ikay

How do you find the Blackbird tube preamp? I'd be very interested to hear some sound demos if you have anything? I've looked on youtube but can only find demos with guitar, nothing with bass.

The original Gibson mudbucker sure had some hefty coils!

That's interesting. Mine dates to Aug 2004 which bears out the switch to parallel.

I think the USA SUB is wired in parallel, same as a regular SR. Mine certainly sounds that way. The extra thump is most likely down to the 2-band eq which works quite differently to the 3-band.

I'd like to hear a demo of the vViper bass but can't find anything on YT. Can you point me to any demos itu?

Happy Birthday! What's it like to be so young, I'm way ahead of you 😄

I found an LM Tube 800 circuit diagram here if that's of any use - https://el34world.com/charts/Schematics/files/_miscellaneous/Little_mark_tube800_sm.pdf

The more I look at reference pics the more I'm coming to think the variations are just down to the vagiaries of production methods in the 60s. For example, there are plenty of Artist models with the same tailpiece and neck positioning as my German/Euro model (1965 btw). There's even one on the vintagehofner site with the same tailpiece position as mine but the same neck position as yours - a hybrid (pic below)! I think the clear lacquered neck on yours probably does support the idea that it's an Artist model though.

Here's another comparison pic - Artist at top, then yours, then mine (which is a native German model). Yours matches the Artist with the bridge being further away from the endpin and the neck being set correspondingly further out of the body. Add the lack of a neck rout and I think it's pretty conclusive that yours is an Artist. Now all we need to do is get to the bottom of the original paint job being white rather than red 🤔!

Just a one off then by the look of it! Re the lack of a neck pickup rout, I just found this pic of a Hofner Artist in the process of being restored. The Artist was the Selmer version of the 185. Most of them didn't have the slider switches and ... drumroll ... it looks like the neck pickup was mounted to the pickguard as there's no rout.

It's all very mysterious, but I agree it does look original. Does the neck heel show any signs of having been redrilled? Here's a pic of mine for comparison. I'd expect yours to show the holes repositioned towards the heel end with more overhang of the body/neck join.

Nice job. I'm still a bit baffled by the lack of an original neck pickup rout!

Ah, well that removes nut issues from your list which at least narrows it down to neck relief, string action or frets. As you've already raised the string action that leaves neck relief or frets. If the bass has seen a lot of use, the lower frets are generally the first to show signs of wear so that's the first thing I'd check. With a fret rocker if you have one, or a short straight edge (10cm or so - enough to cover 3 frets). If that doesn't show up any high/low frets then your probably right in thinking a small tweak of the trussrod is what's needed. Although that depends on how much relief you've already dialled in - too much relief will give you other problems. If the neck is currently pretty much dead flat (or has only the slightest smidge of relief) then loosen the trussrod 1/8 turn and see if that helps. It's easily reversible so no harm in giving it a go.

When you say 'some fret buzz on the 1st fret of the E string' do you mean the first fret buzzes when you play an open string, or that you get buzz when you fret the first string and play an F?

Here's a recent thread that may be of interest -

This article explains what is happening - https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/29161-mod-garage-three-ways-to-wire-a-tone-pot I know it's titled 'three ways to wire a tone pot' and your issue was with the vol pot, but if you look at the 'standard wiring' (top) and swap the hot and cold wires on the vol pot, this is the electrical equivalent of the ''50s wiring' option (bottom). The big difference being that, when the vol is rolled back, the tone control is no longer directly connected to the pickup and this 'decoupling' results in a change in how the vol and tone pots interact with each other. Read the blurb in the article on '50s wiring and all will be revealed!

Well spotted!

It's a beauty. But it does have one heck of a high action!

The 450 series are advertised as being the highest quality guitar pots in the CTS range - are the 282 and 284 series with plastic tracks even better quality than the 450?

It sounds like the freq point of the treble on the preamp is just too high for your taste. How about leaving the treble flat on the preamp and EQing the treble end at the amp instead?

Here's vid demonstrating output measurement with a multimeter. Jump to 4m 30s if you want to skip the preamble.

Do the preamps have any input/output gain adjustment to play around with?

Yes, the bridge pup is surface mounted on the pickguard. The neck pup is fitted from below and has more adjustment. Here are a couple more pics. I have a spare tuner from a 60s 185 and a neck pickup mounting plate. If they're of any interest for your restoration drop me a pm. Ian

The body is a bit of a mystery. Here's a pic of my old 185 for ref. Is it possible that the neck cavity and other channels have just been filled and overfinished so well as to be invisible?!

I've measured the DCR and inductance of the stock higain pickups in my 2019 Ric 4003S which come out as: Neck - DCR 11.2k / inductance 4.0H Bridge - DCR 11.0k / inductance 4.6H Measurements were made via the output jack with the pickups wired in circuit. I realise they won't be exactly the same as if measured out of circuit but should be close. I was surprised that the inductance of the bridge pickup was so much higher than the neck. The wind is pretty much the same as the neck so would the difference just be down to the larger magnet used on the bridge pickup? The bridge pup lacks a bit of high end to my ears and doesn't clank like an 80s/90s Ric. I guess this is due to the current higains being somewhat overwound in comparison with earlier versions. I know that one way to extend the top end would be to de-wind the bridge coil (say down to 9k) which would reduce the inductance and raise the resonant peak. Would using a smaller bridge magnet (or cutting down the existing one - it's made of a magnetised rubber-type material) be another way of reducing the inductance and extending the top end response? Thanks for any input.