Bassman Rich

Again, thanks to all, especially Gareth. Unless of course, you're both in it together........

Again, thanks to all. I notice the further north in the country the respondants get, the less 'reasonable/good price', and more 'pricey/expensive' the comments get. And i'm firmly in the 'thrifty yorkshireman' camp!!

Hello All, If anyone has the time and greater knowledge than me (tbh it would be hard to have less) to have a look at this Precision for sale, it looks about right, but to me the neck is 'too' new, surely the front of the headstock would be a much darker browny colour. Attached pic not shown on ebay also available, but I cant seem to upload it, aaagghhhh. (ps If anyone can give me a clue how to do it, it would be much appreciated, I have tried using basic and flash uploader, just says no file selected.) [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350637282915?_trksid=p5197.c0.m619"]http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3876311587999.2137544.1285010715&type=3 http://www.ebay.co.u...d=p5197.c0.m619[/url] Editted to include photo of back of neck, from my facebook account, not sure if you can all see it, but unable to upload a photo any other which way I try http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.3876311587999.2137544.1285010715&type=3

Thanks to all, both here and at Marshall Amps for your input, it has been invaluable. It seems from Mark above and Dave at Marshall, that ideally I would replace all the valves with matched ones. Given that it cost £80 for 2 svetlana winged 'c' s, this seems a bit extravagant as this is my second, back up amp. I may consider this at a later time. So I swapped a couple of valves around, and then replaced the one that was 'most' different to the others with my one remaining spare tung sol, and hey presto, all the tung sol ones sit between 350 and 550 mv, the 2 svets are at 725/740 mv. When I get the chance to put the chassis back in the case, I'll give it a good old blast down the rehearsal room. Ps Mark, that 87mv was not a typo, more like a test lead come off the resistor leg, as when I retested today, it was pretty much like all the others. Sorry to throw a red herring into what has been a pretty tortuous but interesting learning experience for me. Pps A 30 v rms 1khz signal is so loud in the house through my 4 ohm 2 x 15, the mrs had to run down the garden with her phone to continue her work phone call

Help! I had an output tube blow on my Marshall VBA the other week (It was blowing the ht fuse all the time). So feeling a bit thrifty, I ordered 2 svetlana winged c's, as thats what most seem to advise is the best for this amp, and I figured probably only one, or at the worst 2 valves would be blown. One valve had no 'glow' from the heater, so seemed the obvious one to replace, so I did the opposite one of the 2 banks of 4, just for symmetry as much as anything. Now I can get the biassing done well within spec according to the back of the amp instructions, but had some additional info from a very helpful technical guy Dave at Marshall, who suggested that if the voltages across r4 and r11 was above 12mv, it could indicate a further power valve is on its way out, R11 was 14mv, R4 20mv. Now I have measured the voltage across the 5 w screen grid resistors, and they are as follows:- Viewing from underneath, top left valve is v5, V5 and V9 are svetlanas, the other 6 are tung sols v5, 725mv v9, 740mv v6, 87mv v10, 410mv v7, 680mv v11, 430mv v8, 350mv v12, 410mv The acid test, I played the bass, and it sounded great, and the oscilloscope output waveform of the 1khz sinewave input was nice and clear, no hump or crossover distortion on the sine wave. If I hadn't had the additional advice, I would be perfectly happy, but now i'm not sure what to do. Help!!!

To try bring this to a conclusion, If my bass sounded dull or quiet, I would turn the volume and tone (Precisions are so simple!!!) up full. Surely, that means that whatever the resistance/capacitance of the pot, the whole of the signal is going straight down the wire to the jack, and into the amp? Or is the 250/500 k ohms of the pot effectively in parallel to this signal going into the amp, and somehow taking some of the signal to ground?

I ordered a relacement bulb, and posted my request 2nd class (containing the £3 required for the item inc p&p and vat) sent on Wednesday, Guy at Ashdown had the part in the post Friday, and emailed me to say so. He also advised that 2 replacement fans would be the princeley sum of £4.21 each plus £3.50 p&p + vat, so I ordered 2 of these over the phone on Friday. Both arrived monday morning, I had my amp fixed and working by teatime. Now I can't see how they could reasonably have done any more, any quicker or any cheaper, so thanks again to Guy Morel and Ashdown, who along with OBBM cables both go down in my book as absolute stars and top people to deal with.

Thanks for all your replies, I have ordered 2 replacements, unfortunately, 2 x el 34s have turned up, not 6550s, so this may take longer than I thought!!

+ lots for me too, Dave came up trumps for me too, great sounding and reliable cables, speedy gonzales delivery times.

I guess the title says it all, during the last rehearsal halfway through the last song, my Marshall VBA amp goes quiet. Replaced the HT fuse which had blown today, and loud bang when the standby switch turned on. So I took the back off and looked inside and 1 of the output valves has no glow from the heater like the other 7 valves, Do I need to replace just 1, them all (they are tung sol ones), or just replace 2 or even 4 with 'balanced pairs', and if so, which brand should I choose? Thanks in anticipation of the usually great advice I get on here Rich

Played my 1982 P bass on sunday, was a bit miffed when it got clouted by the rhythm guitarist, then again the singer on waving his hands about hit the machine heads and put 2 strings out, on the only song I play a kinda solo bit over the bass drone notes.... doh. Back to the 2003 workhorse I guess

To be perfectly serious, when I chat to a studio engineer mate of mine about bass sounds, he agrees when I say IMHO most people have deep seated love of their favourite songs of the past, 1960s songs especially, and I bet most of the basslines were played on a precision, giving a kind of warm, 'yes thats what I expect a bass to sound like' recognition when they hear it again, possibly subconsciously. Or maybe i'm talking complete and utter BS, only you can decide, but its what I think.

I've got a decent rig so it'll sound awesome and all the records I've heard with a p-bass bass on it sounds in my mind exactly how a bass should sound. This is the truest thing anyone has ever said on here. That, and Jazz basses are for girls and blokes with little boys hands

Not surprised you havent had any takers. It sounds a bit fishy :-) I'll get my coat..........

I got 4 x 15s of a guy in bradford (DC Boulton think?), he said that he got a load of old fane chassis when the factory went bust, around 84/5 ish, and put them in two HH 2x15 ported cabs, they were 8 ohm 100 watt speakers, and sounded great, punchy, decent low end etc, even though only powered by a 50 watt marshall valve amp, played many a pub back room with no PA support, them were the days!!

I have a selection of P type basses, a 1983 maple neck one and 2003 rosewood neck one (both solid colour bodies and stock fender usa pups) that are identical in sound to my battered 47 year old ears, and a home made one with birds eye maple neck, european ash body, and I expected to sound a bit more brittle and trebly, actually is aquite a bit more warm and rounded, maybe its the bartolini precision type pup? Whatever anyone else says, you try a bass, and either like it compared to your current favourite, or not, going thru the same amp/cab etc, and so make a judgement there and then. And then decide that a 1963 Pre cbs custom colour (gold sparkle) P bass with a c width neck and ohsc is what you want, whatever it sounds like, however much it costs (over £10k, eek!!) cos you're in love.