoprene under the string afterlength helped with resonance at higher volumes, making the bass thumpier and more controlled.

At less than £200, passive, and second hand, I find hard not to recommend the good old Westone Thunder 1. You'll get one second hand, you'll have a smile on your face when you play it, and you'll have enough cash left over for a meal on the way to collect it AND on the way back

I have the original stagg stand for the eub. It has a fork at the bottom, so that you can slot the endpin in it. What you could go it to replace that with a clamp or something like that, so that the bass won't turn when you play it. The bass also has a strap button at back, just at the heel, where it would be in an electric bass. You could build an attachment for a drum stool with a slot at the top and a clamp at the bottom, so that you can slide the strap button in at the top, and clamp the endpin at the bottom. You could make the end clamp jut out of the stand enough to give it the right angle relative to vertical...

I scrunched up a small towel I had lying around, and wedged it under the strings. It did do some good, especially in improving the clarity of some notes. The most improvement was had by lowering the input levels on the amp. The pre-amp was running too hot for the amp with the new pickups, and was saturating in an unusual way. All seems well now, and I've got a wipe-down towel always at hand

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1426157498' post='2714978'] Have you got the foam damper fitted on the after length? [/quote] No, I didn't have a problem before changing pickup, so I never used it. I will try tonight after work.

[quote name='JPJ' timestamp='1421940559' post='2666879'] So having given up on the local dealer ever getting around to obtaining a replacement Piezo, I ordered two new Artec ones from CH Guitars (on the web, but local to me). They turned up last week and today I got time to fit them. They are a much better quality item than the original Stagg fitted ones as you can see from the picture below (Stagg on left, Artec on the right). [url="http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/IMG_1301_zpsaubwpvzq.jpg.html"][/url] They are also a lot more powerful than the stock Stagg Piezo's but they sound much better too, more thump and less 'ping'. Whilst i had the control cavities open, I also carried out the shielding mods recommended by most Stagg owners. To be honest, this hasn't had much effect but mine wasn't particularly noisy to start off with. Now I just need to get a better setup that I'm happy with and it'll be back to Geoff's lessons for 2015 [/quote] I did the replacement as suggested here, but the results are not pleasing for me. The sound is a lot louder, but also middier and with an almost hollow quality to it. Critically, the bass sounds always on the verge of saturation. Even at low volume, the bass now gives a lot more unpleasant harmonics on the E, A and D strings. I wonder if the signal is too strong and the preamp can't cope very well... I'm going to try and change the shape of the coiling of the piezos in the bridge anchor pits, but any piece of advice will be welcome!

The only factor preventing me from gigging at the moment is the lack of gigs, and the lack of time and effort to get more

As posted in the other thread, a HH VS bassamp amp head with a working valvesound circuit would do nicely A lot lighter than the combo, and a very easy carry.

How about a HH VS bass amp head? I have one, and it's light enough. Not pedalboard material, but very easy to carry around. And it's got green lights. I understand the "valvesound" is a relatively early version of valve simulation using MOSFET, and you can switch it on and off. Can't say how valvey it actually is, but it is an interesting sound, and can get very very dirty.

I've also just ordered new piezo pickups just like the ones you have, JPJ. I'll write about my impressions once I've put them on! Has anyone found a sensible way of replacing the <bit where the strings are anchored>, so that normal 3/4 strings fit? I have fitted some Innovation, they sound excellent, but the silk goes down to well past the F on the E string... They look ugly, and the feel under the fingers is wrong. A longer anchor bit is needed. Someone wrote about carving a new <bit where the strings are anchored>, but I don't have the skill or means to build one myself. Has anyone found a suitable replacement?

We do Janis Joplin's Piece of My Heart as last number of the set, but sometimes we do Girls Just Wanna Have Fun instead.

Any thoughts on Schroeder 15 PL? I'm looking at one for sale, but i'm struggling to get any review or opinion. Plenty on the 1212 or 1515, but not on the single 15

The peavey 400 mark III is very loud and will strip the paint off the back wall at 4 ohm with the right speakers. I do use one of the channels for distorted and overdriven sounds, and it's actually pretty good to my ears. You can use both channels at the same time, and keep one distorted and one clean for definition. You can also use the amp as a battering ram, or as a device to locally bend space and time, given the weight I've also used an equally old HH VS bassamp for the same purpose. With the MOSFET "valve simulation" circuit engaged and the gain over the red line it produces a very interesting and aggressive distorted sound, with plenty of attack. And it glows green (it is not quite as loud as the peavey, but weighs a fraction of it)

Interesting, to me they all work in the song. My favourites are the first, fourth and fifth. The slightly syncopated "pedal" one is probably the one i'd find the most fun to play, the last one can be interesting, but you need to see how it will fit with a potential further melodic line in the song, like a sung melody, or a guitar/keys/brass solo. The first one is a classic, not very interesting but could support a sung melody well. Not a fan of the 8th note one, or the emphasis on the 1st root note, although that could work in certain circumstances.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1418318928' post='2629163'] That one & the through-neck Rick copy are what I was thinking about - but you're right about the pickups, I'm pretty sure it's not a Jolana. J. [/quote] Perhaps a late 70's/early 80's Italian copy? Factories in the centre of italy were producing pretty believable versions of various instruments, and they would have had access to DiMarzios or other similar pieces of kit. I have a spine-bendingly heavy strat copy in natural finish which looks to be finished in the same style.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1418300885' post='2628909'] Agree with you Eric. This T-bird thing's interesting, think this was on a few months ago for a bit less money, not sure if it was the same seller. Anyway - IMO certainly not MIJ, never mind Matsumoku, I don't really understand why the average Ebay pikey inevitably concludes that anything with a through-neck is a Matsumoku. I'm inclined to think this is a one-off, quite a lot of shonky details you wouldn't find on a production instrument - scruffy pickup routes, wonky headstock shape, reversed single-side tuners, lumpy-looking finishing where neck meets headstock. That strip of marquetry would be odd on a factory-made bass too. I suppose it's possible it might be Eastern European - finishing on things like Jolanas wasn't quite up to MIJ standard - but I doubt it. That said it's interesting & fairly inexpensive - I'm pretty sure that's a set of DiMarzio Model Js, if so, there's half of your purchase cost. On other matters - two proper Matsumoku basses. That Westbury Track 4's a stunner, these very seldom come up & when they do, they're usually butchered or wrecked. Likewise the Washburn Force 40, I have an SB-40 which is the same bass with a 2-a-side headstock & passive electronics, again you never see these, and I can't say enough good things about them. Hope someone on BC can get a bargain - I'm not buying anything at the moment & would like to see some of you lot taking advantage of currently low JapCrap values! J. [/quote] Jolana made a number of copies of gibson basses (i remember an interesting RD copy), but never seen one with DiMarzios