3below

removed - sorry double post

Not my main bass, but EKO acoustic bass, circa 1980, Original Rotosound Trubass still on it & still sound good. Played it a lot during the early / mid 80s in a Folk band. That was 2 gigs with 3 hours playing time most weeks of the year. The good old days of plentiful well paid gigs. Sigh! TI flats on G&L 5 years?

If its going to be a full off road 4x4 then Defender 110 is the business. We enjoyed our 3 Land Rovers, great fun and smile factor. Nowadays we do 25,000 miles a year in Honda CRVs, tow 1 1/2 Tonnes regularly, get 33mpg towing, change them each year with minimal loss - way cheaper than leasing. Ultra reliable, all mod cons but you have to be careful with interior. Faults - well the boot lid on the current one does not close as well as the others, must mention it sometime, do NOT buy red non metallic - warning - soft paint, show it a stone and it chips.

These basses are outrageous, should not be allowed, damage the credibility of qualiity basses etc - but really as I get older I see less and less difference between so called premium mainstream instruments ( I exclude Alembics, custom luthier stuff, Wals etc here) and the SR bass. Alder Body; Fender - check, Body through stringing: Fender - sometimes, Maple neck + skunk stripe: Fender: check (most of the time); High mass bridge; Fender - Sometimes, can be bought as optional cost extra. Wood is wood. The only concern could be long term neck stability, but it is a tried and tested design (Fender Jazz necks?) So apart from a setup (if needed), possible pots (£5), pickup change to taste and strings what is the difference? SR basses right on - I want 4 or 5 when swmbo lets me. WHY - damage, theft, scope for modding - who cares at £60 and its all to a good cause. Where is the SR Jazz, Tele/early P. Owners of Alembic/Warwick/Rickenbacker/Your bass start worrying

Dates define what it, is as manufacturers change models (like cars we are drawn in). The date helps define what we are playing / selling. So if you say G&L SB1 I do not know which variant you are discussing, and they are quite different. Yours may be a completely different bit of kit to mine. If you say 85 G&L SB1 it is probably the same as mine, but I still need more deatail, it might have been a model change year. Bit like cars again Edited for capitals & punctuation - and I'm a teacher, just can't get the staff these days.

Bought mine s/h in 1980 or thereabouts , blue 4001, 1977 build. Used it 3 ~ 4 times a week for 10 years in 3+ hours folk gigs ( and rock & blues jobbies). Indestructible at the time, super neck, real nice shape for my (small) hands, well finished, nicely made, great tone. Over the years it was ultra reliable, stayed in tune and suffered minimal fretwear with RS66 roundwounds. Later big issues: paint sinkage, you could really see the neck / body laminations, sh*te bridge saddles (extortionate to replace at the time so I did not) and eventually body binding coming off, finally split glue joints in body laminations. As I got older and lardier the uber cool sharp body binding and lack of body contouring became irritating - Ric 4000 is the answer. Despite these issues a great player. I (or at least I think I do) remember a Phil Lynott quote about how a Precision plays you and a you play a Ric. At the time I felt his words were so very true having done both in the late 70s and 80s. Later in 1990 ish I swapped this for an 85 G&L SB1, ok I lost a small amount of money on this one, however since then I have a bass that is still 100%, no bits coming apart and I can do all the tones I need. On balance I have had the G&L for 21 years or so - my longest keeper and it stays with me until the day that I die. My summary - Ric, a great bass, BUT, try it, "They are an acquired taste", try it with your kit, try it with your gigs, how will it work with your amp / cab etc etc. Condition is everything, and, why are they the price they are? - once the construction etc was something, nowadays through necks are run of the mill. S/H is obvious, new is insane. Would like to try one wih TI flats

Super guy to deal with, good email contact & fast delivery. Nice bass & just as described .

These were noisy when new. Some suggestions: fit earth wire to bridge asap. Screen your cavities wax pot the pickups - they really were very very tap sensitive, rewire with screened wire as appropriate. Look forward to hearing this through modern kit with modern strings.

In my memory (failing I admit) I remember thinking the Antigua finish looked the dog's bllx at the time - I would have swapped my sunburst precision for an Antigua finish. However it was the late 70's early 80's so taste was optional. These days I quite like sunbursts - how my taste has changed from my youth.

And eventually gold hardware looks dull, plating wears off or if unlucky peels off. Aged chrome / nickel (25 years on etc) just looks the business IMO.

Does my 85 G&L SB1 count - it was designed by Leo, has his name on it, has the split pickup etc.. Precision Mk 3 ? [url="http://forum.warwick.de/24-basses/7488-g-l-sb-1-20-years-old-next-month.html"]Like This[/url] Not mine, but identical to it apart from the knobs If not I will own up to sunburst precision 1977 from new, but now long gone. Well made, great tone, but poorly set up at new.

If you mean remove from combo box, I used to prise them (Mk3 bass combo, Bass Combo 300W) using a screwdriver and gentle angled levering. They are held on with 4 pieces of rigid nylon velcro type stuff - but much stronger, in fact sometines very strongly. Ideal tool - an L shaped piece of metal with the small lip (botton of the L) being about 1 ~ 2 mm high / long with a wooden handle on the other end. This would be small enough to slip into the gap between grille and combo sides/top. Hook the lip over the back of grille and pull - possibly very strongly. hope this is explained well enough - could draw and post a diagram if needed.

It's not a matter of preference, just need to able to do both as and when required (and it is possible to do both together).

"There are far better bass players than you, there are far worse than you, but you are the one entertaining them now, so entertain them". as far as playing the same phrase (mistake - surely not) twice I was also advised to smile as well

Well I might add here I was born in Liverpool ! I guess with modern strings and our understanding of bass technology / setup you will be able to make it pretty good. It's just fun to see these things surface and being used.

At age 14 I was playing Bass and Sax when these were (along with columbus, kay and other stuff I have forgotten) a starter bass. Usually from a catalogue. One of my mates had one. Seem to remember the neck was OK apart from being a very short scale. The machine heads I clearly remember being absolute crap. No loss by replacing them. Be interesting to hear clips through a good (or even OK) modern bass amp & cab. I remember two colours, sunburst and a solid cream colour, rather like my 1980s USA Telecaster. Also think the pickups may be very noisy at volume - sensitive to taps / hand noise / plectrum etc on body. Might be worth isolating pickups from body e.g. squashy plastic tubing rather than springs on the pickup screws - Fender again. You may even need to wax pot the pickups to prevent squeal. I was glad at 15 to buy a 58 Gibson EB2. A world apart from a Columbus at that time. Paid for from gigs, not rich parents. Sounds as if I am old enough to be your dad. Enjoy the project.

Trouble is second hand wifebeater is not as good as new, luckily with gear the situation is better.

[quote]What ya got? smile.gif[/quote] Apologies - SB1, sunburst, maple neck, black crinkle metal scratchplate, black crinkle bridge, MFD pickup, chipped and slightly beat up finish (not me). TI flats & I love it. just like this [url="http://forum.warwick.de/24-basses/7488-g-l-sb-1-20-years-old-next-month.html"]this one[/url] (not mine) other than mine has black plastic vintage radio style knobs and the gold sticker on my neckplate is wider with more patent numbers (obsessive or what) and the finish on this one is in far better condition. Then again I didn't have to pay for relicing, it came with it.

It's going to be tough, My wife's business had 10% price rises from several suppliers before the VAT rise. Now just add fuel price rises in and it gets even better. We will try and absorb some of this but she has to make a living - I can't keep her - I'm on a 2 year pay freeze unlike bankers. Currency does not help either - our answer is import more from the far east and India (nobody makes our products in UK unless it is serious money designer stuff). Add to this how many of us are awaiting redundancy/modernisation and have stopped spending. I am not defending excessive price rises / profiteering, but it's going to be a tough year to be in business. Second hand is the way to go, and through basschat, we must have enough kit between us to just keep recirculating it.

[quote]Ps. I'm glad so few people realise how good g&l are. There arent enough USA g&l around in UK for all of us.[/quote] Fully agree, but, as with all these things its subjective - My 85 G&L (with the by Leo Fender label and non pointy headstock) was way cheaper than Fender P or J at the time. Its like a P bass on steroids, stays in tune and for me does it all. Had this one for 20 out of 38 years bass playing, its staying with me until I play my last note. Would like to find another one.